Baseball: Lake County Captains start their season tomorrow.

As you know, we will be following the Lake County Captains this summer.  The Captains are an affiliated team of the Cleveland Indians.  We will feature at least one match report each week with the scores and follow the progress of the club throughout the season.  All our reports will come from the media team at Lake County Captains, we thank them in advance, for their contribution.

Lake County Captains 2011 Season

The Lake County Captains, the 2010 Midwest League Champions and Class A affiliate of the Cleveland Indians, have announced their 2011 Opening Day roster and it have a few returnees from last years Championship squad as well as several high draft picks and two local connections. The Captains open the 2011 season at Great Lakes, an affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers, on Thursday at 6:05 PM.


The Captains will carry a thirteen man pitching staff which is comprised of five pitchers who pitched for the Captains at some point last season. RHP Mike Goodnight (0-2, 4.05) will be the Opening day starter. He will be followed on Friday by LHP Mike Rayl (2-4, 2.81). RHP Kyle Blair, the Indians 4th round draft pick in 2010, will make his professional debut on Saturday and RHP Cole Cook (0-3, 5.40) will get the start in the final game of the series on Sunday. RHP Trey Haley (5-11, 5.97) will be the Captains home opening day starter for the second straight year when the Captains welcome the Dayton Dragons, an affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds, to Classic Park on Monday April 11 at 7:00 PM. RHP Tony Dischler (0-0, 0.00) will also see some time as a starter. Rayl and Haley pitched for the Captains last year.

The bullpen will be lead by closer RHP Clayton Ehlert (0-2, 3.27) who had nine saves at Mahoning Valley last season. Former Captains LHP Francisco Jimenez (8-1, 3.59), RHP Nick Sarianides (6-3, 4.59) and RHP Owen Dew (2-4, 3.11) will be joined in the bullpen by RHP J.D. Reichenbach (1-3, 3.38), RHP Nate Striz (0-0, 0.00) and RHP Dale Dickenson (2-1, 5.06) who all played for the Scrappers last year.

The Captains will have two new catchers this season as Lakewood product and St. Edward graduate Alex Lavisky will be sharing time with Alex Monsalve. Lavisky saw limited time with the AZL Indians last summer appearing in only five games and Monsalve hit .220, 1 HR, 18 RBI's for AZL club.

The Captains infield will be comprised of first baseman Jesus Aguilar who hit nine home runs and had 39 RBI's last year between the AZL Indians and Mahoning Valley. Second baseman Argenis Martinez returns to the Captains where he played in 100 games last season. Nick Bartolone, a 6th round pick in 2010 will be the shortstop. Bartolone hit .255 with the Scrappers last year. Giovanny Urshela will be the third baseman. Last season Urshela hit .290 with three home ruins and 35 RBI's at Mahoning Valley. Kyle Smith (.246, 3HR, 24 RBI's) returns to the Captains this season and the infield will be rounded out with Tyler Cannon who played in 40 games with the Scrappers last year.

The Captains outfield will see Jason Smit (.262, 8HR, 41 RBI) as the lone returnee as the right fielder. Carlos Moncrief (.241, 5HR, 21 RBI's) will patrol center field and Strongsville native and Kent State Golden Flash Anthony Gallas (.272, 3 HR, 26 RBI's) will be in left Field. Brian Heere (.255, 1 HR, 18 RBI's) will see time in the outfielder as well. Moncrief spent the majority of 2010 at Mahoning Valley with a short stint in Kinston. Gallas played for both the AZL Indians and Mahoning Valley and Heere spent all of last season with the Scrappers.

Ted Kubiak returns as the Captains skipper. Kubiak is in his 18th season as part of the Indians organization and second as the Captains manager. Kubiak has managed at various levels for 12 of those years. Kubiak's teams have made the playoffs seven times reaching the league championship round in five of those years with his lone Championship last year. Kubiak spent parts of ten years in the major leagues with seven different teams. Most notably, he was part of the World Champion Oakland A's teams from 1972 - 1974.

Pitching coach Jeff Harris begins his third year in the Indians organization and comes to Lake County after spending the last two seasons as the pitching coach for the AZL Indians. Harris was drafted in the 28th round of the 1995 draft and played professionally for 14 years with stops in the Minnesota, Seattle and Cleveland organizations.

Jim Rickon, a Cleveland area native and resident, will return for his third stint as the Captains hitting coach. This will be Rickon's fifth year overall with the team as he had the same position with the Captains in 2005, 2007, 2008 and 2009. . The 2011 season will mark Rickon's 13th season as a member of the Indians organization.

Individual game tickets are on sale at the Classic Park box office, online at captainsbaseball.com and by phone at 440-954-WINS (9467). Full season tickets plans, 7-, 12-, 20-, and 35-game mini ticket plans for the 2011 season are on sale now at great prices complete with several exclusive benefits. Information can be found at the Captains website www.captainsbaseball.com.

The Lake County Captains are a Class A affiliate of the Cleveland Indians and play their home games at Classic Park in Eastlake, at the corners of State Route 91 and Vine Street. For more information on the Captains, please visit the team's official website at www.CaptainsBaseball.com.