Yuma Scorpions

[oregon_william]

We're up north now, but I'd like to know any Yuma fans feelings on the Scorpions season to date. We saw a couple of the winter games and that new manager seems solid. The team has a good record now, but they had a lot of home games. Will be interesting to see how they bear up on the road. Does anyone know anything about the coaching experience with this new coach? Pretty good? Relates well to the players? Any players that have off the field problems? Will the winter league be back? Wouldn't mind seeing a few more of those games.

[written word]

The Yuma team is stacked. At the plate they have six guys in the lineup with the power to hit it out of Desert Sun at any time. They have defied the odds in 2-out situations and have scored the vast majority of their league-leading total runs in those situations. Still tough to get a bead on their staff because of the ample run support. Merricks has good zip on the fast ball and Langlois is a solid No. 2. They released returner Brian Bunyan over the weekend and activated Roger Luque. He cruised through 3+ in his return.

Marshall is a great guy and has unified a team that returned only one position player from 2006. The only thing that keeps them out of the GBL championship game is MLB Scouts.

The Winter League is in the works for 2008 but the league is talking about pushing the start back a week to avoid another FREAK January cold snap.

[GBLCommish]

The Written Word is correct on both counts: Yuma is stacked this summer, and the Arizona Winter League will return a bit later next January.

The Scorpions are off to the fastest start in GBL history and are doing it with an offense that is in a zone -- power, average, and clutch hitting -- and a strong bullpen to go along with the starters the WW mentioned (plus one he didn't - Steve Soja who has been dominant in his first two starts). Amad Stephens (All-Star Closer in the Northern League last year), Aaron Thorne (fireballing 20-year old Aussie), Marco Solis (Panama National Team), and rookie lefty Neil Hayes are all unscored upon out of the bullpen with a combined record of 3-0 with a pair of saves in 12 appearances. And the MLB scouts are circling as the Yankees, Devil Rays, Cubs, and Phillies have all made contact.

As for the AWL, next year's league will begin on Monday, January 28th and run through Saturday, March 1st. Fifty AWL players from this season secured contracts to go to spring training with pro teams, two with Major League teams -- Kennard Jones with the Orioles and Michael Thompson with the Kansas City Royals (Thompson was just named to the Midwest League All-Star team). Many AWL players are having outstanding starts in the GBL including, to name a few, OF Aaron Davis with the Orange County Flyers, OF Greg Burrows with the St. George Roadrunners, DH Geoff Wagner with the St. George Roadrunners, RHP Shannon Sprouse with the St. George Roadrunners, C David Ramirez with the Long Beach Armada, SS Jordan Devoir and OF JJ Sherrill with the Reno Silver Sox, and of course INF Ryan Gipson and RHP Chris Langlois with the Yuma Scorpions.

Best Regards,
Kevin Outcalt
Commissioner
Golden Baseball League
commish@goldenbaseball.com
925-226-2896