Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Perez within reach of GBL stolen-base record

Wilver Perez stole a pair bases on Wednesday night against the St. George (beep-beep!) Roadrunners to pull within 9 swipes of the GBL's single-season stolen-base record.  Perez now has 42 steals in only 47 games played and he has a shot at breaking the record during the Seals' 6-day / 8-game home stand that begins on Friday night.

Wilver didn't get off to the greatest start this year, but his season turned around on the night of the "Scrap at the RAP". He seemed to lack his usual passion in May and early June, but that all changed when he took exception to a Matt Rogelstad takeout slide and laid a beating on the nefarious Edmonton Capital. Since returning from his three-game suspension on June 24th, Perez has played 21 games and has stolen 25 bases. In addition to running rampant on the basepaths, Perez's bat has also come alive -- he has a .384 batting average with 3 homers, 19 RBIs and 22 runs scored in those 21 games.

Let's hope Wilver keeps up his torrid pace and breaks the record in front of the home crowd in the next week!

Seal Blubber Bits
  • The Tijuana Cimarrones broke the previous GBL record for consecutive losses on Monday night (12) and they look like they'll tack on a bunch more.  On Wednesday, they lost their 15th in a row in the finale of their 17-game Canadian road trip. The Seals will be thrilled that the Cimarrones are finally leaving Alberta, because Tijuana has allowed Edmonton and Calgary to get a head-start on Victoria in the second-half standings. After being swept by the Capitals in their five-game series, the Cimarrones went to Calgary and lost four straight. Tijuana's return trip to Edmonton didn't go any better as they lost all three games to the Caps. Tijuana is now a woeful 6-44 on the season.
  • The Seals 17-7 victory over the Roadrunners on Wednesday lifted their second-half record to 3-2. Victoria now trails Calgary by 2 1/2 games and Edmonton by 2 games in the second-half standings. The win also raises Victoria's overall record to .500 on the year (25-25).
  • Brian Rios is now fourth in the league in hitting with a .377 average. Chico's Blake Gailen is tops in the GBL with a slow-pitch like .426 batting average.
  • Josh Arhart's two homers on Monday night gave him 11 on year -- third-best in the GBL. Cliff Brumbaugh of the Edmonton Capitals leads with 14.
  • On Wednesday night, one day after Darth called for it in a Victoria Seals Baseball Blog (VSBB) post, Aaron Easton finally had his first at-bat of the year.  Unfortunately, "The Handyman" struck out swinging, but we'd still like to see the 6'10" 245-pound chucker swing the lumber at RAP.
  • The Seals are second in the league in attendance with an average of 2,524 fans per game, which is astounding given the poor weather at RAP in May and June. Given that Victoria is only 36 fans behind the league-leading Tucson Toros, look for the Seals to bound into first place in attendance before the regular season ends. Let's hope this string of great weather continues.