Archive for June, 2009
No matter what anybody says, I can’t stop thinking young is great,
The lower level teams each played a doubleheader on Monday, going 3-1. New Hampshire got rained out for the second straight day, and Lansing had the day off for the second straight day, while Marc Rzepczynski continued his fine season for Las Vegas.
Sacramento 2 at Las Vegas 4
Last week, Marc Rzepczynski made his Vegas debut in fine fashion, going 5 2/3 shutout innings, striking out 9. This time, he had, um, almost the exact same outing, going 5 2/3, allowing 1 run and striking out 7. He also allowed 5 hits, a walk, and had 7 ground balls to only 3 flies. It’s safe to say the promotion has been going well, though the pitch counts are a little high (103 tonight). It could be the case that he’s afraid to pitch to contact, not ununderstandable in minor league ball.
Just like in tonight’s lower level games, the offense wasn’t great but it was good enough. Joe Inglett had 3 singles and Brett Harper went 2-3 with a walk to lead the 51s.
Portland at New Hampshire - postponed
St. Lucie got to starter Kenny Rodriguez early, scoring 3 runs in the top of the first inning on a double steal of 2nd and home (is there a better term for that? delayed steal?) and a 2 run homer. Though K-Rod struck out the side in the first, that was all the Mets needed. Rodriguez actually pitched very well after the first; from innings 2-7, he allowed 4 hits and a walk, and didn’t allow a run. He got a bit tired in the 7th and Trystan Magnuson let his 2 inherited runners score, but K-Rod probably deserved better than his line of 7 1/3 innings, 5 ER. Kenny struck out 11, and had 7 ground outs to only 3 fly outs, a very good ratio.
Despite the fact that the offense managed 9 hits and 7 walks, they could only muster 2 runs. The team was 1-11 with RISP, and left 12 men on base. Moises Sierra had the best night, going 3-4 with a walk, and his seasonal line is up to 319/395/450/844.
Lansing - scheduled day off
Jamestown 9 at Auburn 0 (game 1)
This was an ugly one, so I won’t write much about it. The offense ran into Royals’ prospect Mike Montgomery, and only managed 2 hits and 2 walks. No hitter reached base more than once (remembering, of course, that it was a 7 inning game). The pitching was no better, giving up 14 hits and a couple of walks in the 9-0 defeat. Starter Egan Smith bore most of the brunt.
Jamestown 1 at Auburn 5 (game 2)
That’s better. The story of this game was pitcher David Sever, who pitched 5 innings of relief, allowing a run on 2 hits and a walk while striking out 9. Starter James Lehman wasn’t too shabby either, pitching 2 shutout innings while allowing a hit, 2 walks, and striking out 3.
Bradley Glenn led the offense by going 2-3 with a double, 2 runs scored and an RBI. Eric Eiland reached base twice.
GCL Blue Jays 3 at GCL Tigers 0 (game 1)
The GCL Jays continued the trend of fine pitching, as starter Carlos Pina went 5 strong, not allowing a run, to lead the short seasoners to victory. The offense provided enough, led by 18 year old catcher Carlos Perez, who went a perfect 2-2, including a double, 2 runs, and a HBP. By the way, the GCL Tigers’ starter was named Ramon Lebron. Guess he shoulda stuck to basketball.
GCL Tigers 2 at GCL Blue Jays 3 (game 2)
This time, the game was a little closer, but once again 3 runs proved to be enough for the young’uns as the GCL Jays swept the home and home doubleheader against their Tiger counterparts. Of note, Kenny Wilson played in this game and went 1-3, and Gustavo Pierre was the offensive star, going 2-3 with a triple.
Three Stars!
3. Carlos Pina, GCL Blue Jays - 5 shutout innings
2. Marc Rzepczynski, Las Vegas - 5.2 IP, 5H, 1BB, 1ER, 7K
1. David Sever, Auburn - 5 IP, 2H, 1BB, 9K
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Thoughts?
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Interleague play is now over, except for the tentatively-but-not-officially-rescheduled-for-September-3 Cubs/White Sox game from the May 16 rainout. The Cubs are 6-8 in interleague this year, pending that game. Once again, the AL dominated interleague play. Only five NL teams finished with winning interleague records (Marlins, 10-8; Cardinals, 9-6; Pirates, 8-7; Giants, 9-6, and Rockies, 11-4). Even the Dodgers, still running away with the NL West, only played .500 (9-9) in interleague.
