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Kellen Raab
Pitcher -- Arizona Diamondbacks
Kellen Raab is a 23 year old pitcher in the Arizona Diamondbacks organization.
In 2004, Kellen's first season of professional baseball, he posted a 3-3 record with a 4.38 ERA while striking out 56 batters in 62 innings for the Yakima Bears of the Northwest League.
Journal Entry 5-31-2005
The temperatures are rising in the Midwest as is the
battle for the first half pennant in the Midwest
League.
With the first half coming to a close June
19, we are currently 2 games ahead of Fort Wayne and
2.5 games ahead of Lansing. The top 2 teams in each
half receive spots in the playoffs at the end of the
season.
We really need to secure a spot now because the
second half will be very tough as it gets hotter and
players become more fatigued from a long summer. Not
to mention the fact that we end our season on a 12
game road trip covering 1000 miles. At that point we
don't want to focus as much on trying to secure a spot
if we don't have to.
Lately our team has not been playing up to its
capabilities. We have been making mental errors and
have not been giving it our best efforts. We have
kept winning though, splitting a series with Beloit,
winning a series against Burlington, and currently we
have won 2 of 3 from Cedar Rapids.
Yesterday
especially showed how our team didn't wake up until
the 9th inning. We were getting beat 5-1 and Jesse
Smith had only allowed one hit from the 2nd to the 8th
after allowing three in the 1st inning. We had given them
most of their runs and it looked like we just didn't
show up to play. Our bats got hot though getting four
hits before they recorded an out. Down 5-4 with two
outs Jereme Milons connected with one for a two run
homer to take the lead and the bullpen did the rest to
secure a win.
Today of course Our All-Star AJ Shappi
takes the mound. You can almost count on a win when
he throws. I swear he is the prototypical
All-American guy. He can't seem to do wrong on and
off the field. He is the kind of guy you want to have
about 10 of on your team. If our organization wasn't
backed up with starters right now I wouldn't be
surprised to see him move up at the break.
As for my outings lately I have recorded back to
back 5 inning 2 run games. Almost identical line
scores giving up 5 hits to Beloit and 4 hits to
Burlington. I dipped below my 4:1 ratio of K/BB this
past series because my control wasn't as good. I
allowed 2 walks in the game. My next start is
in Dayton. I am excited because I heard its
the best place by far to play in this league.
This weekend has been especially fun here in Cedar
Rapids because my mother came out to visit me. It was
great to see her and spend some quality time hanging
out with her because I don't get to see her during the
season.
I had originally been scheduled to pitch here
and a lot more people were going to come out but rain
screwed it up, but it was still good to see her. It
was nice being able to eat out and go see movies and
not have to budget everything on our daily road
allowances of $20.
As for everything else there isn't much else going
on as of late. The first half is coming to a close
and everything is flying by. I can't believe its
already June and the draft is next week. Hopefully
they take a bunch of position players so I know I am
secure with my spot here.
I'll get more into that
after the draft. Until then, keep on truckin.
p.s. here's your shout out Kenny I hope you see it.
Kellen
You may email your questions for Kellen Raab to KRaab@topprospectalert.com
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