Ray D. Enzé, NLN baseball blogger 

July 5, 2021: Okinawa, Japan – With the PEBA Draft a month in the rear-view window, attention has turned to the heating up pennant races, and for the Borealis they hold a 7.5 game lead over the 4^th place WC challenging Badgers of K-Zoo, but they still have their eyes set on the bigger, more immediate goal – another Desert Hills crown; a title they have only won once in the past 4 seasons. To do so, they will have to erase the 4.5 game deficit they have behind the dreaded, Evily Stealth Empire, Bakersfield Bears.

To dispatch that deficit, they will have to beat the Bears at their own game – something the two teams have fired salvo’s over for years now: Pitching. Aurora has 15 games with Bakersfield remaining – 12 of which come in a 34-day stretch running from July 30 to September 1, including back-to-back weekend home series on the Front Range in mid-August.

Pitching. That’s the name of the game and Aurora has taken a couple of hits on the mound, but have struck back in a big way.

Anastasio López was hit with a sore shoulder on the 25^th of June, and he’ll be out for at least another 2 weeks, plus a little rehab time. With the 4-day All-Star break coming, that shall reduce the number of starts missed by one. ‘Sawmill’ goes down harder, though, also with a shoulder strain that has the training staff more concerned, and they estimate that he’ll be lost until mid-August. Suddenly the dominant-looking rotation of Provost, Francisco, Barker, López and Jiménez is reduced to a threesome and the struggling duo of Junior Cook and Christian Murdoch – two pitchers who were instrumental in the 2019 title run, but have not been very good in the season-plus since.

But in walks the Boy Wonder GM, who has shown an amazing ability to bring in a big name arm when it’s most needed – ‘Sawmill’, ‘Zoom’ and López all came by way of trade at one point in time. This time he turned to an old trading partner, manned by a new face, to draw in an arm he’s reportedly been eying for some time.

Leaked to me on the team jet as we headed over the Pacific for a brief 3-game road trip to the Land of the Rising Sun, and verified as word was given to the press at Okinawa International Airport, Aurora has acquired Randy ‘Tugboat’ Smith from the Calzones for Junior Cook, 2B Jack Speed and Aurora’s 2^nd and 3^rd round draft picks in 2022.

‘Tugboat’ joins a team filled with 1^st round picks, to which he, himself, was the overall top selection in the 2014 draft by the Yuma Bulldozers. Quickly he rose in stature as within a year he was the 9^th best PEBA prospect and by his second year he was the 6^th best while making his debut in the desert. After an impressive start to the 2017 season (5-4 with a 2.69 ERA for the still lowly, but rising, ‘Dozers) he was shipped off the south Texas for Calzone reliever Larry Taylor. Citing the need to ‘strengthen the bullpen’ while using their deep, young starting pitching from years of the top selection, Yuma had, seemingly, little difficulties pulling the string on the deal.

Since moving to Laredo, Smith is 39-29 with a 2.99 ERA. In keeping with what is mostly a trend for Aurora’s rotation, he has 118 K and only 15 BB in 121 IP thus far in 2021. The one concern about ‘Tugboat’s game is his stamina, though this year he’s averaging more than 7 innings per start.

Aurora may be looking at larger concerns down the line, financially, as they inherit ‘Tugboat’s $9.79M contract over the next two seasons. With Provost set to make $17.5M in 2022, and López $12.5; Barker $12M and Francisco $10.5 – Aurora has $62.29M committed in 2022 to the rotation. Chief amongst this budgetary concern is the fate of ‘Sawmill’ as his current injury, on top of the 11 months he missed over the last season plus, puts into question his future effectiveness and the wisdom of the extension they signed him to that guaranteed his 2021 and 2022 salaries. 2019 was one of Francisco’s best seasons, but since returning from injury – particularly so far this year, he has been shaky – he is amongst the PEBA leaders in hits allowed (129 H in 111 IP) with a 4.38 ERA.

When asked, ‘Why Randy Smith, why now?’ Topham said, “We really felt we needed to bolster the rotation – as good as it seems, to be competitive in the race. With the Bears, Crystal Lake and Shin Seiki all with strong rotations – and let’s not forget Yuma, despite the untimely loss of ‘Bump’, they are still formidable.” As a matter of fact, he would go on to suggest that it was a combination of López injury and Yuma’s loss of Ortega that drove the deal – “’Tugboat’ needed to end up in Aurora blue, not Yuma orange.” By all accounts, this deal was in the works prior to either López or ‘Sawmill’s injuries, and when asked what the Borealis would have done with 6 outstanding starters, the reply was, “I think we’d have gone to a 6-man rotation for a week, giving everyone an extra day to stave off fatigue and injury,” to which he shook his head and rolled his eyes, “and then someone was headed to the ‘pen. With it likely being Francisco, as hard as that may have been. The other option would have been ‘Massacre, but he’s been pitching awfully well of late.”

Lost in all this are the player’s heading to Laredo. Junior Cook joined the rotation early on in 2019 and was outstanding as he posted a 14-5 mark and a 3.36 ERA. His 102 BB that year were second most in the league, but in the post-season he was nails in place of the injured Martín Francisco. Last year he continued to struggle with the walks, ending with a 5.47 ERA and a demotion to the bullpen. He began 2021 well, but once again, the bugaboo has raised it’s ugly head and despite having 47 K in 37 IP, he does have 28 BB.

More intriguingly is the inclusion of minor league second baseman Jack Speed. Coveted by many who have made inquiries of the Borealis, Speed looked to have it all but power – good eye, makes good contact, sprays the ball around, and he even spent time this winter working on improving an already good defensive ability. With Aurora’s moving fellow 2B John Dickson to RGV earlier in the summer, it was expected that Speed would stay. Apparently not. One might speculate his struggles at AAA Thornton may have soured the team a little on his chances – especially with Gabe McIntyre stroking the ball well there.

Speed came to Aurora in (perhaps) the last deal that former-Calzone, now-Ocelot, GM Matt Higgins made with Aurora before heading to the Rio Grande Valley. The deal saw Aurora send reliever (now Calzone closer) Jorge Estrada and CF Luis Rodriguez (also a former Calzone who returned home) for Speed. “When I sat at my desk and added it up, I saw a trade that basically netted us ‘Tugboat’ for Estrada, Cook, Rodriguez and a pair of draft picks.” He smiled at the thought and said, “That suddenly seemed a good move to make.”

Of course, how good a deal it is will depend – like last years deal that saw youngsters Miguel Gálvez and Joe Kenny go to Duluth for ‘Zoom” Barker, on whether Smith helps Aurora hold their play-off spot and see them move deep into the post-season. If nothing else, one would expect that the PR move will see quite a few more tickets being sold to see Smith. Fans will get their first chance Saturday as Aurora hosts the improved Badgers in the last series before the All-Star Game.