[Ben E Lou]

JULY 2001

THIS MONTH’S RECORD: 12-14
OVERALL RECORD AT MONTH-END: 46-62
CURRENT STANDING: Fourth place, 22.5 games behind the division-leading Mets.

TEAM NEWS

Tuesday 7/4/2001 :
Eduardo Fuensanta hits a 453-foot homerun!!

Friday 7/21/2001 :
Anthony Schuster crushes 2 homers against Los Angeles.
Michael Sylvain has 4 hits against Los Angeles.

Saturday 7/22/2001 :
Anthony Schuster extends his hitting streak to 16 games!

Wednesday 7/26/2001 :
Anthony Schuster extends his hitting streak to a career high 20 games!

Thursday 7/27/2001 :
Anthony Schuster extends his hitting streak to a career high 21 games!

Friday 7/28/2001 :
Anthony Schuster extends his hitting streak to a career high 22 games!

Saturday 7/29/2001 :
Anthony Schuster extends his hitting streak to a career high 23 games!

Sunday 7/30/2001 :
Anthony Schuster extends his hitting streak to a career high 24 games!
Eugene Lamb crushes 3 homers against Montreal.

Monday 7/31/2001 :
Anthony Schuster's hitting streak was snapped at 24 games!

Monday 8/1/2001 :
Anthony Schuster was named National League-Batter of the Month!
He batted .347 in 98 AB, with 7 homers and 17 RBI.

INJURIES DURING MONTH:
No major ones.

MAJOR LEAGUE PERFORMANCES OF NOTE/LINEUP CHANGES/ROTATION CHANGES:
It appears that Medina, at age 35, might still have a little something left after all. He went 3-0 with a 1.59 ERA this month to lower his ERA to a decent 4.62 for the year-to-date. 26-year-old Figueroa appears to have settled in as a rotation mainstay already in his second year. He’s 9-8, 3.81. Overall, the rotation is looking mediocre. ERA’s range from 3.81 to 4.89. Staff ERA is 4.21

Offensively, the addition of Eugene Lamb has been a nice little pick-me-up. He had a .986 OPS for the month, and 3B Anthony Schuster, hitting in front of Lamb, was the Batter of the Month. 2B Alan “The Hammer” Dye proved himself very much ready for the bigs, hitting .315 with 16 RBI this month in the #2 slot. He hit a homer as his first career hit, and had a 15-game hitting streak during the month.

SEASON-TO-DATE TEAM STATISTICAL LEADERS
AVG: 3B Schuster--.291
HR: 1B Lamb--22 (2 teams)
RBI: SS Feunsanta--20
SB: CF Sylvain--43
SP ERA: Figureoa—3.81
RP ERA: Dinger—1.75
SAVES: Dinger—25
SP K’s: Shultis--130

PLAYER DEVELOPMENT:

Monday 7/3/2001 :
Sidney Sutton seems to have lost some bat speed, resulting in less contact...

Monday 7/10/2001 :
Andres Cobo seems to have lost some bat speed, resulting in less contact...

Monday 7/17/2001 :
Robert Falconer has improved his plate disclipine!

Monday 7/31/2001 :
Lucas Fernandez has lost some lower body strength, his duration drops to D ...

BAD news about Sidney Sutton! He turned 26 this month, dropped that contact, and dropped from a 4 ½ star prospect to a 2-star guy. He is still rated 4/6/8, and his talent is avg/good/brl, so he COULD improve some more. Nonetheless, he’s a decent left-handed bat, and big-league starter Macfarlnad is only hitting .241 against RHP (.333 against LHP), so I call up Sutton to start in LF against right-handed pitching. Cobo gets sent down. None of the other development news appears to be of any significance.

AAA NOTES
SP Hiplotio “The Terminator” Dominguez—12-3, 4.42, 7/6/6, 5 stars (gonna let him finish out the year in AAA)
MR Douglas Diez—4-1, 3.33, 7/4/8, 4.5 stars
C Walter McDonald--.989 OPS. 4/7/8. 5 stars
LF/CF Jacobo Sousa--.851 OPS. 4/4/4. 3.5 stars.
RF Bryan Heasley--.827 OPS, 5/3/4. 4 stars.

AA NOTES:
SP William Bent—11-6, 3.30, 2/2/6. 4 stars.
SP Dean Sipe—9-2, 1.55, 4/6/6. 5 stars. His stats and my scout say he’s ready for AAA. I call him up.
3B/1B Cruz Muniz--.777 OPS, 2/4/3. 4 stars.

A NOTES:
SP Jim Decker—3-5, 2.81, 0/2/4. 3.5 stars.
1B Danny Anderson--.813 OPS, 2/2/6. 4 stars.
1B Tyler Poulson--.684 OPS, 2/2/3. 4 stars.
SS Robert Pauli--.811 OPS, 3/3/4. 4 stars. Stats and scout say he’s ready for AA. I call him up.

PERSONAL DIARY ENTRIES:
None.

TRADES
None.

MONTHLY AWARDS
Pitchers Of The Month: John Nielsen, ANA (3-0, 0.00) and John Choy, NYM (5-0, 1.38)
Batters Of The Month: LF Patrick Meredith, ANA (.329, 26 RBI) and 3B Anthony Schuster, ATL (.347, 17 RBI)

IMPORTANT LEAGUE NEWS
None.