Outlawed Baseball

Tonight's GBL South Division playoff matchup opens up with the two Southern California rivals that revamped themselves a bit in the offseason. The Orange County Flyers took out most of the sheer power in their lineup and installed what I would classify as more dynamic power. In Long Beach, the pace-filled lineup that carried the Armada to last season's GBL championship series was replaced with something much more subtle but just as opportunistic. A look at how both hitting lineups regrouped:

2007/2008 (Batting Avg)
ORANGE COUNTY
Bacani (.320)/Okano (.271)
LeVier (.261)/Bacani (.369)
Pohle (.338)/Acey (.374)
Williams (.344)/Breen (.396)
Goodman (.259)/LaRue (.302)
Okano (.263)/Arhart (.325)
Morales (.310)Rios (.337)
Templeton (.279)/Mayorga (.202)
Thomas (.289)/Van Houten (.305)

LONG BEACH
Kaplan (.320)/Williams (.265)
Klemm (.270)/Bramasco (.333)
Martinez (.298)/Moss (.299)
Wakeland (.294)/Lehr (.336)
Trumble (.263)/Hutchins (.301)
Mayorga (.239)/Flowers (.309)
Gross (.257)/Trumble (.228)
Ramirez (.273)/Ramirez (.249)
Araiza (.289)/Davidson (.258)

Posted by Patrick Kinmartin at 03:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

And here is the chat with Ben Shockey, the unassuming rookie sniper out of the Outlaws bullpen late this season. In the same fashion he politely reminds me here I referred to his beloved hometown "Rays" inaccurately as the "Devil Rays," Shockey consistently dismissed GBL hitters without a dominant array of pitches to the point where he was a legitimate candidate for August Pitcher of the Month.

Shockey only stands about 5-foot-9, which struck me — was he not every bit as popular as similarly-sized David Pierson, the Outlaws' middle infield dynamo last year, because he was a relief pitcher? I think so, and that just goes to show you the offensive line-type treatment successful young relievers can expect to receive throughout their careers. Anyway, watch for Shockey to be advertised by the club a lot more going into next season, so say you discovered him "here" first....

Posted by Patrick Kinmartin at 05:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

While out at Nettleton Stadium putting together the Casey Garrison testimony for last week's brawl, our crew decided to bring Bryan Silverman on the set since the rookie has emerged rapidly as a top young Outlaws prospect who may get a chance to sign in affiliated ball real soon.

The UC San Diego product hit .373 with 31 hits in 83 at-bats. He also posted a .602 slugging average during that span and, perhaps most importantly, shed his "catcher" label with able play in the outfield while also filling in as an infielder on occasion. Remember, positions can mean everything when it comes to whether and where players get signed or not. Ben Shockey also came on to do a bit which will be up later, but here's the conversation with Silverman...

Posted by Patrick Kinmartin at 01:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)