[mikev]

Crusaders drop farther back

Slip, slip, slipping away.

Even after making a pair of trades to bolster the 13th ranked bullpen, the Crusaders fell even further back of first place Los Angeles in the MBBA Pacific. The worst part is that we're also 8 games back in the Wild Card race, making a playoff berth seem less likely with every sim.

Last sim was rough, losing 2 of 3 to Des Moines, splitting 4 with Valencia, and splitting the first 2 of a three gamer with Long Beach.

To make things worse, Lorenzo Diaz was hurt in his last start and will be gone for 7 months. I love that there's no ****ing record of it in the game log, too. It's in the box score and news, but nowhere does it actually say that the injury took place. ****ty, and that means that Hasegawa is going to be back in the rotation full time. Ugh.

Anyway, back to trades. We picked up Hsin-Ta Jin from Louisville, sending them back Yat-sen Xing. Adding him will definitely help the pen, especially with Hayagawa being moved back into the rotation. With Jin's high endurance, he'll be the primary option in the bullpen, bridging the gap between the starters and Turk Lopez. Now, I'm not pretending that this is going to be "the move" that puts us into the playoffs or anything, but it should go a long way to make the pen a lot more solid.

As it is, the offense keeps rolling, still 1st in the MBBA in AVG, OBP, OPS, Runs Scored, and hits. Pitching is clearly the issue here, but I don't know if it's worth it to go even more in the hole this year to try and make up 8 games in the standings.

The Next Crusade

7/31 - @ Long Beach

8/1 - v. Vancouver
8/2 - v. Vancouver
8/3 - v. Vancouver

8/5 - v. New York
8/6 - v. New York
8/7 - v. New York

8/8 - @ Jackson
8/9 - @ Jackson
8/10 - @ Jackson