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July 30, 2004
VULTURE UPDATE
So my fantasy baseball team, the Vice City Vultures, have been in first place for most of the season... and with the exception of two short one-day slips to second place, we've been in first since just before the all-star break. Going into tonight, we had built up our lead to double digits again - 10.5 points.
The strong performance to date didn't stop me from wanting to make some last-minute deals at the trading deadline (tomorrow) to shore up my roster for the stretch run. I felt that the Vultures had some holes in the lineup (lack of speed, weak in extra base hits, need to score more runs, and needing a better #4 starting pitcher) that looked more and more glaring the more I looked at them. So I hit the trading floor hoping to make some deals; the other owners don't usually like to help the guy in first improve his team, so I didn't know if I'd be successful... but we did make two trades that filled those holes better than I could ever have hoped.
I sent Aubrey Huff, Craig Wilson, Danny Bautista and Kenny Rogers to Tim's Hazzard County Dukes for Philadelphia's stud Bobby Abreu, and all-star 2b Mark Loretta. Abreu may well join the 40/40 club this year (40 HRs, 40 SB), and Loretta is having a great year as well. Then, I sent Omar Vizquel and Francisco Rodriguez to the Visigoths for St. Louis pitcher Jason Marquis - who's a surprising 11-4 so far this year.
The trades I have made since June have depleted my bench; one injury and I am basically screwed. But our starting lineup feels, if you'll pardon my arrogance, as strong as anyone in the league. If we stay healthy, I honestly don't think anyone's going to catch us.
Barring injuries, here's your Vice City Vultures' lineup for the rest of the year:
1b: Albert Pujols; 2b Tony Womack; 3b: Scott Rolen; SS: Adam Everett; C: A.J. Pierzynski; OF: Miguel Cabrera, Bobby Abreu, Chone Figgins; DH: Mark Loretta.
SP: Pedro Martinez, Mark Mulder, Mark Prior, Jason Marquis, Jason Johnson
RP: Jason Isringhausen, Octavio Dotel