The Cubs have 13 games until the All-Star break; ten of these will be against teams from the NL Central (the three vs. Atlanta next week are the only ones that are outside the division). At two games under .500, it’d be nice to go at least 8-5 in those 13 games to reach the break with a winning record. However, let me point out that of the three Cub playoff teams in this decade, only one (last year’s) reached the All-Star break with anything resembling a good record. The 2007 team was 44-43 and 4.5 games out of first place at the break, and the 2003 team was 47-47 and 3 games out.
There’s still time. But this club needs to start playing to its capabilities, get Aramis Ramirez back at even 85% of full strength, go out and get another hitter and some bullpen help, and focus on baseball. Enough of the off-field soap opera.
I’m not even going to link to Phil Rogers’ silly column about waiving Carlos Zambrano. That’s another of Phil’s “heat of the moment” idiocies. Z just has to get his head on straight and live up to his considerable talent.
What I am going to do again… is ask for civility here. I have received numerous emails over the weekend with various complaints about personal attacks and profanity in the game threads. While I understand we are all frustrated with this team’s performance — I’m no exception to that — all I ask is that you keep those two things out of the game thread (and other thread) discussion. Also, I know there are quite a few new posters here, and some of the posts recently have, quite frankly, gotten away from the types of posts that help further the discussion here. If you are new, we welcome you — but I also ask that you please read all the posts under “BCB Specials & Site Info” on the right sidebar that have to do with posting tips and suggestions. Following the ideas in those posts will help you make better posts.
Lineup via Twittermyer:
Soriano, lf; Theriot, ss; Lee, 1b; Fox, 3b; Soto, c; Bradley, rf; Freel, cf; Blanco, 2b; Harden, p
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Zach Duke is 4-5, 3.03 in 14 career starts against the Cubs, but has not beaten them at all since shutting out that horrific 2006 team on May 2, 2006. He pitched seven good innings at Wrigley Field on May 27, but left in a 2-2 tie and the Pirates bullpen blew the game (hmmm. Sound familiar?) It would seem that Duke would be a guy that Alfonso Soriano would love to see to break his slump. Soriano is 15-for-29 (.517) lifetime vs. Duke with four doubles and two HR.
Rich Harden: please give us the 2008 version of yourself. He’s 0-3, 5.64 in his last four starts. Tonight will be his first career start against the Pirates; the only Buc he has faced for more than two at-bats is ex-Cub farmhand Eric Hinske (4-for-14, 2 HR).
Today’s game is on WCIU. That means it can be seen within a three-block radius of their headquarters downtown. Maybe this is a good thing, considering the recent play of the team. The FSN Pittsburgh feed should be available on EI. For other games today see the MLB.com Mediacenter.
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Please visit our SBN Pirates site Bucs Dugout.
Overflow comment threads will post today at 7 pm, 8 pm and 8:45 pm CDT.
Discuss amongst yourselves.
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I have always been a big fan of Duke, I have to say, seeing stuff like this gives me mixed feelings.How do you think this news about Duke will affect the rest of the team this season?
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A lot of people like this guy. I think Young is dumb,
The Cubs/White Sox weekend series ended with a 6-0 blowout win for the Sox. Pretty pathetic effort for a Cubs team that looked like it was starting to show some fire and tenacity at last.The Cubs once again found themselves being stymied by John Danks, who would be a Cy Young candidate if he could ….
Any response to Out With a Whimper?
Take a peek at a video of Young:
1 of the Best 10U Baseball Player N the Nation Markus Bracey
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I wonder how Young’s fans feel,
“The Jays’ affiliates had an off-day, a postponement, and a suspension. In the remaining 3 games, they went 2-1.
Sacramento 3 at Las Vegas 6
Brian Burres is pushing for a promotion! 11 days after spinning a masterful shut-out, the 28 year old pitched 7 innings of effective ball, allowing 3 runs on 9 hits and a walk while striking out 8 and getting 9 ground outs to only 4 flyouts. By the time he exited, the 51s had built a 6-3 lead which they never relinquished. Bill Murphy and Bryan Bullington each pitched a scoreless inning to ensure that this game was pitched entirely by guys who have been on the big club at some point this year. And whose first names start with B. Coincidence!
