Sunday, May 31, 2009

No news is good news...

It has been a pretty quiet weekend as far as the Firebirds go. As the season nears, I have learned that no news is good news this time of year.

Regionals will be wrapping up in the next couple of days. There have been some great games already. Austin Wood's performance yesterday against BC ranks up there as one of the best pitching performances I have ever heard of! Check out their box score from yesterday for some good laughs. Pitchers going 13 innings and guys getting 12 at bats!!

Will be interesting to see who advances to the super-regionals.

Lakers- Orlando will be interesting as well. Lakers in 6!!

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Stay close to the phone...

Had another interesting conversation this morning...

Andrew Checketts, the highly respected pitching coach at the University of Oregon, is trying to place one of his pitchers. He originally was going to shut the kid down for the summer. Thought he was going to log over 100 innings. That didn't happen, and this highly competitive kid wants to pitch. One problem...he needs to be back for summer school at the end of July, so we probably won't see him in Orleans this summer. He is, however, committed to Orleans in 2010.

As I said earlier, this is a crazy time roster-wise. With Team USA, regionals, summer school, and kids getting shut down, nobody managing on the Cape can afford to miss a phone call!

And by the way...great win for the Lakers last night!

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Breathing a little easier...

Kind of amazing how things seem to work out. Received a call from Bobby Moranda, the Head Coach at Western Carolina, this afternoon. To make a long story short, he is sending us Daniel Ottone, who closed for them, on a temporary contract.

We are in real jeopardy of losing Xavier Esquivel (LMU), and Alex Hassan (Duke) to the draft. Both are closers for their respective universities. X had a great summer in the Northwoods League last summer, and Hassan had a huge year for the Blue Devils this spring and played in Orleans in 2008.

Will be interesting to see what happens...

Two hours until Lakers-Nuggets tip-off!

The draft, DII CWS, and the Lakers...

With the draft right around the corner, it should be an interesting time for the Firebirds. We have some juniors under contract, and draft day could definitely impact our pitching staff. It's a chance you take when you sign them.

On a side note, wanted to congratulate Lynn University and Head Coach Rudy Garbalosa for advancing to the DII CWS. They won their first two games in Carey, NC. They are playing tonight in a winner's bracket game at 7 PM. Head Coach Dan O'Brien and his UC San Diego club also advanced to the DII CWS. Dan and Rudy are two of the really good guys in college baseball.

And speaking of tonight's games, Lakers have a big one in game #5 of the Western Conference Finals. I love the Lakers...




Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Two weeks and counting...

Just started the blog thing...

Two weeks from today I arrive in Orleans. Looking forward to another summer on the Cape. Wanted to wish all those players participating in regionals this weekend continued success.