SB Nation - Johnnie Lowe

Friday's Frosty Mug

Kyle Lobner — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 16:13:50 -0000

Some things to read while completing the set.

The Brewers weren't quite able to finish off a three game sweep against the Dodgers yesterday, coming up short in the late innings and losing 4-3. Jordan has our recap, if you missed it.

The strikeout was the story in the late innings yesterday, as Brewers struck out seven times in the game's final three innings, including five K's in a row for former Brewer Jamey Wright. Wright is still in the majors nearly a decade after the Brewers traded him in a waiver deal in 2002.

It's been a pretty good week for several Brewers, but a tough one for Ryan Braun. He's one of four Brewers battling an illness right now (along with Corey Hart, Francisco Rodriguez and Randy Wolf) and went 0-for-11 with five strikeouts against the Dodgers.

Other notes from the field:

Randy Wolf hit Jerry Hairston Jr. with a pitch yesterday. Plunk Everyone notes that it was his 97th career hit batsman, the second most in all of baseball among active left-handers. Only Jamie Moyer has more.
Wolf also allowed a triple to Dodger catcher Matt Treanor. Treanor has four career triples, and two have come off Wolf.
Jamey Wright, Travis Ishikawa and Randy Wolf are leading FanGraphs' Star of the Game voting.
Infielder Juan Uribe was held out of the lineup yesterday with a wrist injury, and is going to see a specialist today.
Looking back a day, Christina Kahrl of ESPN says Wednesday's game "generated its own drama."
Nyjer Morgan left without talking to reporters after running through a stop sign and scoring the game winning run Wednesday night, but told reporters yesterday that the stop sign was a fake.
Wednesday's win gave the Brewers back-to-back walkoffs for the first time since May 27-28 of 2010.
Aramis Ramirez hit his first home run of the season Wednesday, reached the Harley Davidson Deck and circled the bases in 24.23 seconds, the day's third slowest time.
Zack Greinke's Wednesday double was the first hit by a Brewer pitcher this season.
The Bratwurst won yesterday's Sausage Race, with Italian coming in first on Wednesday.

The Dodgers came to town with baseball's best record at 9-1, but after losing two of three to the Brewers that's no longer the case: The Rangers now hold the game's best record at 11-2.

Moving on, the Brewers open a three game set with the Rockies tonight when Shaun Marcum takes on Jhoulys Chacin in at 7:10. Paul Casella of MLB.com has the preview. Hangwith'em Rach traded questions with Purple Row for our series preview, and you can see her answers to their questions here. Our preview will be up at noon.

After tonight's game Kameron Loe will be leaving the team for a couple of days to attend the funeral of his grandfather, two-time Purple Heart award winner Howard Pound (FanShot). Pound passed away on Wednesday, and Loe dedicated his outing that night to his memory. Tom Haudricourt (linked via Twitter) says Mike McClendon is likely to be called up in Loe's place.

If McClendon is with the team this weekend, he'll probably be in charge of carrying the new bullpen bag. Trenni Kusnierek has a picture of the new bag adorned with stickers. If you'd like to add your sticker, you can still send it to Miller Park care of any member of the Brewer bullpen.

Looking back a day, one of the key moments in Wednesday's extra inning win came in the eighth inning when Francisco Rodriguez retired Matt Kemp on a strikeout. Jack Moore of Disciples of Uecker broke down the at bat.

Kemp, by the way, hit his seventh home run of the season yesterday. That's the most in all of baseball this season and more than four teams' totals. He rounded the bases in 19.85 seconds following yesterday's blast.

Elsewhere in pitching, Wednesday's start was the third of Zack Greinke's 2012 season and another chance to show off his new cutter. Jordan took a look at the pitch last night, and noted that Greinke is already using it over 20% of the time.

Mat Gamel had three hits (including his first home run) in the Dodgers series. The NL All Star ballot is out and he's on it for the first time.