Las Vegas spread the offensive love around, with every starter getting a hit. Of note, J.P. Arencibia went 2-4 with a double and 2 ribbies, and Randy Ruiz had a double in 4 trips.
Portland at New Hampshire (suspended)
Charlotte 9 at Dunedin 8 (11 innings)
It was a wild one in Dunedin. Andrew Liebel got the start and had his first bad outing in a while, giving up 6 runs in just 4 and a third innings. However, only 2 of those runs were earned, and it really was a tough luck day for Liebel: he allowed unearned runs in three separate innings, and Kyle Ginley allowed 1 inherited runner to score, so this wasn’t simply one of those situations where one error leads to a whole bunch of unearned runs. Nevertheless, it wasn’t Liebel’s greatest outing.
Liebel’s mediocrity and the D-Jays’ horrific defense put them in a 7-0 deficit by the time the 6th inning rolled around, but they finally broke through against Jeremy Hall on 3 consecutive hits by Sean Shoffitt (single), Raul Barron (triple) and Moises Sierra (single). And then, in the 7th, Dunedin exploded for 6 more, highlighted by a 3-run homer by John Tolisano.
Charlotte tied the game up in the 8th, and a scoreless 9th sent the game to extras. In 3 innings, Dunedin was held baserunner-less by the Stone Crabs’ bullpen, and Charlotte won the game in the 11th by, you guessed it, scoring what turned out to be an unearned run charged to Tim Collins. Collins was otherwise good, pitching 3 innings, allowing 4 baserunners and striking out 3.
No hitter had a spectacular day, though Shoffit, Barron and Sierra each had 2 hits, and Tolisano had the aforementioned 3 run jack.
Young Henderson Alvarez was the story for Lansing on Sunday afternoon, going 6 innings while only allowing 5 hits, walking nobody and striking out 5. Alvarez allowed 1 run, and had a 7-6 GB-FB ratio. Unfortunately, he didn’t get the win, as the bullpen allowed the Dragons to tie it up in the 8th. But Lansing stormed right back with 2 runs of their own in the bottom of the inning, and Matthew Daly nailed it down with a perfect 9th inning for his 14th save.
Chris Emanuele reached base 3 times with a single and 2 walks, and A.J. Jimenez had 3 hits including a double, and drove in 2 runs to lead the Lansing offense.
Jamestown at Auburn - post-poned
GCL Jays - scheduled day off
By the way, ever wonder what attendance is like at minor league games? Well, much more extensive research could be done on this topic, and who knows how representative these attendance figures are, but for what it’s worth here were the crowd sizes for each of today’s minor league games:
Las Vegas: 2,195
Dunedin: 399
Lansing: 4,918
Elsewhere… Lake Elsinore beat High Desert 33-18. Seriously. There were 58 hits. Also, Lake Elsinore walked 13 times, while High Desert only walked once. Weird.
Three Stars!
3. Brian Burres - 7 IP, 3ER, 9K
2. A.J. Jimenez, 3-4, 2B, 2 RBIs
1. Henderson Alvarez - 6 innings, 5 baserunners, 1 run, 5 Ks
“
what do you think?How do you think this news will affect the team this season?
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I wonder how meek’s fans feel:
“Lou Piniella has explained why he told Milton Bradley to go home after Bradley’s tantrum in the dugout Friday. It was all about protecting the water cooler, which Bradley was ready to go all Carlos Zambrano on after flying out meekly in the top of the sixth:“I don’t like those things to happen, but I’m …”
what do you think?How do you think this news will affect the team this season?
Take a look at a vid of meek at his finest:
Jodie Meeks Highlights
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I wonder how young’s fans feel -
In case those haters on ESPN didn’t tell you, Gary Sheffield had the game of his life last night, driving home 10 runs on five — count ‘em, five — homers. Of course, such an outburst probably shouldn’t have surprised us. Turns out, Sheffield is leading the Mets in dingers. He’s also hitting .277 and is 40-years-young. OK, you caught me. One of the above statements isn’t true. Bet you can’t guess which one! If you chose the first, well, you win. Shucks. ***** Good Saturday morning, and sorry for the late start. It’s going to be one of those days, so send in your best to ben@deadspin.com, and let’s make it a thriller. 
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