Looking back on things, sometimes playing the hot hand really does pay off and this week it surely did with the additions to the lineup of Nolan Reimold and Jordan Schafer. The two combined for 10 runs 4 hrs 11 rbi 1 sb 2 bb and an average in the upper 300s. There were no regrets as Brett Gardner ended up on the DL mid week and Morales didn't really out hit anyone. The breaks seem to go the Eagles way and even though the outcome was an 11-0-1 victory it was somewhat closer than that with the Redbirds having a fine offensive week. For the second consecutive week the Eagles opponent couldn't muster much on the pitching side of things and was one wacky Casilla outing away from a 12-0 shutout. (I'm blaming YOU Bruce Bochy)
Mid-Week Trade: Earlier in the week the Eagles dealt for Cincinnati RP Sean Marshall and Dodgers veteran lefty Ted Lilly in exchange for Jeff Francoeur. The team saw the opportunity to get a strong reliever who has a closers job currently as well as a decent starting pitcher who was going to step into the 5th SP role until Hudson returned. Olivet has plenty of offensive options so Francoeur was expendable. Both parties felt this was a "trade from strength" deal.
Looking Ahead: The first divisional game is a week 4 matchup with the Charlotte Orios. Olivet will be without their early season ace Ryan Dempster who was placed on the DL recently. Ted Lilly takes his spot in the rotation for now, so Homer Bailey and Ricky Nolasco get at least one more week to keep their spot. Greg Holland was also placed on the DL but was already going to be replaced in the lineup by newly acquired Marshall. If Bochy figures out what he's doing the Eagles MAY just have a pair of closers, even if they're nothing flashy. The hitting lineup stays the same but a couple of guys are being watched and if they dont perform could be replaced next week. Travis Hafner has been tearing it up recently and was almost added to the lineup over Kelly Johnson but the Toronto schedule had an extra game this week and so far Johnson has justified the non-change by going yard on Monday.
What to watch for: Nick Swisher: Quietly this guy has 21 rbi on the season and has been the team's MVP. Can this hot hitting continue to fly under the radar?
Nolan Reimold: One of the hottest hitters in baseball looks to continue his tear this week but is battling neck spasms which held him out of a couple of games last week. Morales and Hafner are standing by just in case.
Ted Lilly: He's nothing to sneeze at but the way Dempster was pitching, he will be severely missed for at least this week and probably next. Lilly will need to be solid as Nolasco and Bailey are very volatile.
Sean Marshall: He's had a semi bumpy ride as closer early on, but once he settles down he could be as dominant as anyone. Look for him to save 3 games this week.
FREE AGENT ADDITIONS: Jared Burton was added Sunday as insurance for the RP staff which lost Holland to the DL. He's gotten 3 holds over the past week for Minnesota and could figure into a nice role if those continue to add up.
ON THE BUBBLE: Chris Nelson was added earlier in the week as well but he figures to be the first casualty if the team finds someone in FA to pick up. Mitch Moreland was a pre-season favorite of the Eagles front office to have a powerful "sleeper" season. So far he's been sleeping on the bench while Napoli and company continue to rake.
SURPRISE STAT OF THE SEASON: 6 stolen bases for Heyward.
Until next week... good luck Orios
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
News, Notes, and Molina praises
"Now that's more like it" GM Baker said with a sigh of relief after a tremendous Week 2 victory over a quality Hackensack team. "Week one wasn't a bad showing but we were just caught in a Desert Swarm, pun intended. We know if we show up every week we will compete, and we showed that this week against the Bulls" The Eagles were fortunate to catch Hackensack during a week where two of his trio of aces had bad outings as well as Yu Darvish who was unspectacular in his two starts; however it took a late Sunday strikeout frenzy from Frieri to avoid a split of the pitching categories.
On the hitting side of things, the Eagles were as good as advertised on their way to a well balanced week helped out immensley by eMLB (nonKemp) hitter of the week candidate Yadier Molina. The Eagles catcher paced the way with 7 runs, 2 hrs, 9 rbi, and .381 avg, and still had time to steal a bag and walk 3 times. Everyone showed up this week except for 2012 #1 pick Jose Bautista, and 2011's 1st rounder Kendrys Morales. "Its scary to think we had such a MASTERFUL week while getting next to nothing from 1b and 3b" Baker laughed. "All in all a fine week, I'm sure the Bulls would have liked to have had a better showing but I get the feeling the next time we meet the stakes will be quite a bit higher than a week 2 showdown."
