Come Back Soon, July!

If I were to pick one month to live over and over for ever, it might be July 2015. It had everything: a nice visit to a miraculously temperate St. Louis, including an extra-inning ball game tucked in between thunderstorms; a wonderful week here in Oregon with my daughter, son-in-law and both grandsons; a grand finale in Seattle with another ball game and then hanging out with Ryan celebrating my birthday; and lots of other pleasant times.

I say this even though stingy old Haviland took first place away and wouldn’t give it back, not even for my birthday.  I’d cheerfully go through that pain all over again, July was such a great month.

Haviland:  W, 4 – 3.  .255,.286, .426;  6.3 ip, 3 er.  The end of July also brought the MLB official trading deadline, during which all of us had to batten the hatches and try to ride out the storm.  The Dragons almost emerged untouched, with Brandon Moss going to the Cardinals in exchange for pitching prospect Rob Kaminsky, a trade the Dragons could accept, too.  Comparatively undistracted, the Dragons managed to focus just enough on the task at hand to eke out a win and cling to their precious first place.

Old Detroit: W, 9 – 6.  .308, .368, .538;  13 ip, 7 er.  Madison Bumgarner lost his cool — it turns out he’s sort of a big, ganglier version of Yordano Ventura — after giving up 6 er in the first two innings, but he mastered himself to make that 7 ip, 6 er before he was done. And of course Erasmo Ramirez, much the bigger man despite being shorter and the same age (25), came in and quietly mopped up after Madison, going 6 ip while allowing only 1 run.  Where would the Wolverines be without Erasmo Ramirez?  Also, Anthony Rizzo (also 25) woke from his July slumber to go 2 for 3 with a homer and a walk. Manny Machado (22) outdid him, going two for three with a homer and a walk — and a hit by pitch.

Despite the intense trade rumors swirling around Justin Upton (and ruffling Alex Guerrero and Jackie Bradley, Jr.), the only Wolverine traded at the deadline was Paco Rodriguez.  He’s on the DL for the Braves now. Old Detroit has the option of trading Paco and nameless minor leaguers for Jim Johnson, Bronson Arroyo, Luis Avilan and Jose Peraza — an option that just barely seems viable since the Braves agreed to cover all but $500,000 of the salary remaining on Arroyo’s contract.

Pittsburgh: L, 7 – 8.  .318, .318, .614;  8 ip, 6 er.  A rough day from the mound kept the Alleghenys from edging closer to the leaders Friday.  But they’re close enough!  Trout did his thing (3 for 4 with a triple and a homer, ho hum), and Jung-Ho Kang continued on his path toward Pirate/Allegheny legendhood (3 for 4) to lead the offense.

No Alleghenys changed hands in the trade deadline frenzy.  On the other hand, Jerome Williams and Vince Worley — always linked in my mind and often disappearing together into the Allegheny woodwork — ended the month with identical forgettable pitching lines: 10.7 ip, 7 er, 5.91 era.

Peshastin:  W, 4 – 1.  .261, .292, .413;  10.3 , 1 er.  Danny Salazar went 8 scoreless innings, and Burke Badenhop added another.  Neal Cotts messed up the pretty picture with an earned run allowed in his one inning. The Pears needed someone to step up to the plate and generate some offense. So, of course, Welington Castillo obliged, socking another homer plus a double and a single in his 5 trips to the plate, bringing his July line to a ridiculous, Pear-leading .311, .425, .623.  He’s suddenly Edgar Martinez in his best year, playing catcher.

(The picture that haunts my dreams.)

Two Pears fell from the tree during the trading deadline frenzy: Alex Wood going to the Dodgers and Brandon Finnegan to the Reds.  The Pears can’t take advantage of the Wood deal since it also involved other major league talent from the Braves. Peshastin could trade Finnegan for Cueto, if it wants to pick up Cueto for the next two months for $10.8 million. And why not? Peshastin is not out of the race, just 7.8 back with fifty-nine games to go. Hey, 59 is an auspicious number — I turned 59 in July, 2015.

