May 21, 2008
Time to get back to the Cats. We have been struggling in the early going. There’s no denying that we are not playing as well as we expected at the outset of the season. We are scuffling on all fronts. Our pitching hasn’t been all that poor, but we are thin in pitching depth. Our defense has been spotty and some of our hitters with proven track records have gotten off to a very slow start.
It all started with the loss of our top starting pitcher, Lee Gwaltney, to the San Diego Padres organization on the day before opening day. Then, Dan Grybash had to miss his first start and we were forced to use a couple of guys who were slated for middle relief in spot starting roles, thus depleting the relief corps.
We’ve been getting “quality starts” out of our big three (formerly the big four until we lost Gwaltney) of Pedro Flores, Joel Kirsten and Dan Grybash. But it is difficult to compete in a league as tough as ours without at least four experienced, dependable starters. Our younger guys have been doing a good job, but we are asking a lot of them right now. Kelly Shearer gave us a good effort last night. He kept us in the ballgame, but our offense is still sputtering and our defense was not great either.
Yesterday, we signed a solid starting pitcher, Kyle Yates. Kyle has joined the team in Wichita and will probably pitch out of the bullpen initially since he has not pitched for several days after being released by the Toronto Blue Jays organization. Eventually, I expect that Chad will put Kyle in the rotation. That should help with our pitching depth.
Our hitting should come around. We’ve got some pretty good bats in Nelson Teilon, Jake Geautreau, Brian Fryer, Charles Carter and Ed Montague. These guys have been proven hitters in our league or other strong leagues. I feel confident that the bats will come alive.
If you look at our schedule, we play the first 17 games of the season against the Northern Division. That is a quirk that is not really favorable to us. From what I can see, the Northern Division is pretty tough this year. St. Paul is off to a 10-2 start and the Sioux Falls club that opened the season here in Fort Worth is clearly a very good ballclub. Wichita is also a formidable team and difficult to beat in their ballpark. The Wingnuts (I hate that name) are a very good addition to the American Association.
To top it off… 10 of the 17 games are on the road, and this is a grueling road trip. We left home at 4-3 and were hoping to be at least 9-8 after these 17 games That would require a 5-5 road trip. We are now behind the 8 ball on that because we’ve started off 1-4, and we have a tough weekend series in St. Paul with the Saints already out to a 10-2 start. We can only hope that the law of averages will help us in St. Paul. By “law of averages” I mean the law of averages would indicate that good hitters like ours will come out of their slump and that the Saints are due for a little slump!
You can bet that the Cats will be glad to get home this coming Monday for a homestand against teams in our own division. As we all know, it is easier to make up ground in the standings when you win games against teams in your own division.
Monday is Memorial Day and we will have another spectacular fireworks display on Monday night. There should be a great crowd on hand to welcome the Cats home. The home fans at LaGrave Field are definitely the best in the league. Our fans appreciate the game more than any I’ve seen in the other cities. We support our players and we always applaud good plays on the part of the opposition. The idea that you should hoot and insult the visitors is not acceptable with our fans. As the famous song says… we ”root, root, root for the home team”.
I’ve always been proud of the fact that so many players in our league have said that they would love to come play for the Cats because we have such a great city, a great little ballpark and great fans!
Now, all we have to do is get our boys home within striking distance, and let some of that Fort Worth / LaGrave Field “mojo” take effect!
JPD
