Someone who really needs to wake up is star CF Joshua Koka. One of the storylines heading into this season is his impending free agency. There is a large price tag next to his name but he has always lived up to that salary. To start the year he was doing it again. At the end of April he was hitting well with an OPS over .900. Management was ready and had engaged in extension talks. Some very big numbers were flying around but he was worth it. By the end of May though things had changed. Koka managed to barely throw up a .750 OPS and a disastrous .206 batting average. Maybe he'd bounce back in June? Well so far his June stat line is an anemic .496 OPS with a mind numbingly bad .151 batting average. 15 million a year? I think not.
In some actual nitty gritty news the team has made a slew of transactions so far this season. I won't bore you with all the minor league signings but we can touch on the big trade. Back on May 12th (when things were going well mind you) the team sent struggling starting pitcher Susila Kartosuwiryo to Mumbai in exchange for top SS prospect Socrates Kazantziakis. The team had an absolute excess of quality arms but a total black hole at SS. Socrates can easily be viewed as a cornerstone at SS for the next decade.
There were two free agent signings I'd like to touch on. We signed 2B Jack Nichols early in the year to shore up middle infield defense and provide excellent OBP skills. So far so good. The second free agent signing was a move you could almost call desperate. The team is in a massive funk right now so something has to give. Enter 3B Kinfu Lugono. Swinging from the lefty side of the plate we are hoping he provides some offense and his defensive skills aren't bad either. To complement that move and to completely fix the left side of the infield we went ahead and called up Socrates. I would have liked to give him more time in the minors to round out his skills but we need help now. Hopefully the Philosopher can save us all.
