Despite owning the best record in the MASL’s Western Division, this season has been far from easy for the Sockers.
Between injuries, suspensions, and other travel issues, they haven’t had their full slate of personnel for much of the season.
They lost Gabriel Costa, who had taken the league by storm before getting wrist surgery that’ll keep him out for approximately six weeks. Even more recently in Tuesday night’s game, they lost both Tavoy Morgan and Charlie Gonzalez to injuries in the second quarter. Neither returned in the match.
The immediate report was that both Morgan and Charlie would be out at least two weeks, but there is a chance Morgan is back for Thursday’s game after he met with doctors after the game.
• Kraig Chiles has also been dealing with an injury, but he’s remained in the lineup. He did not participate in warmups on Tuesday and was originally announced as a starter but was replaced by Morgan to begin the game.
• Even still, the Sockers own a 12-2 record and are just one point away from clinching a playoff berth with 10 games remaining in the season.
• If Morgan and Charlie are out for a substantial amount of time, there really isn’t anybody left to fill in.
• The roster has been depleted a lot this year with just one player under contract who hasn’t played yet this year. Forward Quentin Ivy has practiced with the team week in and week out since before the season began and is the most likely candidate to be elevated to the active roster.
• Don’t think the Padres are ever done adding so long as A.J. Preller remains as the general manager. Judging by his media scrum in Peoria yesterday, something is definitely in the works.
• Outfield is still the biggest priority, even after adding Jurickson Profar this week. I’d be shocked if the Padres went into Seoul with either Profar or Jose Azocar in the Opening Day starting lineup.
• Preller has a history of making moves into the start of Spring Training, and even towards the end of the spring. Why should this season be any different?
• Towards the end of the presser, Preller also said that they would continue to upgrade at positions elsewhere. Specifically the starting rotation when the Hyun-Jin Ryu rumor was brought up. Ryu would definitely help this rotation out as a No. 4 or 5 starter. He owned a 3.46 ERA through 11 starts last year, although he finished the season with just 52 innings pitched, maxing out at six innings in a start once.
• The Gulls looked completely outmatched in every aspect of the game in their Wednesday night matchup against the San Jose Barracuda at Pechanga Arena. Just awful.
• The preseason is getting started for the Legion and the Wave, too.
The first of two for the Legion is tomorrow at 1 p.m. at the Chula Vista Elite Athlete Training Center against the Chicago Hounds. The second one will be in Herriman, Utah, against the Utah Warriors. I’ll be there to cover tomorrow’s match, if nothing else, to catch up with Nate Augspurger.
• For the Wave, they’re getting ready for their second preseason match at the Coachella Valley Invitational next Tuesday, Feb. 20. Their first came against UCLA but the team wouldn’t reveal any details on that. There’s one more preseason game at the Coachella Valley Invitational on Saturday, Feb. 24, and after that, there’ll be one last preseason match before the Challenge Cup game against NJ/NY Gotham FC on Friday, March 15. The details for the last preseason game should be announced soon.
• It was nice catching up with Legion players and staff on Wednesday before Friday’s preseason match. The team has been training for three weeks now and definitely ready to finally go up against actual opponents instead of their own teammates.
• Friday will be the first time longtime teammates Nate Sylvia and Augspurger go against one another in a game. Same for quite a few other players on this team, too. It’ll definitely be odd seeing him in another kit.
• That’s all for now. Thanks for reading.