Batter's Box Interactive Magazine - Say It Ain't So, Lugnuts

Lansing's ten game win streak ended. Ricky Romero pitched well as Sergio Santos provided the offense. The affiliates went 1-2 as Syracuse lost again.

Syracuse 1 Rochester 4

This game was tied at 1 until the bottom of the eighth. Jason Scobie made the spot start and pitched well, five innings of two hit ball with one run allowed. Brian Wolfe picked him up and pitched two and two thirds innings of two hit ball. In one of those decisions that haunt a manager Doug Davis brought in Blaine Neal with two outs in the eighth and the result was single, home run, home run to put the Chiefs down 4-1. Former Chief Dave Gassner shut down the Chiefs other than a Sal Fasano home run. The Chiefs had only four hits, two by Fasano.

Portland 3 New Hampshire 4

Ricky Romero made his first start since April 10th and pitched well, 6.1 innings, five hits, 2 walks, seven strikeouts and two runs. Romero gave up his two runs in the fifth on three of his hits. New Hampshire had taken the lead in the fourth on a home run by the getting hot Sergio Santos. Jean Machi allowed a run in the top of the eighth to put the Fisher Cats down 3-1. In the bottom of the eighth Manny Mayorson singled with one out, Robinzon Diaz doubled to put runners on second and third, Chip Cannon struck out and then Sergio Santos doubled off the wall to plate both runners and tie the game.

Tracey Thorpe worked a perfect ninth and Aaron Mathews led off the bottom of the ninth with a single. Mathews was sacrificed to second and with two outs Manny Mayorson singled him home for the win. Matorson was 2-5 with a run and an RBI. Santos was 2-3 with a walk, a double, a home run, a run scored and three RBI's.

Dunedin - day off

Beloit 13 Lansing 6

The ten game winning streak ended abruptly yesterday as Kyle Ginley was not sharp, he gave up seven runs on eight hits in 2.2 innings to run his ERA to 7.15. Lansing scored three runs in the bottom of the ninth to make the score look a litlle better. Brian Bormaster had three hits, Sean Shoffit, Scott Campbell and Jonathon Diaz had two each. Travis Snider took an 0 fer 4.

3 star selection

3rd star - Ricky Romero
2nd star - Manny Mayorson
1st star - Sergio Santos

Team Records

Syracuse 7-9, 5th, 3 games behind
New Hampshire 7-5, 2nd place, 3.5 games behind
Dunedin 4-11, 6th place, 7.5 games behind
Lansing 11-2, tied 1st place

Did You Know?

Syracuse used ten hitters yesterday, four of them are hitting under .200, and seven under .240. The three exceptions are Wayne Lydon (small sample), Sal Fasano and John-Ford Griffin.

Russ Adams is only hitting .200 but his OBP is .322 as he has 8 walks vs 4 K's. He is making contact, maybe not good contact.

Zero ERA pitchers (5 IP min):

Matt Roney AAA
Jordan DeJong AA
Jo Matumoto AA
Seth Overbey A
Adrian Martin A

OPS leaders (min 30 AB's, Sundays games may or may not be included)

AAA, Mike Vento 1.120
AA, Wayne Lydon .948/Aaron Mathews .921
High A, Jacob Butler .915
A, Brian Pettway 1.153

Strikeout leaders:

AAA, Dustin McGowan 22
AA, David Purcey 18
High A, Kurt Isenberg 14
A, Nathan Starner 16

Posted by Gerry on Sunday, April 22 2007 @ 09:04 PM EDT.

Say It Ain't So, Lugnuts | 13 comments | Create New Account

The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.

Pistol - Sunday, April 22 2007 @ 10:01 PM EDT (#166413) #

Here's some Fisher Cat pictures from Sunday game.

As you can see from his line Romero pitched pretty well. He did a pretty good job of getting ahead of hitters and moving the ball in and out. Once he was ahead he tried to stretch the zone and would end up working deep counts. He got a lot of ground balls today.

He doesn't throw that hard. I think the highest I saw him was at 89 and he usually was in the mid 80s with a fastball. He has a slow curve with a lot of bite - usually in the low 70s. His speeds were all over the place (and I never know how accurate the stadium radar guns are).

The 2 runs came on a double and two singles back up the middle. The double could have been caught. It was a deep drive to left center and Majewski (pronounced My-Ess-Ski) pulled up just a bit as he was reaching the wall and it dropped in on the track. It would have been a really good catch if he made it - he had to go a long way. Of course, in an average park that probably would have been a HR.

Santos was the standout today. Both his HR and 2B were opposite field. The double was off the top of the wall in right-center, and was actually more impressive than the HR. If you look in the pictures the 2nd Santos picture (2nd row, 9th from the left) is the pitch that he hits for a HR. My goal with that picture was to get the pitcher, batter, and the batter on the scoreboard but I couldn't quite fit it all in. I'm no Named For Hank Jr.

