24

Ironic that on the day when the television show 24 has its season finale, the Beach Bums have announced their season debut of 24...Players, that is, for the 2009 season...Three players were released today to set the final roster for the season opener on Friday in Kalamazoo...It was a tough day I'm sure as two returners including one who was in Traverse City for two years were among the cuts...

Infielder Al Barbato and pitchers Matt Trausch and Nick Pepper (Pictured) were released today...Pepper was a casualty of the Frontier League player classification rules...Pepper was slated to be an LS-1 this season after two years in Beach Bums blue and gold...The former Frontier League First Round Draft choice was the eighth player on the roster to have LS-1 status, league rules allow for seven LS-1's...My hope is that Pepper, a submariner, will latch on somewhere...He pitched in nearly 80 games over two seasons with the Beach Bums...Trausch (The pictured lefty) was added to the roster late last season and threw 13.1 innings, posting a 2.63 ERA out of Oakland University...Barbato, a former player for the Gateway Grizzlies, was hoping to land a utility role, similar to what Damon Lessler held last season...As I have talked about on many occasions, the Beach Bums have a lot of diversity this year, and that is waht allowed the team to let go of Barbato...Bryan Frew can play anywhere and even catch, Kyle Maunus can play first, third, and outfield, and John Alonso is also a corner guy...

Below is the breakdown of the 2009 Beach Bums...The surprise I see is keeping 13 pitchers...But, there were a lot of quality arms in camp this season...

Pitchers
RHP - Brett Bostelman; LS-1
RHP - Greg Ford; Rookie-2
RHP - B.J. Hagen; Rookie-1
LHP - David Hurst; Rookie-2
LHP - Shawn Joy; Rookie-2
RHP - Jason Kiley; Rookie-2
LHP - Jared Locke; LS-1
RHP - David Nathanson; LS-1
RHP - Pete McEneaney; Rookie-2
RHP - Kevin Reese; Rookie-2
RHP - Steve Roberts; Rookie-2
RHP - Kyle Touchatt; Rookie-2
RHP - Jeff Williams; LS-1

Infielders
1B/3B - John Alonso; LS-1
IF/OF - Bryan Frew; LS-1
2B/SS - James Guerrero; Veteran
1B/3B/OF - Kyle Maunus; LS-2
SS- Brad Miller; LS-2

Outfielders
Mike Epping; Veteran
Chase Gerdes; Rookie-1
Brian Lapin; LS-1
Corey Whiting; Rookie-1

Catchers
Patrick Perry; LS-2
Robby Alcombrack; Rookie-2