Three To Get Ready
Mark Parent will need a four-man rotation for the GBL championship series and, especially if it's the pitching-rich Long Beach Armada the Outlaws end up playing, he has to be concerned about his quest to find the three wins among the group needed to win the title.
Right now, the only somewhat dependable member is left-hander Derrick Loop, who pitches tonight against the Scorpions, has been rock-solid at times and not porous when things go bad (a weakness many of his young colleagues on the Outlaw pitching staff have.)
The jury is still out on Matt Campbell, the rookie left-hander out of San Carlos acquired last week who looked good in his debut last Saturday and goes at it again tomorrow in Yuma, and Greg Bicknell for that matter as the 38-year-old — given the benefit of the doubt — can't be dismissed by the one bad start Tuesday in his first GBL trip to the mound. Nick Singleton is a major question mark coming off a finger injury (he pitches for the first time in three weeks on Saturday) and Daniel Howard already looks too all over the map to be leaned on in a championship game. John Jefferson starting in one of the two home games (Games 1 and 2) is appealing because he has been smooth as they come in his last two starts at Nettleton.
But because this picture is so muddled and the series is set to start in 12 days, Parent and pitching coach Alex Carbajal adding one more arm, if not two, to the staff can't be ruled out.