Mark, My Words: England South week 7

Hello all,

With Chris away on holiday this week, I'm pinch-blogging for him with the week seven update from H2H UK South division.

• Week 7 Results
• Orpington Dodgers 6-6 Havant Hackers
• London Knights 5-7 Bromley Bucs
• Guildford Angels 5-6 Felixstowe Fury
• Enfield Lips 6-6 St Leonards Marlins
• Woking White Sox 7-4 Dunstable Phillies
• Essex Eagles 1-9 Sussex RoyalEngineers
• Solent Vipers 2-10 Oxford Oilers
• London Bananas 7-4 Bognor Yankees

Standings

Transactions

A few big names hit the waiver wire, as Guildford cut Andruw Jones and Solent Vipers surprisingly dropped Jorge Posada to make room for the trio of Blalock, Willingham and Santiago Casilla on the DL.

Hot hitters Mike Napoli and Milton Bradley were picked up by Guildford and Dunstable respectively.

St Leonards dumped the injured Jeff Keppinger, replacing him with Blake DeWitt.

One move for my Dodgers, as Isringhausen went to the DL, replaced by Blaine Boyer in the hope Atlanta's mix and match bullpen would give him holds at worst and a few saves at best.

My team's week

I was away on holiday at the start of this week, and was disappointed that the weather messed up my pre-set pitching rotation, meaning I missed Wang's seven innings on May 13, compounded by another rough start from Jeff Francis the same night.

My pitchers picked up the next night, with strong outings from Arroyo and Blanton. Surprisingly, Halladay had the worst outing out of the trio, but collected the sole win that night.

A good night for my hitters on May 15, as Pierzynski and Carlos Lee each had three hits as the bats went a collective .345 with a .993 OPS.

The hot hitting continued the next night as my Young double - Michael and Delmon - joined Lee with productive nights as the team batted .355 with an OPS of 1.052.

It could have been better, but Prince Fielder was rained out, leaving Mark DeRosa's 2-for-4 night, including a homer, left on the bench.

Prince was back with a bang the next day, goiung 4-for-8 in a doubleheader as the team batted .314 with an OPS of 0.872 and a handy four steals from Roberts, the two Youngs and Cuddyer.

Deprived of Thome's bat in an interleague weekend, the slumping Mark Reynolds was at Util on Sunday and responded with three hits.

But there were mixed results for the pitchers, as Wang was roughed up but Francis rebounded with a win, Papelbon got a save and there were holds for Boyer and Wheeler.

Result reaction

Overall, I'm happy to have tied the week 6-6, thanks to a late surge from my hitters, who won four categories.

I was disappointed to lose srikeouts by two - the number Wang struck out in the start of his I missed out on, but what can you do?

Decision time

My team has struggled overall this year, and I need to decide whether to make a move or be patient.

The lack of power from my outfield has been a concern, and some of my starters have either struggled, such as Francis and Arroyo, or pitched well without getting wins, such as Halladay.

The trade I made with Chris, dealing Fuentes for Reynolds and Wheeler, has backfired with Reynolds' massive slump and Isringhausen's injury.

I don't really like keeping two hitters on my bench, and I really like DeRosa's versatility, so I may have to bite the bullet, decide on Renolds or Rolen at 3B and get another SP to boost the rotation.

At this rate, it looks like a struggle to make the playoffs.