Edmonton Falling Off a Cliff - Losers of 11 of their last 13 games, the Jackrabbits hopes for a Wild Card this year are disappearing fast. The team has gone from four over .500 and third place down to 5th place and four under. Brent Gilbert continues to hit well and others in the lineup seem to be pulling their weight with free agent signing Socrates Kazantziakis hitting above .300 and Billy McKay batting .286. This has given Edmonton one of the better double play combos in the league offensively and defensively.
The problem appears to be in two areas, the outfield and the starting rotation. The outfield has been average at best defensively and pretty pathetic offensively. Matthew Woods has provided some power, but is hitting just .213. Andre Ly was resigned for a couple of years and is getting on base at a nice clip, but he is winding up on the IL at the same pace and is currently out with a rib injury. The rotation has been Glenn Hargrove and a bunch of also-rans. Hargrove has been stellar so far and is among the league leaders with a 2.78 ERA. However he has not received much in the way of run support (2.4 RPG) and after winning three of his first four starts he has been hung with the loss in his last three starts. Rookie starter Pepe Rivera's debut has been less than auspicious as he is getting lit up with an ERA of 7.34 and was demoted to the bullpen for a couple of outings and his last foray to the mound of 1.2 IP vs Montreal was the first time all year he had not allowed a run as a starter or reliever.
Scooter Will Retire a Jackrabbit Stephen Collins III will retire as a Jackrabbit. Collins, the franchise leader in hits, games, at bats and runs as well as RBIs and stolen bases announced that he will be retiring at the end of t he year. "Scooter" is in his 16th season with the Edmonton organization and you can bet that Edmonton ownership will be pushing hard to make Collins the first ever Jackrabbit to make the Hall of Fame.
What's Coming Up the Rabbit Hole - The 2059 draft has been completed and this writer really has no idea how to judge the draft. The recent scrambling of ratings and scouting measures pretty much lumped many of the prospects in the same bucket outside of a few standouts. Nobody is even sure if the Edmonton 1st round pick, OF Luis Rubio was worth the third overall pick. Rubio can do a lot of things well, he can hit, he can field, has a good eye and can steal a base, but he doesn't appear to excel in any one area. It will be interesting to see how he develops. Rubio will start his career at Charlsbourg in LF and we hope to see him up in the big leagues soon!
