The Spokane Pirates Split a pair with league juggernaut, and
division rival, Vero Beach today. The Pirates are getting used to
splitting double headers, as their record of 29-30 would indicate.
Says Jeremey Stephens, "I just don't get it. Every day we go out
and our hitting is great, but our pitching is lousy. Or, Guzman will
pitch a full game giving up two runs, but we only score one on Bradys
Home Run. We cant seem to be consistent."
The real problem still seems to be the pitching. The team ERA of
4.65 is the worst in the EL, second worst in the Majors to Thunder Bay.
"I thought with the pitchers we signed we would see a different story
by this time." Says Seth McMullen, pitching coach. "And don't get me
wrong, its much better than the 7+ of last year." But the teams best
pitcher, Greg Maddux, has yet to take the mound. He is still recovering
from surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff. And the rest of the staff is
playing below expectations.
On a brighter note, the offense hasn't seemed to take too much of
a hit in light of all the trading that was done. A look at the team leaders
page will show a Pirate on top of the list in many categories. Mostly,
Brady Anderson. Brady was acquired from Brooklyn/Thunder Bay
(THANKS!) in the off season, and has taken to the Captain Morgan
Spiced Rum Dome, like a fish to water. This year he is hitting .337
26HR 55RBI's and has a chance to go 40-40 with 16 steals already .
"That guy is a class act." Remarks team captain Mark McGwire.
"He goes out there and does it every day. It is good to have him here.
Last year, it was like a big weight on my shoulders. I HAD to perform.
Now he can pick up a little slack. Hell, I even talked to Jeremey about
letting Brady hit clean-up, he said if I stole forty bases he would think
about it."
The offense as a whole is doing well too. While the .254 average is
not very exciting, it is better than most in the league. And they give the
fans a treat every game by scoring a lot of runs. They are one of only
three teams to score three hundred runs this year, and they lead the
league in Home Runs with 126. As a matter of fact, they are the only team
to break one hundred thus far. They also lead the league in RBI's with 281.
They are third in "Runs Created" (If anyone knows what that stat is, please
let me know. I am curious.) what ever that means. And to top it all off, they
are second in the league in fielding percentage, having committed only
17 Errors.
The team is scoring 5.18 runs per game, and the pitchers are not performing
as well as the most certainly will. It seems to be a matter of time until
both
elements work together.
But if not, well hey, Maddux is back next year. *shudder* :)
