The Arizona Diamondbacks have been on a big roll in the second half. After losing three to the Cardinals to come back from the All-Star Break, they took three from the Padres and Pirates. Next up, the Philadelphia Phillies travel to the desert. Can the Dbacks stay hot or will the Phillies “we are selling” mode be all “smoke and mirrors”. Game 1 Dbacks 6 Phillies 3 Phillies would jump out front as an Agustin Ramirez 1-run triple in the 2nd and and RBI double from Kyle Karros

With the 2nd half trucking along, the Rockies pushed some chips in at the trade deadline! The Cards pushed in a slightly smaller stack of chips, but that made sense since the Cards are well atop the standings. Both teams got to see their new lineups perform as the Cards visited Coors Field. And, just as anyone could have predicted in Coors with good weather, runs were hard to come by!! (??) GAME 1 Cardinals - 0 Rockies - 3 This was the marquee pitching matchup, and Skenes

So I do things that are stupid sometimes. The list is substantial. Occasionally it trickles down to my strat team. Two years ago in the playoffs, a work tsunami distracted me and I prepped for the wrong pitcher and lost. In my second or third year, I demoted an AL card and it cost me severely. This year in the draft I was lambasted by the collective genius for taking Randy Vasquez in the fourth round (he has arguably been our MVP this year, but what do I know). And,