[mikev]

Injuries! Get Your Injuries Here!

It appears that I missed a sim recap ops:

The Crusaders went 5-4 to start the month of August... and then 5-4 over the middle 10 days. Weird.

Anyway, we're still in first place, tied with Los Angeles at 67-49, 3 games ahead of Vegas.

Oh, speaking of missed recaps, we made a second deadline trade. Javier Gallegos and his 13M annual salary through next year were aquired for a draft pick and this guy. We really needed some more pop against lefties, and Gallegos' 7/8/8/8/9 ratings against LHP seemed to be just the ticket, as he's gone 16-44 with 6 walks and only 2 strikeouts in his first 17 games as a Crusader, with a nice .954 OPS.

The injury bug has continued to hit California (**** you, Millsy) as well. After the career ender to Pedro Vargas started things off, 3B Fu-quan Ng was hurt and out for a month (one week remaining till he's back), Takahashi is out for 3 weeks (2 weeks left), and then Blackley and Forest both had bumps-and-bruises types of injuries, but nothing requiring a DL trip. So, my starting 2B, 3B, CF, and then #3 starter and HOF first baseman all injured over 2 months. Wonderful.

Well, at least Leyva, Vargas' replacement, is absolutely killing it - .340/.373/.475, 10 XBH, and a VORP of nearly 14 in only 34 games. So I guess he was ready for a callup. I love me some Leyva.

Also because of the Ng injury, we've been forced to put Gallegos at third base. Not cool, because he's an absolute butcher, but there wasn't a whole lot I could do (aside from apologize to all the pitchers and hope they induce a lot of flyballs).

To replace Takahashi, Herrera will be starting in centerfield, and Nick Cox was pulled back from waivers and will be the defensive replacement/4th outfielder for a couple more weeks.

The Next Crusade

7/21 - @ Long Beach
7/22 - @ Long Beach

7/24 - v. Valencia
7/25 - v. Valencia
7/26 - v. Valencia

7/28 - @ Buffalo
7/29 - @ Buffalo
7/30 - @ Buffalo