Biscuits Search for Wild Card

After dropping a crucial series against Chattanooga, the Biscuits are now chasing the Lookouts instead of the other way around.

Down one game in the "wild card" standings, the two games the Skitz dropped at the end of the first half loom even larger now. Sure, the team was tired and beaten up, depressed from being shut out of the first half crown - but falling to third place in June has created a huge obstacle for Bradys Boys at the close of August.


No longer do the Biscuits own their destiny, becoming reliant on other clubs to force losses on the Lookouts. However the schedule favors Montgomery, the Noogas have to close the season with five games against the Generals.

This team has much going for it but will have to play some fine baseball if they want to taste playoff champagne.

Either that or turn to other dark forces.

NEXT ON TAP
Next on the dance card is a grudge match against long-time rival Birmingham.

The Barons bring good prospects to the lineup but have yet to get the results one might expect. The Brummies are the league doormat, bringing their seven game losing streak to Riverwalk.

Barons play better on the road than at home, but are have just one win over the last two series. Montgomery hopes to make hay in the standings against Bham over the next five games.

Bham sports a P-rating of 109, a mix of prospects highlighted by WhiteSox #3 prospect pitcher Spencer Adams. A few prospects have graduated from this team since they were here last but have been replaced by quality guys. Trey Michalczewski, ranked #7, #10 Jordan Guerrero return for another series at Riverwalk. 
LHP Brian Clark and Courtney Hawkins pepper the list of top 3o prospects on the Bham squad.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR

Look for two bags. The Barons like to shop at the gap, picking up more two base hits than anyone in the league. Well, anyone except the Biscuits!

Kean Wong

Kean Wong has worked hard to improve his average and now is looking like the hottest hitter in the Rays system. He has been batting at .333 clip over the last month.


Look for the Barons to struggle on the hill. Slagtown tossers hold the leagues highest ERA, allow the most hits, the most baserunners per inning and the fewest bullpen Holds.


Hitters on both sides should look for a free pass, as the Barons and Biscuits moundsmen offer plenty of them. Only MsBraves hurlers walk more batters.

Look for Courtney Hawkins to try to hit a train, again. He made SportsCenter last summer when a high fly ball over the left field wall hit a passing train.

OF Justin Williams

Look for Justin Williams to keep driving in runs. JW's 22 runs batted in over the last thirty days are second among all TB players, tied with Longoria.

3B Pat Leonard

Look for Cade Gotta to bat lower in the batting order after three games hitting second during the series in Nooga. Gotta has just three hits in 29 at bats out of the two spot, but clubs a .336 average when batting 7th and 8th.

Patrick Leonard looks for lefties, hes crushing southpaw pitching at a massive .545 clip!

Look for Chase Whitley, assigned to the Biscuits after completing his rehab. He will join the starting rotation, sending Yonny Chirinos to the bullpen. The Troy pitcher has been excellent while wearing the Biscuits livery.

ADAMES RUNS TOP CIRCUIT

I hesitantly point out that Willy Adames leads the league in Runs Scored.

I say hesitant because a couple weeks ago I mentioned Chris Kirsch had snuck into the top five in the SL in strikeouts. Then Kirsch went without a single punchout in his next start.

With just two K's against the Lookouts, Kirsch dropped one spot to sixth place in the SL.
Now Chih-Wei Hu has moved into the team lead in strikeouts.

"You jinxed me!" Chris told me.

So is it a bad time to bring up that at 3.54 the Lackawanna Lefty is now in the top ten in ERA? Go get em, killer!

CHARITIES AUCTION

Can't snipe my Mahtook!

The annual charities jersey auction is Friday, soon the uni tops are available for online bidding.

Its always more lively when the home jerseys are up for bids, with the players names on the back. Fans love it, though it can be ruthless at the end. Grandmas and girlfriends have no qualms raising bids or trying to snipe at the last second!

POOR MORTY
What the heck is Mortensen to do?

He was an AllStar last year. A fine starter who had success in spite of getting bounced to the bullpen here and there.

This spring he shows up to camp and the Rays are teaching the knuckleball. Morty says he can do better and then does so, showing the best flutterball in the Tampa organization.

Its like when your parents like your girlfriend WAY better than you do. Sure shes okay, but not a life partner even though your folks are setting up long term plans for the two of you.

The Rays loved Mortys knuckler, maybe more than Morty loves it. But how can he break up with it now?

No help from the umps either

They want him to throw it all the time. But his numbers stink and he sits in the bullpen for six or eight days at a time. Less time throwing the knuckler makes it that much tougher to learn to deploy it properly, hurting his development.

He could discard the knuckler and pitch for better numbers to save his season stats, but thats not what the Rays want so he would be hurting his career by changing his pitch selection.

And it is a great pitch. Good knuckleballs are hard to hit, great knuckleballs are almost impossible to hit OR catch!

