No new injuries occurred this week. 2B Takechi Eida seems fully recovered now from his hamstring pull. Reliever Jesus Torres returned from the DL, but was optioned to AAA and will likely be first man up to the majors if injury occurs or a need arises.
This week's Knight Award goes to SP Juan Morales. The 27-year old Cuban pitched a 1-hit, 2-walk gem over 7.1 innings and earned a win versus Athens. The Monarchs seem likely to keep Morales at starter and take advantage of his excellent control, letting the other power arms fire out of the bullpen.
This week's Dunce Award goes to SP Daniel Camacho, who had two very rough starts and a week to forget. His first start, the final game against Buenos Aires, featured 6 hits and 5 runs (1 earned) in only 2.2 innings. Then the wheels totally came off in the second one, where he only managed 1.1 innings and gave up 9 hits and 8 runs (all earned). The rough week doubled Camacho's sparkling 1.21 ERA to 2.42. But surprisingly, Camacho remains atop the GBC stat leaders as that 2.42 ERA still leads all qualified starters in the league.
In other news this week, multiple infielders, particularly shortstops, were signed and added to the minor league teams, which all picked up some nice wins this week. Apart from the 35-26 AAA Purple Knights, the goal of the rest of the minor league teams is to play better and get close to if not above .500 by the end of the season.
The Monarchs now will try to avoid being swept at home vs Tokyo. They then depart for a holy land road trip, with 3-game series against Cairo and then Jerusalem in a full week of action. GM Bauer will not be making this road trip this week and will instead return stateside due to a death in the family (for real guys - my aunt passed away last night
).
