First Half of July Review

The Looters knew July would be a difficult month, but they expected most of the difficulty to come in the last half of the month.  Unfortunately for the Looters, they've had a rough first half of the month as well going only 6-7 against the likes of the Niagara Falls, Maui, Jacksonville, and Los Cabos.  The month started off nicely with a 3 game sweep of the Frenzy, but it's been all downhill from there dropping three straight series 1-2 and losing the first game of a series with Boston.

The worst news has been from the rotation of the Looters where 4 rotation members are in the worst 5 ERAs on the month.  Ricardo Gomes has been the worst in 2 starts with a 0-2 record and 11.00 ERA in 9 innings.  Also up there are Tyler Law (1-1, 7.20 ERA, 2.10 WHIP), Bill Maddox (0-2, 6.00 ERA, 2.00 WHIP), and James Kelly (1-1, 5.93 ERA, 1.68 WHIP).  Only Montano has been respectable in 3 starts with a 2-1 record and 3.86 ERA.

Not much of the blame falls on the lineup though as currently there's 6 lineup members with double digit at bats with a OPS above .939 on the month.  Luis Alou specifically has finally turned it on this year with a .333 average and .939 OPS in July.  Tony Marin has also been a beast with 4 homers and 5 doubles for a 1.106 OPS on the month along with 13 RBIs.  All of this has also been done while missing a few lineup contributors.  CF Jose Estrada and LF Alex Herrejon will return off the DL after this sim and begin rehab appearances.  As well, backup C Jesus Soto will return off the DL as well.  In addition, 2B Jaime Manuel will return off the DL in 2 weeks time just in time for the middle of August.

The Looters though will have to face the rough part of their schedule the following 2 weeks without a lot of their lineup bats.  The Looters will play 2 more vs Boston, plus 3 game series vs El Paso, Toronto, and Greenville to finish out the month.  This will be the make or break part of the schedule as the Looters could drop completely out of the wild card race these two weeks, or be smack dab back in the hunt if they can put together an impressive run playing 3 potential playoff teams out of 4 series.