FisherCatFan - Monday, April 23 2007 @ 03:06 PM EDT (#166433) #

Pistol you have a few nice pictures there. Too bad I didn't know you'd be in attendance. You could have ventured behind the manual scoreboard for a look see.

The weather was super & the stands were almost full which made for a great atmosphere.

I managed to take a few SHOTS of my own.

Enjoy,

Dino

Hardball Warriors

ChicagoJaysFan - Monday, April 23 2007 @ 06:09 PM EDT (#166443) #

Looks like the Globe is starting a series of stories on Blue Jays pitching prospects. Here's a link to their first one on Tracy Thorpe.

Gerry - Monday, April 23 2007 @ 07:33 PM EDT (#166447) #

John Thompson is starting tonight for Dunedin.

Chip Cannon hit homer number 2.

David Purcey has allowed one hit (a home run) and no walks through 4 innings, with 4 strikeouts.

mcpherv - Monday, April 23 2007 @ 11:57 PM EDT (#166454) #

Interesting note from Rick Litsch (Jesse's father) here in reference to Ricky Romero's velocity and the radar gun at NH stadium: http://www.bluejayway.ca/forum/index.php?topic=935.0

"89-92 The gun at Merchants Stadium in Manchester, NH is about 5 MPH slow. Perhaps that's what "people" were referring to last year"

Maybe thats why Romero looked like his velocity was way down? Maybe explains why reports on Purcey have been 89-91?

ayjackson - Tuesday, April 24 2007 @ 12:06 AM EDT (#166455) #

McGowan only pitched one inning tonight - allowing a hit, while fanning 2. No word on if he'd injured. If he is, perhaps Purcey makes his next start at AAA. David was lights out again tonight it seems.

Only other thing I can think of for McGowan is that he is needed up here, so only got some routine pitches in.

mcpherv - Tuesday, April 24 2007 @ 12:21 AM EDT (#166456) #

There was a rain delay after the first inning that went on for about an hour - I'd think McGowan should be fine.

David Paul - Tuesday, April 24 2007 @ 12:23 AM EDT (#166457) #

McGowan pitched only one inning because of a rain delay.

timpinder - Tuesday, April 24 2007 @ 01:05 AM EDT (#166459) #

That's a big relief. I saw the box score and worried M'K'Gowan might be hurt. It was only an inning, but he was off to another good start. He now has 24 K's in 16 innings. Another great start for Purcey too, 7 IP, 1 ER, 6 K. I'm really optimistic about the Jays pitching prospects. Three 1st round picks are close between AAA and AA. Halladay/Carpenter/Escobar didn't work out, but man, if MKGowan, Purcey and Romero could put it together this year, the rotation after Halladay and Burnett could be absolutely dynamite. A bad part of me sometimes hopes Ohka gets hammered so MKGowan can be brought up sooner rather than later. And with Purcey pitching so well, and Ramirez struggling in AAA, I wonder how long it will be until they flip-flop.

actionjackson - Wednesday, April 25 2007 @ 12:24 PM EDT (#166566) #

Whoa timpinder, let's let the prospects get their feet under them and get some confidence going. How far removed are Purcey, MKGowan, and Romero from disastrous seasons? About 2-3 starts each. Give them each 3 months where they are and if they're still setting the world on fire, bump them up. The only exception to that might be Purcey, as he's been in AAA before. I would be very careful with MKGowan though. He definitely needs coddling for a half season or so and then we'll see where he is. It is nice to finally have some good news from down on the farm, but let's temper it with the usual cautions about small sample size etc. It would be nice to have 3 pitchers break through, but let's not go "yank"(ee)-ing them around at the expense of their development. I don't want to see a Phillip Hughes-like desperation move here thank you. Ohka, Thomson, and Zambrano were brought in to protect against exactly that kind of move and if they can buy half a season at the AAA level for MKGowan and the same at AA for Purcey and Romero, I for one will be very happy. I think in the long term these guys will be better off for it.

timpinder - Wednesday, April 25 2007 @ 04:02 PM EDT (#166587) #

Well, that's why I threw the big "if" in there, italicized and in bold. Just an optimistic fan. Although I agree with Purcey and Romero, time is on their side. They aren't out of options. MKGowan is different though. Ideally another month or two in AAA, but if he continutes to be successful he needs to pitch in the majors this year. If not, I doubt J.P. will give him a rotation spot without a series of decent starts in the majors. I fear that if he doesn't get some real experience starting with the Jays this year, he'll go the way of Rosario.

Ryan Day - Wednesday, April 25 2007 @ 04:13 PM EDT (#166588) #

Of the three, I'd say only Purcey had a "disastrous" season in 2006. McGowan was terrible in the majors, but okay in AAA, while Romero had a pretty good season tainted by a terrible month at AA.

That said, I agree with your caution, and I think it's pretty unlikely that all three of them turn into solid major league starters.

actionjackson - Wednesday, April 25 2007 @ 05:21 PM EDT (#166602) #

Sorry for my blindness to the word if timpinder. My bad. I too am an optimistic fan who would love to see all three break out of course.

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