A pair of Lions will be wearing Cardinal colours in the summer of 2014.
Both Alex Delgado, as well as Cardinal returnee Ben Grillo, will trade in their Emmanuel College red and gold in favour of something in more of a Yorkton Cardinal red for the duration of the 2014 summer thanks to the hard work and determination of the Yorkton Cardinals recruiting staff.
Delgado, a senior shortstop with the Lions, has started in 45 of 49 games for the Emmanuel College Lions this year. In those 45 starts, Delgado is batting .299 with 49 hits, three of which are doubles. Delgado has also collected on triple and one homerun this season while driving in 22 runs.
And while power might not be the first thing that comes to mind hen Delgado is at the plate, that's fine. Where he'll hurt you is on the base paths. The native of Caracas, Venezuela, was a perfect seven-for-seven this year on stolen base attempts. Delgado has also shown that he has a keen eye at the plate in striking out a team low 12 times in 45 games.
Defensively, Delgado's .970 fielding percentage places him fourth on the Lions while his six errors tie him with fellow Cardinal recruit Ben Grillo for fourth on the club.
His 127 assists, however, rank him first overall on the Lions in that category.
Grillo, meanwhile, returns to the Cardinals after a somewhat lacklustre 2013 summer in which he hit just .169. In 34 games last summer for the Cardinals the 6'4", 225-pound first baseman collected just 14 hits in 83 at-bats. It's worth noting, however, that six of those hits were doubles.
His ability to hit doubles seemed to carry over to his university season here he hit eight in 49 games.
Grillo started all 49 games for the Lions this past season ; a season in which he hit .285 and drove in a team leading 25 runs.
But while both Delgado and Grillo had similar offensive numbers in most categories, there is one category in particular that Grillo needs to work on.
Grillo struck out a team leading 40 times in 2014 and while he did manage to walk 14 times, it's still something he needs to work on.
Grillo, defensively anyhow, has been one of the best on the Emmanuel College Lions. He gathered 411 putouts over the season and collected 27 assists to go along with just six errors for a fielding percentage of .986. Grillo was also a part of 24 double plays this year, many of which were due to Delgado's slick defensive play (Delgado was involved in 15 double plays).
Look for the Kennesaw, Georgia, native and returning Cardinal player Ben Grillo to add some much needed leadership to the Cardinals in 2014.
Welcome to the Cardinals Alex, and welcome back Ben!
Roster developments
Cash Oliver, one of the subjects of last week's Cardinals report, will not be joining the team for the 2014 season. This is due to a recent development at his university (Tuskegee University) in which Oliver must complete two more classes to be able to graduate. If he does not, then his university will not honour his scholarship. Therefore Oliver will not be joining the Cardinals for the 2014 season.
Two other athletes, Canadian pitchers Kody Rock (Canora, SK) and Mike Schnurr (Waterloo, Ont,), will not start the season with the Cardinals.
Both pitchers are experiencing arm problems and have been put on the inactive roster for the time being.
