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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 4-16-2005
I finally broke in with my 2005 season debut last
Saturday. In my first appearance I went one inning
giving up just one walk in that inning.
I came back
on Tuesday for my piggy back game and pitched well
again. In 5 innings of relief I gave up no runs on 2
hits, 3 walks, and 3 strikeouts. Right now I feel
decent about my performances so far.
My velocity has
been good ranging from 88-93 and my change-up has been
a great pitch for me. I am really disappointed though
in the number of walks I have so far, so that is
something I am definitely going to try and work on.
As far as the team goes we are off to a fast start
with a record of 5-2, winning both of the series' we
have played in with the Devils Rays coming to town.
In this past series against the Lugnuts, I wasn't
overly impressed with many of the players on their
team. No one stood out in terms of talented players.
Ryan Klosterman (ss) had a decent series getting on
base a lot and had a homerun that helped decide in
their lone win.
I was very impressed with our team.
We keep fighting and never give up. This is the
first time in a while where I have played on a team
where everyone has cared so much about winning. I
haven't played on a winning team since high school so
its nice to be with this group of guys.
This past week we had some good performances from a
couple pitchers and hitters.
We got good pitching
from AJ Shappi and Steven Jackson. As for the
hitters we got some clutch hitting from Augie Murillo,
Emilio Bonifacio, Jereme Milons, and Orlando Mercado.
Milons and Mercado both hit two run homeruns to give
us the lead in both of our wins in Lansing.
Southwest Michigan comes into town this weekend with
a 2-5 record, but they have some of the Devils Rays' top
prospects on their team.
Reid Brignac (ss) the D-Rays
number 5 prospect is on the team as is the number 6
prospect LHP James Houser. If they end up playing I
will let everyone know how they do.
The Lugnuts didn't have any of the Blue Jays'
prospects on their team so there wasn't anyone there to
really report on.
Going back to our series with
Dayton first round pick and top prospect Homer Bailey
did not throw against us so there isn't anything to
write up about him.
Throughout the season I figured I would do a ratings
system of all the places we play at in the Midwest League.
I
will base my ratings on:
1. Stadium,
2. Playing surface,
3. Fans,
4. Promotions,
5. Town and location of stadium,
6. Locker room,
7. Miscellaneous.
These
ratings will be based on a 1 to 5 scale with 5 being
the best.
The ratings for Lansing are as follows:
Stadium: 4; I really liked the set-up of the stadium and it was very
nice to come up to as you walk off the bus with
statues in the front and brick pillars.
Playing Surface: 3; The
outfield was wavy but for the most part it was good.
Fans: 3; There weren't many fans the first two nights, but
they had cheap beer the last night and had a large
crowd. Should give a lower rating because their fans
were very rude and had lots of derogatory remarks
towards us.
Promotions: 2; They didn't have much for promotions
and what they had was poor.
Town & Location: 4; The town was
beautiful and the baseball field was set in downtown
and had a great atmosphere.
Locker Room: 3; It was a nice locker
room other than the high locker set-up they had, with
little room to get around in the corners.
Misc: 4, For the most part things were good here, especially the
jumbo-tron with great movie clips and the players
introducing themselves before an at bat. So far this
is the nicest park I've played in as a professional.
I will get back next week with more updates and
hopefully more good news.
Kellen
MWL Rankings:
Lansing: 3.28
You may email your questions for Kellen Raab to KRaab@topprospectalert.com
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