Diamond Notes: Badgers Feasting
Sunday, April 26th, 2009
Howard Rourke, Kalamazoo Beat Writer
As of now the Badgers are first place in the Great Lakes Division, leading Crystal Lake – last year’s division champ – by one game. With the impressive play of a number of Kalamazoo players, it should be a titanic struggle for the top spot the entire season.
Manager David Ellison told me that if the season continues on its present trajectory, he will be marginally flexible with his prospects to deal for immediate help. But the most important part of the fast start besides the active duty in Afghanistan, ACVR2B treatment and the “Cosmic Adapter for Excellence” are all the players' genetic trait of having lazy Killer T cells that have allowed the drugs and radiation to take their optimal effect. Those seeing the best results so far are SS Raúl García (who is in a one-man race for the Sovereign League’s Wunderkind award) and 1B John Collins (who is back to 2007 form, leading the SL in Slugging, OPS, RC/27, VORP, Doubles, Isolated Power, XBH and Total Bases). Also playing well are CF George Crocker and 2B Brett Hurst, who are performing in line with the best at their respective positions. Pitching has been very dependable with Geoff James being dominant and Er Hang and Pat Paige combining for only 7 ER in 29 IP last week. On a sour note, LF B. Phillips bruised his foot in the April 21st game against Fargo and will probably be rested the next couple days.
Strong pitching will be the key to sustaining the Badgers’ six-game winning streak and taking the division as the offense looks to be a definite strength. The Mothership foresees great things if the pitching staff performs in line with their historical averages.
Week Highlights:
One highlight of the week was Monday’s game against the Fargo Dinosaurs. The Badgers hope this game will be a bellwether on the ongoing performance of some of their young players. Rookies García and 1B Frank Brock were a combined 6-for-9 with 5 RBI and 2 runs. In addition, 23-year-old pitcher Er Hang threw 8.1 shutout innings, allowing only four hits and striking out 10. The final score of that affair was the Badgers 8, Dinosaurs 0. The week included four consecutive one-run victories, largely due to the strong performance of the bullpen which accounted for only 4 earned runs over 11 innings (all coming in the April 22nd game against the Canton Longshoreman).
Prospect Prospectus:
In AAA Grand Rapids, SS Kein-lung Hsaio was named RML Player of the Week on April 20th. Many changes were made to the Rafters roster, keynoted by CF Lorenzo Abrulu’s call up from AA Hamilton to lead off. Depending on the ongoing performance of Kalamazoo’s defense-oriented SS Robert Jackson and speedy CF Dave Bates, there could be a couple more promotions with leading candidates being the aforementioned Hsaio and RF Ángel Ramírez . In regards to the pitching staff, SP Tyler Backburn is off to a blistering 4-0 start and the team’s closer Sotatsu Uno has allowed only one earned run over 12 innings.
There are big things brewing in AA Hamilton. 3B Joel Swedlove, CF Álex Martínez (injured) and 1B Yoshiaki Furukawa all look destined for the PEBA. Signed as a free agent in 2007, the 18-year-old Furukawa has had an impressive start. The most impressive sign of his maturation has been the .448 batting average in 29 AB when being behind in the count. Swedlove, the #15 prospect in the PEBA, started impressively in AAA but will start for the foreseeable future with AA Hamilton to allow 3B Henry O’Halloran and 2B Hugo Elroza to get their reps. On the staff, SP Polston’s stuff is proving too good for most hitters in this young season, and the bullpen from top-to-bottom has been stellar.