Five Reasons to be Excited About Rascals

April 23, 2014 - Frontier League (FL) River City Rascals After key additions and fundamental improvements across-the-board, River City looks to reach the Frontier League Championship once again this summer. When you look at the comprehensive picture surrounding Steve Brook's Rascals, the future looks brighter, in my opinion, than any other team in the league. In my mind there are five main reasons why I think the city should be ecstatic about the Rascals' prospects this coming season.

Reason 1: Fifth-year head coach Steve Brook enters the season with an overall record of 220-161 at the helm in River City. Since Brook took over in 2010, the Rascals have won more games than any other West Division team in the Frontier League. Their 220 wins also ranks third overall in the league behind only Southern Illinois (227) and Traverse City (225). Since the Rascals won their first Frontier League Championship in team history in 2010, they have sported a dominant winning percentage of .577%.

Not only has excellence become a tradition in River City, but also manager Steve Brook seems to generally breed a certain type of ballplayer who is always ready to fight for his city and team on the field. "I'm extremely proud of what our ball club has been able to accomplish in recent years. With that being said, a Frontier League Championship is something that our players and staff are constantly striving for. 11 of our players have signed with MLB affiliated teams since 2010. We've also had severalguys play winter ball in Australia, Mexico, and even Japan.Winning is important, but helping our players advance their professional careers will always remain one of our top goals," Brook replied when asked about the Rascals' success since 2010.

Reason 2:Brook returns 18 players from last year, including infielder Kyle Jones who spent the season on the disabled list. The returning outfielders include Williams, Crawford, and Redal while the returning infielders include Morales, Jones, Borman, and Carrillo. Among the returning Rascals is the second best closer in the Frontier League last season, Gabriel Shaw, and the incredibly efficient bullpen, which includes Jon Levin, Patrick Crider, Andy Urban, Kyle Owings, and Chandler Jagodzinski. In addition to the solid relief pitching staff, Brook returns all five Rascals starting pitchers, namely Corey Caruso, Ray Hanson, Tommy Mendoza, Craig Goodman, and Nick Kennedy. As a result of so many returning Rascals, Brook will have a fairly familiar locker-room heading into Spring Training. Brook knows the benefits of having guys who are used to playing together, and elaborated on this luxury, "we have18 returning players as of today.These guys are hungry to win a ring.We knew how close we were at the end of the 2013 season after a remarkable run in the second half.These guys didn't want the season to end and have been frothing at the mouth for another chance since September."

Reason 3: Apart from the large crew of returning Rascals, Brook and his coaching staff have brought in a plethora of new talent as well including former Frontier League All-Star and dominant Cornbelter's staff ace Tyler Lavigne. Along with Lavigne, the Rascals brought in relief pitcher Kyle Brady from the Frontier Greys and signed Ethan Carter and Tommy Organ out of the collegiate system. Other newcomers to the River City pitching staff include Corey Rhoney from the Royals organization and Eric Cendejas, the newest acquisition by manager Steve Brook, from the Angels organization.

The already incredibly deep pitching staff has therefore been strengthened further with the few key acquisitions this off-season, yet the hitters added to the team will definitely contribute their own part to this 2014 Rascals ballclub.

Both River City catchers, Saxon Butler (Yankees) and Josh Ludy (Phillies), join the team after stints in affiliated baseball, much like the 3B Taylor Ard (Mariners), IF Shane Brown (Yankees), and IF Hector Crespo (Yankees). The new conglomeration of infield talent further supports the strong foundation of returning position-players.

While Brook brought in a host of veteran talent to bolster the roster, he also took a few chances this off-season by bringing in 5 collegiate players, all with Rookie-1 or Rookie-2 Frontier League classifications. These young guns include infielders Corey Davis (Lee University), Mike Felton (Campbell University), Karsten Strieby (Lee University), and outfielders Daniel Aldrich (College of Charleston) and Brian Hansen (St. Cloud State University).

When asked about the newcomer Rascals, Brook describes the atmosphere he expects entering Spring Training this season, "With 16 new additions as of today, we have a lot of options in a lot of different areas. Our spring training is most likely going to be the most competitive I've seen in many years. My staff and I will evaluate each player and begin our 2014 campaign with the right group - focusing on playing the game the way it should be played."

Reason 4: Taking a closer look at Steve Brook's roster additions reveals an encouraging pattern of success. Among the 16 new players, 3 have had experience at the AA/AAA level of affiliated baseball (Butler, Brown, and Cendejas). As far as pitching goes, the Rascals have added 670 strikeouts and 45 career wins at the professional level. The experience becomes intangible, as the new hurlers will be able to serve a dual purpose for Brook by both producing on the field and mentoring the younger players on the side.

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Five Reasons to be Excited About Rascals