Back At It!

Eager to put last night's loss behind them, the Beach Bums take the field this evening in Kalamazoo against the Kings...Listen in to The Fox FM at 7:05pm...Gregg Langbehn will say in tonight's Labatt Blue On Deck Show that he focused on the positives from last night...Lineups Below for today...Kalamazoo made a roster move, placing catcher Steve Malavagna on injured reserve and signing Pat Hanley to serve as the backup for the time being...Gregg Langbehn made a few adjustments to his lineup based on last night's performance...

KALAMAZOO (1-0, 1st Place East Division)
Brandon Anderson - RF
Joe Ramos - 2B
Tim Brown - 1B
Brendan Murphy - DH
Simon Williams - LF
Kyle Higgins - SS
Michael Graves - C
Hans Stancil - 3B
Jeff Grose - CF

Trent Lare - LHP

BEACH BUMS (0-1, T-5th East Division)
Chase Gerdes - LF
James Guerrero - 2B
Mike Epping - CF
John Alonso - DH
Kyle Maunus - 1B
Brad Miller - SS
Brian Lapin - RF
Robby Alcombrack - C
Bryan Frew - 3B

Brett Bostelman - RHP

Kalamazoo 13, Beach Bums 10

Here is some stuff from last night...General observations...Kalamazoo is a darn good team and will probably be among the East Division leaders most of the season...B.J. Hagen impressed me in his professional debut, throwing the only true perfect inning of the game for the Beach Bums...Nathanson faced the minimum in the first but a runner did reach on an error...I always say the great thing about baseball is seeing something new everyday, and yesterday was no exception with a broken bat homerun...Brian Lapin told me he hit it squarely...The picture was taken by Kalamazoo broadcaster John Leahy...

Audio Recap of the Game is below...


The Labatt Blue On Deck Show Interview with Manager Gregg Langbehn...


Full Game Writeup

Opening Night Lineups

Greetings from the press bix at Homer Stryker Fied where Kalamazoo is currently taking batting practice...The starting lineups for tonight's season opener are below...

BEACH BUMS
Chase Gerdes - LF
James Guerrero - 2B
Mike Epping - CF
John Alonso - DH
Patrick Perry - C
Kyle Maunus - 1B
Brad Miller - SS
Brian Lapin - RF
Bryan Frew - 3B

David Nathanson - RHP

KALAMAZOO KINGS
Brandon Anderson - RF
Joe Ramos - 2B
Tim Brown - 1B
Brendan Murphy - DH
Simon Williams - LF
Kyle Higgins - SS
Steve Malavagna - C
Hans Stancil - 3B
Jeff Grose - RF

John Brownell - RHP

From a Bum to a King

One of the more interesting story lines going into this weekend's opening series with Kalamazoo is the fact that John Sexton, Beach Bums Pitching Coach from 2007-08, will be serving in the same role with the Beach Bums chief rival, the Kalamazoo Kings...

Sexton (Pictured at left chatting with Nick Pepper on the mound) helped the Beach Bums to the top pitching staff in the league last season...He, along with former Manager Jon Cahill (Hitting Coach for Washington), are both with East Division teams for 2009...It will be interesting to see if how well they know the returners (There are currently 10 returners including six pitchers on the Traverse City roster) will work for or against their new teams...

I bring this up because the Kalamazoo Gazette ran a story about Sexton today...It is linked below and is a good look into how he handled the Beach Bums during his two years in addition to how he will handle the Kings...

From a Bum to a King

Listen to Me!

Remember, tomorrow night is opening night for the Beach Bums at Kalamazoo's Homer Stryker Field...First pitch is scheduled for 7:05pm...If you are making the trip I look forward to seeing you there, if not...Tune your radios to me...

The Labatt Blue On Deck Show officially kicks off the season at 6:45pm...The Fox FM will again serve as the radio home for the Beach Bums (Its 94.3 FM in the Grand Traverse Area)...If you can't get it that way, the contest will also be online...RHP David Nathanson gets the call for the Beach Bums opposite Kalamazoo starter RHP John Brownell in a matchup pitting two of the best pitchers in the Frontier League from 2008...

Online Listening Link

I will do what I can to update from Kalamazoo...I normally do a lot of my updating from the hotel, but the internet in Kalamazoo is spotty so I will do what I can...If not, look for a ton of stuff on Memorial Day!!

Kottke Signs

I am pleased to report on this day before the Beach Bums season officially begins that Ryan Kottke, who was released by the Beach Bums early in spring training, has latched on in the United League with a team he previously played for, the Rio Grande Valley WhiteWings...

Kottke was with Rio Grande in 2007...Last season he was with the Beach Bums in spring training, let go, signed in the Continental League, and was brought back to the Beach Bums for the end of the season, appearing in nine games...

Rio Grande opens on June 11...

Crushers on ESPN

If you haven't heard, the Lake Erie Crushers have been gaining some national attention...Having already been featured on CNN and ESPN Radio's Mike and Mike in the morning, today they will be on ESPN2's First Take at approximately 11:20am...

The basis of the story is that a player and his wife are living in assisted living as their host family...Check out the story below...

More Info

Season Opens Today

The 2009 Frontier League season officially opens this morning as the Midwest Sliders of Ypsilanti visit the Florence Freedom at 11:05am...

My guess is that LHP Kyle Kearcher, who was the ace of the Sliders staff last season, will get the call for Midwest, while Florence has confirmed 22-year old
Moises Melendez will be on the bump...You can visit the Frontier League website for in progress updates from Champion Window Field, which is debuting FieldTurf today...Or

UPDATE: According to the Frontier League website, RHP P.J. Zocchi will get the opening day nod for Midwest...He pitched in the New York-Penn League last system with Mahoning Valley, the same team Beach Bums catcher Robby Alcombrack played for...

Listen to my colleague Josh Anderson

Nathanson Starting Opening Night

Yesterday I told you that the final roster has been set for the 2009 season...Today the assumption going into 2009 became truth...David Nathanson will start opening night in Kalamazoo...

Nathanson has started at Kalamazoo only once in his pro career, his first professional start, a six-inning win...

The rest of the rotation shakes out like this...RHP Brett Bostelman will go on Saturday, RHP Jason Kiley will make his Beach Bums debut on Sunday, and RHP Steve Roberts will get the call in the home opener against Southern Illinois on Tuesday...

More on Nathanson and the 2009 Roster

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

Getting Closer

Two more cuts were made yesterday...Outfielder Reed Welker (Pictured in 2008) and Catcher Andrew Barbaro were released...

That means it would appear that the outfield to start 2009 is set (Gerdes, Lapin, Epping, Whiting) as is the catcher situation (Perry and Alcombrack)...

Roster is at 27...More cuts expected today...In fact, it's entirely possible the final roster could be set as soon as this afternoon...

Sunday's practice saw pitchers throw to hitters, but the hitters were focusing more on situational stuff, ie moving a runner to third, driving in a runner from third with the infield in...