Since my switch from full time music student to communication bum, it has been pretty crazy. I know that Wildcat Baseball is wildly popular among the Cat Fancy audience, so here’s my first article that came out in the CWU Observer yesterday:

As the Jose Vidros and Richie Sexsons of the world sit at home this off-season praying that they will find a job next summer, a new batch of talent will be conditioning this fall. Eager to see what is on the horizon in their young baseball careers, Central will spend the off season preparing for another run at the post season.

This Wild Cat team is definitely one of the youngest head coach Desi Storey has seen in recent years. With nine seniors graduating last year, it is going to take some serious recruiting and some critical performances from returning upper classmen to keep this program competitive.

Probably the most devastating loss to this team is the departure of short stop Jamie Nilsen, who graduated and is now playing in the Kansas City Royals organization. Nilsen, the only player in Great Northwest Athletic Conference history to have over a .400 career batting average, obliterated just about every school record at central.

“We’re not going to replace Jamie; he’s the best player in school history,” Storey said. “Our goal is to have a great core group come in. With the absence of Jamie not only do we have to find a quality shortstop, I think we need to get better in the places that we lost guys.”

Some of those players could be guys like corner infielder Frank Donangelo. Donangelo was in the top five in nearly every offensive statistical category in the 2008 season. He batted .349 with an outstanding OPS (On Base Percentage plus Slugging Percentage) of .972. Donangelo’s season is surely going to be one to keep a close eye on.

When asked what his personal goals are for the season he said what most competitors would say. “Win a championship; I think that’s the goal of every player,” Donangelo said. “Especially now that I’m a senior, it’s kind of what we’re all pushed to do.”

As for the hole at short stop, junior Kevin Walkenhauer seems to be the logical choice. A two time MVP in high school at short stop, Walkenhauer played mostly second base in 2008 due to injuries at the position.

It is, of course, unfair to compare Walkenhauer to Nilsen, but from a team evaluation standpoint, the question must be asked.

“Average wise, Kevin should hit for a high percentage, and he’s got really good power,” Coach Storey said. “Whether or not he can match Jamie’s numbers I don’t know, but Kevin’s going to get his share of home runs too. He’s pretty strong.”

With only a handful of positions solidified on this team, a strong freshman recruiting class is going to be crucial to build not only a winning team in 2009, but for years to come.

Sophomore transfer from Whitworth, Mac Collette commented on the level of competition during the fall workouts so far.

“It’s definitely tough,” Collette said. “There’s a lot of good talent and quite a few good transfers.”

Unfortunately Collette will be sitting out this season with some hamstring issues and is rehabbing for a hopeful return for next year.

There are plenty of reasons to be excited for Wildcat baseball this spring. Most of the pitching staff is back and there is talent throughout the roster. There are still some key positions with holes and it will be interesting to see how the roster looks when it is finalized in January.

I can’t express how excited I am for playoff baseball in words. These series are some of the most interesting match ups in the last twenty years. Baseball is changing. Teams are changing their philosophies on evaluating talent and how to build a baseball team. These play offs have a little old school and a little new school. After a long six months we finally see the product of two separate leagues giving it their all. Here’s my predictions.

National League Divison Series

Philadelphia Phillies Vs. Milwaukee Brewers
This is probably the hardest to predict, but I’m gonna have to go with the Phillies. The Brewers barely got into the post season solely on the back of CC Sabathia who pitched on three days rest three different times. With out their other ace Ben Sheets, they are not really as intimidating in a 7 game series as they would have been.

Los Angeles Dodgers Vs. Chicago Cubs
The Chicago Cubs are the better team. With two absolute studs in Rich Harden and Carlos Zambrano anchoring their staff, they are the clearly better than the Dodgers who came out of a weak National League West. But we must remember, this is the Cubs. They have recorded unfathomable collapses year after year, and haven’t won for a century. Anything can happen in this series.

American League Division Series

Chicago White Sox Vs. Tampa Bay Rays
The Tampa Bay Rays have overcome too much adversity to fall apart now. They have won at home, on the road, and without some of their key contributors. They just find a way to get it done. They play great defense, have great pitching, and they hit the ball over the fence. As much as I want Jr. to win, I can’t help but feeling what a waste all this would be if Tampa’s dream season were to end here.

Boston Red Sox Vs. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
I hate the Angels. I also have a great resentment of the Red Sox, but they are the lesser of the two evils in my opinion. I think very highly of general manager Theo Epstien, and think the Red Sox are not really a wild card team. They’ve been here before, they know how to win, and it will be proven once again that the Angels can’t get it done in October.

So with Tampa and Boston advancing in the AL and Chicago and Philidelphia advancing in the NL, here are my Championship series predictions.

National Leauge Championship Series

Chicago Cubs Vs. Philidelphia Phillies
This is a really tough one. Philidelphia has some great key role players as well as a solid pitching staff. Also you have two of the most experienced managers in the game with Sweet Lou and Charlie Manuel. I’m gonna have to get on the Lou bandwagon and pick the Cubs because they are the best in the National League, and you can’t mess with that pitching staff.

American League Championship Series

Boston Red Sox Vs. Tampa Bay Rays
Tampa Bay won the American League East. Tampa Bay proved to those national media bimbos time and time again that they are for real by beating the Red Sox in key situations. Home, Away, it didn’t matter. This young team knows how to play and more importantly they know how to win.

World Series

Tampa Bay Rays Vs. Chicago Cubs
The National League sucks. It is weaker in every aspect. This Tampa Bay pitching staff including James Shields, Scott Kazmir, and Edwin Jackson will eat apart this Cub lineup and the offense will hit their share of bombs. I give your World Champion Tampa Bay Rays.

For anyone who missed it, Brandon Morrow made his Major League debut as a starting pitcher tonight. It was a long time coming. And I mean from the instant they drafted him long time. Two years ago Morrow was drafted fifth overall by the Mariners out of the University of California Berkley as a starting pitcher. After only 16 innings in the minors, he was rushed to the big league club out of spring training because of his electric fastball. The blogosphere, the papers, and the organization were all mass debating whether this was the right thing to do, as they watched Bellevue native and UW alum Tim Lincecum light up the National League. Lincecum was drafted 10th overallby the San Francisco Giants and people were outraged when the M’s passed up on him. This year he is 15-3 with a 2.60 ERA and leads the league in strike outs. I think daily about what it could have been like to have a Felix/Lincecum 1-2 punch. But never again will those thoughts enter my mind.

Tonight no one expected this. No one expected Morrow to get past 5 innings. I personally saw 3 or 4, with several runs given up. But he was lights out. There was so many things about his game he needed to adjust to become a successful starting pitcher and he nailed every single one of them. His fastball was consistantly in the mid 90’s. Hes curveball had such a nasty break it left hitters devastated and looking down right foolish. The mix of his pitches, the abilty to keep hitters off balance, and the ability to not allow the other team even a single hit through 7+ innings. And this was not some watered down Kansas City AAA lineup. This was the New York Yankees. A-Rod went 0-3. Jeter went 0-3. Hell, everyone went ofer until he finally ran out of gas late in the 8th inning. He gave up a pinch hit to some guy I had never heard of and Riggleman took him out as he had already exceeded his 90 pitch limit by sixteen. All of Safeco Field had never been so relieved, yet so disapointed, yet so extatic for the future of baseball in the emerald city.