Not necessarily excited again to be here, but Kernels pitchers excited to prove themselves

CEDAR RAPIDS — Randy LeBlanc spoke for a lot of his teammates Tuesday night.

The Cedar Rapids Kernels have 15 players on their opening-day roster who spent time here last season. Nine of the 12 members of the pitching staff were around at various points.

LeBlanc and Sam Gibbons started games in the 2015 Midwest League Championship Series. John Curtiss, Michael Theofanopoulos and Nick Anderson threw important bullpen innings in that five-game series.

As Manager Jake Mauer was quick to point out, sometimes professional baseball isn't necessarily fair. Those guys are all back.

'I'm not going to beat around the bush. I was pretty disappointed at first,' LeBlanc said. 'There's 15 returners here, for the most part. But Jake's been pounding in our heads that you can't go into it bitter. You've got to play your way out of here ... Stay positive, be happy you made a roster, stuff like that. We've got to go out there, do our best and see what happens.'

The Kernels' begin their 140-game season Thursday night at home against Quad Cities. LeBlanc gets the ball for the 6:35 opener.

He went 9-5 with a save and 3.03 earned run average in 33 games last season. Gibbons was 7-4 with a 2.89 ERA in 15 starts.

The nine returning pitchers combined last season for a 30-29 record, 10 saves and 3.71 earned run average. They threw a whopping 485 innings, accumulating 529 strikeouts.

'As long as we've got a jersey, we've got an opportunity,' Gibbons said. 'I thought I threw the ball pretty well last season. I'm just trying to stay confident, not let anything get to my head. Just prove that we should be in (high-A) Fort Myers. It's about throwing the ball well, and when the opportunity comes to go up, you grab it with both hands.'

'We've got a good chance to do well,' LeBlanc said. 'With nine guys returning, most of us had pretty good years last year. The guys we have coming up did well in Rookie ball last year. There's nobody here that isn't worth a crap, you know what I mean? Everybody's good.'

First-year Kernels pitching coach J.P. Martinez said newcomer Andro Cutura will start Friday night's second game, followed in the rotation by Gibbons, Sam Clay and Dereck Rodriguez. He's the son of former big-league catching great Ivan 'Pudge' Rodriguez.

'They set the bar pretty high last year with their pitching performance with (pitching coach) Henry (Bonilla) here,' Martinez said. 'I'm excited to have those guys back. I think it makes my job a little bit easier. They know what to expect and can kind of help the younger guys on the staff. But I also think we've got a little unfinished business here, losing in the championship series last year. I know these guys want to start out hot and win the first-half championship, put us in a good position going forward.

'I think having those returning guys gives us a little stability, especially having those guys at the back half (of games) to lean on. I'm excited to have the group that we have.'

Mauer said Curtiss threw the ball extremely well in spring training and will have the opportunity to close games. Anderson had four saves and a 0.75 ERA in 12 innings after joining the team late upon signing out of the independent leagues.

Bottom line is this should be a very good pitching staff.

'I think our bullpen is going to be pretty good again,' Mauer said. 'Our starters, we've got some guys who are first-year starters and going to prove something this year. Position player wise, I think we're deeper than we've been the last two years. It should be exciting. It looks good on paper, and we'll see what happens when the lights come on.'

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