Thanks to LL Night keeping Brett, etown, Goose and I out until the late hours, you get a morning-after post for this recap. LL Night Karma struck back in last night's slumpbusting 7-03 win.
The T-Rats could use some slumpbusting against Great Lakes, as the Loons are owning this series. With the Mavs off to travel, we'll also take a brief look at the Lancaster Jethawks. As one would surmise against a 9-21 AA team, the DIAMOND JAXX lit up the Mississippi Braves, and the Rainiers got some late heroics against the Redhawks in a game that featured a bemusingly familiar face.
On to the wrap-up!
A: Great Lakes 6, Wisconsin 1
WIS: 10-17... GLK: 14-16
Edward Paredes: 2.2 IP, 4 H, (5 R) 1 ER (HR), 2 walks, 2 K
Jacob Wild: 2.1 IP, 3 H, 5 K
Robert Harmon: 2 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 2 walks, 4 K
Justin Souza: 1 IP, K
Edilio Colina: 2-4, R (329/365/429)
Scott Robinson: 2-4
Juan Diaz: 1-3, RBI, K (260/330/312)
Ronald Garth: 1-4, double, 2 K (239/292/343)
The Loons jumped on Edward Paredes from the get-go and had a 5-0 lead after 2, a lead that was more than enough today. Ronald Garth helped him out at 3B with two costly errors that sparked both the 1st and 2nd inning rallies. Paredes didn't even get to see the order twice before getting the hook in the 3rd, though to his credit he opened the 3rd with back to back K's before a walk ended his day early.
Groundballs: 5
Flyballs: 1
Line Drives: 3 (1 HR)
Pop Ups: 2
Walks: 2
Strikeouts: 2
No, red hot Joe Dunigan didn't get shut down today, though 1 for 3 with a K isn't much to crow about.
A+: The High Desert Mavs had the day off. They are en route to Lancaster for another series with the Jethawks, who at 13-18 isn't the juggernaut they were last season.
Lancaster's .742 team OPS (275/338/403) is 4th in the Cal League, albeit a distant 4th (Lake Elsinore is 3rd with .770 and Stockton leads the Cal League with .848). The Mavs are right behind them at .741 (268/331/410), so both teams have had similar seasons at the plate. The best Jethawk bats include 3B Jorge Jimenez (352/402/495) and OF Reid Engel (324/369/441)... no more dangerous than, say, Johan Limonta, but still dangerous. Catcher Jon Still (316/397/596) and 1B Lars Anderson (283/386/504) are probably the most dangerous power bats in the lineup. The Jethawks still have a lot of power hitting... just not all the way through the lineup like last season.
Lancaster's pitching has walked the fewest batters in the Cal League, which combined with High Desert's 2nd most K's in the Cal League will mean a lot of swinging. As always, with great thanks to their home park, the Mavs have the highest team ERA in the league at 5.47, with Lancaster's 4.43 right in the peloton.
Travis Beazley and Christopher Jones can dominate and strike out hitters, but have been scored on (ERAs of 4.82 and 4.55 respectively) so scoring runs on them isn't impossible.
The one guy that's kept hitters off the basepaths is Tony Bajoczky (27.2 IP, 27 H, 2 HR, 4-18 BB/K, 3.25 ERA in 4 starts). Like Kyle Parker, he's not spectacular, but he's gotten the job done so far.
AA: West Tenn 13, Mississippi 3
WTN: 21-10... MIS: 9-22
Doug FISTER: 6 IP, 4 H, 3 ER (HR), 4 walks, 3 K
Roman Martinez: 1 IP, 2 K
Travis Chick: 1 IP
Craig James: 1 IP, 1 H, 2 K
Prentice Redman: 2-5, double, 2 R, RBI, walk, SB (221/376/395)
Michael Saunders: 2-4, 2 R, sac fly RBI, walk (308/390/505)
Marshall Hubbard: 2-5, 2 run HR, 2 R, K (371/460/619)
Mike Wilson: 1-3, double, 2 R, RBI, walk (254/351/522)
Adam Moore: 3-5, double, 2 R, 5 RBI, 2 K (295/385/422)
Jon Nelson: 1-2, RBI, 3 walks, K (274/361/370)
Ronnie Prettyman: 3-5, R, RBI (227/258/409)
Luis Valbuena: 1-3, double, R, K (321/414/512)
Jeff Dominguez: pinch walk, RBI single (189/271/226)
See what I was saying about the AA Braves? I didn't expect a blowout like this, but I did expect to see success. This is about as successful as success gets in AA.
Doug FISTER might have gotten farther, but after allowing 3 runs in the 6th, Scott Steinmann elected to play it safe with the FIST and give the bullpen some easy work.
Groundballs: 6 (plus 1 bunt)
Flyballs: 7 (1 HR)
Line Drives: 1
Pop Ups: 1
Walks: 4
Strikeouts: 3
AAA: Tacoma 2, Oklahoma 1
TAC: 16-14... OKL: 20-12
Ryan Feierabend: 6 IP, 4 H, 1 ER (HR), walk, 2 K, wild pitch
Jon Huber: 3 IP, 2 H, K
Jeremy Reed: 1-4, RBI, K (364/425/561)
Bryan LaHair: 1-4, RBI, K (303/387/596)
rest of Rainiers lineup: 4-23, 2 R, 3 K
Robinson Tejeda and Feier had themselves a little pitchers duel, and after 6, Tejeda had the upper hand after Feier surrendered a solo shot to Nate Gold (235/361/500) in the 2nd. Feier gave the Rainiers 6 solid innings but already had 100 pitches after 6 and left with a 1-0 deficit. Also, he was getting squared up a little too much for comfort.
