This site follows the State College Spikes – a short season “A” farm club of the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball club.
I’m UncleLar, a 60-something former IBM employee who retired from the company a few years ago after 25 years of service. I was a computer technology geek/expert before it was fashionable to be one. My academic credentials include being one of the original undergraduate computer science majors at Penn State switching to that program after four years of mathematics study. I also majored in management information systems in Penn State’s MBA program.
DeerPhobia comes from the Spikes slogan “Fear the Deer”. Last year I ran a WordPress.com blog called “Fear the Deer”. I wanted to upgrade the quality of the site, so I moved to a hosting company rather than the free WordPress.com service. Unfortunately, FearTheDeer.com was already taken (I suspect by the Spikes themselves), so I had to come up with an alternative domain name. I eventually settled on DeerPhobia.com. I’m hoping it works.
UncleLar Take:
Only time will tell if this new management team improves on the poor showings that the Pirates have exhibited on draft day in the past. The consensus opinion was that the Pirates took the cheap route in drafting Daniel Moskos last year. Let’s see if the purse strings are a little looser tomorrow.
I couldn’t agree with you more. Not that Zach has nothing to offer. It was a pleasure watching him pitch here, and I got to meet him, which was a bonus! But I voted for Justin, because of the reasons you mentioned above. Ike already got a bobblehead, so really that leaves Matt and Justin, and I would have been happy with either. I’ll add the bobblehead to my small collection of Spikes bobbleheads, (so far just Ike and Turner Ward) but I do regret that it wasn’t someone who made more of a lasting contribution to the ball club. Maybe next year!!
Great shot!!
Thanks glad you appreciate it.
Congrats are in order to Mercer and Hague, but this can’t be good news for the Spikes. Yes, we all know that the NY-Penn League is primarily about developing players and the Pirates have reshuffled their minor league teams to focus on younger talent, but this team is 2-6 team and needs all the help they can get. I worry that the huge crowds in Altoona, and to a lesser extent in State College, might be a thing of the past if the teams aren’t as competitive. Promotions can only get you so far before fans want to see wins.
P.S. Love the website! Go Spikes!
He also went to Manhattanville College and he throws GAS look for his name a few years down the road
USA Today gives their take on the Campbell situation including an interview with Capt. Schulyer Williamson, a former pro baseball player who is upset with the Army ruling.
The Collegian filed this story
‘Their’ not ‘there’
Fixed – thanks
maurice is sooooo cute and im his biggest fan ever im in love with his sexy body n how sweet he is hes a gentlmen.. i wuve u maurice
Love
Samantha
p.s
come see me soon
I rocked his stuff in high school… Best of luck kid
Nope Donnie Smith isn’t out of baseball guys… He played for the Fargo-Moorehead Redhawks of the Northern League the 2008 season and signed with the San Francisco Giants in September of 08.. he reports to Spring Training in March 09. should be an exciting year for him!!!
Albert Fagan did sign and is expected to do very well. Last season he ended with an ERA of 2.88. According to Milb.com he “Made 10 appearances (four starts) with the GCL Pirates, going 3-2 with one save and a 2.88 ERA in 25 innings. … Five of the eight earned runs he surrendered on the season came his first start, a 2 1/3-inning outing against the GCL Red Sox on July 1. … He yielded just two earned runs in his final 19 2/3 innings. … Held left-handed batters to a .086 average (3-for-35).” His first start was def not that good but he WAS injured after the first out and continued playing with a twisted ankle. We hope to see him do very well. His fastball has been clocked at 95 and he throws a slider with “major league movement”
His stuff is explosive. They just have to give him a chance and let him come to his own. He should have been drafted in the first 10 rounds of the draft.
Round 9 isn’t right… Bucs drafted Brock Holt not Berry
I think this one is wrong person.
I just noticed. I’ll fix it. Thanks
Such a good pick by the Pirates here!!!
“May the Lord answer you when you are in distress; may the name of the GOD of Jacob protect you.
May He send you help from the sanctuary and grant you support from Zion….
May He give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed.
We will shout for joy when you are victorious and will lift up our banners in the name of our God.
May the LORD grant all your requests.” Psalm 20: 1-5
May you always remember whose you are. I love you always! With all my heart, Mom
Future Hall of Famer for sure
Congrats to you Zach! Hope to see you at “WRIGLEY” someday!
Please say “howdy to your to your face” , to your old man for me.
Peace-out, B.K.Harland (Friend of Steve’s since 1970)
Where is Butch Biela and why is he not playing, he was the player of the year last year and the spikes best outfielder???
Where is Butch Biela???
Butch has played in one game for the Spikes. He started the season off with West Virginia but struggled going hitless in 12 at bats and was demoted (he’s also 0-2 here in State College).
The Spikes have been kind of platooning their outfield – Garcia and Rosero have been alternating games with Hernandez and Saukko (although Garcia and Saukko did get the call in the last game). However, Rubinstein has pretty much been a fixture in right – Biela did start the second game instead of Rubinstein but he’s not been back since.
The most likely scenario is that Biela has a nagging injury that we don’t know about. However, Rubinstein has been the Spikes most consistent player (he just recently had his team record consecutive games reached base streak stopped) so it’s possible that the Spikes, who have struggled for offense, just want to keep him in the lineup (although I doubt that’s true since the Pirate organization is much more about developing players than it is winning games).
If there’s one thing that I’ve learned following this team for the last four years is that everyone will eventually get their chance to show their stuff. Butch’s time will come.
My guess is that he has a minor injury but I don’t know for sure.
Butch got into the game late tonight as a pinch runner but did get an at bat in the ninth. Unfortunately he failed to get a hit so he remains hitless for the season.
Willemburg is not Dutch, he’s from South African
Thanks.
That was an error made by the original author on Sandlot Swashbucklers. I’ve corrected the error in my excerpt by crossing out the Dutch reference and replacing it with South African, something that the Swashbuckler blogger should have done when he corrected his mistake.
I had the chance to coach this young man on a team prior to the draft. He threw gas and hit his spots. He will find his way up to the big leagues eventually. His slider was one of the best I had seen and his fastball was above average. His change and curve were above average as well. I think if he didn’t skip a year of college to work out and get ready for the draft, he would have gotten drafted much earlier in the draft, not going to Manhattanville for one more season definitely hurt him.
And the designation of D.O. means Drop Out. Just like in college and high school (if they were a high school pick it would usually designate HS Fr, HS So, HS Jr, HS Sr) the classes are: Fr=Freshman, SO=Sophmore, Jr=Junior, Sr= Senior, DO= Drop out, NS= No School, J1= Junior College 1st yr, J2=Junior College 2nd yr, J3= Junior College 3rd yr, 5S= 5th year SR College.
thats not even walker