It doesn't help that he his regular receiver Mike Marjama was lost a quad strain. Morty lost the only guy who had any success knocking down the butterfly action of his special delivery. DePew and Araiza simply don't have as much experience with Mortys knuckler as Marj did.

Its a tough situation for a guy who has a major league quality knuckleball but cant throw it often enough to master the pitch because he has terrible stats to find places to match him up in game action. Tough situation, but noone is better equipped to handle the problem than Jared Mortensen. He has always struck me as smart enough to work his way through most any adversity.

Q Returns

That game was just....

Fortunately there weren't that many fans there to see it, being a Monday night. Surely, the rest of us wanted to turn away but just couldn't manage to.



THAT HORNY TRAIN
Between the top and bottom of the first inning, a train horn sounded in the distance. It kept sounding its horn as it passed the ballpark.

One. Long. Blast.

For just under THREE AND A HALF MINUTES that horn blared as the train neared and then passed the field just behind the outfield wall, eventually making it impossible to hear anything in a dramatic example of the Doppler Effect.

It was easily the longest and loudest, most game-interrupting-est train in Riverwalk history.



BISCUIT BUS
After Tuesdays day off, the final off-day of the regular season, Brady's Boys board the Biscuit bus and head to Chattanooga to face the team chasing them in the standings.

Montgomery is two games ahead of the Lookouts and unless the Biscuits win the division the Skitz need to stay two games up on them to make the postseason.

It is almost a must-win series, as a loss of three games would likely vault the Lookouts into second place and give them the better chance of making the playoffs. Montgomery would face an uphill climb to make up those games, though it wouldn't mean elimination.

Q RETURNS

There was a Querecuto sighting on Monday, the return of the hard hitting utility man means another roster move is coming. Q's last game appearance was on the 11th against Pawtucket as a member of the Bulls. When the Rays optioned Richie Shaffer back to Durham, Juniel Querecuto lost his gig.

Adames

Could it mean a promotion for Willy Adames? With career highs in many categories the young prospect could be ready to move up. The addition of shortstop Alec Sole could lend to that conclusion as well.

Also a possibility is that Patrick Leonard could be headed back to triple-A. After his return from Durham the third baseman has been a consistent player both at the plate and afield. Querecuto could fill at third easily, though losing Leonards bat would be a blow to the lineup.

Rapacz and Justin Williams

Also possible is a roster shuffle including Pat Blair, as Querecuto is technically coming from Hudson Valley. Hudson Valley is where players of all levels seem to reside on the roster in name only. Last time I looked they had six catchers active on the Renegades roster, including Biscuits bullpen catcher Josh Rapacz.



JACKSON GENERALS WATCH
The attendance for Monday night game in Jackson was generously listed as 894.

The Gens fell to the Shuckers 8-3, the Skitz trail them by two and a half games with exactly twenty left to play.

In the final twenty contests, the Generals and the Lookouts face off ten times.

Stay tuned, Biscuit fans, the best part is coming up!

The Songs of The Biscuits

The Skitz have locked up with the BayBears for a weekend series, Montgomery taking the first three before dropping Sundays contest. Not sure why, but it seems that the Biscuits often take the first three games of a series. I havent looked it up, it just seems a regular thing for them. Game five is Monday!

Granden Goetzman

Not for lack of trying, the good guys made a valiant effort but ran short of outs before pushing a tying run across the dish. These Biscuits just don't quit, scoring five runs in the 8th inning and threatening in the 9th fits their Never Say Die attitude.

BRAXTON'S BOOGIE SHOES
Of course when you hear Boogie Shoes you know Braxton Lee is coming to bat.

Braxton Lee and his shoes

Some fans say its the best walkup they have heard, between that and my appreciation of Brent Honeywells use of Black Sabbath's Iron Man, it got me thinking about the tunes the guys use this year.

I have heard some great and some not so great songs used over the years, usually there are a few new ones that I enjoy learning. So I asked around a little and was given a short list of walkup music used by the Biscuits!

THE SONGS OF THE BISCUITS

Armando Araiza has Buena Vision

Armando Araiza has a great sound, Ariel Camacho y Los Plebas del Rancho playing Buena Vision.

When Patrick Leonard comes to the plate, he hears Working For It by Zhu+Skrillex.

Ain't No Mountain for Goetz

Outfielder Granden Goetzman made sure he had Ain't No Mountain High, a classic that gets everyone singing - even in the Biscuits dugout!


New Right Fielder Justin Williams intro song is Ocean by JayZ ft. Frank Ocean.

Willy Adames brings Andas En Mi Cabeza, by Chino y Nacho ft Daddy Yankee. Always love hearing Daddy Yankee at the park!

Pitchers get intro music too, Taylor Guerrieri warms to Maggie May by Rod Stewart, another classic old school music lover.

