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Kellen Raab
Pitcher -- Arizona Diamondbacks
Kellen Raab is a 23 year old pitcher in the Arizona Diamondbacks organization.
In 2004, Kellen's first season of professional baseball, he posted a 3-3 record with a 4.38 ERA while striking out 56 batters in 62 innings for the Yakima Bears of the Northwest League.
Journal Entry 3-17-2005
Things are finally starting to pick up around here and
games start to commense this week.
For the past week we have been getting ourselves
ready with bullpens and fielding work, so we would be
ready for the spring games and the long season ahead
of us.
Big league camp started to break up some this week
dropping down some of the players from the 40 man and
non roster invitees. Some of the more notable players
were Casey Daigle, husband to Jennie Finch, Corey
Myers 1999 1st pick, and Josh Kroeger one of our top
prospects.
I expect to start seeing more and more
every week as the big league club narrows down the
field. This also means doing some moving around for
the minor league players, changing from one team to
another or getting the red slip and plane ticket home.
We had our first games on Tuesday, all intrasquad
games. Tucson played Tennessee, and South Bend played
Lancaster. In these games we really dont keep score,
but we keep stats, and velocity charts to track the
progress of all of our pitchers.
I will be pitching
Thursday in our first game of outside competition
against the Colorado Rockies High A team, the Modesto
Nuts. I really cant wait to finally see some live
hitters up there and get in a game situation.
As of
now I am being used as a reliever for Lancaster, and
will work in 1-2 innings depending on how the starter
does and how my first inning goes.
I started getting a few questions from some readers
so i figured I would answer them this week.
The first
question from William, asking which pitchers that I
have seen pitch, in my opinion, could be 20 game winners
in the next year.
To that question I would say from
the teams I have played I havent seen any that could
be in the next year but in terms of down the line
there are a couple.
Garrett Mock our 3rd rounder last
year has the body, and the pitches, I think to one day
down the line be a 20 game winner. Thomas Diamond,
Rangers 1st rounder last year, could easily be a 20
game winner, he was dominating against us last year in
Spokane. I could also possibly see AJ Shappi, our 9th
rounder getting some big time wins down the line, and
as a closer I can see the Rockies' pitcher Juan
Morillo and Jim Miller as big time stoppers.
Tom asked me a few questions so i will try and keep
them brief.
First he asked who has had the greatest
impact on my career so far and in what ways. I would
say thats a tough question because there have been a
couple guys. My pitching coach Ed Vosberg helped me a
lot last year, as did Dennis Lewellyn our pitching
coordinator. They helped me work with my off speed
pitches and coming from different angles.
Second
question was what are your most memorable experiences. So
far I cant really say I have any in pro ball other
than getting drafted. I didnt even know i got my
first win until the next day, so it wasn't that. I
think maybe pitching a couple games without allowing
runs would be something but nothing really big so far.
Finally he asked if I preferred aluminum or wood. I
have always liked wood more. I think it sounds so
much better and you can't get as lucky with wood. But
when you do get it right, there isn't a better feeling
then smacking one deep.
Thanks for your time, Im sorry this one got long but
I hope everyone enjoys it. Keep asking me questions,
I will answer them all.
Kellen
You may email your questions for Kellen Raab to KRaab@topprospectalert.com
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