On the Diamond Vol. 5

[bschr682]

The trade deadline has come and gone with first year owner Brett Schroeder getting very busy. When the smoke cleared, the Crusaders released this official statement.

"I know some people will question some of the moves I made and whether they were necessary. However as the GM I had to realize that this season was a wash. We have some aging vets on the team at very important positions and the farm system was a relative mess. Rather than mull around and build the farm through the draft only, I chose to move some key players and jumpstart the rebuilding process".

Quite a jumpstart indeed. Not to be lost among all the talk of the prospects coming into the system is the big league squad posting a 5-4 record over the last 10 days.

26 year old Paul Kimzey continues to impress. So far this year Kimzey has posted a 9-5 record with a 3.19 ERA. With the departures of Chip Foodie and Pat Combs, Kimzey is hands down the new ace of the California staff.

On the other side of the diamond, the departure of Hurley Reyes has created an interesting situation for the manager. According to many sources the Crusaders have had problems trying to split time at first base between big time slugger Billy Wilson and Verdo Incaviglia. Incaviglia provides a much higher batting average and better defense but Wilson has insane power. He might have a low average but he still knows how to hit the long ball. With Reyes out of the picture, Wilson now moves back to his primary position at catcher. There is no doubt that Wilson's skills behind the plate have diminished quite a bit but hes still capable and he will now see some regular playing time.

[lynchy34]

While I think you undersold a bit on Foodie and Reyes, you did get a bunch of pieces in return. And Kimzey has been mighty impressive.

[bschr682]

Perhaps. But I have a very interesting spring training coming up. If these youngsters develop over next season, I'm very excited for my offense which will be incredibly young.