Opportunity knocks

News about another pitcher is leaking out.  It looks as though the Raps have made their second acquisition from the Intercounty Baseball League in Ontario with the “signing” of Canadian Jason Pilkington.

“Guelph was a way for me to work my way back into an independent contract and that’s hopefully going to get me back into (Major League) affiliated ball,” Pilkington said.

Pilkington came to Guelph after being released from the Edmonton Cracker Cats of the Northern League. He hoped to put up numbers good enough to turn him pro once again.

He went 5-1 with a 3.96 ERA and 49 strikeouts in 52 1/3 innings pitched. In the playoffs, he was 3-2 with 2.59 ERA and 28 strikeouts in 31 1/3 innings of work.

“I was actually expecting to go back to Guelph (this year),” Pilkington said. “But two weeks ago I contacted (CanAm commissioner) Miles Wolff.

“This seems like a perfect fit because they expanded so close to home. It’s always been a dream to pro ball in Ontario.”

Pilkington also played Indy ball with the Winnipeg Goldeyes when Hal Lanier was at the helm in 2005.  One wonders if the bad blood between the two will surface when Sussex and Ottawa match up.

Like Fraser Robinson, Pilkington is a tall (6′6) left handed pitcher -however, Robinson probably came by his left-handed status naturally. Not so for Jason - when he was a kid, his father taped his glove to his right hand to “encourage” him to throw with his left.

A Shawn McCart signing

Quick note … you might remember Shawn McCart, who was the Lynx play-by-play man back in 2006.

Shawn, a native of the Niagara Region, will be back in Ottawa, for one game at least, broadcasting basketball for Streaming Sports Network Canada on Friday when Brock plays at the Canadian university champion at Scotiabank Place. Small world, eh?

Rapids sign a reliever - minor UPDATE

There’s plenty of back story with righty-throwing reliever Greg Bunn, the Rapids’ newest acquisition.

The 25-year-old began his pro career in 2004 with none other than the short-season Class A Vermont Expos — owned by none other than Ray Pecor, the owner of the late and lamented Ottawa Lynx. Bunn also, believe it or not, operated a hot-dog stand — Bunbun’s — during his freshman season at East Carolina in 2002, so his mother could keep up with the bills while his dad recovered from a heart attack.

East Carolina is in Greenville, N.C., in Miles Wolff’s home state, so it’s possible that Bunn has been on Miles’ radar screen since his college days as a good pitcher and character guy (either that, or Miles just really knows how to work the Google on his Internet machine; that reference makes no sense unless you’ve seen that Will Ferrell movie Blades of Glory a dozen times).Bunn had a good career there and gave back to the fans, as evidenced by the open letter he sent to fans after signing with the Expos following, where he regretted not being able to lead the Pirates into the College World Series and that he was going to miss playing his senior season since he’d signed with the Expos.

Bunn’s career stats show he’s averaged more than a strikeout per inning as a reliever last season in the Washington Nationals chain, posting a 4.01 ERA in about 60 innings at Class A. His walk rates have occasionally been high, but he still comes off as a pretty good signing for the team.

The Rapids are wise to build around pitching. Their stadium is not exactly a launching pad for home-run hitters.

*** UPDATE ***

Carl adds: Thanks for posting this Neate.  I spoke to Miles Wolff about this signing yesterday; he heard of Bunn through a mutual acquaintance.  He was impressed with the story from Bunn’s freshman year as he’d not heard it previously.

Updates from Coventry Road

 

Did I mention that I hate winter?

Moving on quickly (i.e. before I start to cry), I checked in with our friends on Coventry Road to see how things were moving along.  By all reports, they’re moving along quite nicely - everyone is excited about May 22 and the entire upcoming season, and they’re hard at work to make it all happen.  The newest Rapids’ staff member is Angela Thompson - Angela takes over as Marketing and Special Events Director.  Some of you may remember Ms. Thompson from her stints here in Ottawa - she was a Marketing and Communications intern in 2001, and worked with the Lynx in the 2002 and 2004 seasons as well.  Angela headed west in 2005 and worked for the Edmonton Cracker Cats of the Northern League as a Promotions and Events Manager.  She rounded out her resume with the Edmonton Oilers where she worked as a Corporate Sales Coordinator for two and a half years.   A “local girl”, Angela’s very happy to be back home and working in baseball again with the Raps.

In other news, the Olympic baseball qualifying tournament began today in Taiwan.  Canada beat Mexico today, opening the tournament with a tight, pitcher’s duel that ended with a 15-10 score (blogger: Yes.  That’s intended as sarcasm.)  If I can locate a box score, I’ll post it.  The tournament is made up of eight teams (Mexico, Canada, South Korea, South Africa, Australia, Britain, Spain and hosts Taiwan) and runs from March 7-14.  The top top three teams earn the right to play in Beijing in August.  China, the United States, Cuba, the Netherlands and Japan have already qualified.

