House Of Relievers

Last week something interesting happened. We had a house packed with pitchers, 5 of us to be exact, 4 relievers and a injured started. Well, the injury ended up bringing the starter back down to Dunedin, FL to the Blue Jays complex. This left us with 4 of the 7 relief pitchers all in one house. Over the past 2 weeks we have signed 2 free agent pitchers, Matt Hensley and Bryan Dumesnil (I will blog soon about Dumesnil, we go way back). Okay back to the story… Finally yesterday we “came to terms” and invited both Hensley and Dumesnil to move in with with the 4 of us. Unfortunately we have only 4 rooms, and they we’re occupied by Myself, Nate Starner, Zach Dials, and Daniel Farquhar. This left the air mattress in the kitchen, and our rented double seater couch available.

We now have 6 of the 12 pitchers all bunking up in one house, and 6 of the 7 relievers. We all get along well. Everyone has a very different upbringing and personality. I’ll run through the 6 of us in a baseball and personal bio with it.


Nate Starner – 25 year old left hander, who throws in the upper 80’s with some dirty off speed stuff, has struggled with mechanics all year causing him to falter some. He’s a very religious kid from Pennsylvania, and was a senior sign pitcher out of Shippensburg University (division 2). He loves the Disney channel and has never tasted alcohol. Great guy.

Zach Dials – 23 year old prospect who played all last year here in AA ball as the closer, but has arm troubles this season sending him down to single A ball for a period. He throws hard, 90-94 with sink, and has a solid sinker. He’s a book you can read by the cover, once you talk to him once, you will know exactly what kind of guy he is, he doesn’t hide a thing which is his strong point I’d say… also, great guy.

Daniel Farquhar – 23 year old drafted in last years 10th round, is one of our teams most intriguing players. As our closer, he is about 5’10” 175 and has hit 98 mph this year. He has an electric arm, with electric stuff. He sits 91-93 throwing sidearm, and around 95 mph throwing over the top. The Blue Jays are moving him through the system quickly. He’ s the kind of guy who is always good to have around.

Matt Hensley – 30 year old, has pitched in the big leagues. Great guy, quiet, laid back and chill all come to mind when thinking about him. We signed him out of the Atlantic league, he was a closer there, but is filling in well as a middle relief pitcher for us. He’s got great insight and some solid big league stories for us in the pen.

Bryan Dumesnil – 25 year old Canadian. Played on team Canada in the WBC this year, but unfortunately didn’t get any action since the Canadian team went 2 and out. I grew up playing against “Dumy” when he played for the Nanaimo Pirates from Vancouver Island. We’ve kept reasonable contact over the past couple years. Great guy.

Me – 25 year old middle relief pitcher, throwing predominantly sidearm again (finally back to what works for me). I’m in the upper 80’s flirting with 90 these days, trying to limit the walks and maximize the ground balls. Of course, Great guy…


It’s nice to have a house as cozy as ours sometimes. We have great times, and play the crap out of this card game called PSOY. We tally the points of this game and the loser out of every game of four has to do certain punishments. Here are come of the punishments the 4 of us have had to perform for losing at this card game on certain nights.

- Paint toe nails whatever the color the winner decides he wants to you wear for a week (in our case a purple with shiny sparkles).
- Sit in the cold tub at 40 Degrees Fahrenheit for 3 minutes without getting the chance to sit in the hot tub before hand.
- Wear a team hat for 7 days straight, 24/7, even in the club house at the field the only time it’s void is on the field.
- Run to Seven Eleven, and buy the other 3 guys ice cream treats.
- Eat a very very hot pepper.
- Chug a Monster energy drink in 30 seconds in 30 seconds, at 2:30 am.
- Eat 6 Dunkin Donuts donuts in 2 minutes,
- Clean our nasty bathroom with only sanitary wipes.

Pretty good hey? We come up with some very good stuff, we all have good imaginations. The thing is, the 6 of us spend about 16 hours a day together, we have good times together, stressful times, bitchy times, but mostly we click like a gang that has all different weapons, because that’s how we see ourselves and relievers, none of us bring the same arsenal to the mound.

The only reliever I left our of this is Edgar Estanga, a 23 year old Venezuelan who lives with a few other Latino players by the field. A great guy whose head I shaved earlier, and has about the filthiest off speed stuff in the pen, specially since he throws 75% junk.

Time to go on the road, heading to Bowie, Maryland for 3 games, then Altoona for 3.