Batter's Box Interactive Magazine - Mr. Smith goes to Trenton

A 3-1 day on the farm, New Hampshire took eleven innings to win and David Smith delivered the win. Dunedin got a rare five inning win and Lansing won the regular way to run their win streak to five.

hDevern Hansack held the Chiefs to only two hits through six innings. The Chiefs countered with reliever Jeremy Cummings who gave up four runs in four innings. The Chiefs finally got to Hansack in the seventh, Lind walked, Barker and Vento each doubled in a run. But Pawtucket added on three runs in the ninth off Ryan Houston. The Chiefs totalled seven hits, Olmedo had two.

New Hampshire 7 Trenton 5 - 11 innings

Manny Mayorson hit a solo home run in the first, Rob Cosby a three run shot in the third and Ryan Patterson a solo homer in the fourth. Kyle Yates pitched 6.2 shutout innings giving up seven hits. But Trenton scored five runs in the eighth to tie. Seth Overbey allowed two hits, two walks and a hit batter. Sean Stidfole then gave up a two run double and a sac fly to tie the game. In the eleventh David Smith hit a two run home run for the winning margin. Ryan Patterson continued his hot hitting going 3-5.

Dunedin 3 Brevard County 1 - 5 inning game, rain

Dunedin scored three runs in the third, Cory Patton had the big blow, a two run triple. Robert Ray pitched well, he went all five innings giving up the one run, in the fifth, on four hits.

Wisconsin 2 Lansing 6

Lansing scored three runs in the first inning, two walks came in to score on an error and Sean Shoffit tripled in the third run. Reidier Gonzalez pitched four innings and gave up both runs. Lansing scored three insurance runs in the eighth. Lansing had only one hit, Shoffit's triple, heading to the eighth. Shoffit drove in a run in the eighth with a single and was the only Lugnut with two hits. Travis Snider returned from suspension and went 0-3 with a walk.

Auburn at Lowell - postponed

Gulf Coast Blue Jays - Scheduled day off

3 star selection

3rd star - Sean Shoffit
2nd star - Kyle Yates
1st star - David Smith

Team Records

Syracuse 41-51, 5th place, 10.5 games behind
New Hampshire 49-43, 2nd place, 10 games behind
Dunedin 16-8, 1st place, .5 games ahead
Lansing 14-9, 2nd place, 2 games behind
Auburn 15-10, 1st place, 1.5 games ahead
Gulf Coast Jays 12-11, 4th place, two games behind

Posted by Gerry on Monday, July 16 2007 @ 12:10 AM EDT.

Mr. Smith goes to Trenton | 11 comments | Create New Account

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

Sister - Monday, July 16 2007 @ 08:30 AM EDT (#171580) #

It is good to see Snider back from the suspension, which I hope has not affected his hitting; he was on a bit of a roll prior to the suspension. To update an obsession of mine, here are Snider's K/BB splits by month.

April 12/4     (ratio 3:1)
May 21/10    (ratio 2.1:1)
June 31/9    (ratio 3.4:1)
July 7/10      (ratio 0.7:1)

I'm not sure how to explain the adjustment in July (so far). If he had maintained his hot hitting I would suspect that he was being pitched around, but he had a cold hitting June (.244 avg, .708 ops). Perhaps it is familiarity with the league and its pitchers or maybe he has made a change in mechanics. He had strong plate discipline last year in rookie ball, so this is not unexpected.

I don't know if Lugnut Fan has any insight?

Lugnut Fan - Monday, July 16 2007 @ 08:42 AM EDT (#171581) #

I have been really busy this year, so my time at the ballpark has been less than I have spent there in the past or would like to be there. Anyways, here is what I see of Snider. I think that he still has very good plate discipline for a 19 y/o hitter that is in a position in the order where he is supposed to drive in runs. The one adjustment that I have seen pitchers make on him is that he is not seeing as many fastballs as he was earlier in the year. At the beginning of the year, Brian Pettway was smacking the ball around pretty good behind Snider, so he was able to sit on fastballs.

