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WhiteWings Rained Out Again, But GM Sees Sunshine Ahead

July 7, 2008 - United League Baseball (ULB)
Rio Grande Valley WhiteWings News Release


Harlingen, TX - Due to heavy rainfall over the last three days and continuing showers today, the Harlingen WhiteWings' doubleheader against the San Angelo Colts scheduled for tonight at Harlingen Field has been postponed. One of the games will be made up as part of a doubleheader consisting of two seven-inning games on Tuesday starting at 6:05 p.m. Gates will open at 5:05.

The other game will be made up at some point in the future, though a date has not been set. The WhiteWings will host the Colts for three games from August 12th-14th. Both teams have August 11th off. The WhiteWings also have two trips to San Angelo remaining, July 24th-26th and August 5th-7th.

All tickets to tonight's games can be exchanged for tickets to any other upcoming WhiteWings game. This can be done at the WhiteWings box office, located at Harlingen Field.

This is the WhiteWings' third rainout in the last five days. The WhiteWings were rained out on Thursday in Laredo as well, forcing them to play their first doubleheader of the season on Saturday. The WhiteWings were also rained out last night.

The Colts have now been rained out four nights in a row. They were scheduled to play in Edinburg on Friday and Saturday.

Despite all the rain, WhiteWings General Manager Dave Kost is optimistic that blue skies are head for the team on the field, despite a 16-35 start.

"[Field Manager] Caleb [Balbuena] and I have sat down for several hours behind closed doors, talking about where we're at, where we need to be, and what has to get done to get to where we need to be. When you're trying to become successful, that includes making difficult decisions. We're in a situation where our salary cap, to this point, has been utilized very poorly. [Balbuena] inherited a salary cap that was being misused on position players, with 33% of it being spent on five outfielders. That directly relates to the poor pitching performances we've been getting. Winning baseball games is about pitching and defense. Something we've seen over the last week is that, even though we've lost five-in-a-row, is that we've had a chance to win each game. With the changes that are coming, hopefully we can be on the other end of those.

"I've been very encouraged by the amount of time [Babluena] is putting into it, talking to everybody, trying to find pitching. He's got some of those holes taken care of with moves that will be coming soon. It's a business. It's nothing personal. If you were running a mill, and you had four guys that just weren't producing what they need to be doing on their job, you would make a change as well, to increase productivity.

"[Bringing in catcher Matt] Kramer helps, because while Kevin Griffin has done a great job, you can't catch 35-straight days and it expect it not to take a toll on you, physically and mentally.

"[Bringing in third baseman Joel] Gonzalez helps because Ryan Fox is best suited to be out in the outfield. He certainly becomes one of the best right fielders in the league, if not the best right fielder, due to his arm strength.

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