Second Half Preview

Hopefully, I will be a little better in the second half of the season about keeping the blog up to date, but here is a little preview for the second half of the season.

The Beach Bums head into their final 45 games with a whopping 33 home games, leaving only 3 bus trips remaining on the schedule including a 6-game swing to play Gateway and Evansville and 3-game dead-heads against Florence and Chillicothe in August.

Starting today, the Bums will benefit from a 12-game homestand, which includes 6-games against the Midwest Sliders and 3 each against Florence and Chillicothe. With the fortune of a schedule that is loaded with home games in the second half of the season coupled with a strong first half that sits us only a game behind KZOO, who has the best record in the league, we have to feel good about our chances. Speaking of KZOO, some exciting dates, and possible playoff preview, could be the final three games of the season, when the Kings come into Wuerfel Park to close our the regular season schedule.

In other news, former Beach Bums' ace Bryan Rembisz continues to do well with the Anaheim Angels class high-A team in Rancho Cucamonga (the "Quakes"). Rembisz is currently sporting a 4.15 ERA in 8.2 innings of work, striking out 8 and walking only 2. Opponents are hitting just .194 against him. Former Beach Bums catcher Joe Blackburn, who was sold to the Phillies a couple weeks ago, has been assigned to class short season-A Williamsport in the New York-Penn League.

One more bit of news off the rumor mill, whispers around the league indicate that Florence outfielder Angel Molina, who tore up the Frontier League in the first half and was named the All-Star Game MVP, is going to be sold to the Cincinnati Reds in the next couple of days. Good for Angel, but tough for Florence. He will be a hard to replace in the middle of that lineup.