Outlaw Happy With Round 1

Can the Good Times Continue?
Outlaw Josey Wales staff is pleasantly surprised with their 27-19 Block I start and winning road record. If the season ended now, the team would beat out Springfield for the Tastes Great wild card playoff spot by 3 games.

The offense has bashed 68 long balls and plated 246 runs, both good for 2nd in NASBL. That's no surprise to management who knew the team would have no problem scoring runs. Leading the way at the plate are a resurgent Big Papi Ortiz hitting .313 with 12 HR and 34 RBI and Adrian Gonzalez at .296/10/34.

But the big shock of the year so far is the Wales 3.47 team ERA, third best in NASBL. Ryan Dempster is a surprising 7-2 with a 3.13 ERA. Jake Peavy, in his limited innings is 4-1 with a 2.98 ERA and 55 K in 45 IP.

The season has a long way to go and there are some bothersome questions keeping the team from printing out those playoff tickets. First off several players are already overused and will have to get more rest, among them Nellie Cruz, Adrian Beltre, Elvis Andrus, and Adrian Gonzalez.

But the $100 question is can the pitching staff keep up it's stellar performance over a whole season? The team has few pitchers with cards you'd call good - Hudson, Venters, and Soria. How has the pitching staff managed to excel so far?
1) Good luck?
2) Great managing (HAHAHA)?
3) The Wales all-1 infield?
4) The cavernous dimensions of Wreckin' So Field?

The team is hoping that the answer is a combination of #3 and #4 and the outstanding pitching will continue. Stay tuned because there is a lot of NASBL left this year and we're hoping for a good interesting Tastes Great race.

Project 2012 Switches Arms

Illinois Times -- How long ago was draft day? The Chows happily traded their first pick to get Francisco Liriano. Today they are back to square one - sort of - flipping Liriano for a 1st in next year's draft and adding Homer Bailey.

Liriano provided excitement in his short stint with the Chows - striking out an unprecedented 1.14 batters per inning. Liriano was on pace to break the Chows single season K mark by a wide margin and really seemed to fit in on the new club. "I am shocked. I thought I was a key member of Project 2012 and now they think they can do better in next year's draft. The good part is now I am in a pennant race instead of being mired in last place in the TGE year after year."

Sherlag explains the deal as follows, "We like what Bailey brings to the table and really thought the flexibility of a 1 next year gives us a chance to improve our offense or our pen which are likely to be our greatest needs. We really believe we are contenders next year and having some extra picks really helps fill in a contending team's roster." The long season that has begun for Chows fans will now seem a little bit longer.

Going All In

Troy, NY: After a blazing first block of games, the Haymakers are currently sitting atop the Less Filling West division with a record of 27-16. Looking to build on that early success, GM Ken Anderson traded young arm Homer Bailey and a 2012 round 1 pick for young enigma pitcher Francisco Liriano. Liriano who is 27, should give a good boost to the Haymakers rotation this season for the playoff push, but there are some questions about his consistency.

Pitching coach Doc Gooden seems to have a solution. "After looking at some video I think we know what the problem is," he said, "We have to get him to keep hitting the same release point. His slider is dead on, and if he can hit the same release point time and again his fastball will come around. His velocity seems good."

The question now is who will Liriano replace in the rotation? With uber-prospect Madison Bumgarner ready to move into the rotation the rest of the season there is a good amount of arms in Troy. One would think Clayton Richard would be the obvious answer, but Richard is currently 4-0 despite a 5.15 ERA. Brett Myers on the other hand was supposed to originally be the ace of the staff is 1-5 with a 4.19 ERA. "We have some planning to do," said the GM.