The Bullpen lived up to the hype in week 2, combining for 16 K's in 14 innings, a 1.00 WHIP and 1.93 ERA. Unfortunately a relief core built for holds only managed 1. Casilla was nearly waived early on in the week but will now possibly figure into the saves situation in San Francisco. Greg Holland hasn't done himself major favors yet but its only a matter of time before Broxton completely explodes (From eating too much or ending a game with two straight hits batters)
Looking Ahead to Dallas.
The Redbirds have struggled so far through a couple weeks yet find themselves only one game back in the Eastern Division. They will be without Jacoby Lessbury this week and you can say what you want about this lineup, it looks a lot better with him in it. Ellsbury has been replaced by Shelly Duncan who is off to a decent start in Cleveland
Olivet made a couple changes to their week 3 lineup, replacing Kendrys Morales with Nolan Reimold, while opting for Jordan Shaefer over Brett Gardner. "Just playing the hot hands right now. Shaefer has outplayed Gardner so far while Reimold has been on a tear. Gardner is our starter, just not this week. Morales will need to start producing more consistenly before he'll get back in to the lineup over guys hitting much better, like Nolan."
Reimold was a later round pickup the Eagles were happy to get after a strong finish in September last season and only Endy Chavez to beat out for everyday at bats. He earns the start this week after starting the season on a hot stretch.
Shaefer was picked up late in spring training after being waived by the Miracles. All the kid has done is steal bags and score runs so far, having gotten a lot of practice in recent memory running from police.
Hopefully there will be no 2nd guessing at weeks end, but Morales has already gone yard with 4 rbi as well on Monday. Reimold matched the HR at least with 2 rbi of his own. Time will tell there.
Should be an interesting matchup but I see another decent win over the Redbirds, as long as the pitching holds up their end of the bargain especially in the cumulative stats.
What to look for:
Reimold/Shaefer vs Morales/Gardner
Can Jose Bautista's sleeping bat arise this week?
We punted saves for holds, can we please get some??
FREE AGENT PICKUPS:
Arizona reliever Bryan Shaw as added earlier in the week as it appears Kirk Gibson has plenty of condifence in the youngster. He has stumbled into two saves already and with an injury prone Putz at closer (I love that name by the way) Shaw could find himself in a bigger and better role. Depending on what transpires in the SF bullpen he may replace Casilla in the Eagles Nest
Until next week..... Good Luck Mr Doyel
On the hitting side of things, the Eagles were as good as advertised on their way to a well balanced week helped out immensley by eMLB (nonKemp) hitter of the week candidate Yadier Molina. The Eagles catcher paced the way with 7 runs, 2 hrs, 9 rbi, and .381 avg, and still had time to steal a bag and walk 3 times. Everyone showed up this week except for 2012 #1 pick Jose Bautista, and 2011's 1st rounder Kendrys Morales. "Its scary to think we had such a MASTERFUL week while getting next to nothing from 1b and 3b" Baker laughed. "All in all a fine week, I'm sure the Bulls would have liked to have had a better showing but I get the feeling the next time we meet the stakes will be quite a bit higher than a week 2 showdown."
The Bullpen lived up to the hype in week 2, combining for 16 K's in 14 innings, a 1.00 WHIP and 1.93 ERA. Unfortunately a relief core built for holds only managed 1. Casilla was nearly waived early on in the week but will now possibly figure into the saves situation in San Francisco. Greg Holland hasn't done himself major favors yet but its only a matter of time before Broxton completely explodes (From eating too much or ending a game with two straight hits batters)
Looking Ahead to Dallas.
The Redbirds have struggled so far through a couple weeks yet find themselves only one game back in the Eastern Division. They will be without Jacoby Lessbury this week and you can say what you want about this lineup, it looks a lot better with him in it. Ellsbury has been replaced by Shelly Duncan who is off to a decent start in Cleveland
Olivet made a couple changes to their week 3 lineup, replacing Kendrys Morales with Nolan Reimold, while opting for Jordan Shaefer over Brett Gardner. "Just playing the hot hands right now. Shaefer has outplayed Gardner so far while Reimold has been on a tear. Gardner is our starter, just not this week. Morales will need to start producing more consistenly before he'll get back in to the lineup over guys hitting much better, like Nolan."
Reimold was a later round pickup the Eagles were happy to get after a strong finish in September last season and only Endy Chavez to beat out for everyday at bats. He earns the start this week after starting the season on a hot stretch.
Shaefer was picked up late in spring training after being waived by the Miracles. All the kid has done is steal bags and score runs so far, having gotten a lot of practice in recent memory running from police.