As a non-Spanish speaker I frequently don't understand things Carlos Gomez posts on Twitter, but this picture of him with Norichika Aoki speaks for itself. (h/t @mpbMKE)

In the minors:

The affiliates went 2-3 last night and Logan Schafer had five hits in eight at bats but it wasn't enough as Nashville was swept in a doubleheader with Oklahoma City. You can read about that and big nights for Scooter Gennett, Brandon Macias and Chadwin Stang in today's Minor League Notes.
Ryan Topp of Disciples of Uecker has a look at the ground ball rates of some of the Brewers' top prospects, and says the future of the Brewers may lie on the ground.
Brevard County pitcher Casey Medlen has a 1.50 ERA and eight strikeouts with no walks in his first six appearances for the Manatees, and that was enough to earn him MLB Depth Charts' "Under the Radar" NL Minor League Pitching Performance of the Week.
Baseball America reports the Brewers have signed 27-year-old free agent pitcher Johnnie Lowe to a minor league deal. He was a 7th round pick for the White Sox in 2007 and spent the last three seasons with AA Birmingham.
Nashville broadcaster Jeff Hem has an interview with Sounds pitcher Dan Meadows.
Bob Brainerd of Time Warner Cable Sports 32 has a profile of Wisconsin reliever Tommy Toledo.
Baseball America has a post on Tyler Thornburg, but it's subscriber-only.

In power rankings:

Call To The Pen has the Brewers 13th.
Tim Brown of Yahoo has the Brewers 17th, down nine spots.

If you'd like more Brewer coverage today but you're sick of reading, I'll be making my weekly appearance on The Home Stretch with Justin Hull on AM 1570 The Score in Appleton at 3. I'll be live in the studio for most of an hour taking your calls, so listen in and bring your questions.

Finally, congratulations are due out today to Miller Park Drunk, who won Shepherd Express' Milwaukee Web Award for Best Sports Blog. This site and Disciples of Uecker were the runners-up.

Around baseball:

Angels: Signed shortstop Erick Aybar to a four year, $35 million contract extension.
Cardinals: Placed first baseman Lance Berkman on the DL with a calf strain.
Diamondbacks: Placed outfielder Chris Young on the DL with a shoulder contusion.
Indians: Pitcher Jeanmar Gomez has been suspended for five games for intentionally hitting a batter Saturday, but is appealing the suspension.
Pirates: Placed pitcher Jeff Karstens on the DL with shoulder inflammation.
Rays: Claimed first baseman/outfielder Brandon Allen off waivers from the A's.
Red Sox: Signed catcher Mike Rivera to a minor league deal.
Twins: Designated utilityman Luke Hughes for assignment.
Yankees: Placed outfielder Brett Gardner on the DL with an elbow injury and signed pitcher Nelson Figueroa to a minor league deal.

Elsewhere in the division, the only teams to pick up a win yesterday were the Astros and Reds (who beat the Cardinals), meaning the Brewers remain in second place and three games back of St. Louis. You know that and more if you've read this morning's edition of Around the NL Central.

If you've been around the internet over the last couple of days you've probably heard about Cliff Lee's performance: He pitched ten shutout innings and allowed just seven hits without a walk in the Phillies' 1-0, eleven inning loss to the Giants on Wednesday. He only threw 102 pitches in the outing. For comparison purposes, Randy Wolf and Aaron Harang pitched a combined 12 innings yesterday and needed 207 pitches to do so.

Today in baseball economics:

The Mariners only drew 11,343 fans to last night's game, the smallest crowd in Safeco Field history.
The White Sox and Orioles averaged just 12,663 fans per game for their four game set in Chicago this week, making it the lowest attended series at the Cell since 2004.
The cost for a family of four to attend an average minor league game is $61.23, up less than two dollars from last year.

The Twins are spending nearly $100 million on payroll this season but aren't expected to be competitive, and injuries over the years are a large part of the reason why. Twinkie Town has a look at some of the moves they're making as part of a reevaluation of their medical processes.

In former Brewers:

Jim Gantner told Adam McCalvy he likes the Brewers' recent move towards more small ball.
Don Sutton (and Milwaukee Brave Warren Spahn) made Richard Barbieri of The Hardball Times' All-April birthday team.
Carson Cistulli of NotGraphs included a Pat Listach quote as part of a short poem.

This morning's edition of Today In Brewer History marks the anniversary of Hank Aaron's 400th home run. Chris Jaffe of The Hardball Times notes that it's also the 47th anniversary of Warren Spahn's 2500th strikeout.

Finally, we'd like to send out our condolences to the family and friends of 1978-79 Brewer Andy Replogle, who passed away this week at age 58.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I want to see how this ends.

Drink up.

MLB Trade Rumors: Colby Rasmus For Gordon Beckham??

Ray Guilfoyle — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 12:01:29 -0000

To Randy Moss after his post-game comments on Sunday: STFU and quit complaining.