Here’s the sched. for the remainder of the tournament:

– March 7 

   South Africa vs. Korea 12:30 (Taichung) 

   Mexico vs. Canada 12:30 (Douliu) 

   Chinese Taipei vs. Spain 19:00 (Taichung) 

   Germany vs. Australia 18:30 (Douliu) 

   — March 8 

   Canada vs. South Africa 12:30 (Taichung) 

   Mexico vs. Chinese Taipei 12:30 (Douliu) 

   Korea vs. Australia 18:30 (Taichung) 

   Spain vs. Germany 18:30 (Douliu) 

   — March 9 

   Germany vs. Chinese Taipei 12:30 (Taichung) 

   Australia vs. Canada 12:30 (Douliu) 

   South Africa vs. Spain 18:30 (Taichung) 

   Korea vs. Mexico 18:30 (Douliu) 

   — March 10 

   Germany vs. South Africa 12:30 (Taichung) 

   Spain vs. Korea 12:30 (Douliu) 

   Chinese Taipei vs. Canada 18:30 (Taichung) 

   Australia vs. Mexico 18:30 (Douliu) 

   — March 11 Day off 

   — March 12 

   Korea vs. Germany 12:30 (Taichung) 

   Canada vs. Spain 12:30 (Douliu) 

   Mexico vs. South Africa 18:30 (Taichung) 

   Chinese Taipei vs. Australia 18:30 (Douliu) 

   — March 13 

   Australia vs. Spain 12:30 (Taichung) 

   Germany vs. Mexico 12:30 (Douliu) 

   Canada vs. Korea 18:30 (Taichung) 

   South Africa vs. Chinese Taipei 18:30 (Douliu) 

   — March 14 

   Spain vs. Mexico 12:30 (Taichung) 

   South Africa vs. Australia 12:30 (Douliu) 

   Chinese Taipei vs. Korea 18:30 (Taichung) 

   Canada vs. Germany 18:30 (Douliu) 

   Closing ceremony 21:30 (Taichung)

The gathering storm

As depressed as I am about what’s on our doorstep to the south (i.e. another 50 cm. of snow), I’ll try to post up with something tomorrow.   I thought about jumping out the window at the office today, but the snow’s so deep, I probably wouldn’t even have broken anything…

Someday - hopefully during a heat wave in July, I’ll look back on this week and smile.

Is it just me?

Or is anyone else beginning to get concerned that a May 22 start may still not be immune from snow?

Kill me.

Getting there

HT: Pete Toms for picking up on Ottawa’s most recent signing, RHP Matt Varner.  The Raps claimed Varner off waivers from the Lincoln Saltdogs of the Independent American Association.   Looks to be a fairly solid acquisition for Ottawa as Varner went 2-3, with 20 saves - the latter being second only to Jerrod Fuell who racked up 23.  Opponents batting average was a little high at .254, but his 45 appearances tied him for third spot in the entire league.

The 5′11, 27 year old was drafted by St. Louis in 2002.  His MiLB career was spent in the San Diego Padres organization and he got to the high A level in 2006 (with the Lake Elsinore Storm).  Last year in Lincoln was his first year in Indy ball.

Pitching Statistics

Year	Team	Lg	Age	Org	Level		W	L	ERA	G	GS	CG	SH	GF	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO	WP	BK	H9	HR9	BB9	K9	WHIP	GB%
2003	LA Tech	WAC	21		NCAA		3	7	4.83	18	8	0	0		2	59.2	66	47	32	4	30	43	4		9.96	0.60	4.53	6.49	1.61	–
2004	Houston	ConfUSA	22		NCAA		7	4	4.03	19	13	0	0		0	89.1	99	48	40	8	35	69	6		9.97	0.81	3.53	6.95	1.50	–
	Eugene	Nwest	22	Sd	A-		1	2	4.50	10	1	0	0	3	0	16.0	16	10	8	2	9	14	3		9.00	1.13	5.06	7.88	1.56	–
	Fort Wayne	Midw	22	Sd	A		2	2	1.61	19	0	0	0	3	1	22.1	18	6	4	2	7	16	1		7.25	0.81	2.82	6.45	1.12	–
2005	Fort Wayne	Midw	23	Sd	A		4	5	4.00	54	0	0	0		34	54.0	47	24	24	5	18	62	1	0	7.83	0.83	3.00	10.33	1.20	–
2006	Lk Elsin	Calif	24	Sd	A+		1	4	2.13	42	0	0	0	21	6	42.1	51	23	10	3	11	35	0	0	10.84	0.64	2.34	7.44	1.46	–
2007	Lincoln	amer	25		ind		2	3	3.80	45	0	0	0	43	20	45.0	45	21	19	2	15	37	1	0	9.00	0.40	3.00	7.40	1.33	–
Minor League Totals - 4 Season(s)							10	16	3.26	170	1	0	0		61	179.2	177	84	65	14	60	164	6		8.89	0.70	3.01	8.24	1.32	-

Things continue to take shape…