Bandit Post, 1.1, 1997

[aaronweiner]

The Birmingham Bandits have to be happy with the way their top three starters have performed so far, and with the production of their late-inning relievers. Pitchers 4-10, however, have not been quite so good. The Bandits shut down Austin's offense to sweep them in the opening series of the year, then lost a series to New Orleans in part to poor management. A two game mini-sweep by Austin put the Bandits at 4-4 on the year and demonstrated some potentially serious holes.

While Alex Khodorkovsky's 1.69 ERA was the HIGHEST mark among Birmingham's top three of Sammy Bodeen, Hayden Finch and the Russian Rocket, Birmingham's Rule 5 bullpen showed - well, a few holes won't really cut it from this writer's standpoint. Rule 5 draftee Porter Capps put up an astronomical 108.11 ERA in two appearances. "AA All-Star" James Moultrie's ERA was a fourth of that - 27 flat. Even Angel Miranda and James Yancey weren't immune from the carnage, though three of Yancey's four appearances were scoreless. The horrid bullpen work led to an ugly 7.85 bullpen ERA, the worst in the MBBA.

"We're going to need more out of these guys or else, well, we're in some serious deep stuff," said pitching coach Joe Cooper after the bullpen gave up six runs in an 11-8 loss to New Orleans. "We worked with these guys all spring and we really thought they were going to help us out, but we're kind of worried now."

The Bandits had every reason for hope this preseason for the three Rule 5 draftees. James Moultrie and Porter Capps didn't have sparkling WHIP numbers during the preseason, but Moultrie's ERA was 2.70 in spring and Capps' was slightly better at 2.61 in March. The Bandits can take some solace that Gene Reilly, the third Rule 5 player (and the one with the highest ceiling), has posted two excellent, scoreless appearances including his first major league win.

Perhaps the bullpen wouldn't have been such a great concern if the offense wasn't completely dormant in those first eight games. Birmingham posted just 23 runs, eight of them coming in an 11-8 loss to New Orleans. The main culprit? Birmingham, as a team, hit just .215 during that stretch. Hector Fernandez showed signs that he may have a big year, posting a .394 average with a 1.065 OPS, and offseason signing Porfirio Garza was outstanding in five games, demonstrating why Birmingham signed him and demoted John Carver. But, for the most part, Birmingham's offense was just plain bad.

While Birmingham may have a number of reasons to worry this season, their record is not one of them. In fact, Birmingham should feel fairly lucky to be at 4-4 at this point. They're only a half-game out of first place to start and they should feel very fortunate to be there.

"We've got to stop playing like this," said manager Lou Brown. "Our middle guys have to get their heads out of their asses and back in the game. Our offense has to put up some runs. We're not going to win like this."


News and Notes

Birmingham Drafts Crawford #1

Birmingham drafted 1B Larry Crawford with their #1 pick in the 1997 amateur draft. Crawford, a high school player with an enormous power potential and a strong work ethic, will immediately become Birmingham's top hitting prospect and represent hope for the future of the Bandits' franchise.

"We are proud to say that Larry Crawford is our #1 pick," said GM Aaron Weiner. "We're happy to say that Crawford was our primary target from the opening of the draft and we understand he's excited to sign with us."

With the small number of hitting prospects in the draft, Birmingham was afraid that they would be forced to sign a reliever with their first round pick, a result that would have met with mixed results in the media; while Birmingham clearly needs relievers, their 19th-ranked farm system desperately needed top hitting prospects, especially with the massive regression of Roberto Hernandez.


Birmingham Not Looking To Trade Yet

While the Bandits' pen has been brutally awful, the Bandits reportedly are not looking to deal for any bullpen help yet, though they may in the near future. An anonymous source inside the Bandits' organization said that there were discussions about adding another bullpen arm but that the subject would be tabled for now.

"We talked about starting negotiations to improve the pen," said the source. "We're not worried about the offense right now but we are worried that we're understaffed on the pitching staff. I think if we were approached about possible bullpen trades, we might not turn away solicitors."

[lynchy34]

108.11 is special.

[aaronweiner]

I forgot, actually, to mention his WHIP of 12.

It might not be long until I put Capps in his ass.

[lynchy34]

You're on fire today.