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Reprinted with permission from The Rawken Times
Hawks Hope Two Aces A Winning Hand
For the last two seasons, the Rawken Hawks have leaned heavily on their top two starting pitchers, Jacob deGrom and Aaron Nola. Last season, both won 18 games and brought the Hawks very close to a Championship Finals berth. A conference Championship game seven 2-0 loss to the eventual champions 755 Forever stopped them from going to the finals. The previous season, Nola again won 18 games and deGrom won 15 and the Hawks came within one game of winning the division title.
Now in season 30, both pitchers have underlying numbers that could see them pitching like closers for well over 200 innings each.
According to President, General Manager and Manager Ken Harrelson, “It’s no secret we like right handed pitchers and we had Jake ranked #1 and Aaron ranked #5 in our righty starting pitcher rankings. If they won 18 games last season showing weaker base stats then we are hoping they can win more with their season 30 numbers. There are some special guys out there, Verlander, Scherzer, Kluber…But we put our two aces right up there with those guys. And we are the only team with two guys that we ranked so highly.”
Going into the season with only one batter carried over from season 29, it was important to draft a hitting line up that could support the pitching staff. That is why the Hawks waited until round 8 to take Tanner Roark and round 11 to take eventual unlimited designate Yonny Chirinos to fill out the 3 and 4 spots in their rotation.
Said hitting coach Andre Dawson, “We knew we had to manufacture our batting line ups while still taking pitchers that could support Jake and Aaron. We felt we were pretty successful at that even though we were missing our 4th and 7th round picks. We are hoping Yonny gives us great value out of the 11th round and Tanner is unlimited and can be another horse for us even if he doesn’t pitch like our top two guys. No one can expect that, he just needs to do his thing and win as much as he can.”
The Hawks are hoping they can get out of the blocks fast this season since of their 24 games in April, 18 are home games (versus just 6 away games) and deGrom and Nola are scheduled to pitch in 12 of those 24 games, barring anything unforeseen.
“Those two are our thoroughbreds and we are going to ride them this season,” said Harrelson. “They have a chance to put up some very good numbers and hopefully high win totals. From what we see, it is indicating that.”
How many starts the two make could depend on just how hard the team wants to push them and the possible contributions of the other starters. But for this season, it seems like the Hawks will be pushing all in with their two aces.
Hawks Hope Two Aces A Winning Hand
For the last two seasons, the Rawken Hawks have leaned heavily on their top two starting pitchers, Jacob deGrom and Aaron Nola. Last season, both won 18 games and brought the Hawks very close to a Championship Finals berth. A conference Championship game seven 2-0 loss to the eventual champions 755 Forever stopped them from going to the finals. The previous season, Nola again won 18 games and deGrom won 15 and the Hawks came within one game of winning the division title.
Now in season 30, both pitchers have underlying numbers that could see them pitching like closers for well over 200 innings each.
According to President, General Manager and Manager Ken Harrelson, “It’s no secret we like right handed pitchers and we had Jake ranked #1 and Aaron ranked #5 in our righty starting pitcher rankings. If they won 18 games last season showing weaker base stats then we are hoping they can win more with their season 30 numbers. There are some special guys out there, Verlander, Scherzer, Kluber…But we put our two aces right up there with those guys. And we are the only team with two guys that we ranked so highly.”
Going into the season with only one batter carried over from season 29, it was important to draft a hitting line up that could support the pitching staff. That is why the Hawks waited until round 8 to take Tanner Roark and round 11 to take eventual unlimited designate Yonny Chirinos to fill out the 3 and 4 spots in their rotation.
Said hitting coach Andre Dawson, “We knew we had to manufacture our batting line ups while still taking pitchers that could support Jake and Aaron. We felt we were pretty successful at that even though we were missing our 4th and 7th round picks. We are hoping Yonny gives us great value out of the 11th round and Tanner is unlimited and can be another horse for us even if he doesn’t pitch like our top two guys. No one can expect that, he just needs to do his thing and win as much as he can.”
The Hawks are hoping they can get out of the blocks fast this season since of their 24 games in April, 18 are home games (versus just 6 away games) and deGrom and Nola are scheduled to pitch in 12 of those 24 games, barring anything unforeseen.
“Those two are our thoroughbreds and we are going to ride them this season,” said Harrelson. “They have a chance to put up some very good numbers and hopefully high win totals. From what we see, it is indicating that.”
How many starts the two make could depend on just how hard the team wants to push them and the possible contributions of the other starters. But for this season, it seems like the Hawks will be pushing all in with their two aces.