- Joe Sixpack
- Felix Ortiz
- John Johnston
- Jeff Crozier
- Luiz Cruz
- Lionel Hubert
- Carl Ritchie
- Rafael Rivera
- Yoriyuki Gato
Anything?
No?
Need a hint?
It's about this former MBBA great, pictured here:
Ahhhh...you got it now, doncha? I mean, how many times have you seen his face plastered on Wheaties?
Still no?
Well, if you lived in
and followed the
you could probably answer
immediatamente:
These are the players of the 2008 Rome Raiders who have driven in more runs than teammate Bolt Vanderhugen.
Poor Bolt. He belted 591 home runs in the MBBA and then split for the Eternal City. Where the soon-to-be 40-year-old is making $4.8m this year and $6.5m next year. Note that's US dollars, not lyra. And that's double the next-highest salary on the team, which goes to 1b Lionel Hubert, who holds a half dozen career Raider records and except for last year has averaged 160 games a year.
Hubert has only 21 rbis, but that's actually on par with what the 5-time EBA All-Star and 4-time Gold Glove Wizard has achieved the past couple years.
Bolt played first base last year for Madison. It's obvious he doesn't have the defensive skills to unseat Hubert (who is rated nowhere else).
So the former MBBA great has started 22 games in left field. Not doing so well. He's batting .232 with 3 home runs and 15 rbs. Do you want me me to mention WAR and VORP? No, I didn't think so. The slugger hit .226 this spring and he's hitting .157 in May. Overall, he's batting .211 at home. If he were a gladiator, he would have gotten the "thumbs down" weeks ago.
His last game he went 0-4 with 4 K's, against Ryan Karp. Who? Yes, that's right, the former Bobwhite who had a 1.86 career MBBA WHIP. Who's not exactly excelling in the EBA either.
And what of Bolt's other teammates? I mean surely he could play DH...
Except that the team's rbi leader, John Johnston has that position sewn up. The former Bison, who actually ousted Hubert at first base last season (hitting .320 and slugging .599) is hitting .353 this year (fifth highest in the EuroZone), and started every game as the team's DH.
So Bolt has to compete with team's other outfielders, which the 6' 3" 226-pounder is finding hard to do.
RF Luiz Cruz, former Las Vegas-Phoenix-Greenville-New Orleans journeyman, is second on the Raiders with 29 rbis. He's also batting .341. Although he did just go down with a strained oblique the day he was named EBA Player-of-the-Week for hitting .526.
This injury has rearranged the Raider outfield, seeing Bolt go from LF to RF to cover for Cruz. While Yoriyuki Gato (former ATC hopeful) has gone from CF to LF, and Félix Ortíz coming in at Center. Both Gato (19) and Ortíz (21) have out-rbied Vanderhugen (15).
As for Sixpack (3b), Ritchie (2b), Crozier (ss), and Rivera (C), they've all driven in more than Vanderhugen.
Nevertheless, it's still Vanderhugen, the huge American, that the Italians line up for autographs. They will, after all, one day go for a fortune on eBay. But nor for his performance as a Raider.
