Red Racers On Cruise Control

[Matt]

Red Racers On Cruise Control

The Calzones AAA affiliate, the Joplin Red Racers, appear to be on cruise control, with yesterdays 5-1 victory over Fayetteville the Red Racers have now won 12 of thier last 14 games and have opened up a commanding 8 game lead in the AML South. The Red Racers are the owners of the best record in AAA, at 45-20, and are nearly unstoppable on their home field, with a 27-8 mark. New manager Pete Farrell, who took over the talented club during a somewhat surprising shakeup of the Calzones minor league staffs last week, says there is no secret to the Calzones success. "Pitching" he said to me during a brief phone interview this morning, "this club has great pitching. I inherited a great situation. Yamauchi and Taylor, who wouldn't want those guys heading up their rotations."
Indeed, the Red Racers are flush with pitching. The crown jewel of the Calzones minor league system, 21 yr old Ryuichi Yamauchi, has been brilliant. The southpaw, signed in the offseason as a free agent, came over from Japan with quite the media circus following him to the somewhat smallish midwestern town of Joplin, Missouri. But the unflappable Ryuichi has not let the immense media attention distract him. He has posted a 7-2 mark in his 12 starts, with a very good 2.62 era. Yamauchi is nearly unhittable when he is on his game, which seems to be almost every trip to the hill. In 65.1 innings this season, Ryuichi has allowed just 47 hits. Even more remarkable has been the young left handers impeccable control, as he has walked just 14 batters while striking out 70. For his efforts, Yamauchi has been selected to pitch in the AAA All-Star game. But as impressive as Yamauchi has been, it's quite possible that he is being overshadowed in some respects by the emergence of Bill Taylor. Taylor, a 23 year old right hander who many viewed as an underachiever up until now, has burst onto the scene and squarely into the Calzones future pitching plans with a remarkable first half of the season in which he chalked up a 7-1 record and a dazzling 1.72 era. While he doesn't have quite the velocity or stuff that Yamauchi possesses, Taylor has proven to be a bulldog-like competitor who pitches intelligently. For his first half efforts, Taylor will also join his teammate Yamuchi at the AAA All-Star game.
But beyond the two aces, there is much more to the Red Racers pitching staff. Pat Edwards, another highly thought of prospect, got off to a slow start this season which saw him briefly demoted to the bullpen in late April. But since returning to the rotation, Edwards has posted a 4-1 mark and 2.45 era in his last 8 starts.
"It's hard to not like the pitching we have down there" said GM Matt Higgins when I asked him to talk about the Red Racers success. "We have three guys who could go right to the front of some rotations in this league. Luckily for us, we have time to let them develop."
The hard luck pitcher of the Red Racers staff has been another Japanese import, Tekkan Terada. The 24 year old right hander is 1-2 with a 2.81 era in 10 starts this season, but does not have a decision in any of his last 7 starts, despite allowing a total of 10 earned runs in those 7 starts spanning a total of 41 innings, for a an era of 2.20 during that time.
The Red Racers bullpen does not possess nearly the star power that the rotation possesses, but for the most part the Red Racers bullpen has been very good. Among the key performers has been Yasujiro Takata, another Japanese import who has been impressive. Takata, a southpaw, has posted a 4-0 mark with a 1.50 era and 2 saves, mostly working out of middle relief. Another southpaw, Rafael Perez, is 5-0 with a 3.44 era. Closing out games for the Red Racers has been Melvin Wells, a Rockport, Texas native who until this point in his career had been mostly a journeyman reliever during parts of 4 years in the major leagues. The Calzones organization has converted him to closer, and through the first part of this season the move has paid huge dividends, as Wells is 1-0 with 15 saves and a 1.36 era. He will join starters Yamauchi and Taylor at the AAA All-Star game.
Despite being 6th overall in runs scored at AAA, the Joplin Red Racers have no offensive standouts. Not a single offensive player will represent the Red Racers at the All-Star game. But what the Red Racers do have is an assortment of guys who put in very good efforts and pull their own weight. Maybe the best overall performer for the Red Racers has been CF Manny Lara, who got off to a terrible start when he hit just .185 in April. Since then, he has hit .327 with 3 hr and 24 rbi in the month of May, and .317 with 6 rbi in the month of June.
"We're just a bunch of blue collar guys who get to the ballpark and get the job done" said veteran journeyman right fielder Fernando Garza, the self appointed team leader and spokesman. "No million dollar bonus babies, no superstars. But at the end of the day, look at the scoreboard".
Look at the scoreboard is right, and if the Red Racers present success is any indication, the future is bright for the Calzones.

[John]

I envy your success at AAA. My beloved Thornton FasTrax are a miserable 24-41, dead last in the RML West. The only worse team in the league is the only one currently lacking an owner! What this says to me is I'm at least good enough to beat teams that provide no competition.