Double the Lefty Double the Fun...

There were two lefty's out of the Beach Bums bullpen in 2008, one of those, Ted Gjeldum, re-signed already...The other, Jared Locke, The Beach Bums announced is returning today...

Locke will join Ryan Gehring and Steve Young (Both of whom's status for 2009 has not yet been announced) as Beach Bums' players to have worn the Blue and Gold for three seasons...Locke was originally signed in 2007 and appeared in 25.2 innings...

During the 2008 season Locke joined the Beach Bums for spring training after being letgo by the Phillies late in their camp...He appeared in 38 games, tossing 50.2 innings and striking out 52 while sporting a record of 3-1 with three saves and a 3.55 ERA...

Locke had two different stints of eight consecutive appearances without allowing a run in 2008...From June 6-June 27 he went 14.1 innings without allowing a run and threw a season high three innings at Washington on June 21...He struck out four hitters in five seperate appearances, the last of which came on September 1 in his final appearance of the season...

Locke Returns

Beach Bums Bring Back Perry

The Beach Bums have resigned Catcher Patrick Perry...

Perry will be an LS-2 by Frontier League standards in 2009 and proved himself as one of the top defensive catchers in the league during 2008...He threw out more runners attempting to steal (28) than any other catcher in the 2008 season...Several people, yours truly included, thought Perry should have been on the East Division All-Star team...He was a big reason for the team having the league's top pitching staff and was cited in more than one postgame interview by pitchers...

He hit .261 in 86 games, also seeing time as the DH...He drove in 36 runs and connected on three homers while leading the team in walks with 47...Perry had three three-hit games and posted multiple hits in 19 games and multiple RBI in nine contests...He also boasted the longest hitting streak of the season for a Beach Bums player at 13 games from July 13-29...In addition, Perry hit safely in 16 straight games at Wuerfel Park from June 24-July 29, the third longest home hitting streak in the league...Perry drove in a season high three runs at Windy City on June 8th in a 16-1 victory and hit his first homer of the season at Washington on May 26...

Release

A Great Read...

To pass the long and cold days of winter I like to spend some time reading, a lot of times its about baseball, sometimes not...I have found a great book that I thought I would pass along to you...

Everything Happens in Chillicothe

The book was written by Mike Shannon and chronicles the 2000 season of the Frontier League as he follows umpire Max McLeary...It is a great read with a lot of inside stories about the history of the league, some of the great cities still in the league, some of the great players and coaches in Frontier League history and so much more...

So this offseason I am not only reading about baseball to keep me looking forward to the spring, but now I am furthering my knowledge of the Frontier League...