Bringing Brett Back

Brett Bostelman, who made the adjustment from reliever to starter in 2008, will be back with the team this summer...

Bostelman will be an LS-1 in 2009 and will begin his third season with the team...Originally signed following an open tryout in 2007, Bostelman tied for the team lead in starts and was one of the most consistent pitchers on the starting staff in 2008 after leading the team in appearances as a true rookie setup man in 2007...He becomes the third starter to return from the best statistical staff in the Frontier League and joins four relievers to bring the total of returning pitchers to seven...Bostelman finished 6-5 to go along with an ERA of 3.81 in 106.1 innings...

Bostelman posted four starts of eight innings or more and threw a complete game shutout at Wuerfel Park on July 6, blanking the Midwest Sliders 4-0 while allowing just six hits...He was 5-3 at Wuerfel Park...Bostleman's first pro start came at Washington on May 25...Victimized at times by a high walk total (45) which limited his innings, Bostleman allowed three runs or less in 12 of his 19 starts and posted a 23.1 inning scoreless stretch in July...

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Stop Thief: Stolen Base Record Holder Returns

Mike Epping, a Frontier League All-Star Game starter and the Beach Bums single season stolen base record holder has signed to return for 2009...

Epping finished second in the Frontier League with a team record 38 steals in 2008 as the starting center fielder...The former Padre prospect who was in Triple-A during 2007 batted .284 in his first full season with the Beach Bums to go with eight homers and 53 RBI...The 53 RBI tied for the team lead with Kyle Maunus, and the .284 average was the highest among those with over 200 at bats...Epping also led the team in on base percentage at .376 and slugging percentage at .428 while making just one error in the outfield...He led the team with 12 multi-RBI games and 28 multi-hit contests including eight of the season's first 11 games leading to an average of .378 in May...

Epping stole more than one base in a game on six seperate occasions in 2008, taking a season best three at Florence on June 30...He drove in five runs at Wuerfel Park against East Division winner Kalamazoo on May 31...Epping closed 2008 with hits in 10 of the final 11 tilts...

Epping will be a veteran in 2009...

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Changes, Changes, Everywhere Changes...

It has been a busy offseason for the Frontier League, not on the player front, but on the managerial front...

It was announced today that Evansville Manager Jason Verdugo will not return for 2009, citing personal reasons...This on the same day that Washington announced a new, old manager...Former Chillicothe bench boss Mark Mason (Pictured above) will try to start a new streak in Washington after the Wild Things missed the playoffs for the first time in franchise history...Mason is one of the winningest managers in Frontier League history and served as the pitching coach for three seasons in Pennsylvania early this decade...Meanwhile, Evansville will name a replacement for Verdugo on Tuesday...

So Traverse City won't be the only team with a new manager this season...In fact, over half the league will see new men in charge including every team in the East Division with the exception of Eric Coleman with the Midwest Sliders of Ypsilanti and Fran Riordan of Kalamazoo...The full list is below...

Beach Bums
Old Manager - Jon Cahill (50-46 in 2008, 98-98 in two years)
New Manager - Gregg Langbehn

Florence
Old Manager - Jamie Keefe (47-49 in 2008)
New Manager - Toby Rumfield

Lake Erie
John Massarelli (Formerly of Washington) named first manager in team history

Washington
Old Manager - Greg Jelks (48-48 in 2008)
New Manager - Mark Mason

Windy City
Old Manager - Mike Kashirsky (37-14; Took over on July 8, led team to Title)
New Manager - Tommy Thompson

River City
Old Manager - Toby Rumfield (47-49 in 2008)
New Manager - Chad Parker

Evansville
Old Manager - Jason Verdugo (39-57 in 2008)
New Manager - Wayne Krenchicki

The First Newbie: Kevin Reese

Welcome Kevin Reese to the Beach Bums family...Reese is the first new player to be signed for 2009...He is a new, yet familiar face...Reese was a college teammate of Steve Roberts and Ted Gjeldum at Lafayetter College...He is a Rookie-2...

