The Chukars’ slow start to the season began before the start of the season

IDAHO FALLS — First off, due to the way Pioneer Baseball League playoff berths are distributed, the Chukars are still very much alive in their quest to return to the PBL Championship Series.

That being said, this season has been riding the struggle bus since a little over a month before it ever started.

Eight months after falling one win shy of the 2025 PBL championship, the Idaho Falls Chukars find themselves at the bottom of the league’s standings. At 9-25, Idaho Falls has a better record than only one club in the league: the RedPocket Mobiles, who do not have a home park and play all their games on the road.

Pitching has been the primary issue for the Chuks, who carry a league-worst 11.83 ERA — over than 1.5 runs more than the Great Falls Voyagers’ second-worst 10.17.

Defense has also been an issue, with Idaho Falls having commit a league-leading 56 errors. Though not the top number in the league, Chukars catchers have been tagged with 15 passed balls in just 34 games.

So the question is: what happened to the solid pitching and catching Idaho Falls boasted in its run to the PBL Championship Series last year.

To answer that, you’d have to go back to November, when former manager Troy Percival resigned from his position with the club to take the same post in Long Beach, Calif. with the expansion Long Beach Coast.

Percival, who grew up in the Los Angeles area, took the job, in part, to be closer to family. And just like that, the manager who had helped guide the Chukars from a league-worst 34 wins in 2023, the year before he took over the helm, to 54 wins and an appearance in the championship series last year, was gone.

After Les Lancaster was hired to replace Percival, more dominoes began to fall.

Players began a mass exodus from Idaho Falls, all heading to Southern California to join their former coach, most of whom had been initially brought to Idaho by Percival.

Now, looking at what has made Long Beach (28-7) the best team in the league, it’s hard to miss the Chukar influence.

The Coast’s league-leading pitching staff, with its 5.46 ERA, features Steven Odorica, Garrett VanDeventer and Nathan Hemmerling. Another former Chuk, Julien Hernandez, was among Long Beach’s top relievers before signing a minor league contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks. And former Chukar ace Gary Grosjean has been dominant, posting a 1.23 ERA and 0.41 WHIP across three appearances.

An under-appreciated part of pitching success is the catcher, and while the Chukars have used eight different catchers this season — in just 34 games — both backstops from Idaho Falls’ title run a year ago, Johnny Pappas and Thomas McCaffrey, now play in Long Beach.

Jacob Jablonski, Anthony Mata and Eddy Pelc are also among the former Chukars currently making contributions to the Coast.

And all of them slowly trickled from Idaho Falls to Long Beach, according to Chukar GM Chris Hall. Making matters worse for the Chuks, player departures began late in the offseason, about a month before the start of team workouts.

“We all loved Percy, and we knew so the players did too,” Hall said of the major losses Idaho Falls has endured. “Almost all of (the players) were from Southern California. So we figured that most of them would want to follow him closer to home. (We’re) just glad we were able to get the ones we did back.”

The Chukar roster has steadily evolved over the course of the season, with the additions of players like Drew Stengren, who appears capable of solidifying the catcher position, Justin Trimble, who has quickly become a legit middle-of-the-order threat, and pitcher Sean Kelby, who has been very good in his five appearances.

The success Idaho Falls has enjoyed thus far this year has come, primarily, behind the offense, which is among the league’s elite.

Trimble has joined veteran Tyler Wyatt and Garret Ostrander, both of whom can be included among the players Hall said the organization is “glad” to have back, in leading the way there. As have Sam Conton, Ty Dooley and Wes Mitchell.

The Chuks also made a change at the top, with Lancaster resigning just 31 games into the season. Longtime pitching coach Bob Milacki has taken over for the remainder of the season and gone 2-1 thus far as the skipper.

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While the roster continues to evolve and get better — winning seven of their last 11 games — the Chukars are looking to shore up a few more spots (mostly within the pitching staff) before the end of the first half (in two weeks).

The four PBL playoff spots are determined by half-season records.

That means the top two teams in the first half will qualify, as will the top two teams in the second half. So, if the Chukars can find a playoff roster within the next few weeks, they will still be able to earn a playoff spot in the second half.