Squirrels Week 5 Review

Squirrels Flounder Late--Settle for another tie

In a complete reversal from last week, the Flying Squirrels led on Wednesday 9-1...only to watch the Carolina Yankees battle back to tie the match up for the week. As projected and expected, the Squirrels dominated the pitching side and faltered on the offensive side.

The pitching staff was incredibly strong this week with one key exception. The struggles of Josh Beckett continue and with the DL issues already facing the staff, he has got to get his act together or the team will begin to see the losses pile up. In a bittersweet positive, Tim Lincecum could have put up two wins this week and given the Squirrels an outright victory, however the Giants bullpen managed to blow the lead he supplied them with in both games.

On the offensive side of the ball, the Squirrels hung with the Yankees in all categories except avg, and managed to take the RBI and runs categories. Mark Teixeira finally snapped out of his power outage and contributed solidly in four categories. This trend must continue if the Squirrels plan to contend. Unfortunately, four starters had averages under .200 for the week and didn't manage to produce in any of the categories.

Flying High

Brandon Phillips- (8-25) .320, 6R, 2HR, 2RBI, 1SB, 1BB
Phillips finally showed up this week and contributed some--not a lot--to many categories.

Tim Lincecum- 13IP, 0W, 21K, 3.46ERA, 1.15WHIP
Lincecum was on the crap end of the Giants bullpen..2 wins and a match up win down the drain...but Lincecum continued his dominance and now has a 61 K's in 48 1/3IP.


Squirrel Turds


John Baker- (1-16), .063, 1R, 1BB
He's on the wire if you want this waste of space. You bring shame to Keith and Larry.


Josh Beckett- 5.1IP, 9H, 3BB, 9ER, 8K
I don't even know what to put here. For the love of God...please quit sucking so damned badly.


Week 6 outlook

The Squirrels come into this week a little more banged up, but hopefully a little stronger. A mid-week trade saw Jim Thome come to the Squirrels and hopefully some much needed power. This week also saw another starting pitcher fall, as Justin Duchscherer joined fellow A's stud Brett Anderson on the DL. As a result, the Squirrels are going with a four man rotation and hoping the freshly healthy bullpen can claim a couple of categories. Brad Lidge has looked strong since he re-assumed the closers' role in Philly and Brian Fuentes has been average enough to reel in some stats without hurting the bottom line. I think the Squirrels offense stacks up with that of Julian and the pitching should remain strong, despite the injuries to the A's. Prediction: Squirrels 8-4