[mikev]

Still In First Place... Barely

Hanging Onto First Place

Almost 2 weeks into May, and after a 14-8 April the Crusaders have started the second month of the season a little slower than the first. Currently at 19-12 and one game ahead of the reigning MBBA champion Los Angeles Quakes, the Crusaders are barely hanging onto the lead in the Pacific after a 5-4 sim.

The sim started off on the wrong foot, as we were not only losers of our first series but embarrasingly enough it was 2 of 3 to Vegas. I still don't know how Recte manages to cheat when he's not even simming anymore. It's crazy. Anyways, after that we split 2 games with LA and 2 games with Valencia (wtf is with all the 2 game sets in this schedule? Sheesh.) Things finally got on the right track a little bit when we took the first 2 from Long Beach.

The injury bug finally made it's way to the west coast this sim, though neither of the two suffered were horribly major. The first was a day to day injury to Andy MacGregor, but luckily he should be able to make his next start. So far MacGregor is 4-0 with a 2.90 ERA and a fantabulous 32 to 5 strikeout/walk ratio. The second injury was slightly more concerning, as second baseman Pedro Vargas suffered a concussion after being hit by a pitch thrown by Long Beach starter Mike Long. Thankfully Vargas should only be out for 2 weeks or so, and after a bit of a slow start he's been consistantly raising his numbers.

Trade Rumors Swirling?

Rumors have been floating around that the Crusaders are looking at aquiring bullpen help, but nobody is sure what that means as the team is already projected to be slightly over budget in 2008. The name that has been mentioned the most in the media as the most likely trade candidate has been outfielder Francisco Mendez, who will possibly be a free agent after this season but could remain arbitration eligible depending on his roster time this year. Mendez currently sports a .378 OPB on the season and is second in the MBBA with 16 stolen bases (he's been caught 6 times). The club is being forced to decide between a possible long term extension for the 27-year old and the risk of running further under budget and possibly dealing youngster Nick Cox instead, who remains under team control until the eind of the 2012 season.

When the subject was brought up with Mendez, he seemed as if he wanted to stay a Crusader. "You know, I grew up in California and I'm really a west coast guy. I do understand the business aspect of it, and yeah my agent has talked contract a few times I think. I told him that I didn't really want to worry about it, and that I wanted him to be reasonable. I don't need top dollar and I'd rather play somewhere that I want to be, even if it means not getting as much as I possibly could if I went to free agency in the offseason. I think we have a real solid team here with the pitchers we have, and Jake (Forest, 1B) and Carlos (Becerra, Catcher have really been hitting the ball well. I think we could do some special things this year and I'd like to remain a part of it."

The Next Crusade

5/11 - @ Long Beach

5/12 - @ Green Bay
5/13 - @ Green Bay
5/14 - @ Green Bay
5/15 - @ Green Bay

5/16 - @ Buffalo
5/17 - @ Buffalo
5/18 - @ Buffalo

5/19 - v. Washington
5/20 - v. Washington
5/21 - v. Washington