Remember last season in the Boys of Summer APBA League when my Urbana Locomotives won 104 games? That was fun. We had the Cy Young winner and the MVP. I even won Manager of Year for my league. That was fun, too.
In the new year, the Locos are learning to lose…a lot.
Through 35 games, we are scratching to get into the double digits. No thanks by the way to Randy Woolley’s Hannibal Cavemen and Brad Stark’s Portland Microbrewers who consecutively swept us six games each.
We had no illusions about this year. Our pitching is good but down from last year’s fantastic staff. Our hitting is pretty atrocious at least compared to other teams in the BOS National League. To make matters worse, the Locos lineup doesn’t fit well together and I’m still finding a magic cure.
While it may not be that “magic cure”, we have taken steps to shake things up. Seattle Rainiers skipper Merle Watkins approached me about a trade and we finalized it yesterday.
Here are the details:
SEATTLE trades
- OF-Yoenis Cespedes
- 4th Rd Draft Pick (Seattle)
- 4th Rd Draft Pick (Traverse City)
to URBANA in exchange for
- OF-Christian Yelich
- 5th Rd Draft Pick (Urbana)
In general, I liked Yelich. In fact, I thought he would have fit well in our leadoff spot in a part time role this year. However, he didn’t impress me so far, hitting just .190. Yoenis Cepedes is a different kind of player but of roughly the same value in my opinion. I decided to bite the bullet and take advantage of the draft picks next year.
We get to try Yoenis out in the upcoming series against the Holland Hitchhikers and try to break our 12-game losing streak.
Our new slogan? “Go Yo!”
