Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Opening Night Preview

Tonight the Beach Bums open the 2008 season with high expectations...The 7:05pm game pits the Beach Bums against the travel team in the Frontier League, the Midwest Sliders...All 96 games for the Sliders this season will be on the road before the team moves into a new home and becomes the Oakland County Cruisers...I can't imagine what that is going to be like but Jon Cahill gave me some good insight because he was a coach for a travel team in his first year coaching in the Frontier League...I'd give you the input here...but you'll have to listen in to me tonight...That is what we call a tease :)

Tonight's pitching matchup features RHP Bryan Rembisz making his first opening night start for the Beach Bums...Robbie McClellan started the first game in Beach Bums history back in 2006 while Steve Shippey tossed the home opener last season...Rembisz finished 2007 with a 7-0 record for the Beach Bums to go with a stellar 1.87 ERA...He made seven starts in his 19 appearances, switching to the rotation in August...Rembisz pitches to contact and will rely on the defense behind him...He threw 62.2 innings for the Beach Bums last season and allowed just 13 earned runs to go with 51 strikeouts...

LHP Kyle Kearcher gets the start for Midwest...This is an interesting choice being as the Sliders have former Beach Bum Jeremy Dow available as well as the top pick in the 2008 Frontier League Draft in Drew Bigda...Kearcher played for Kalamazoo for a month last season and made six appearances with two starts before being let go...He did not pitch against the Beach Bums...Kearcher was 0-1 with a 9.49 ERA for the Kings...He tossed 12.1 innings and allowed 13 earned runs...Kearcher walked four and struck out nine...He was released on June 24...

The Beach Bums lineup will be left-handed heavy, but I am imagining that it will be staggered as there are enough switch-hitters and right-handers to go around...

The Beach Bums have never won a season or home opener, going 0-2 with losses to Kalamazoo in each of the past two seasons...One thing Jon Cahill mentioned in the Cahill's Corner interview was to get off to a good start right away...

Check out today's preview in the Record Eagle

Tonight look for the lineups and you can comment on the game, broadcast, and all of that jazz in that specific post...

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