Pittsburgh NABA Previews: Bulldogs, Gray Bats, Raker, etc...

Based on last season's results the league basically breaks up into three classes.
While the middle class is still USA 1950's strong, the distance between good and great is growing.

"G"

There are over 60 players in the free agent pool this season, I imagine there will be a few new teams, and possibly the merge of the Phantoms and Hurricanes. The Confederacy will try to hand pick two more guys to fill out their basketball team sized roster.
With all the new talent, any team, even the Confederacy, has a chance to be greatly improved.

New additions I don't know about not withstanding, the classes of the Pittsburgh NABA seen through my, biased eyes.

Eating out of a trash can:

Rebels
Hurricanes
Phantoms

Eating at Arby's:
Eagles
Matadors
Rakers
(very little separation here)
Eating at TJI Friday's
Gray Bats
Bulldogs
Oilers

Eating at your mom's

Ducks

Eating at Mortons

Black Sox
Warriors
OwlzZzzzzz

***

Not much separates the middle seven teams.
Sometimes the match-ups just work well and you catch the Black Sox on an early Saturday morning game.
The Rakers swept the Black Sox last season,
The Ducks went 2-1 against the Rakers
The Black Sox went 2-1 against the Ducks, with two blowout wins.
Here is your grain of salt, take it.


Now we are getting to the TJI Friday's section of the league previews.

The Bulldogs:
Haven't won a playoff game ever.

The Bulldogs made the playoffs by a half game last season despite the Matadors attempts to sabotage their season.

Mike Martin and Wino have been training hard.



Bulldogs' catcher Joe Graff and pitcher BJ Rankin enjoying desert in Manassas.
Rankin's slider is filthy.

The Bulldogs are the epitome of team work


This man is a finely tuned athlete

Viny Gala is the best all around firstbaseman in the league.
Defensivly he had a beast of a tournament for the Blues in VA.
He can hit the ball a long way.
I remeber our time on the Ghostbusters fondly, he hit a triple.

Brian Strom will unveil his Bulldogs blog in the enar future. Sure to be a must read.


Strom Managed the O.C. fall ball team.
they will probably add a few players from that squad.


The Bulldogs have another Ghostbuster on their roster

Dr. Dan Venkman is competitor and a top tier pitcher.
Not afraid of Ghosts.

The Bulldogs will continue to be competitive.


The Gray Bats will not beat the Ducks this season.
Take that to the bank, Sorosky.
woooooooooooooooooo.

Manager Larry Zalewski sent up a signal for pitching help and Jeremy Barchie answered the call.

By my estimation,
If Larry hadn't formed this team Pitchers, Jeremy Barchie and Ben Sorosky would be Ducks.
They are a formidable 1-2 punch, one of the best in the league.
Too bad in the 4th inning of every game, Larry will insert the elder statesmen of the team, and when their arthritic knees give out while in pursuit of a fly ball, Barchie and Sorosky will wind up being the victims of many unearned runs.



Apparently, "I want to be a Duck" really means, "I don't want to play for the Rakers"

This is what happens, Larry.
(profanity)




Here are links to two other Gray Bats Blogs.Check them out and quack away in the comments section.
This blog contains player profiles, which I recommend opposing catchers browse before playing this team in order to better know what to say to distract these guys while up at bat.
The over 28 league is calling, Larry.

This is the Gray Bats coach



This is a link to Ben "sit on the change-up" Sorosky's blog, which contains a Gray Bats season preview.
(In this preview Sorosky claims Galvanek has a gun. If that's the case we'd better take cover.
Sorosky predicts a championship for the Gray Hairs.)

Solid blog work, by one of the Pittsburgh NABA's elite pitching talents.
One of the best gifts the NABA has given me is the chance to compete against pitchers of Sorosky's caliber, and take them yard, as I did on 7/26/06 when Sorosky was a Knight.
full disclosure, I was 1-5 against Sorksoy last season. 3-8 lifetime, with 1HR and 3 rbi.

In all seriousness, this team will be better than some expect.
The big Question:
Will Larry's desire to play everyone, and have a team with players of all skill levels ultimatly undermine the talent and the W-L record of the Gray Bats?
I smell 4th place in the Monongahela in 2009.

***


The Rakers might not exist anymore, I don't even know what's going on with this team.
I do know there is a set of sweet uniforms with "Cyrilla Landscaping" written across them.
I would imagine those uniforms will return, and the rest of the players form this team will reappear somewhere.

There will probably be two more new teams, one of them will probably be solid, and the other team will be a joke.

I wonder which team the commissioner will put in his conference?





Quack.

Next the Oilers and Warriors.

Later: Black Sox and Owlz.


Finale:

Ducks

South Oakland bats remain quiet, Ducks lose 4-1

The Rakers beat the Ducks 4-1 at Pie Traynor Field on Saturday. Last year's Knights, the Rakers (who did a great job of getting the field in shape to play on Saturday) basically trimmed the fat from the underachieving 2007 team, kept all their solid, small-college players, and added an enormous third-baseman, and a few guys with beards. They are a tough team. Typically, pitching is their strength.
I left in the bottom of the fourth, with the game tied 0-0, the Rakers lead off the inning with a routine fly ball that dropped for an error, then a walk to Eberle. Errors and walks. The Rakers would go on to score three runs in the inning, and one more of TC Jones.
Adam Smith and Garrett gave me the recap.
We left runners in scoring position. I left KT on second base in the top of the third after a terrible one pitch at bat in which I popped up to first base. Chris Roth left two men on base later in the game, Rick was stranded on second in the seventh after he doubled in our only run of the game.
Smith went five strong innings allowing two earned runs. TC came in to finish the game and allowed one earned run in two innings of relief.
There were a lot of ifs and a lot of what-have-yous in this game. If we make one more play in the field and get one more key hit, it might have been a different outcome. That's baseball. We have to win the games we only allow three earned runs. We'll see the Rakers again.
Smith had a great start after getting roughed up by the Blacksox on opening day.

• Bullet Points, ( based on what I was told about the last three innings after the fact, and without seeing the book.)
• Kt had a good game at the plate. He walked stole second, singled and scored a run.
• Rick hit a double, his biceps are huge. Also, he looked much better at shortstop than he did at second vs. the Blacksox.
  
• We were in this game till the end, and we played without Guthrie, who leads the team in triples, slugging percentage and RBI.
• We got a great start from Smith, he gave us a chance to win.
  
• TC continues to do a good job of getting everyone in the game.
• Again, one umpire. At least this guy was coherent.
• We beat the Eagles last week in a game in which we only had two hits. We had six or seven on Saturday and lost.

We are scheduled to play the defending Champion Rebels tonight at Spring Hill. It is wet and gloomy outside at the moment, but its not raining. We have to try to get the game in as we are out of makeup dates.

Who names their team the Rebels?

I hope it doesn't rain. Regardless, the Ducks' grounds crew will have to put in some work tonight before the game if we are to play.

Nick is on the hill tonight, that's bad news for the Rebels.