Miami Palms Blog

Chastanet was a long reliever for te Palms, filling in as a spot starter a couple of times. while his stuff isn't where a top prospect's should be, he is a durable pitcher who throws strikes. Out of the bullpen, he logged the most innings, earned the most wins, tallied the most strikeouts and gave up the most home runs. He's definitely not a top flight starter, but the Palms don't need him to be. He should do an excellent job as the fifth man in the rotation, taking Buddy Carlyle's former spot.

Buddy Carlyle was a starter two years ago in Atlanta before coming to Miami to fill the same role in the stead. One of the major problems for the Palms in 2008 was the Bullpen, and with the signing of Manny Parra and Javier Vazquez, as well as the departure of former closer Luis Montgomery (and Victor Love the year before) the team decided to move Carlyle to the closer's role for some stability, while bringing former long reliever Dallas Chastanet into the rotation. Carlyle didn't seem equipped to start, failing to make it through more than 5 innings on most occasions, leaving it to guys like Chastanet or other members of the bullpen to clean up after him. His high strikeout rate and low walk rate should translate better into the bullpen than it did in the starting role.

In his brief time with the Palms last year, Eddie Black proved that scouts were exactly right about him. He was always known to be a solid hitting prospect, but not much behind the plate. With Gerald Laird and Kyle Vic behind the plate before him, Black was blocked by better game managers if worse hitters. Vic is in St. Louis, Jon Bogaard, at the time Vic's backup was traded as part of a deal with the Rangers for Laird. Of course, now Laird has also been allowed to move on. Part of this was to make way for Eddie both because he is likely to be the long term answer behind the plate, and because he could be part of the short term solution for the offense, which lost a lot in the offseason. In just a few at bats last year, he showed good plate presence and the ability to hit a home run when needed.

Dave Balierough, a right handed starter was the number 5 starter for the Palms in 2008, but with the departure of Forrest Davis and Rich Fischer, as well as Buddy Carlyle's new role in the bullpen, Balierough (pronounced BA lehr o) looks to move up to the fourth spot in the rotation. It was a common theme among the starters, and one followed by Balierough, with a low batting average against, and a very low ERA combined with a low strikeout rate and a league average in terms of home runs allowed. It suggests a solid defense behind him. Balierough isn't anything all that special in terms of stuff, but he does try to mix in a knuckleball, which is often just enough of a change to take care of a hitter, but every once in a while becomes a meatball. If he can work out that out pitch, his K total should increase, and he will continue to be a reliable starter.

Hi everyone, welcome to the Miami Palms baseball blog. It's based on a fictitious game, played using simulations of real players and invented. This is going to be the third full season for the squad. They play a reversed schedule of the Tampa Bay Rays, although they don't replace them (they play each other instead of the Marlins during home games) and as such are members of the American League East. In the first year, the Palms went 91-71. Last year, (the first year they added 'real' players) they tied the Rays atop the division, winning on a tiebreaker, but eventually lost to those same Rays in the ALCS. The additions and subtractions have already been made from last years roster to the 2009 season. Gone are Gerald Laird (to the Yankees), Scott Hatteberg (retired), Rico Gomez (Cubs), Scott Henninger (Mets), Darren Jones (Dodgers), Matt Webster (Marlins), Joe Gras (Royals), Forrest Davis (Mets), Rich Fischer (Diamondbacks), Luis Montgomery (Indians), Jared Burton (Red S...