To Brett Favre: retire already.

To Chiefs coach Todd Haley: give Jamaal Charles the ball more. He is good.

To NL teams: the Giants pitchers aren't going anywhere in 2011. Yikes.

I was reading Buster Olney's Sunday morning blog post before watching some football yesterday and came across this:

The White Sox face a lot of hurdles in trying to land Colby Rasmus in a trade, writes Mark Gonzales. First and foremost: To make this trade, the Cardinals would either have to get Gordon Beckham or be out of their minds.

On Saturday, there was talk that the Cardinals and White Sox were discussing a Colby Rasmus for Carlos Quentin deal. The talks may be further along than we all know as Mark Gonzales from the Chicago Tribune reported the following on Sunday:

Although the Cardinals had a team official watching Sox and Cardinals prospects at Friday night's Arizona Fall League game between Surprise and the Peoria Saguaros, many issues would have to be resolved before such a deal could be finalized.

Here is a list of the White Sox prospects playing in the AFL this season: Anthony Carter (RHP), Charles Leesman (LHP), Johnnie Lowe (RHP), Henry Mabee (RHP), Josh Phegley (C), Eduardo Escobar (SS), Jared Mitchell (OF)

When I first read about that rumor, I thought the Cardinals should be able to get more than Quentin for Rasmus. Since his breakout 2008 season where he hit .288-.394-.571 with 36 HRs, 100 RBIs and 96 runs scored, Quentin has battled injuries and it appears pitchers have caught up to him.

In 2009, Quentin hit .236-.323-.456 with 21 HRs and 56 RBIs in 399 at bats. In 2010, he hit .243-.342-.479 with 26 HRs, 87 RBIs and 73 runs scored. Quentin appears to be a solid power hitter who will hurt fantasy owners in the BA category. So, I agree with Olney. The Cardinals should look to the younger Gordon Beckham should they want to discuss dealing Rasmus to the White Sox.

The Cardinals have a need for an upgrade at second base and Beckham fits the bill. Beckham had a disastrous 2010 season which saw him hit .252-.317-.378 with 9 HRs, 49 RBIs and 58 runs scored, after hitting .270-.347-.460 with 14 HRs, 63 RBIs and 58 runs scored in 2009. I, for one, ranked Beckham pretty high in the 2010 pre-season. Even after his horrible sophomore season, Beckham represents and upgrade at second base to Skip Schumaker. Schumaker is more of a 4th outfielder/utility player who the Cardinals played everyday.

Rasmus obviously has more value in a trade than Beckham or Quentin does presently, so I am sure the White Sox would have to add to this rumored deal. Could the White Sox add SS Eduardo Escobar or Jared Mitchell in any deal for Rasmus?

Poll

Who should the Cardinals ask for in the rumored Colby Rasmus to the White Sox deal?

Carlos Quentin + prospect

72 votes

Gordon Beckham + prospect

166 votes

Gordon Beckham straight up

43 votes

281 votes | Poll has closed

This Week in White Sox Minor League Baseball

larry — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 04:22:55 -0000

This week:

