US JARHEAD SCUTTLEBUTT - 3-20
Great pitching has propelled The Jarheads to early season success as evidenced by two starting pitchers earning Jarhead of the month honors. Miles Mikolas 3-0, 3.04 and Cole Ragans 3-0, 3.22 are the co-winners. Yamamoto 2-1, 2.73 and McLean 1-2, 1.93 pitched great as well but not as lucky in the outcomes.
Fifth starter Patrick Corbin has rebounded from his 1st start disaster. Blowing up early and chained to the mound Corbin was pounded for 9 runs on 17 hits in 8 innings. Since then in 3 starts: 1-2, 3.52 15.1ip, 15h, 7r, 6er, 6w,13k, 1hr, lowering his ERA to 5.79.
US Jarhead bats are cool so far with a .244 BA and several players struggling. But Jeff McNeil hit rock bottom and was sent to Motivation Platoon at Parris Island until the next block of games begin. In 74 ABs McNeil is "hitting" a Buck35. That's it! .135 and to boot, he has not had 1 walk. Not one! 0.
SHRAPNEL: USJ Rookie of the Month is reliever Braydon Fisher. He's appeared in 9 games and pitched to a 0.68 era. 13.1ip, 9h, 1hr, 4bb, 19k with a win and a save.
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DEVIL DOODLES - 3-29
The Blue Devils opened play in its 40th season in the FBN looking to make the postseason for the 4th year in a row but things got off to a rough start getting swept 4 games by Manatee County. Connecticut scored just 5 runs in the series. Since then, the Blue Devils have split each of its' next 2 series and currently sit at 6-10.
The offense has been pitiful with a Team BA of only .196. The Blue Devils have scored 2 runs or less in 9 of 16 games played. The highest BA on the team is .268 while 8 players have a BA of .200 or less . . . just brutal. The team is averaging 6 hits/game while striking out 8 times/game. Obviously, it is early so there is certainly hope of turning things around.
On the positive side, the overall pitching has been excellent with a Team ERA of 3.33. Starters Drew Rasmussen and Hurston Waldrep are a combined 5-0 0.52 ERA in 5 starts. Merrill Kelly on the other hand has been the "bad luck" starter. Despite a 2.19 ERA in 4 starts, Kelly is 0-3 getting 2 runs of offensive support in his 3 losses. Starter Andrew Heaney has been abysmal going 0-3 with a 7.63 ERA in 3 starts.
Connecticut wraps up Block 1 hosting the Klubbers before heading to play the NL East teams.
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89ERS REPORT CARD - 3-30
Block 1 - C+
After a 1-3 start in Norwich, the team has bounced back with a 10-6 run. We are currently two games behind the Jarheads.
The team was hitting only .219 before the series in Illinois, where the bats came alive with a .265 average, raising the overall team average to .231. Key individual performances include Xavier Edwards, who hit .473 to raise his average to .262, and Isaac Collins, who hit .375 to raise his average from .171 to .228.
The team has only hit 14 home runs in the first 20 games. Wenceel Perez currently leads the team with three homers. The team has hit 34 doubles, led by Isaac Collins with 7. Jose Ramirez leads the team with 11 RBI.
Team offensive - D
Pitching has been the bright spot of the season to date. Shane Schwellenbach is 3-1 with a 1.65 ERA and 25 Ks in 27.1 IP. Tyler Mahle is 2-1 with a 1.96 ERA and 18 Ks in 18.1 IP, while Andrew Abbott is 2-1 with a 2.19 ERA and 22 Ks in 24.2 IP. Michael Wacha has been the hard-luck pitcher so far, sitting at 1-3 with a 3.42 ERA. Kevin Gausman is 1-1 with a 3.47 ERA and 40 Ks in 33.2 IP.
The bullpen is led by Dennis Santana (1-0, 5 saves, 1.04 ERA, 7 Ks in 8.2 IP). Also putting in strong work are Devin Williams (0.87 ERA and 11 Ks in 10.1 IP) and Carlos Estevez (0.87 ERA in 10.1 IP).
Team pitching - A
LOOKIN AHEAD
Going into Block 2 only one change will be made to the 26-man roster. Kyle Higashioka will be called up from
AAA, West Broad Street Brunos to replace Danny Jansen. Jansen was hitting only .154 in his 11 games.
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DEVIL DOODLES - 5-13
After starting the season 0-4 -getting swept by Manatee County, the Blue Devils have simply tread water over the next 52 games going 26-26 and now stand at 26-30. The team hasn't been under .500 at this point in a season since 2022 when they were 27-29. Management had thought the team would be a strong contender for at least a wild card spot if not the division but haven't seen any signs yet of being a contending team. If you can't at least get to .500 - hard to think playoffs.
The offense continues to be disappointing. Although the Team BA has improved from under .200 up to .233 - that certainly is nothing to be proud of. The Blue Devils are scoring just 3.8 runs/game. Bobby Witt Jr is struggling mightily with just a .251 BA with only 14 RBI in 56 games - on pace for about 40 RBI's for the year . . . pitiful. Freddie Freeman and Corey Seager have been solid but nothing special. Freeman is hitting .274 with 28 runs and 29 RBI while Seager is at .273 with 10 HR's and 32 RBI. Miguel Andujar leads the team with a .312 BA - the only player over .300. He's also chipped in 10 HR's and 20 RBI.
The pitching has hit some rough spots lately as the Team ERA has risen from 3.33 to 4.02 over the last couple blocks. Giving up 15 runs to California and 14 runs to Burlington certainly didn't help. 3 starting pitchers (Civale, Heaney, Young) have ERA's over 6.00 and are a combined 4-12. The other 3 main starters (Kelly, Holmes, Rasmussen) have been pretty good keeping the team in most games. They only have a combined record of 10-11 due to lack of run support. The bullpen has been the strong point so far this year with Phil Maton (3-3 1.07) and Raisel Iglesias (2.45 11 saves) leading the way.
Connecticut has two series left in Block 3 against Yorktown and Zanti as the team must continue to grind away trying to get back to .500.
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