Rafters Report and Other Royals News

The Surprise Rafters have played 3 games in the AFL thus far and have come away victorious in all of them.  They have scored 35 runs thus far in the hyper-offensive environment.

So how are the 7 Royals doing that are part of the Surprise Rafters?  Here is a look at their early game-by-game performance.

Tuesday, October 13th (17-4 Win)
2B-Jeff Bianchi:  1-4, 2 R, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 0 SO
DNP:  Moustakas, Lough, Swaggerty, Wood, Sisk, and Hartsock

Wednesday, October 14th (6-4 Win)
2B-Jeff Bianchi:  0-5, 0 BB, 2 SO
3B-Mike Moustakas:  1-4, 1 2B, 1 R, 1 RBI, 0 BB, 0 SO
LHP-Brandon Sisk:  2.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 SO, 0 HR
RHP-Aaron Hartsock:  2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 SO, 0 HR
DNP:  Lough, Swaggerty, Wood

Thursday, October 15th (12-5 Win)
SS-Jeff Bianchi:  1-5, 1 R, 1 SO
3B-Mike Moustakas:  3-5, 1 R, 2 2B, 1 HR, 7 RBI, 0 BB, 0 SO
LHP-Ben Swaggerty:  1.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 0 SO, 0 HR
DNP:  Lough, Wood, Sisk, and Hartsock

Noteworthy:
Moose is 4-9 with 3 2B, 1 HR, and perhaps more importantly has 0 SO.
Lough and Wood are still waiting to get into a game.
Swaggerty came into today’s game in relief of former Royal Danny Gutierrez who threw 3.0 hitless innings with 2 BB and 2 SO.  DG had a good start, but he is still a meathead.
Tigers 3B/1B-Brandon Laird has gone 4-6 and 5-5 in his first 2 games.

Other Royals news to pass along away from the AFL:

• RHP-Tony Pena Jr (28) has been granted free agency.  Could it be?  Could the TPJ era finally be over in this organization?  Until he signs elsewhere, I refuse to believe he’s gone.  TPJ is like the killer in a bad slasher film, you just never know if the nightmare is finally over.
• The team has signed non-drafted free agent OF-Reggie D. Taylor from Claflin University in South Carolina.  Good for Taylor and good for the Royals.  Keep turning over every rock and eventually you will find something.  Just look what the Twins have done by scouting Australia in recent years.
• The team retained three minor league players who were set to become free agents;  1B/OF-Scott Thorman (27), LHP-Kevin Villa (23), and LHP-Carlos Rivas (24).  Click here to read Bob Dutton’s entire post which also contains the news the RHP-Brandon Duckworth has not been retained.