The end of another minor league season is upon. Bristol completed their season last Tuesday. The full season affiliates finish their regular seasons on Monday, while Great Falls wraps up on Thursday. Winston-Salem and Great Falls are the two affiliates who qualified for the playoffs. The Dash will begin their best of five series on Wednesday and the Voyagers begin their best of three series on Friday.
The onset of September also means call-ups. Interestingly, while originally announced as joining the White Sox for the start of the Boston series, Dayan Viciedo remains in the minors. In his stead, Brent Morel made the jump to the majors a few days earlier than expected. Erik at Pale Hose Pariah suggests that Morel is third on the depth chart for next season at third base, behind Mark Teahen and Viciedo. While the switch may simply have been the result of concern over Gordon Beckham's ability to play - Beckham confirmed he would have been unavailable for Friday had they played - and wanting a better defender in reserve, it certainly begs the question of how the White Sox view Viciedo. Obviously Viciedo's a poor defensive third baseman and Morel is a very good one. But if you don't trust Viciedo to be fourth string in September, would you trust him to be first or second string in April? Then again, perhaps they just wanted Viciedo to get regular PAs to find his stroke again. Since his demotion: .245/.260/.439.
Andre Rienzo: 101 IP, 95 H, 32 BB, 125 K.
The White Sox announced their participants in the Arizona Fall League: RHP Anthony Carter, LHP Charlie Leesman, RHP Henry Mabee, RHP Johnnie Lowe, C Josh Phegley, SS Eduardo Escobar and OF Jared Mitchell. They've been assigned to the Peoria Saguaros. Play begins October 12.
Speaking of Leesman, he received some press this week from Baseball America. An organizational favorite, he struggled at Winston-Salem but still received a promotion to Birmingham mid-season. He's repaid the organization's faith in his abilities: "Leesman has regained his command of his 88-92 mph fastball and shown a plus slider with late, sharp bite, which he uses to both righthanded and lefthanded hitters. He threw seven shutout, one-hit innings in his last start against Carolina to improve to 5-2, 2.81 with a 45-to-19 strikeout-to-walk ratio for the Barons over 57 2/3 innings. With a changeup that flashes average potential, Leesman has a chance for a four-pitch mix and can be a fourth starter if his command holds up."
2010 top picks round-up: Addison Reed: 29 IP, 17 H, 5 BB, 41 K for Great Falls. Hard-throwing collegiates with good control usually don't have trouble in the Pioneer League. Jacob Petricka: 44.1 IP, 38 H, 15 BB, 48 K between Bristol and Kannapolis. He found A-ball a bit tougher, throwing 9.2 IP, 8 BB and 10 K. Thomas Royse: 34.1 IP, 28 H, 6 BB, 28 K. Slowed recently by elbow issues, probably shut down for the season and may be headed for Tommy John surgery.

With the completion of the MiLB season, this will be the last weekly update. The Minor League Update fanpost will continue to be updated as long as there is minor league news. I'll go to monthly updates for fall/winter league and miscellaneous coverage. Season wrap-up pieces, including the top ten prospects list, will appear over the next month or so.

Joe West Screws the White Sox Again

larry — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 02:38:35 -0000

Not content with tossing Mark Buehrle from a start earlier this season, crew chief Joe West decided to permit the game to begin tonight despite anyone with one working eye seeing that rain - and likely lots of it - was going to arrive shortly after gametime (the Royals are at fault here, too, but they don't make as good a villain as Cowboy Joe).

Sure enough, the game was stopped nine minutes after it started. Of course, Edwin Jackson had gone through all of his warm-up and thrown seven pitches. Prudence dictates that you don't bring back a starting pitcher after that (Jackson wanted to start tomorrow and was overruled) and, as it stands right now, Freddy Garcia will start the first game of the doubleheader tomorrow and the second game's starter is TBA.

The White Sox, in the middle of a tight pennant race, will likely have to call on either a bullpen arm like Tony Pena or a minor league stopgap. Problem is that Carlos Torres, Lucas Harrell and Brandon Hynick have all started in the last three days for Charlotte. Jeffrey Marquez could go on short rest but he's had arm troubles and, even if he didn't have arm troubles, Marquez shouldn't start major league games. Birmingham could potentially supply Charlie Leesman or Johnnie Lowe but neither profiles as being able to start a major league game, either. And the White Sox probably would be reticent to make a roster move at this point, too, as it would likely mean sacrificing Chris Sale. John Danks on short rest is possible but moving up a day on short notice is also not prudent.

Thanks again, Joe.

edit: Jackson will now start game two. I'm sure they looked at these options and saw there wasn't much choice.

edit again: And now Jackson is not starting. Around and around we go.

Do You Want More?!!!??! SSS Meets White Sox Minor League Pitching Coordinator Kirk Champion

Mark Primiano — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 14:00:46 -0000

See the interview with Minor League Hitting Coordinator Jeff Manto here.

Once again, I would like to start off by thanking Marty Maloney, the White Sox Coordinator of Public Relations, for making this interview possible. The next thank you goes out to Kirk Champion for agreeing to the interview and being an all-around pleasant and entertaining guy. My final show of gratitude is for Jim Margalus, the sole writer of the always fantastic Sox Machine. I asked Jim for some tips before the interview and he was kind enough to help. He was also a great interviewer to follow and learn from during the questioning.

Just like in the last one, there were three other interviewers. Jim has already been covered, but Anthony Mazzuca of Future Sox and Paul Banks of The Sport Bank were also there. Without further ado, here are the thoughts of one Kirk Champion.