 

Cottage: L, 1 – 2.  .220, .256, .293;  18 ip, 6 er. The maligned Kendall Graveman anchored the Cheese staff yesterday, going 6.7 scoreless innings.  But the big story is Wilmer Flores.  On Wednesday evening he heard in the middle of the game that he was about to be traded for Carlos Gomez.  The cameras caught him crying while he stood on the infield between pitches.  That deal fell through at the last minute, Gomez going to the Astros instead.  Last night Flores came up in the bottom of the 12th and finished off the magical month of July with a walk-off home run.  (The Cheese still lost, you know — only in the EFL can your team hit a walk-off home run and still lose — and still faded a little further out of the EFL race.)

Two bid-name Cheeses were traded:  Ben Zobrist  for Aaron Brooks and Sean Manaea; and Dan Haren for Ivan Pineyro and Elliot Soto.  Both of these trades are available to the Cheese, who have already accepted the first one (including the option of dropping minor-leaguer Brooks without further obligation).

 

Flint Hill:  W (-1), L 2;  3 – 13.  .229, . 263, .314; 9.3 ip, 11 er. The Tornados ended July on a disastrous note — what do you expect? they’re tornados — thanks to Carlos Rodon’s nasty 3 ip, 8 er chulk, and a general lack of interest in the offense.  The Twisters were not involved in trade deadline whirlwinds.

 

Kaline:  L,  2 – 6. .225, .267, .275;  14.3 ip, 8 er.  Kaline would have been fine except Tommy Milone couldn’t keep the Mariners down (6 ip, 4 er).  He held his Drive teammates to 1 for 6 with two sacrifice flies, but the other Mariners abused him at a 10 for 22 pace.

Drive vagabond Yoenis Cespedes was driven from Detroit, going to the Mets for minor leaguers Michael Fulmer and Luis Cessa. The Mets are the fourth MLB team Yoenis has been on while a Drive. By now surely he realizes Kaline is his true home, the one that sticks with him through thick and thin.

Kelly Johnson got traded along with Juan Uribe for minor leaguers John Gant and Rob Whalen.  Craig Kimbrel teetered on the brink of being traded, but the Padres decided to go down with their ship and bring all their overpriced off-season acquisitions with them.

The Drive can take the Cespedes deal if they want to, either keeping or dropping Whalen and/or Gant. Had A.J. Preller done the right thing by trading Justin Upton, the Wolverines would have been interested in trading for Cespedes. Even though the Wolverines are not an obvious fit,  maybe there’s an EFL-only deadline deal in the cards with one of the others still in the race.

 

Canberra: W, 3 – (-1).  .152, .282, .303;  11 ip, 1 er.  Even though Bryce Harper went 0 for 5, the Kangaroos had a very good day.  A.J. Pierzynski (3 for 4 with a double) and Jose Abreu (quiet all year, but 1 for 2 with a homer and a walk yesterday) picked up some of the slack. But the real story was on the mound. Taijuan Walker reminded everyone why he has always been a hot prospect: 9 ip, 1 er, 11 strikeouts, 1 hit ( a fourth inning solo homer to Miguel Sano) and 1 walk. And reclamation project Daniel Hudson turned in two sparkling innings.

The Kangaroos are in perfect position to be sellers, but the problem with sharing our players with MLB teams is we partly depend on them to share our agendas.  Aroldis Chapman was one of the most talked-about potential trade chips, but the Reds insisted on hanging on to him despite several offers.  Edwin Jackson got released by the Cubs, but that was the only transaction of the month involving a Kangaroo.

 

Portland: L, 4 – 4. .257, . 333 .286;  1 ip, 0 er.  An inconsequential day to finish a month in which not much changed for the Rosebuds.  Chris Parmelee got cut from his MLB team, and the Rosebuds followed suit.  Joe Blanton got traded to the Pirates for cash, and Wandy Rodriguez was DFA’d by the Rangers.  None of these are trades the Rosebuds can latch onto to accelerate the rebuilding of their roster.  They could dump Blanton, but he only costs the ‘Buds $500,000.