Bourne Rosteree is Pitcher of the Week
Cody Wheeler, the left-handed sophomore pitcher from Coastal Carolina, was named today as pitcher of the week by the National College Baseball Writers Association. Cody is currently on the Bourne Braves roster for this coming summer season on the Cape. Wheeler, a Spotsylvania, Va., native recorded Coastal Carolina’s first nine-inning no-hitter in the Gary Gilmore era, striking out 10 and retiring 28 batters in a 4-0 win over Hawai’i on Thursday, March 26. It was the first no-hitter on the islands since 1982 and the first against Hawai’i since 1998. Wheeler’s 10 strikeouts included a punchout to Jeff Van Doornum, who reached on a passed ball. Wheeler threw 118 pitches in the complete game effort, and surpassed career highs in both innings pitched and...
Read MoreA Postcard from the Cactus League
So I walk into a bar and grill at the Phoenix airport Sunday afternoon and strike up a conversation with a guy wearing a bright red Orleans Cardinals shirt. This sounds like the opening of a joke, but the guy turns out to be none other than the Orleans skipper, Kelly Nicholson, who had spent some time enjoying spring training with his pitching coach. Kelly could not have been more warm and open to talking Cape League baseball even though it was March and we both had been making the rounds in the Cactus League. He had just left the new Dodger training facility, which is getting rave reviews. I told Kelly I had just left the Arizona at Arizona State Sunday afternoon game, where the Sun Devils were up 16-4 when I left in the 6th inning after ASU’s Jason Kipnis...
Read MoreEarly Look at the ’09 Commodores
My son, an avid fan of the CCBL, has brought to my attention that although Falmouth has not updated their roster page, you can get an early look at the 2009 Commodores by going to: http://www.falcommodores.org/springstats09.htm There are 29 players on the roster, with four of those players listed as temps. The roster includes seven possible returnees. Joey Wong, Kevin Nolan, Brian Fletcher, Rob Segedin, Chad Bettis, Evan Danielli and Nick Tepesch all wore the maroon and black last summer. Hunter Morris was on Falmouth’s preseason roster last year but did not play on the...
Read MoreBarnstable Bat Company on CapeCast
The Barnstable Bat Company in Centerville is one of the Cape League’s top wooden bat suppliers. In this video, CapeCast takes a look at Tom Bednark’s bat making process. To learn more about the Barnstable Bat Company, listen to this 2006 interview by WCAI-FM with Tom Bednark and visit the Barnstable Bat website.
Read MorePitch Counts in the Bigs and the Cape
Big league managers and pitching coaches in the World Baseball Classic, like their colleagues in the Cape League, are learning the pain and the gain of having great pitching talent on their tournament squads but having to answer to coaches for the controlling teams. George Vecsey’s column in today’s New York Times observes that Team USA’s pitching coach has a bunch of MLB pitching coaches on speed dial during the WBC. Those controlling pitching coaches don’t want their precious pitchers overworked — or underworked. All teams in the WBC must limit their starting pitchers to 70 pitches in the first round, and must then hold out those starters for four days with a sliding scale for fewer number of pitches. Little League has also...
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