SarCoog: Although we (mainly Bobb-O) at S&H broke the story of University of Houston junior pitcher Jared Ray pitching in the prestigious summer Cape Cod League, it was made official on the team rosters today.
Ray, along with sophomore pitcher Michael Goodnight and junior shortstop Blake Kelso will be playing this summer for the Yarmouth-Dennis (YD) Red Sox. Currenly on the YD Roster Ray and Goodnight are classified as LOC (committed players) and Kelso is a TMP (temporary player). Although I believe the Cougars’ spark-plug shortstop has enough talent to stay with and contribute to YD. The YD Sox have won the Cape Cod League championship in 2004, 2006 and 2007 with notable recent alums such as Jason Castro (Stanford/Houston Astros) and Buster Posey (Florida State/San Francisco Giants). Here’s how these Cougars have faired in the first few games:
Kelso currently has a .333 average with 4 hits and a walk in 12 at-bats, along with 2 RBI and has played in 3 games (2 at SS, 1 at 2B). Ray has started 1 game and in 5.0 innings gave up on 2 earned runs on 4 hits while walking 3 and striking out 6. Goodnight has not seen any action up to this point.
Also, on the Bourne Braves’ roster is the Cougars’ senior catcher: Chris Wallace. I’ll be interested to see how ‘Wally’ keeps progressing after the horrific facial injury he suffered at the beginning of this past baseball season. Granted, he did play a good number of games last season, but I’d imagine his hitting and general play will improve as he recovers more from the injury. Currently he is hitting .167 with 1 hit and a walk in 6 at-bats, along with 1 run scored.
Keep reading S&H for weekly updates on how Ray, Kelso, Goodnight and Wallace are doing at the Cape!
I think Kelso has the right tools to succeed on the Cape. He doesn’t strike out often and is a good contact hitter. The guys that struggle on the Cape are the guys that are mashers that expect to hit balls out. As long as Kelso approaches hitting on the Cape like he did this past season at UH, he’ll be fine. He needs to hit the ball the other way and show good plate discipline.
It will be interesting to follow Wally with Bourne. He went into a pretty big tailspin late in the season, particularly average-wise. We know he can be a great power bat, but I think it will be important for him to try to improve himself as an average hitter on the Cape where the ball won’t be flying out of the yard nearly as often.
Ray and Goodnight getting a chance to pitch on the Cape is huge. If everything works out like we hope, they will be 1A and 1B in the rotation. Maybe facing the elite hitters in college ball over the summer will go a long way towards keepig Jared from fallling into his traditional early-season funk.
I’ll cut Wally some slack because I know he wasn’t 100% well when he came back last year. But he did go into a late-season slump and struck out way too much. It’ll be good experience at the very least.
I think Kelso has the most to gain from the Cape experience. Ray and Goodnight both have loads of potential… but you know what they say about potential.
-SarCoog