[Ben E Lou]

JULY 2000

THIS MONTH’S RECORD: 12-12
OVERALL RECORD AT MONTH-END: 52-54
CURRENT STANDING: Third place, 13 games behind the division-leading Mets.

INJURIES DURING MONTH:
SP Jimmy Cobbs strained a back muscle, and missed two weeks.
MR Tomas Nieves has bone chips, and will be out until early September.
RF Mejia strains his posterior cruciate ligament on the 26th, and will be out for three weeks, opening the door for Michael “Superfly” Sylvain to make the jump. He’ll start out in RF, and if he does well, he’ll replkace Dyke in CF when Mejia returns.

MAJOR LEAGUE PERFORMANCES OF NOTE/LINEUP CHANGES/ROTATION CHANGES:
The rotation is lookin’ GOOD. Figueroa has dropped his ERA to 3.92. Shultis, at 4.09, has the highest ERA of the bunch. Joshua Dinger has been flat-out overpowering as the closer. He’s racked up 17 saves in two months, and has a 1.38 ERA.

3B Schuster and 1B Romero were named to the All-Star team. I’ve moved Schuster into the 3rd spot in the lineup.

SEASON-TO-DATE TEAM STATISTICAL LEADERS
AVG: 1B Romero--.311
HR: 3B Schuster—18
RBI: 3B Schuster—65
SB: CF Dyke—27
SP ERA: Cobbs—3.19
RP ERA: Dinger—1.38
SAVES: Dinger—17
SP K’s: Shultis--147

PLAYER DEVELOPMENT:

Monday 7/10/2000 :
Santos Saavedra has lost some lower body strength, his duration drops to D ...

Monday 7/17/2000 :
Samuel Charneco seems to have lost some bat speed, resulting in less contact...

Monday 7/24/2000 :
Samuel Figueroa seems to have improved his pure stuff!
Tobias Hachiro has lost some power...

Monday 7/31/2000 :
Theodore Barrett seems to have lost some bat speed, resulting in less contact...
Sidney Sutton has lost some power...

SP Figueroa is now considered a 5-star prospect. His ratings are up to 6/7/8. Hachiro’s power loss was attached to a fractured hip. So far no loss in his speed, which is why I drafted him in the first place. Barrett is a concern, as he’s our starting catcher. He’s never provided much offense, and hasn’t this year either (.256-7-43-.738OPS), so hopefully he won’t get any worse, as he is still rated AVG in contact. Sutton is a big-time prospect. He’s still rated “Good” in Power, and his current ratings are 4/6/8. I still think he’ll be a very productive big-leaguer.

AAA NOTES
SP Willie “The Fireball” Prahl is 11-4 with a 3.38 ERA, and has 6/6/4 ratings.

2B Alan “The Hammer” Dye is up to .310, with ratings still at 5/4/5. He’s got “Good” talent in power, but is only slugging .431. I want to see some of that power show itself before I promote him.

LF Jacobo Sousa also still needs to show some power. He’s hitting .294, but only slugging .399.

LF Sidney “Tumbleweed” Sutton is batting .261 and slugging .489 after a month in AAA, and his ratings are at 4/6/8. It won’t be long ‘til he’s in Atlanta.

RF Heasley is hitting .243, and his ratings sit at 4/3/3.

AA NOTES:
Hipolito Dominguez is rapidly advancing. His ERA is down to 3.08. “The Terminator” gets the call-up to AAA..


A NOTES:
SP/RP Dean Sipe has done well so far in the rotation. He’s now 3-3 with a 2.93 ERA.
SP William Bent is 3-3, 2.88.
SP Jim Decker has turned in a 6-1, 2.63 ERA effort thus far.
SP Chad Alejo is 6-9, 4.43.

C Walter McDonald is up to .358, with a .585 slugging percentage. The scouts say he’s ready for A, and I agree
1B/3B Cruz Muniz is up to .320, with a .494 slugging percentage.
1B Tyler Poulson is hitting .331 with a .438 slugging percentage.
SS Robert Pauli had a HUGE month, raising his average from .259 to .297, and re-establishing himself as part of our future.
RF Gregory Priolo, a one-star prospect, is hitting .382 with a .549 slugging pct. I call him up to AA.

KEY E-MAILS:
I received no e-mails of note.

PERSONAL DIARY ENTRIES:
None.

TRADES
None.

MONTHLY AWARDS
Pitchers Of The Month: Matthew Luc, DET (3-1, 1.49) and Kenneth Borchert, NYM (4-1, 0.56)
Batters Of The Month: Armando Fresno, MIN (.354,6,22) and Elmer Connors, STL (.359,8,22)

TEAM NEWS

Thursday 7/6/2000 :
Antonio Mejia has 4 hits against San Francisco.

Tuesday 7/11/2000 :
1B Emil Romero will play in the OOTP-Allstar game!
3B Anthony Schuster will play in the OOTP-Allstar game!

IMPORTANT LEAGUE NEWS
The great Jose Cabello of Milwaukee collected his 2000th hit this month.