"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 Ellsbury has been replaced by Shelly Duncan who is off to a decent start in Cleveland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
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