Only Allah knows
The above was how the BNN Media announced on June 11th that Juan Dominguez had become the third Riyadh player to win player of the week honours. The “only the baseball Gods know where he goes from here” was a bit prophetic as it was just two days later that Juan suffered torn quadriceps and where he goes from there turns out to be the IL where he will probably stay for the next month or so. Luckily we had just picked up Freddy McCord as a free agent, we had initially intended for him to replace the really poor Nikita Schipper as the infield utility defensive replacement or even as a starting second baseman. As it is, it appears he will have a month stood at the hot corner. McCord has made a reasonable start there, a +0.2 ZR, a homer and three RBI while hitting .250 in his first week with the Red Crescents. We are still bringing players in and out by the bus load, trying to wring every ounce of improvement out of the team. McCord is one of the new arrivals as is Torvald van Donkelaar, he is ticketed as the fourth outfielder, but after hitting .429/.429/.857 in his first two appearances may be angling for more.
This week’s newbie is 26-yr-old Zach Swanson, formally of Louisville, who will replace Rodrigo Rios at shortstop. We have a lot of good players with the glove but unfortunately most can’t even hit 50 OPS+. Another player arriving is 28-yr-old starting pitcher Jimmy Cook, claimed off waivers from Bagdad. As he only has a minor league contract, he will start in Port Elizabeth, if he impresses there, he may will find his way into the Red Crescents rotation. We have been, with some small successes, playing musical chairs with Riyadh’s bullpen but it hasn’t been so easy to find starting pitchers that improve the rotation. 31-yr-old Tadamichi Yoshida who became the #5 starter last week, promoted from Port Elizabeth, only lasted 4.2 innings on his debut after giving up seven hits, six runs and three walks in a 4-7 loss.
Triple-A Port Elizabeth and Double-A Santiago have suffered somewhat with the constant revolving door of poor players heading down from Riyadh and some hopeful free agent signings With the Windies 29-40 in Africa and the Tabaqueros 29-38 in South America there will be no post season in either of those leagues. The South Guam Saints are just a game above .500, good enough for mid-table in the Far East Baseball League while the Chinese Taipei have made a good start to the Chinese Baseball League. They’re 7-4 in the first two weeks, 17-yr-old Vatican City boy Alba Gallino hasn’t got a decision in his first ever two pro starts, even though he’s only allowed one run in 16 innings pitched with a 15/2 K/BB. 20-yr-old third baseman Micheal Roga has been leading the offense from the #2 hole with a triple slash of .407/.514/.852 with three homers and nine RBI.