Kean digs heavy reggae

Kean Wong has a dynamic walkup with Come Around by Collie Buddz, one of my fave walkups of this season.

 
Tommy Coyle takes his warmup cuts to the strains of Kanye Wests Stretch My Hands pt1.

Pat Blair's walkup is Flower by Moby.

Kyle Bird enters the game to Whistling Dixie by Randy Houser, rockin country style.

When Cade Gotta strides to the plate the song is Blood clot by Tribal Seeds, a sweet reggae jam.

TEAM NOTES
Chase Whitley had his rehab moved, so we don't get to enjoy seeing him tossing any more Biscuits games. On the good side it stabilizes the rotation and when he was here it gave the bullpen a nice break.

The Biscuits roster may have settled a little, hopefully we are mostly set for the final weeks.

Brent Honeywell gets a pregame hug from Willy Adames

While there are certainly players deserving of promotions, one would expect even they would like to finish the job and win as a team.

 

UMP ON THE MEND
Umpire Ryan Doherty has been sporting a cast on his left arm after taking a foul ball earlier in the series. Gamer.

PLAYOFF PICTURE MURKY
If the Biscuits win the second half North Division championship, things are so much simpler.
The Jackson Generals have already won the first half, and they also lead the division here in the second half.

If they should hold that lead and Montgomery finishes second, the Biscuits would need to have a two game lead over Chattanooga in order to make the playoffs.

If Montgomery does have that two game lead, the Biscuits would travel to Jackson Tn for the first two games of the playoffs first round, then head home to Montgomery for game three.

However, IF a game four and/or five is necessary, league rules say the two teams would have to travel BACK to Jackson TN since the Generals are the first and second half champs.

But!
The Generals aren't any happier about that extra travel than the Biscuits are. In fact, the Jackson Gens aren't too thrilled to host any playoff games. Attendance in Jackson is so bad that the last time they made the playoffs they opened the gates for free. Literally, free playoff baseball for anyone who shows up.

The word is that the Generals are willing to give up the rights to host games four and five.


All those scenarios are of course, dependent on the Biscuits holding off Chattanooga's Lookouts and falling short of the Generals in the second half.

Biscuits Rock On vs BayBears

After a refreshing trip to face the Smokies, the Biscuits headed home to take on the Mobile Baybears and enjoy a dose of classic rock.

In the first match the Skitz sent in a TommyJuan attack, rehabber Chase Whitley and Taylor Guerrieri combined on a gem.

Whitley is all smiles after his performance

Chase Whitley made the start, he should make at least one more appearance for Montgomery but his performance on Thursday was impressive.

Allowing just one run on one hit with a mistake pitch knocked for a homer, Whitley then gave them nothing but short walks back to the dugout. Efficient with his pitches, he made just over 60 offerings and used them to strike out four men in five innings while walking just two.


Taylor Guerrieri came on in relief and was just as stingy in allowing one hit and two walks, stranding the baserunners and allowing none to score. It was Taylor G's first career save, four innings of oldschool relief pitching in the style Eck and Lee Smith used to craft so well.

Guerrieri in bullpen with catcher Josh Rapacz

Alec Sole, pronounced So-lay

The run support began in the third inning, Montgomery scoring a pair and then in the fourth chasing the Shippers starting pitcher with five more tallies. The Mobile bullpen was mortal, three relievers combined to give up six runs.

New Biscuits infielder Alec Sole shined in his debut, two hits including a studly homerun and making some nice plays at shortstop.

The Baybears are trying to stay in the South Division playoff race, but their bench looked pretty glum when the Biscuits opened up a ten run lead.

When the dust settled on Classic Rock Night, the Skitz had a dozen runs and handed Mobile the L to open the series.



Friday
 Eat A Palooza.
Chih-Wei Hu v Billy Buckner.

Saturday
Honeywell v Cole Johnson

Sunday
Kirsch v Taylor Clarke

Monday
Chirinos v Vincente Campos

WHAT TO LOOK FOR

 

Mobile is hovering around .500 on the year but have been playing much better in the second half. At least, until they lost five straight to drop five games bedhind the Braves. So now the BayBears are looking for any way to get a W they can find.

SP Chris Kirsch

Be sure to look for Justin Williams smiley face wristbands.

Can we look for Hunter Wood out of the bullpen? With Chirinos the announced starter and likely staying in the rotation, Wood may be a strong weapon out of the bullpen.

Look for Mobile to put the ball in play, they don't strike out or walk much.

Look for home runs, the BayBears and Biscuits are the top two teams in the Southern League for circuit clouts.

Chris Kirsch has been looking for the strikeout, sneaking into the top five in the league.

Biscuit pitchers will look to keep Mobile 1b Kevin Cron in the park, the Shippers first sacker is third in the league in homers.

#BullpenLife