Jim Margalus: I have a question about Daniel Hudson and his first three starts. In the two starts that he struggled, he has pretty much abandoned his slider. I think he's gone maybe 40-50 pitches a time without throwing it and he hasn't looked comfortable. Was this a problem he had in his slow start in Charlotte this year?

Kirk Champion: Not necessarily. That's a pitch that probably isn't as progressed as his changeup or the locating of his fastball, but he certainly has had it in his stretches. It's just an arm slot thing for him; and when he stays on it and stays over it, it's a quality pitch.

JM: Chris Sale has been pushed aggressively so far. How do you see him responding to the challenges?

KC: Chris has done really well from a mental standpoint. He's been prepared and goes about his business every day. He's got really good poise on the mound. He's handled it in the clubhouse. I was talking to Randy Williams about that actually. Chris is prepared and he knows how to get ready. He's got those things that sometimes young and inexperienced pitchers need a little guidance, but he's handled it so far. In Winston, in front of some real big crowds, and in Indianapolis both times I know he had real good crowds, so that's a great atmosphere for him to get adjusted to.

SSS: Before this year's draft, the farm system seemed a little hitting heavy. How happy have you been with the results of the pitchers picked up by the Sox in the draft this year? (This was said much less eloquently).

KC: Well so far, I just had the chance to hit Idaho Falls and see the arms there and there's certainly some guys and some exciting stuff there to see. I hit Bristol pretty early and am heading back there next week. I like to lay eyes on them a little more before I start digging into scouting reports. But there's guys who have some good arms, good stuff. Saw Jacob Petricka, saw Thomas Royse throw the ball very well. Saw Addison Reed just on the sideline up in Idaho Falls. But there's some guys who are interesting guys. Of course Sale going from Winston-Salem to Charlotte that quick. There's some guys that are gonna be fun to watch the next few years.

PB: We saw Jeff Marquez for about one inning earlier this season at the major league level. What do you think the upside is to him long term?

KC: Jeff's got a pretty good feel for his pitches. He didn't have his best stuff a year ago, but now I think he's got his best equipment to go out there. And now it's just learning what his style is, like are we gonna sink the ball, are we gonna change speeds a little bit more? I think he understands what his strengths are. I think when he gets on the same page with a good approach, he's got three pitches that he can use in an at bat. The velocity is coming up, he can move his fastball when he has to. That's the upside to him. He's a got a more confident approach maybe than he did before.

AM: What can you tell us about his sinker? That seems to be his out pitch. Do you think it's really his best pitch he has to offer?

KC: Well yes. I think his sinker is a real plus pitch for him, and it seems like he can get away from it some times. There's times he needs to just trust it. Groundballs sometimes find holes and it can get a little frustrating when they do, but I think that it's a plus pitch for him and it's something that you're gonna see more when he's on the mound in a longer role. Maybe as a middle guy, or a starter down the road, but that sinker will be much more prominent.

JM: Watching some pitchers come up through the Sox system, one common trait they have is that they all work pretty fast. Hudson is a pretty quick worker; and Gavin Floyd was a pretty slow worker with Philly, but then we he made his way up through Charlotte he started speeding up his tempo. Is that something that is taught or a philosophy that is preached throughout the organization, maybe a Mark Buehrle trickle-down affect, or is it just a coincidence?

KC: It's not a coincidence. I think that Mark's had so many good outings and works fast, the defense seems ready behind him. And he's certainly an easy guy to point to because of the success he's had. We do address it and we go back to John Ely and Clayton Richard, guys who aren't in our system any more and we certainly emphasized it. Clayton was a fast worker. We're trying to get a lot of our younger guys to realize that if we can cut some time down between pitches that it's a good trait that more pitchers in our system need to stick to. We don't force it on guys. There's been a lot of times where you can see a slow tempo and we certainly want them to be a little more aggressive.

SSS: Adding on to Jim's question, it seems like the cutter is the pitch of the White Sox system. Does this just start with Don Cooper, or do they try to start teaching it down in the minors?

