May 2024 in Review by Heskin

Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
Sandgnats
All-Star
All-Star
Posts: 1648
Joined: Wed Aug 03, 2016 5:52 pm
Location: Spokane, Washington State, United States of America

May 2024 in Review by Heskin

#1 Post by Sandgnats »

CRYSTAL LAKE HERALD

SPORTS – GNATS NOW
The Injury Bug Keeps Crystal Lake on Life Support for the Month of May
Updated: June 1, 2024 – 08:30AM CDT

By Howard Heskin, Staff Writer – Twitter @HowardHeskin1

Riddled by injuries and inconsistent pitching Crystal Lake was fortunate to escape May with a a 15-14 record, keeping the team in first place.

Most notably the team saw its anchor in center fielder Jeffery Wolfe go down with a ruptured finger tendon. Unfortunately the injury has required surgery putting Wolfe out for 4 months - effectively ending his 2024 regular reason. At approaching 32 years of age, I think we have seen the last of Wolfe in Crystal Lake baring some miracle return for the playoffs. A popular guy in the club house the team is missing his practical jokes and his nightly magic shows as he plans a try out for America's Got Talent next year. "I really hope this injury doesn't screw up my card trick routine." stated Wolfe as we caught him in the Dole Memorial Training Center rehabbing from finger surgery.

The injury virus spread quickly in the outfield with star RF Jerry Long out for 2 weeks with symptoms from a herniated disk. LF Jarrod 'Merlin' Ricks suffered a concussion and has been day to day for 2 weeks. He's been placed on the 15 day disabled list as a precaution till the symptoms clear.

As a result top prospect CF Pedro Flores has been called up from AAA Evansville after shortly being promoted from AA Brampton where he has has an outstanding season thus far. His stats have not been impressive since being called up but his defensive skills have helped fill this emergency need for the last 2 weeks. We've also seen LF Miguel Campoy and LF Enrico Heredia called up from AAA Evansville where they have both been having solid seasons so far. It looks like the off-season moves that brought more depth to the outfield are going to serve as a critical stop gap untill we see Crystal Lake's star outfielders return.

May has also brought some shakeup to the Crystal Lake Rotation. The top of the rotation continues to be strong with the Mayor Manuel Corona continuing to cut ribbons with a second in the SL 84 strikeouts posting a 2-2 May with a 3.35 ERA and overall 0.85 WHIP. His best friend Alfredo Velázquez dominated the month going 3-1 with a 3.05 ERA and overall season 1.05 WHIP.

However, now we get to our friend with the grape Gatorade. After an impressive April we've seen "Yogi" Francisco Robles light up May with an ERA of 6.00 but some how posted a record of 2-2. This writer just does not want to get into how he feels about Robles right now and will let you draw your own conclusions. After 9 years with the organization, another month like this and we might have seen the end of Yogi here in Crystal Lake. But like team Scout Jose Luna has been quoted saying, "It's hard not to like him."

A notable shake up occurred when we saw Phil Burns sent to the bullpen after posting an ERA in May of 6.82. in favor of rising star Dave Jones. Jones has acted as the teams closer posting 12 saves and looks like he is finally ready to make that next step to starter. This move has also eased tension in the clubhouse as the highly paid man with the loud barkRamón 'Doberman' Contreras has now posted 3 saves in a row. After a disappointing start to the season trading off closing opportunities with Jones, the Dawg Pack can be heard barking in the outfield again.

Lastly we saw 'Nitro' Jim MacCowan putter out in May with one win and two losses with an ERA of 7.36. Aurora came back and had its revenge chasing him out of the May 15th game after 1.2 innings. "Well its a lesson learned" stated Nitro. "They really had my number and figured me out this time. I need to work on mixing up my pitches. One mistake and this team will punish you."

Please check my next article regarding the 2024 Draft Class coming soon. Here's to a more hopeful June and July with Crystal Lake about to see an uptick in home games after being consistently on the road to start the season.
RJ Ermola
Vice President and General Manager of Baseball Operations
Crystal Lake Sandgnats

*2024 PEBA Champions*
Post Reply

Return to “Crystal Lake Sandgnats”