SIM COMPLETE - 2001 - SIM 10

[Delandis]

Baltimore Bulldogs (39-25, 2nd in the Porter)
1-5 for the week: 1-2 vs LAL, 0-3 vs LUN

• So after starting the month with six straight wins, we are now 7-9 in June and the slide just doesn't seem to have brakes. The silver lining is that the losses haven't seemed to significantly affected our morale yet, and I'm grateful for that.

The Good

• Outside of 3B Antonio Trujillo, 27 year old shortstop, Kazuyoshi Maekawa (who incidentally had his 27th birthday last week), has been our best infield hitter since his return from an oblique injury on May 28th. Since that point, the kid is hitting .328 with 2 homeruns, both of which were hit last week.

• If our pitching is struggling now, it is definitely not due to SP Derek Vluegel's recent play. Since 5/19/01, Vleugel has posted an impressive 3-0 record with a 1.05 ERA and .79 WHIP in 34.3 IP. In our only win of the week, the Aruba native struck out 12 giving up 2 earned runs in 8 innings of work.

• Some of the most heartbreaking losses come when your pitcher comes to play. In our 2nd of two goose eggs our offense laid last week, SP Ignado Sanchez pitched well going 6-2/3 giving up just 1 ER. But as stated earlier, our offense was no where to be found this week as we end up losing 0-2 to the Furry Pigs.

The Bad

• LF Angelo Barrios followed his worst sim 2 weeks ago with an even more terrible performance last week. This week the 27 year old Costa Rican hit just 3/23. Couple that with the guy right behind him, LF Pat Marlin, hit just 4/24 there is no surprise why we had no offense. Add on the combined 20 K's the two stars accumulated, and I'm pretty sure we would even lose a series to Denver with those numbers.

The Ugly

• Our pitching just can't find any consistency this year but this week was just unbelievably bad. Both our starters and bullpen posted ERA's over 5.60, likely spearheaded by the BLB leading 9 HR given up last week. Before our June 9th loss to California, MR Angelo Falconieri had given up just 1 ER all season. Since then he's giving up 6 ER in on inning. June has been hell on his ERA.

The Farm

• C Diego Flores (AA) is coming along nicely and seems to be the only bright spot in our minors now. Right now it looks like we are going to need a defensive catcher to sit behind him and his teammate, C Kunigoro Hayakawa is playing well enough to maybe make it to the show one day. We look forward to seeing how the new signees fair in the first week of professional ball.

The Week Ahead

• I am hoping that an extra helping of fresh Bock can cure our ailing offense next week. First we host the banged up Playboys, then head to Davenport to face the Brawlers. I'd be happy with a 4-2 week.

[funclown]

Pawtucket 2-4.


Hmmm.

The good

We move to #8 on the top prospect list. Possible chance of moving to #7 before long. Decent debut with two of three top draft choice.

In the BLB our starters have been ok.(#5) We hit for average (#5), good OBP (#4) and hit can play long ball (#4) Those are nice things.........



The bad

We score at 3.9 runs a clip, we are 6-12 in one run game, 2-6 in extra innings. Speaking of extra innings, we run 13 pitchers this week and pitch Gerald 8 innings, "Coffin" 3 and third in a 12 inning game and no one else????? Worst of, we lost a series to Windy City and one of those loses is to Damien Williams who is a complete jerk off!!! Basically, we must lead the league in men left on base.


The farm

All is well there. SP Tom Vaccarella seems to really be getting it in AAA, don't want to rush him. 1B Jon Montalbo is just going crazy in AA right now and SP Kelvin Diaz had a nice debut start in A ball.


I don't know, either this is a bad chemisty team or another Pawtucket late season rally team. And so we play it out.....