Reese was signed by the Washington Wild Things following his college career and appeared in 10 games for the Beach Bums East Division rivals...He was victimized by some early struggles and finished 0-1 with a high ERA in his 12.2 innings of work to go with 10 strikeouts...Washington used him as a long reliever with four appearances of longer than an inning...His best outing of the season came agaisnt the Beach Bums on June 21 in Pennsylvania when he faced the minimum in two innings of work...

Reese will compete for a potential slot in the 2009 Beach Bums rotation...

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Down Periscope: Submariner Back for 2009

Right-handed specialist Nick Pepper will return to the Beach Bums bullpen for 2009, joining Ted Gjeldum, Pete McEneaney, and Jared Locke as returners from a group that was among the league's most feared in 2008...

Pepper will suit up for his third season with the Beach Bums after being acquired following spring training in 2007...Pepper was chosen by the Kalamazoo Kings with the sixth overall pick in the 2007 Frontier League draft but was let go and snatched up by the Beach Bums...

Pepper appeared in 41 games during 2008 and posted a 2-3 record along with two saves to go with a 2.70 ERA...The side-armer stifled right-handed hitters to the tune of just a .209 batting average...He tossed a season best 2.1 innings at Southern Illinois on July 13...

Pepper will be an LS-1 by Frontier League standards in 2009...

Single Season Homerun Leader Returns

Kyle Maunus, who tied the Beach Bums single season homerun record with 10 in 2008, will return to the team in 2009 for his second season with the club...

Maunus will be an LS-2 this season after serving as the everyday first baseman last year...He hit .253 and tied for the team lead in RBI with 53 in addition to matching Aaron Garza's record homerun output from 2007...He posted 26 multi-hit games in addition to having 11 multi-RBI contests...Maunus was one of four players to have a four-hit contest in 2008 to equal the team record for most in a game...His four hits came at Chillicothe on August 30, and he also scored three runs while driving in a pair...Maunus totaled 12 hits in the final six games of the season...He drove in a season best four runs at Rockford on June 4 connecting on a homerun and a double in a three-hit effort...

Perhaps the most under rated facet of Maunus' game is his defense...As part of a team that equaled the team and Frontier League record for fielding percentage, Maunus led all Frontier League first baseman with a .996 fielding percentage, committing just four errors in 997 chances...

Formerly of Western Michigan University, Maunus was signed by the Reds before his senior season and spent one year in Cincy's system...

All-Star Game Starter Returns

The man who started the 2008 Frontier League All-Star Game for the East Division at Wuerfel Park will again wear a Beach Bums uniform in 2009...Ryan Gehring will take the field for his fourth season as a member of the squad, the only player to have been with the franchise in all four seasons of existence...

Gehring will extend Traverse City career records in most pitching categories during the 2009 campaign...He already owns the most wins (19), most starts (56), and many more...Gehring will be a veteran this season, the first veteran to be signed by the Beach Bums...Frontier League rules allow for no more than three veterans...

Gehring won just five games in 2008 but finished fourth in the league in ERA as one of the anchors on the top pitching staff in the Frontier League...He finished with a 5-9 mark to go along with a 2.71 ERA in a career best 126 innings stretched over 19 starts...He threw three complete games, all of which were shutouts to tie for the league lead...He led the team in innings, strikeouts, and tied for the lead in starts with 19, of which 12 went into the seventh inning and 13 of which saw him allow less than three runs...Four of his five wins came at Wuerfel Park where he has won 11 of his 19 Frontier League career decisions...

Gehring threw his first shutout of the season on June 13, blanking the defending champion Windy City ThunderBolts while allowing seven hits in a 9-0 decision...His next home start on June 23 against Chillicothe was also a complete game effort, limiting the Paints to just five hits while walking three and striking out four in a 5-0 win...His third shutout was in a very tough hitter's park at River City's T.R. Hughes Ballpark in his final first half start on July 9, striking out six and allowing seven hits in an 11-0 victory...Gehring fanned a season high eight at Kalamazoo on July 3...

Release that Includes Maunus and Pepper