Check part one for a more general look at the new Extraleague season.
by Michal Hanus
For the 2008 season we can’t expect any big changes in the final standings. AVG DRACI BRNO probably captures their 14th consecutive title. MZLU EXPRESS and ARROWS OSTRAVA are two teams, which could complicate DRACI’s march to a title. KRC ALTRON with their excellent youth program, TECHNIKA BRNO and SKOKANI OLOMOUC with their roster reinforcements will fight for the fourth position, which will signify the promotion to the autumn playoffs. TEGOLA TITANS and BLACK HILL BLANSKO will fight for an Extraleague spot preservation against the best two teams from CML (Ceskomoravska League).
AVG Draci Brno
DRACI BRNO in association with the Czech Baseball Association acquired Alan Mauthe and Leo Vivona, which will strengthen the coaching staff. Both will be used also for the trainings and games of the Czech National Team in 2008. Alan Mauthe, a 43 years old Canadian, is focusing on the batting aspects. Alan played in 1988 the Olympic Games for the Canadian national team. From 2004 till 2007 he worked as a hitting coach in the BOSTON RED SOX organization. In Czechia he will only work for about a month. Leo Vivona will work for DRACI the whole season. Leo is a 35-year-old coach from Australia and has very many experiences with Australian baseball. He worked also for Minor League Teams of the MINNESOTA TWINS and the ORLAND SUN RAYS. Another foreign acquisition is Ryan Berg, a 24-year-old Australian infielder. Ryan has experience on the highest level in his home country in Victoria State and at US University Competitions. He will start season as a loan of the MZLU EXPRESS BRNO team. From June on Jakub Toufar (MINNESOTA TWINS) will reinforce DRACI BRNO, but only for the playoffs. The last two new faces at AVG DRACI are Jan Jablonka (Slovakian National Team member) and Radim Chroust of MZLU. On the other side Michal Bren, Marian Gajdos, Marek Audes, Tomas Janicek will leave the organization to join MZLU EXPRESS. Head Coach Arnost Nesnal can’t include Martin Vesely the to lineup due to a long-term injury. Finally all foreign acquisition of 2007 left DRACI.
Prediction: The 14th consecutive title. Anything else would be a big surprise
MZLU Express Brno
EXPRESS profits every year from the cooperation with DRACI BRNO. For 2008 they introduce their fans the following newcomers. Long term national team catcher Michal Bren from DRACI, national team pitcher Marek Audes of DRACI, the Slovakian ace Marian Gajdos and finally Tomas Janicek also from DRACI. The last but not least is Jan Tomek, a big Czech pitching prospect and cadet of the European Academy 2007 is coming from DRACI only as loan for the round robin. The Slovakian national team member Martin Behul (Angels Trnava) also reinforces the EXPRESS roster. They will not count for the 2008 season on Pavel Chadim who once and for all finish his long career. Tomas Ovesny and Tomas Zahradnik will play CML (second division in Czechia) for HROSI BRNO. Serhyi Holovko is returning back to the Ukraine and Jan Jablonka in addition to Radim Chroust will fight for a lineup spot with AVG DRACI.
Prediction: A playoff participation and not worse than third place in final standings
Krc Altron
There is not enough information from KRC backstage. Head Coach Richard Kania returns after one year experience with the CML-bound LIBEREC PATRIOTS. We are expecting that KRC will promote several of their talented prospects of the junior team to the big league roster. Only pitcher Vladimir Kus is leaving. But we haven’t any additional information about changes of the roster during the winter, so we’ll have to wait and see.
Prediction: Nevertheless they are in the race for the fourth playoff spot.
Arrows Ostrava
After the 2007 season, when they finished fourth, the expectations of the club raised. Head Coach Bennet (to LIBEREC PATRIOTS), Jan Rehacek (KONICA MINOLTA PINOIERS, NL) and Jakub Malik (RCH MEDIA MONKS, NL) left the organization. On the other side, the ARROWS strengthen their coaching staff with the Philippines National Baseball Team coach Edgar Delos Reyes and assistant Jon Jon Robles, who also will pitch. Jon is a member of Philippines national team and played last season in the Philippines National League. Also some talented prospects will make the jump from the second to the Extraleague team.
Prediction: A playoff participation and not worse than third place in final standings
Technika Brno
An ambitioned team, which were in the top four before missing the playoffs in fifth place in 2007. The expectations for 2008 are higher and the US acquisitions predict, that TECHNIKA wants to fight for a playoff spot again. Several talented and young Czech players will be promoted to the roster. TECHNIKA also signed former TEGOLA TITANS pitcher Jakub Vancura, who played the last three seasons with the German REGENSBURG LEGIONAERE. Finally they brought in new manager Randy Barber and players coach Jon Dobyns.
Prediction: They are in the race for the fourth playoff spot.
Skokani Olomouc
SKOKANI added two US players to their roster, Pitcher Cole Reynolds and Dale Brewer. They also won the Warm Up Cup during the preseason, crushing ARROWS OSTRAVA in the finals. With this fact, SKOKANI finally changed their image from a team, which is fighting against relegation to a strong Extraleague team, which will fight for a playoff spot.
Prediction: They are in the race for the fourth playoff spot.
Tegola Titans Praha
The TEGOLA TITANS acquired pitchers Vladimir Kus from KRC ALTRON and Vit Krepinsky from SaBaT. Lubos Janda and Jiri Vit return from PATRIOTS LIBEREC. The final new piece in the navy blue uniform will be Lukas Josefus, who played for LIBEREC as well. Self-conscious results in the preseason Eltodo Cup and no really strong acquisition will be the main factors that the TITANS will fight for against relegation again.
Prediction: They are facing relegation games to secure a spot in the 2009 Extraleague.
Black Hill Blansko
This is a team with a nice stadium, with a young team, with talented pitcher Zdenek Kocman, but without real leaders. BLACK HILL didn’t announced any acquisitions during the winter and the results in the Warm Up Cup also didn’t satisfy. As well as the TITANS, BLACK HILL will be poised for a relegation series against CML teams.
Prediction: They are facing relegation games to secure a spot in the 2009 Extraleague.
As you can see, the Czech Baseball Extraleague will be different, more exciting. We have six subjective candidates for playoff spots. The real fans didn’t have to wait much longer as the season opens tonight.
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