by Peter Ferak, www.coverguy.wordpress.com
Florida is famously the second home of Russian Tennis. Now two Moscow Baseball players are trying to make a run for the money in their sport. The Gulf Coast League features 16 Minor League (Class A) teams which are filled with young hopefuls trying to advance to the next level.
The league is a stepping stone for stars-to-become, and as such the competition between the teams is secondary to the advancement of the players who are what the scouts thought they were. And so it is logical that games are played with a heightened number of pitchers, most of whom are tied to pitch-counts or inning-restrictions.
The GCL Twins kicked off their 56 game Schedule on Thursday, June 19th with a win against the GCL Pirates. Seven games later the two Russian pitchers appeared in three games. Nick Lobanov started his season with a strong two-inning outing against the GCL Red Sox’ team, and managed to work past three walks. In his second outing however, the walks came back to haunt him, and he surrendered three earned runs on three walks and a hit. This leaves him with a 8.10 ERA and three strikeouts in 3.1 Innings pitched.
Andrey in his game had two great innings, giving up a hit in each, but got the double play in his first inning, thus faced only seven hitters in two innings. In the third he lost his groove, gave up two singles and popped up the next hitter, and was yanked after that.
The two will continue to play in the Gulf Coast League alongside a couple of other Europeans: Tom Stuifenberg (NED, P), and Jakub Hajtmar (CZE, IF). As a nice bonus they might get a chance to see Mike Hampton who is currently on a rehab assignment with the GCL Braves.