I think the fact that he isn't getting fed a steady diet of fastballs along with the fact that this his first full season is why is productivity dropped off a little. It isn't uncommon at this level for players to hit a wall around the 80 to 100 game mark and lose some bat speed. It is just an adjustment to the lifestyle is all.

Ryan Day - Monday, July 16 2007 @ 11:01 AM EDT (#171588) #

Olmedo's starting to look good again. I know he's probably not The Answer at shortstop, but I'd rather see what he's got than continue to watch Clayton and McDonald flail about. Even if there's only a chance he can hit better than, say, 250/300/340, it's still a chance. We can be pretty sure the current shortstops aren't going to improve much. And if his defence is as advertised, he's an improvement on Clayton anyway.

timpinder - Monday, July 16 2007 @ 01:04 PM EDT (#171592) #

Olmedo has the third most errors (15) in the International League behind only Buffalo's Hector Luna (20) and Luis Rivas (17).

I've heard a lot about Olmedo's defensive prowess, but the numbers of errors he's had suggests that he still has some work to do. Since I haven't seen Olmedo play, I'm interested to know why his defensive game is held in such high regard.

Mike Green - Monday, July 16 2007 @ 01:23 PM EDT (#171594) #

15 errors in half a season is actually a fairly low figure for a full-time triple A shortstop. The surface in Syracuse is apparently not the greatest either. What you're looking for, anyways, is range. We don't have zone rating data (although with Gameday now extended to triple A, a primitive version should be possible), so we rely on subjective reports.

Rob - Monday, July 16 2007 @ 01:53 PM EDT (#171597) #

The surface in Syracuse is apparently not the greatest either.

I've seen a game on that turf and although I know nothing concrete (pardon the pun) about its composition, it's most likely worse than the old SkyDome carpet. And if turf ugliness is a factor in evaluating Olmedo's defense, the words "Ozzie Smith" would not be out of place.

Mike Green - Monday, July 16 2007 @ 01:56 PM EDT (#171598) #

Travis Snider made a nice defensive play in yesterday's Lugnut game.

China fan - Monday, July 16 2007 @ 03:05 PM EDT (#171600) #

If the Syracuse turf is so terrible, should Russ Adams get some extra defensive points too?

Mike Green - Monday, July 16 2007 @ 03:20 PM EDT (#171601) #

Sure, if you want to mentally deduct one error from Adams' total, that would be perfectly reasonable. For second basemen, you should be more concerned though with range and pivot.

If a shortstop has 25 errors (or a second baseman has 20) in a half-season triple A, you worry. Otherwise, it is not a big deal, with range being much more important.

Ryan Day - Monday, July 16 2007 @ 03:22 PM EDT (#171602) #

Dunno if anyone pointed this out yet, but the GCL Jays finally have their own page at MiLB.

One interesting thing I noticed: While nobody is really "hitting" yet, they've got some pretty patient players: Tolisano's drawn 17 walks in 20 games, and Ahrens, Chavez, and Eiland have pretty respectable OBPs considering their batting averages. And it looks like Eiland is trying to make good on those Carl Crawford comparisons with 8 stolen bases so far.

Now let's see a few guys start hitting over .250...

BulletJayFan - Monday, July 16 2007 @ 07:58 PM EDT (#171609) #

Yeah, the turf here in Syracuse is downright awful. They're putting in grass for next year, thank God. As for defensive prowess, there is no need to wring hands over Olmedo's error total or subtract from Adams'. A remarkable number of Adams' errors are on throws. There really is no telling half the time where his throws will go. As a for instance, he had two throwing errors last night. Olmedo, on the other hand, is a whiz in the field. He has a knack for making tough, barehanded stops to get guys at first. I remember one in particular where he charged a real high chopper hit by, I believe, the opposing team's leadoff hitter, in order to field it barehand on the short hop and nailed the guy at first by a step. It was pretty incredible.

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