Groundballs: 7
Flyballs: 3
Line Drives: 5
Pop Ups: 2
Walks: 1
Strikeouts: 2
Jon Huber surprised us by going the rest of the way, all 3 innings worth, allowing only 2 hits with a strikeout over 34 pitches. Given his struggles this season, this was a pleasant surprise.
One other pleasant surprise was Kazuo Fukumori imploding in the bottom of the 9th inning with two outs. Tuglett lined a single, Tui smoked a grounder into LF after him, and after Bill White came in, Jeremy Smurfing Reed smoked a grounder up the middle to cash in Hulett and TIE THE BALLGAME at 1, before Bryan LaHair lined a single to cash in Tui for the walkoff.
So hey... remember that rookie MLB umpire Casey Moser from early this season, whose distorted view of the strike zone produced a Squinty headbob and ejection? Well... looks like his ass got demoted: he was the 3B umpire in this game.
0 recs | 13 comments
7-3, not 7-0. We did give up runs last night.
BrettJMiller - May 6, 2008
Can't you just let the man have his shutout?
Phil Hatzenbuehler - May 6, 2008
True
Clearly they meant a ton as they completely escaped my memory.
Gomez - May 6, 2008
Yeah, something weird's going on in Jackson
nothing shows up on the 2008 PFs though. Too much FIST, I guess.
I guess Adam Moore is bucking the trend a bit; his home numbers aren’t that hot. But Hubbard, Saunders, Valbuena, Prettyman, Wilson, etc. are all much better at home. We’ll have to check this later in the year.
The Timberrattlers got their revenge this morning, beating Great Lakes 7-0 behind 7 shutout IP (5H, 1BB, 9Ks) from Nate Adcock. Gavin Dickey and Scott Robinson were the hitting stars.
marc w - May 6, 2008
Wow, Nate Adcock!
Way to step out of the slump.
Gomez - May 6, 2008
It's nice to see
both Saunders and Moore mashing. Looks like their excellent numbers last year weren’t completely due to the “high desert effect.”
redwolf75 - May 6, 2008
.422 sluggign? harldy mashing i'd say
Graham MacAree - May 6, 2008
Maybe hitting for some power, yeah, but not mashing
Gomez - May 6, 2008
That's hitting for almost no power
but, in an attempt to buck the trend set by his teammates, his road splits are: .317/.406/.500. That’s still not a ton of power from a supposed power bat, but hey: .300/.400/.500!
Moore’s home slg% = .343. boooo.
marc w - May 6, 2008
Fair enough.
Saunders is mashing, Moore is…?
redwolf75 - May 6, 2008
Making sweet, sweet contact?
Going the other way with the ball?
Hitting behind the runner?
Stringing base-knocks together?
Hitting it where they ain’t?
marc w - May 6, 2008
How is LaHair hitting so well?
Coach Owens - May 6, 2008
Couple things
One: finally hitting for power on the road. His power outage last year, coupled with a good LD%, seemed to indicate an almost historic lack of pop for a corner IF. This year, he’s hitting well in the places he should – Colorado Springs, etc.
Two: It’s his third go-round in the PCL. Ask Jeff Clement how much easier it gets after a full year and a half in AAA. Related: he’s now 25 – he should be improving if normal career arcs are anything to go by. This shows up right now in a bit better K rate/BB rate.
Three: He’s learned to at least fight lefties to a draw; he still can’t hurt them, but so far, they haven’t just pwned him like they always have. I’m worried that this one isn’t sustainable (because again, the worst he can do is ground a double inside the bag), but who knows. Tangotiger tells us to be somewhat suspicious of these sorts of massive, massive platoon splits.
Four: Small sample size. He’s hit a HR or two at home in those rare April games when the wind’s blowing out. At this stage in the season, a couple of outs->HRs = holy shit, he’s on fire!!
Five: less than 1/4 of his ABs have come versus southpaws. I can’t check right now, but if that balance has been different in the past, that would make his stats look quite different (given his historical inability to do anything vs. lefties).
Six: He was a bit underrated coming into the year (incl. by me). His LD% last year was very good – better than his BABIP showed. He wasn’t GOOD coming into the year, but it’s worth pointing out that he hit 46 2Bs last year. If those start going over the fence with more consistency, it’s obviously going to impact the slg%/iso, and it has. Given his age, familiarity with the league, it’s probably not purely luck that his HR/H is up so much this year (with 2B/H going down). Still, small sample size applies here, and a shift in a couple of HRs makes this look different. This is more a thing to watch as opposed to an actual change for now, but 46 2Bs last year is not something to just ignore.
He’s still a VERY limited player and probably has no real future on the team, though I sincerely hope that having a 26yo guy who can hit righties makes the team think twice about the need for any future Eduardo Perez’s.
marc w - May 6, 2008
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