[pauwoo]

Austin Grackles (0-0, .000, t-1st NL West) @ Los Angeles Leopards (0-0, .000, t-1st NL West)
The Austin Grackles spent their offseason doing little of note – they signed a middling reliever for $3.4mm (Jim Washington; 52/52), purchased the contract of a Bush League player, Aaron Johnson (46/46), and remade their coaching staff with a new Manager, Pitching Coach, and Team Trainer brought into the fold… what they didn’t do is improve their lot in life. In fact, upon closer inspection, these Grackles look a lot worse on paper than last years club that finished 62-100 in 2078. And, with their Development System ranked at 11th overall, whatever rebuilding / reimagining effort they’re undertaking here seems awfully suspect from the outside looking in. What’s clear, to me at least, is that it’s not a good time to be a Grackles fan – unless you don’t like fun. If that’s the case, then these guys should have you covered this season.

1 of 162: Vin Uhlman (0-0, 0.00) @ Stephen Estevez (0-0, 0.00)
Win, 1-0. We’d kick off the 2079 campaign in style as PEPPER GRANT walked the Grackles off with a run-scoring single to reward Estevez’s 5-inning, 1-hit effort with a win as relievers Kaoru Kudo and Don Haag shut down Austin over the final four frames. Not a lot of offensive goodness to parse out for the La La’s… we’d not record a single EBH, were benefited by a Kyle Weaver SAC BUNT to move our runners into scoring position for PEPPER, and did nothing of note on the base paths – it was all pitching, all the time here with 16 total K’s for our staff, resulting in 4 Grackles posting 3 K days, and a nice Hutchinson-Hana-Ono double play to flash the leather a little bit.

2 of 162: Joshua Moeller (0-0, 0.00) @ Merl Crawford (0-0, 0.00)
Win, 5-3. Our reigning MVP, Otto Isaac, got the ball rolling early on his 1st TRUCK of the year, a solo shot, during the bottom of the very first frame… and the club would continue to pour it on, scoring all 5 of our runs before the 5th inning with contributions from OH HONG, 1-for-4 with 2 RBI, and DOM , 2-for-4 with 2 RBI, as we managed to plate 5 of our total 13 base runners in this one. Good pitching too – 5.1 innings, 7-hits, 3 earned, and win #1 for Merl, followed by appearances from Dylan Miotke, Major Hansen, and Don Haag to close it out. Haag earned his first save here with a Ono-Hutchinson-Ono double play representing our final two outs after he’d walked the second batter he faced.

3 of 162: Marcos Villalobos (0-0, 0.00) @ Keith Baeza (0-0, 0.00)
Loss, 0-1. We’d, by the smallest margin possible, miss out on an opportunity to open the 2079 campaign with a sweep as the Grackles, behind a tip-top pitching performance from Villalobos, 7-innings, 4-hits, 5 K’s, and the win, and the clutch hitting of Larry Williams, whose run-scoring SAC FLY during the top of the 2nd would be all that was required to send us off with a game 3 loss. Ethan hit two, two-baggers, and our staff was nasty once again, but with no offensive support due to an equally effective pitching performance from Austin we’d be turned away leaving only 4 clubs – Brooklyn, Philly, Toronto, and Detroit – remaining undefeated in the (VERY) early going…

Record: 2-1, .667, t-1st NL West
Up Next: We’ll welcome Mexico City to town for a 4-game series…