KC: Yeah, with different organizations, we're talking about different philosophies. It's a trendy pitch, like the split finger years ago. I think the ability to locate your fastball up and down is our first priority at the lower levels, being able to change speeds and throw your best stuff more often. I like to think that at high-A, AA, AAA, if we're ready to add that pitch we'll do it. But one trap that you can fall into, is that guys will get "cutter happy" because they'll have a little success with it at the lower levels and then get away from locating their best fastball. That's just something we have to monitor. There are some guys we'll allow at the lower levels a survivor pitch, maybe. Some guys we don't want to throw too many til they get to the point where they can do other things really well first, and then maybe we'll add that pitch. I know a lot of organizations don't even add that pitch til AAA. Coop talks about it a lot and it certainly gets a lot of attention. It helped Jon Garland back when Jon was having a hard time getting it going sometimes. Thing is, sometimes it becomes a slider rather than a cutter and that is one thing they truly have to understand. It's no good to have five pitches if you can't control all but one of them. We want to avoid developing four mediocre pitches as opposed to three quality pitches.

JM: One guy that Rick Hahn pointed to as a sleeper or someone under the radar was Charles Leesman. He kind of had a rough start but still got a promotion to Birmingham. What are you seeing that isn't reflected in the stats?

KC: Even in his rough outings in Winston-Salem, there were portions of each one of those games that he stands out. Understanding how to minimize the damage or being able to step off the mound and grab the rosin bag and regroup sometimes. He had an outstanding outing just the other day in West Tennessee for Birmingham when you look at his line. When you hear things like back to front, or staying on your pitches or having real good direction; those are things he has to do to have consistency. In my mind, when a guy starts doing that 2-3-4 times in a row, mechanically they've got it. That's what you hope for with a guy like Leesman. He's left-handed with an average to above-average fastball. There's a lot of good things. We thought he was ready to go for the Southern League and that his stuff was good enough for AA.

JM: Two pitchers you think of when you talk about the lightbulb going off are Clayton Richard two years ago and Carlos Torres last year. They showed flashes of success, but finally started putting it together 6-7 starts in a row. What is the biggest identifier when you're scouting these guys that they've made it to the next level and who are some guys that aren't big names that are finally making that jump?

KC: Those two guys are real hard workers and grinders and that tends to carry over into the games. They're guys that pitching coaches love because they work so hard. We have a lot of guys that have had some good stretches. Torres had a bad outing the other day, but he's still the same guy that became a AAA All-Star. The thing you have to be careful about with a guy like Carlos is "I did it before but I'm not quite there now, so I have to do more". For some guys: Lucas Harrell has had a real good run. He threw a great ballgame a few days ago in Indianapolis. He's 9-9, but at one time I think he was 1-6 or whatever. Marquez has had pop and some real good games. Brandon Hynick, the guy from the Jose Contreras trade, is just starting to come back from a late start out of spring training. Matt Zaleski, not on the 40-man but a AAA grinder. Johnnie Lowe in Birmingham has shown us some really good games. Charles Shirek had a real good first half at Birmingham. There's been a lot of interest in Shirek. Terry Doyle in Winston-Salem, record-wise is probably even but he's been pitching well. He has a plus breaking ball. You've got to command three pitches as a starter and watch your first pitch strikes.

JM: Well a few names you didn't mention in rookie ball making their second run through David Holmberg and Steven Upchurch. Can you compare where the two of them are at this point in their careers and if they have any shot at A-ball before the season is over?

KC: Both of them could if we had a need. I saw both of them pitch. Upchurch didn't throw as well in front of me as before. I saw Holmberg throw well and he threw even better in the next start after I was there. Strong, left-handed pitcher, young. If we were forced to send Holmberg or Upchurch to Kannapolis, it wouldn't be that big of a stretch

SSS: You've been pitching coach for the U.S. World Cup team. How did they pick you over all the other coordinators and pitching coaches all over the minors?

KC: Actually I can tell you real quickly. In 2001, it was about 10 days after 9/11 and Terry Francona called me and asked "Would you do it?". We'd been together at Birmingham and there weren't a lot of people wanting to jump on planes any time soon, so that's how I did it in 2001. In 2006, (name I can't decipher) had to back out at the last second and they asked me if I'd go to Havana with Davey Johnson's crew since I had done it in 01. In 09, Dave Walls backed out at the last second and they needed someone to do it so they called me and I went to Europe for a month. This year I'll be in the Pan-American Qualifier down in Puerto Rico and they asked me first.

SSS: (interrupting) Congrats!

KC: (laughing) Thank you. I have great respect for it and it's a great experience. This year is a non-40 man format, but it's really a unique experience. I spent 14-15 days last year in Italy and Germany, it's taken me all over. It's a positive thing.

And that ended our time with Kirk. Look for another interview in 3-4 weeks with someone else from the system (the suspense is killing me too!).