And they're off...Earlier you may recall a post regarding the League status of players for the 2009 season, well the Beach Bums have started to announce who will be returning to the team in 2009...Again this spring you can expect a wide array of experience to come into camp for Gregg Langbehn's team to compete for spots, but three players have signed to return from the 2008 team...
Relievers Pete McEneaney and Ted Gjeldum
(Pictured at left) will return along with Steve Roberts
(Pictured right) who began as a reliever but was thrust into a starting role following a 5.1 inning relief stint on July 21 where he was perfect and struck out five...
Gjeldum will be an LS-1 in 2009 while McEneaney and Roberts will be classified as Rookie-2 players...
The SkinnyMcEneaney recovered from an early stint on the injured reserve list to serve as a quality long man/setup man...He made two spot starts as well and finished his rookie campaign with a 3-2 record to go with a save in 48.2 innings of work...McEneaney sported a 3.33 ERA...14 of his relief appearances went for longer than an inning...He tallied his first pro win on July 12 at Southern Illinois following 2.2 scoreless innings...McEnenaney threw a season long four innings of relief also against Southern Illinois on August 24...Both of his starts came against Florence with his long outing being five innings on July 23...McEneaney earned three Player of the Game nods from yours truly...
Gjeldum was one of two leftys out of the bullpen and appeared in a franchise record 46 games while posting a 3.60 ERA that was inflated following a few tough outings late in the season...He struck out 55 hitters in 50 innings of work as a late-inning specialist...Gjeldum's season highlight occurred on July 27 at Wuerfel Park against Washington when he struck out a season high five batters in two innings of perfect relief...Gjeldum struck out more than one batter in 15 of his mound visits...
Roberts made eight starts after being slated into the rotation in late July and at times was unhittable, allowing two runs or less in all but one of his starts...A college teammate of Gjeldum, he made 14 appearances overall and finished with a solid 3-1 record to go with a 2.33 ERA...He struck out 45 in 58 innings...Roberts tossed his first professional complete game in an 8-1 win at Florence on August 15 with the lone blemish being a ninth inning homer by Angel Molina, who was recently named to Baseball America's All-Independent Team...He struck out a career high seven and allowed only five hits in the win...He gathered his first pro win on August 10 against Evansville, allowing just one run on six hits in six innings of work during a 4-1 win over the Otters at Wuerfel Park...Twice Roberts was chosen by yours truly as the Beach Bums Player of the Game...
Expect more announcements coming frequently in the next few weeks as the roster begins to take shape...The Beach Bums pitching staff led the league in ERA during the 2008 campaign so I suspect that the team will attempt to bring back as many pitchers as possible...
McEneaney and Gjeldum Resign ReleaseRoberts Follows Suit Press Release
