Are Biscuits Lucky or Good?

Are the Biscuits a great team with rotten luck or an average team with great luck? Would you rather be lucky or good?

Its hard to know which is which sometimes as ability and fortune mingle on the field.

But consider that the Biscuits avoided a sweep at the hands of the Lookouts by one game, involving the aid of a ball that hit the second base bag, a pitcher dropping the ball on the mound for a balk and a soft liner that fell in fair territory just inches from the chalk. Whatever it was, Biscuit fans will take it!

The team itself is a very good squad, more apt to win than lose on any particular day. However they face a high roster turnover rate this summer and have three quarters of a new infield.

New men Cronenworth, Lowe and Kelly have all appeared in recent weeks, giving the Biscuits a new look for the second half of the season.

The reinforcements have arrived, now Montgomery will try to nurse a slim lead through the last month of the season to earn a postseason rematch against the Lookouts.



ROSTER MOVES
Man, who can keep up?
We have between twenty and thirty guys. If someone you are looking for isn't there, he has likely been promoted to Durham. Or on rehab in Tampa. Either way, he will probably be back. Unless he's been traded.


KAYS BACK
Grant Kay is back from Durham. When his number got issued to someone else we thought it meant Kay was gone for good, but not so fast. I guess the clubbie had to get out his sewing kit again!


Justin O'Conner found a way to avoid the Southern League suspension he got for arguing with an umpire and its resulting ejection. He simply took a promotion to the Durham Bulls!

Its a great thing for O'Conner, who has gotten himself back into form after a rough 2016 campaign. He remains the Biscuits all time leader in catcher arm rating with an 80/80 rank.

NEW GUYS
2B Brandon Lowe and catcher Brett Sullivan each have more homers than the Biscuits team leader. They both had .300+ batting averages for the Stone Crabs.


Jake Cronenworth takes over as the starting shortstop and leadoff man. Batting .268 for the Crabs at the time of his promotion, he also had a dozen stolen bases. He uses good speed to earn doubles and has nice range afield.



EX BISCUITS ON THE MOVE
Former Skitz, catcher Mike Marjama and reliever Ryan Garton, were shipped to Seattle by the Rays. Their departure means a current Biscuit could be on the move to Durham.

On the same day, the Mariners dealt former Biscuit Boog Powell in order to make room for Garton on their 40 man roster.

A GAME OF NUMBERS

Justin Williams 23 RBI over the last thirty days leads the Rays organization. His walk rate is also up from last year and is much higher than his career mark, showing improvement in patience and strike zone knowledge. J-Dubs .346 BABIP is also pretty smackin and lets us know he is making good contact when he does choose a pitch to hit.


The Rays are currently 26th in affiliate home runs. Rays minor leaguers have combined to go yard just 354 times this year.


The Biscuits have stranded a whopping amount of baserunners so far this year, only the Smokies have left more men on base.

In spite of the stranded runners, the Biscuits run differential is 40, good for third in the league. Montgomery simply scores more runs than most of the other teams in the league.

Ian Gibaut picked up his seventh save on Sunday. Gibaut has emerged as a solid option out of the pen for Brady Williams late in games when closer Kyle Winkler needs a rest.


HARD WORKERS
The Biscuits pitchers have been made to work hard this year, posting an average of 16.8 pitches per inning. Only three teams in all of affiliated baseball have a higher average number of tosses per inning, and even they are a mere 0.1 higher.

The Biscuits are among the top twenty MiLB teams in total number of pitches, only two other Double-A teams reside there, the rest are triple-A clubs.

WHITE SALE
The annual charity jersey auction is expected to be featuring the home white uni tops. Always the most popular of the jerseys since they include player names, the jersey auction is an odd showdown that features the usual folks trying to take home the game used uniform of their favorite player.


#BullpenLife

THIS WEEK IN MONTGOMERY BASEBALL

AUGUST 7, 1969 
Pitcher Lerrin H. LaGrew of the Montgomery Rebels had 5 wild pitches v the Birmingham A's.

AUGUST 7, 1972 
Pitcher Danny W. Fife of the Montgomery Rebels gave up 5 intentional walks.




AUGUST 8 1906 
Southern league Umpire Frank Rudderham is convicted by jury in Montgomery County Court of using abusive language and fined $50 for cursing at a spectator on May 30th at the Montgomery Ball Park.


AUGUST 8 1973 
Rebels pitcher Dave Lemanczyk no hits Ashville 3-0

AUGUST 9 1920 
Montgomery, AL
"Grey Sox Open With New Orleans and Win - Black Pelicans Trounced 6 to 3 Yesterday; Moss Hulred Air tight Ball for Locals -

Grey Sox team photo

Grey Sox pitcher Jim Moss

By hitting the lil pill to all parts of the lot and playing tight on ball behind Moss, the Grey Sox broke their losing streak yesterday afternoon, and won the first game from New Orleans, 6 to 3. The honors of the playing go to Red Cunningham, McCormick, and Carpenter, whose heavy hitting was largely responsible for the locals six scores.

New Orleans started the scoring of the game with two in the second and one more in the fourth but after this frame Moss tightened and held them scoreless for the remainder of the game.

The Grey Sox scored five runs in the sixth inning when Carpenter slammed out a three bagger, with three men on bases and Red Cunningham hit for two bases with two men out another score was added in the seventh frame when Scales walked and scored on McCormick's three bagger.

Grey Sox OF George Scales

In spite of the fact that the Grey Sox lost four straight games in the last series, they are still leading the league by a safe margin as the strong Knoxville team, which is second in the standing, was going to Nashville, while the Grey Sox were long to the Black Crackers. Out of a four game series played with Nashville, the strong Knoxville Giants were able to witness another game which gives the Grey Sox practically the same lead that they held before the series with Atlanta.

The Grey Sox showed up in old time form Monday afternoon and it looked as though they were trying to take out their Atlanta, grudge on the New Orleans team. Every player on the team played a good game and did good work with the stick, and the team showed the old time pep and enthusiasm that was lacking in the Atlanta series."