Hopefully there will be no 2nd guessing at weeks end, but Morales has already gone yard with 4 rbi as well on Monday. Reimold matched the HR at least with 2 rbi of his own. Time will tell there.
Should be an interesting matchup but I see another decent win over the Redbirds, as long as the pitching holds up their end of the bargain especially in the cumulative stats.
What to look for:
Reimold/Shaefer vs Morales/Gardner
Can Jose Bautista's sleeping bat arise this week?
We punted saves for holds, can we please get some??
FREE AGENT PICKUPS:
Arizona reliever Bryan Shaw as added earlier in the week as it appears Kirk Gibson has plenty of condifence in the youngster. He has stumbled into two saves already and with an injury prone Putz at closer (I love that name by the way) Shaw could find himself in a bigger and better role. Depending on what transpires in the SF bullpen he may replace Casilla in the Eagles Nest
Until next week..... Good Luck Mr Doyel
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
News, Notes, and Matt Kemp nightmares
After a couple of poor seasons the Eagles looked to jump ahead of the Great Lakes rivals right off the bat but unfortunately for Olivet, Matt Kemp and company Swarmed in and took care of business with the bats. Having results you would normally see in a full week there was no surpise Arizona took 5 of the 6 hitting categories and pitched just well enough to take a few of the pitching as well en route to an 8-3-1 victory.
Olivet wasn't dis-pleased with the hitting effort however as it would have paced nearly every other team in the league other than Arizona. 2b Kelly Johnson was the standout, scoring 5 runs, hitting 1 hr while driving in 1 with 4 bb to go with a nice .357 batting average. Apparently he likes hitting in front of Jose Bautista, who was so-so (for him) this week even with the dinger and 4 bbs. The other first round selection, Hanley Ramirez, didn't fare so well out of the gates but did end up with 2 runs, rbi, and bb with a hr and sb even with the 2 for 15 start.
On the pitching side of things, Dempster was great and Nolasco was better than expected while Gallardo got rocked and Romero ran into trouble against Cleveland. The bullpen was also shaky which most believe will be one of the best groups in eMLB.
Olivet matches up against Hackensack in Week 2 and will need to get a win under their belt to keep pace with the rest of the Great Lakes League.
What to look for:
Kendrys Morales wasn't expected to make the Eagles lineup until later on in the season but was hitting very well in Spring and started very nicely in week 1, hitting 417. However he failed to produce anything and will need to start doing so in order to stay in the lineup at 1st base.
The Johnson/Bautista combo. If Johnson continues to get on base at the clip he showed week 1, Bautista is inevitably going to produce monster numbers behind him. Look for them to rack up the stats in week 2
The SP Staff: Someone needs to step up in week 2 and help solidify the rotation beyond Dempster. Romero is no ace but if Gallardo is habitually a slow starter he'll be depended on to carry a big load until Yovani gets going. It definitely wont be Homer Bailey who already got hit hard on Monday (Only Yu Darvish did worse, so the playing field stays level heading into Tuesday)
Olivet wasn't dis-pleased with the hitting effort however as it would have paced nearly every other team in the league other than Arizona. 2b Kelly Johnson was the standout, scoring 5 runs, hitting 1 hr while driving in 1 with 4 bb to go with a nice .357 batting average. Apparently he likes hitting in front of Jose Bautista, who was so-so (for him) this week even with the dinger and 4 bbs. The other first round selection, Hanley Ramirez, didn't fare so well out of the gates but did end up with 2 runs, rbi, and bb with a hr and sb even with the 2 for 15 start.
On the pitching side of things, Dempster was great and Nolasco was better than expected while Gallardo got rocked and Romero ran into trouble against Cleveland. The bullpen was also shaky which most believe will be one of the best groups in eMLB.
Olivet matches up against Hackensack in Week 2 and will need to get a win under their belt to keep pace with the rest of the Great Lakes League.
What to look for:
Kendrys Morales wasn't expected to make the Eagles lineup until later on in the season but was hitting very well in Spring and started very nicely in week 1, hitting 417. However he failed to produce anything and will need to start doing so in order to stay in the lineup at 1st base.
The Johnson/Bautista combo. If Johnson continues to get on base at the clip he showed week 1, Bautista is inevitably going to produce monster numbers behind him. Look for them to rack up the stats in week 2
The SP Staff: Someone needs to step up in week 2 and help solidify the rotation beyond Dempster. Romero is no ace but if Gallardo is habitually a slow starter he'll be depended on to carry a big load until Yovani gets going. It definitely wont be Homer Bailey who already got hit hard on Monday (Only Yu Darvish did worse, so the playing field stays level heading into Tuesday)
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