On the Lam, 62.3 - Rookies, love'em or hate'em

[trmmilwwi]

Here’s quick rundown of how the Outlaws rookies are doing roughly 1 month into their tenure with the big league club. There are two players that started the season with the big league club and have played pretty much every day.

Rightfielder George Stickler was the Outlaws number 12 overall selection in the 2059 draft and has finally arrived on the big league scene. He spent his first big league season in Single A Shreveport where he slashed .247/9/28 in 85 games. He spent the 2060 season in Shreveport as well and showed some good advancement, batting .325 with 22 homers and 80 ribbies. That earned him a season in AAA Austin in ’61 and he started out rough, batting .245 in 13 games prior to being injured for the remainder of the season. While his time in AAA was not exactly what was expected for the year, he received an extended look during spring training and earned the starting spot in right field for the Outlaws. Through the first 33 games, roughly 20% of the season, he is batting .290 with 8 homers and 15 RBI’s. He hit .311 in April and has regressed a bit in May but overall he has started well. He has been dependable in the field, starting 25 games in right and having 2 errors with a .954 efficiency and -2.2 zone rating. He has room to improve in the field but let’s be honest, he’s there for his bat. Overall we are very happy with his first 30+ games but we’ll be watching his health as things progress.

The other rookie that made the club out of spring training was not quite as expected. Third baseman Husnan Baloch was the 7th overall pick in last years amateur draft and finished up the season in Single A Shreveport. He batted .254 in 89 games, earning 9 homers with 33 rbi’s. He had decent defense in Shreveport but the big league club worked with him on his defense during the offseason and he improved enough to get a long look during spring games. He impressed the team personnel enough to earn a spot with the big league club and was expected to platoon with incumbent starting Third baseman Maimun bin Tayyib with Baloch starting against lefties. Well, bin Tayyib regressed abit during the offseason and was quickly bypassed by the 20 year old rookie. Baloch has impressed the team so far, earning the second best WAR on the team through 33 games (1.0 WAR). He is batting .271 with 8 homers and 20 RBI’s. His defense has been an improvement over bin Tayyib and his better than average zone rating and efficiency has been a huge bonus at the hot corner. Overall the team is quite happy with what they have seen from the surprise starting Third Baseman this year.

[Krathan]

Pretty nice start for these guys.