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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 4-11-2005
Spring training finally ended, which is a good thing for the most part because we can finally get into playing some real games.
I ended up pitching the day before I left, ending the spring season with a great performance. I pitched 3 innings, gave up one hit, and had 4 strikeouts.
Its good to leave on a high note in my opinion. Kind of like making your last shot when you are out shooting some hoops.
So I left Tucson on Sunday for Omaha so I could spend some time with my family and be able to get my car to drive to South Bend.
Monday I drove 8 hours to get here to South Bend, which was really boring until I got into the Chicago area because I knew I was getting close. Drove into town here to go to my new apartment, got to where I was going and liked what I saw.
I am living with 3 other guys, and there are 8 others in the complex; but our place is directly across the street from the Notre Dame athletic facilities.
I can literally see touchdown Jesus if I step outside of the complex here, which is cool because I had never seen it before.
The first couple days here we spent some time in the community with elementary school students, having some fun at recess with them.
On Tuesday we had a scrimmage versus a local Division 3 team, which we beat easily.
On Wednesday we had a season opening luncheon, followed up by a fan-est that night. I met some avid autograph collectors that had my lone card, and met a guy that enjoyed my column. Its always nice to know that someone is paying attention to what you're saying and actually enjoys it.
This leads up to our first game against the Dayton Dragons.
Their team had 3 of Cincinnati's top prospects. Number 1 Homer Bailey, number 5 BJ Szymanski, and number 10 Paul Janish. Got a look at the two hitters, both seem to be pretty decent players, with BJ having a better physical advantage in my opinion. Haven't seen Bailey yet but if we do I will let you know if the first rounder really shows what he's worth.
We got behind early after some errors and an uncharacteristical performance from AJ Shappi. He gave up 4 in 4 innings with 9 hits. Our hitters stepped it up late and we came back to win the game 5-4.
Our second game was almost identical to the first one where we started out getting behind 4-1. Janish hit the first home run of the season for our series here in SB. We came back though and won the game 6-5.
I think our team has a good make-up so far because we don't give up and our bullpen has been very strong for us. Our hitters are also making in game adjustments which are the only way you will continue to win games.
I think this season will go very well. It will be tough being away from home, and friends again but I'm sure I can do it.
The tough one will be being away from my girlfriend Brooke down in Arizona. She's an amazing girl and it will be tough being so far away, but she is great, and we talk for a couple hours a day. She is definitely my levity away from baseball that keeps me going.
That's it for this week, it seems really long so maybe I will condense it a little more next time. By next time I will have pitched so I can update on how my season opening performance went. Until then good luck with all the autographs everyone.
Kellen
You may email your questions for Kellen Raab to KRaab@topprospectalert.com
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