The Brewster

July wasn’t a good month for the Kernels going 9 – 18 moving from 2 games above 500 to 7 below 500 and they didn’t win a series. To shake things up, GM Ed Murphy, fired hitting coach Jose Guzan and signed Jonathan Paluzzi to a 3 year, $165,000 per year contract. Ed said “the club is looking forward to what type of influence he will bring to the players. Jonathan likes to work with power hitters like Hector Cruz, Long Chamberlain III and Lucio De La Cruz.” The other big move the club made was in the pitching staff where the Kernels rank at the bottom or near the bottom in all pitching stats categories. Calling up Don Smith for the starting rotation, Juan Garcia 1 and Juan Garcia 2 and Jefferson Riles are going to work out of the bull pen.

Pitcher of the month
Ron Gabriel had 1 win in 6 game appearances, pitching 8.2 innings with 1 earn run, 6 walks, 6 strikeouts and posted a 1.04 era.

Batter of the month
DH Lucio De La Cruz, started in 7 games, 31 at bats, 10 RBI’s scored 3 runs, stuck out 5 times with a .323 avg.

Personally I'd send Smith and Garcia #1 back down. They are both going to be really good pitchers that are going to help you make the playoffs, just not this year. They aren't ready for that yet. Just my 2 cents.

I do like the coaching changes and trying to pair coaching skills with players skills. I think that should squeeze a little more production out of certain players. Which adds up to the goal.

ae37jr wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 11, 2019 9:27 am

Personally I'd send Smith and Garcia #1 back down.

Would you say two Juans is Juan too many?

Juan might say that.

Regarding kids being up now--at least they are past the point where they should fall into a super-two category. The only real question is whether there's risk in development--which I tend to worry about, but can go both ways on. Probably a good coaching change.