Now we really are Gambling (facepalm edition) 2005-7

[Fat Nige]

June 21st, 2005

It doesn’t take long for hope to evaporate does it? At the half way stage Atlantic City were six games better off than last year and hadn’t been lower than third in the division all season. 19 days later and the Gamblers are looking at a 3-13 streak as they sink to the bottom of the table. The “Who’s Hot” & “Who’s Cold” lists tell the tale, no-one’s hot and six are listed as cold. The bullpen contributes three to that list, Keith Palmer has gone 1-1, 9.19 in the last 21 games while in the last 17 games Antony Mukai has gone 2-1, 9.92 and Jonathan O’Neill has a 0-1, 7.82 record. After praising James Henderson he has gone 0-3 with a 13.50 ERA in his last three starts.

One bright spot has been Valentín Lugo who received his first ever call-up to the MBBA to cover for Jean-Paul Jean-Paul who has headed for the D/L with a sprained thumb. Valentín in his first nine games has a .359/.390/.410 slash line from the lead-off spot and has also scored five runs whilst driving in two. But really that is a solitary highlight as the pitching staff continue to disappoint, in the last 10 games Henderson, Machiavelli and closer van der Heyden have all lost two games and the combined staff ERA was 6.09 with an average of very nearly five walks per game.

It hasn’t even been plain sailing signing the Gamblers top draft picks as their second round pick, Phil Briggs has decided to reject more money than he asked for and head for college in 2006. Everybody else that was offered contracts have now signed and indeed third-round pick Luis Flores has already made two starts for A-Ball Long Island with a 1-1, 3.07 record. In Double-A Trenton Rob Edwards has become the first pitcher in the entire organisation to reach 10 wins, he has a 10-6 record in 18 starts with a 3.38 ERA. Brooklyn are not doing so well this season though with Forrest Carter having the lowest ERA of their starters at 5.01.

[LambeauLeap]

THAT'S the Henderson I remember!