[PilotMan]

End of August 1993


Ok, so we started good, and then remembered who the hell we were. We played August to a record of 13-15, the 2nd best month of the year. Overall, that puts us at 56-74 and 5th place in the NL West. We're not quite mathematically eliminated but it's really close. The Astros are leading us by 28 games. The Padres are 6 in front of us, and the Reds are 4 behind.


We need some good news, so let's discuss the pitching that we saw in LA in July. Bob Patterson came back from his injury and pitched 8 games, 9.1 scoreless innings, walked 2, struck out 11, and went 2-0 with 5 saves. The bullpen got some much needed stability. Both Ismael Valdez and Andy Pettitte threw over 20 innings, had sub 1.00 WHIP's, sub 2.50 ERA's. Pettitte had a OAVG of .163, while Valdez was .157. How's that for some young talent?


Young hard thrower Jose Cleto finally returned from his injury and gave us some decent innings. He will be needed to lock the back end down in front of Patterson. And overall, our starters were solid (well, except for Pat Rapp, who posted a 5.58 ERA and opponents his .302 against him.) Tom Bolton was terrible. Batters hit a crazy .348 off of him, and he posted a 6.55 ERA. Scott Baker had a rough month too. His ERA was 6.94, but batters only hit .209 against him. He's still trying to figure that one out.


Batters.......suck. LA.....still dead last in all offensive categories. Never thought that would be the case with the lineup that we started the year with. Fred McGriff is our player of the month. The Crime Dog, on the heels of a big July, kept it up in August with 8 more dingers, while slashing .290/.392/.570 and a team leading 154 OPS+. He was also forced to attempt 5 more steals (and was good for 3.)Carl Everett was next with a 112, and Rickey was third with a 104. They were the ONLY regulars over 100 for the month. That is so awful, but at least these guys tried.


How bad? Lee Stevens was 2nd on the team in HR's with 3. Darren Lewis was AWFUL, .198/.253/.233/31 OPS+. Charlie Montoyo was AWFUL, .180/.278/.240/40. Steve Buschele was AWFUL, .204/.250/.312/49. Geronimo Pena? AWFUL, .190/.274/.298/53.


For real. How does this team expect to have any sort of game? We are losing Henderson again. Still no update.


The end of August brings us one thing to look forward to, and that is roster expansion. Here's the rundown of the new faces on the roster.


C Rob Natal (27); played in 12 games for LA this year, batting .146. Hit .354 in 32 games in Albuquerque.


1B Larry Sutton (23) #13 LA Prospect; played in 38 games for LA this year, batting .226. Batted .333 in 57 games in Albuquerque.


1B/3B Shane Andrews (22); played 21 games for LA, batted .136. Hit 280/13/61 for AA San Antonio.


3B Dave Hansen (24); played in 9 games for LA, hit .208. Hit .200 in 33 in Albuquerque, and .298 in 49 at San Antonio.


3B Mike Busch (25) #15 LA Prospect; hit .333/19/99 this year for Albuquerque. Debuted last year.


SS Jose Oliva (22); hit .250 in 19 games for LA. .285 in 39 for Albuquerque.


SS Mike Mordecai (25); hit .329/5/50 at Albuquerque this year. This is his first time in The Show.


OF Bill Masse (27); played in 23 games for LA, batting .259. Batted .307 at Albuquerque.


RP Joe Grahe (26); missed most of the year with a shoulder injury.


SP Chris Holt (21) #4 LA Prospect; 0-1, 3.92 in 4 games for LA. 11-6, 3.89 for Albuquerque.