The unofficial online home for fans of the Kent State University Golden Flashes. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

Might as well start a thread on this because I am bored.

There are 4 Kent alum playing the bigs right now.

1) Travis Shaw - After getting nontenured by the Brewers, Shaw landed in Toronto (scratch that, Buffalo?) as part of the kids of major league players infield for Jays with Little Biggio, Bichette and Guerrero (Vlad's son). Well, he's played three games so far because he missed a week and a half due to a family issue that went unstated, but will likely mostly start at third for the rest of the year. He needs the chance to get back on track after last year's disaster.

2) Andrew Chafin - Back in his typical role as DBack's setup man, where things haven't gone well so far (giving up 4 walks and a HR in 3 and 1/3 innings in 6 appearances). It's going to be hard to take this year seriously for trying to get a read on what is going on with players, but I expect we'll see the normal Chafin of good, but not great, left-handed reliever that we've seen for 5 years now.

3) Eric Lauer - Now on the Brewers, he missed most of the 2nd training because he had to quarantine after being around someone who has COVID. After a week into the season, he was brought on the active roster and pitched well in one relief appearance and then got killed in a start tonight. He is likely 4th/5th starter on the Brewers, but my guess is he'll float from the rotation to the pen as the Brewers have about 7 guys who can be reasonable starters and will probably not have a very fixed rotation this season.

4) Taylor Williams - Now with the Mariners. Williams was dropped off the Brewers 40 man roster in the spring and immediately picked up by the Mariners, who have a crummy bullpen. Williams has pitched in 5 games, giving up 4 runs in 5 innings, but he has been solid, except for his last outing where he hit two batters and gave up a homerun. Williams has a lot to gain this year as he will not have to worry about the minor-major league shuffle he's been on the last few years and will get the chance to establish he is a big league talent. A lot of solid relievers emerge in their late 20s, so it is still a good possibility that Williams can have a nice major league career.

Eric Lauer is some kind of bad.

I’m not going to diagnose why Lauer is getting rocked, but his fastball seems a little slow (90 mph) and that it flattens out when it isn’t around 92. Maybe that’s it. His location doesn’t seem too sharp either. He missed a lot of the ‘second’ spring training because he had been exposed to COVID. I think he’ll come around.

Travis Shaw jacked two homeruns yesterday. Here’s hoping we see the 2015-18 version of Shaw coming back.

Former Flashes on the move before the MLB trade deadline.

Cubs acquire Andrew Chafin from the D-backs for a player to be named later or cash.

Padres acquire Taylor Williams from Mariners for a player to be named later.

#GoFlashes