MLBiscuits Jersey Auction, Skitz Announcer Way Off Base

MLB BISCUITS
JERSEY AUCTION

Many former Biscuits players jerseys were made available from the Players Weekend uniform auction. Bidding ran thru September 20th and a few until the 24th, its cool to see what the former Skitz chose for their nameplates. Also, that there are so many former Biscuits in the bigs!

Dylan Floro
Mikie Mahtook
Wade Davis
Curt Casali
David Price
Kirby Yates
Matt Moore
Alex Colome
Kevin Kiermaier
Jake Bauers
Jose Alvarado
Brandon Lowe
Yonny Chirinos
Diego Castillo
Hunter Wood
Adam Kolarek
Willy Adames
Ryne Stanek




MEAGER NEWS AND NOTES

Scott Trible

Longtime Biscuits General Manager Scott Trible has announced he is leaving the team and moving to pursue other ventures. Trible has been a friendly and easily accessible front office guy, guiding the business end since taking over for Marla Vickers back in like, 2007 or so. Best of luck to him in his future endeavors. Biscuits COO Brendan Porter will be at the helm and should be a fine steward for the Montgomery club going forward under the new ownership.


Infielder Tristan Gray, who got his first taste of double-A in the playoffs, will be playing in Australia this offseason with the Brisbane Bandits of the ABL. Gray will likely be back with the Biscuits next spring.




GARY REDUS IN COOPERSTOWN
Gary Redus set the all-time single season batting average record with .462 in his first pro season with Billings. One of his bats used in that campaign is on display at Cooperstown.

When I asked him about his bat being on display, he told me that it wasn't his only bat in the Hall of Fame. When catcher Johnny Bench set the record for home runs by a catcher, he used a Gary Redus bat that is now on display at the Hall.

So there are TWO Gary Redus bats in the Hall of Fame!



BISCUITS ANNOUNCER CAUGHT WAY OFF BASE

Espinal had hit rough patches before

During the final game of the playoffs in which the Biscuits were eliminated, Biscuit radio announcer Chris Adams-Wall absolutely roasted Yoel Espinal on the air for giving the Generals the first game and then repeatedly blamed him for the series loss.

Repeatedly.

Multiple times during the ninth inning of the final game he quoted the three walks and two runs allowed by the Biscuits closer in game one as the sole reason Montgomery would not advance to the championship round after game five.

How an announcer who travels with the team and presumably saw the same game I watched online, can throw a player under the bus for an entire series loss is beyond inexcusable.

That he would use the broadcast to single out Espinal for losing a five game series based on a game one performance is unbelievable.


That he would say it was Espinal's fault alone is simply incorrect.

It's true during that first game against the Generals, Yoel did walk three, he hit a batter, gave up one hit, allowed two runs to score and took the loss. There can be no debate about the line score.


However no mention was made in the game five broadcast by Chris Adams-Wall of the fact that during that fateful first game ninth inning Biscuits shortstop Lucius Fox mishandled/booted what could have been a game-ending double play grounder. That ball was a hit in the box score but as it happened on the field the Jackson announcer described it as an error, until the hometeam official scorer chose not to rob the Generals of postseason stats and ruled it thusly a hit.



WHAT IS A CLOSERS JOB?
When the closer is on the hill with the bases loaded in the 9th inning, the job definition is pretty basic. Get out of it with little or no damage.

How does it happen? Another simple recipe. Combine a strikeout or popup with a ground ball hit to an infielder for a double play usually works well.

When he gets that weak pop foul for the first out and a grounder to shortstop HE HAS DONE HIS JOB.

What more can you ask for? Another ground ball? Its baseball, not a movie script. In this instance, Espy even induced yet another weak fly ball for out two after the non-error by Fox, before the winning run scored on the third walk of the inning.




LISTENERS MISLED
When a shortstop commits what was could be called an error and allows a run to score without getting anyone out, it is hard to single out the pitcher and say he was the cause of it.

Yet that is exactly what the Biscuits announcer did, proclaiming Montgomery the better team and saying if it were not for the bad pitching of Yoel Espinal the Biscuits would be headed to the championship.

Being a road game, most Montgomery fans didn't watch that first game in Jackson and only have the announcers word about what happened. Yet the reporting of that game action left out crucial details.

Details that didn't back the assignment of blame on Yoel Espinal, so those details were left out and listeners led to believe Espinal was a worthy sacrificial goat.


Just last year, Biscuits closer Ian Gibaut allowed a two run walk-off home run in the ninth inning of playoff game five but he was not solely blamed for losing that game, the series or the Co-Championship. Nor should he be.


A team doesn't lose a series in one game. Reliever Yoel Espinal was not the only one to blame for the game one loss, the series loss or the Biscuits failure to win the championship. In baseball, you win as a team and you lose as a team. There were nine men in the field that night, not just Espinal alone.

If one is a professional sports announcer, one shouldn't throw a player under the bus during a broadcast, regardless of the reason. Blaming Espinal for the Biscuits failure in the postseason is simply sour grapes and not factual.

If the announcer is truly part of the team, an apology may be in order. At the very least an explanation on how Espinal is to blame for giving up two runs via walks in game one this year and why Gibeaut is not after serving up a two run walkoff homer in game five last year.

Otherwise, what should Chris Adams-Wall expect when he looks those guys in the face next spring?