Bandit Post, Vol 2.1, 1997

[aaronweiner]

Having gotten pounded in the teeth of their schedule, Birmingham rebounded to win their series with Las Vegas, sweep Montreal, win two from Des Moines and one of three from Seattle to finish a 7-2 sim, placing them back in first place with a 19-16 win/loss record. Birmingham, now riding a five-game winning streak, took advantage of the worst teams in the Frick and woke up the bats in the process, scoring 61 runs in the nine games after being heavily criticized for their lack of production on offense.

Some of the help came from expected sources. Brett Favre hit .over .400 during the nine game stretch with three homers, and Hector Fernandez continued his breakout season by scoring a run in nine of the ten games and hitting safely in eight. However, Birmingham received some nice surprises. Jack Dark broke out of his slump and has now hit safely in his last ten games. Demoted in the batting order, Jimmy Dugan also woke up, hitting safely in nine straight games and pounding three homers in that stretch. Birmingham also received three multi-RBI games from IP Daly and a very productive week from John Wright, recently promoted to the #2 spot in the order.

While it would be easy to pass off the Birmingham success offensively as a result of playing the worst teams in the league, there's no law that says that Birmingham deserves wins over Montreal and Des Moines. Certainly they didn't have to pound them for 42 runs in five games while surrendering 14 in that same stretch. It appears that Birmingham may have arrived, and just in time.

"I think we were all sick of playing way below our level," said Dugan, who has more cause to celebrate than most. Dugan lost his job in Vancouver to Roach Kidd in 1996 while hitting .209 on the season; this year, Dugan, after his recent hot streak, has pushed his OPS up to .829 and is on pace to have his best overall season since 1994.

Is Birmingham ready for a breakout? One thing would certainly make that a possibility: the last twenty one days of Birmingham's May schedule include two more against Des Moines, four against New Orleans, three against Long Beach, and three against Buffalo. That's twelve games against teams who are around .500 or below. If Birmingham can finish the month with 19 or 20 wins, it would go a long way towards their playoff charge.

"We're hoping that we're about to put together a long run," said John Wright. "That would give us a lot of confidence with Damian (Bedgood) coming back. It's exciting playing here in Birmingham lately."

One player who may be having a breakout season is Sammy Bodeen. Bodeen needs no introduction to most of the league, as he received multiple votes for Steve Nebraska last year, but the righty is absolutely pounding the league right now, at or near the top in every pitching category so far this year, and has to be the early-season favorite for this year's Steve Nebraska.

"I'm just doing what I always do," said Bodeen. "I guess it's working better this year."

Birmingham is hoping for more of the same, from Bodeen, and from the awakened offense.

[lynchy34]

Bodeen is a stud. Trade him out of the division.

[aaronweiner]

I can't. I need him to beat you tomorrow.

[lynchy34]

I can't. I need him to beat you tomorrow.

That won't be hard. He could give up 6 runs and still win with how my guys have pitched.