SB Nation - Antonio Alfonseca

Sickels: Two Giants Prospects in the Top 120

Grant Brisbee — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 06:24:36 -0000

John Sickels' book is out, which means that it's time for his top 120 list. Why 120? I can't remember. Maybe it's in honor of Antonio Alfonseca, and a nod to the idea that if we all had 12 fingers, we'd use a base-12 numerical system. Or maybe it's just because it allowed Joe Panik to sneak in.

43. Gary Brown
117. Joe Panik

System's thin, folks. There are young players to work with at the major-league level, of course, so it's not as dire of a situation as it otherwise might be. Still, the system's thin. Don't look at where Zack Wh ... dammit, I told you not to look.

Also, don't count up the Padres. I said don't co ... dammit, you just don't listen.

The most important thing to take away from this, of course, is that there's a Rangers prospect named Rougned Odor. He's 17, so there is still time to make up a definition for "rougned" and pretend it was a real adjective all along. I'm going with "metallic, yet earthy, not unlike a trip to the bathroom after a plate of asparagus."

The other important thing is that I'm really getting attached to the idea of Panik being a good prospect. He hit .341 with a little extra-base power in the Northwest League before turning 21. It's been too long since the Giants had a middle infielder who doubled as an offense-minded prospect. Here's to Panik being that guy.

Marlins set final game plans at Sun Life Stadium

craig — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 12:48:15 -0000

The Marlins have announced their plans for the final game at Sun Life Stadium, it's JRS, if you ask me. It sounds like a walk down memory lane, which is just fine. That is a lane that should be walked down. But still, who came up with the idea for it to be a mid-week day game? That is just stupid. But par for the course.

The details follow.

The Press Release:

MIAMI- After nineteen seasons, over 1,500 games and two World Series titles, the Marlins and their fans are ready to say goodbye to Sun Life Stadium. The team will be playing its final game as the Florida Marlins on Wednesday, September 28. The Club will evolve into the Miami Marlins on November 11th and officially open the doors to the New Marlins Ballpark in Miami next April.

Closing Day will feature plenty of celebrations and fan entertainment as the Marlins face off against the Washington Nationals. First pitch is scheduled for 4:10 P.M. and the first 10,000 fans get a Miami Marlins 2012 Magnetic Schedule, courtesy of U Health. Throughout the game, fans can win Florida Marlins autographed and game-used memorabilia.

To commemorate the 19 seasons as the Florida Marlins, the Club will host a special post-game on-field ceremony, during which the Florida Marlins All-Time team will be unveiled, as selected by the fans in an online voting campaign. The historic Closing Day will also feature the Top 10 Memories in Florida Marlins history, also voted on by the fans.

Current and former players and coaches will come together to celebrate this great milestone in the history of the franchise. Scheduled attendees include Kurt Abbott, Antonio Alfonseca, Moises Alou, Alex Arias, Bruce Aven, Rickey Bones, Bobby Bonilla, Kevin Brown, Luis Castillo, Greg Colbrunn, Jeff Conine, Reid Cornelius, Andre Dawson, Alex Fernandez, Cliff Floyd, Chris Hammond, Lenny Harris, Bryan Harvey, Livan Hernandez, Charlie Hough, Charles Johnson, Josh Johnson, Rene Lachemann, Al Leiter, Mike Lowell, Josias Manzanillo, Jack McKeon, Robb Nen, Vladimir Nunez, Tony Perez, Mike Piazza, Scott Pose, Hanley Ramirez, Pat Rapp, Ivan Rodriguez, Cookie Rojas, Benito Santiago, Gary Sheffield, Julian Tavarez, Tony Taylor, Michael Tejera and Preston Wilson. (List is subject to change)

Fans can now purchase lower level tickets for just $10. For more information or to purchase Closing Day tickets, fans can log on to www.marlins.com or call 877-MARLINS.

Go if you can. And hope the blast from the past includes a somewhat large Marlins lead with the fans booing because Jack took out a productive hitter and the fans not getting donuts. That would make it complete.

Should be fun.

Thursday Rockpile: Changes at the firm, Carlos Gonzalez hurt

Rox Girl — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 14:59:10 -0000

Brad Hawpe, destroyer of once bright, promising and happy right handed pitchers everywhere (ask Brandon Webb and Mark Prior, albeit in different ways, if you don't believe me) we bid you adieu. My only remaining hope is that you sign with an American League team and have a great and productive rest of your career. My own favorite memories of Hawpe extend back to him beating Prior in the College World Series, albeit I was a fan of his opponent then (as I will be again, soon and this makes me cry) just respecting a worthy opponent and excited about the promise he'd bring to the Rockies system.

I also think of home runs. Early in his career, when he, more than any of our other hitters, was the force that would destroy opposing NL West aces like Jake Peavy and Webb, only to see the Rockies shaky pitching and lack of offense from other parts of the lineup sink them later. I remember a Sunday game at PetCo in April of 2006 where Hawpe started a ten to four romp over the Padres with a solo shot off of Peavy, winding up with three hits. The memories of him doing great damage against Webb were too numerous to recount them all. I also remember later games, his homers off of Antonio Alfonseca and Joe Thatcher in the remarkable 2007 season, the latter being his chance to shine when every night we needed a new hero. Even earlier this season, when he took Mat Latos deep twice, I thought, ah, here's another young ace for you to destroy, Brad.

Now those aces are going to be someplace else, some other fans will see the fear he can put into them, and my Rockies heart has a big empty spot in it this morning where a place for Hawpe was well furnished and lived in.

Hawpe is hitting the road - The Denver Post

The criticism of the front office here is that a straight up release of a starting right fielder like Hawpe is perhaps the least efficient way you can utilize player resources from a team building view. They seem to be banking on a goodwill credit by doing right with the player and allowing him to determine his own fate. I'm doubtful, I don't believe that this series of events was entirely in the best interest of the team.

The Rockies have now officially replaced Holliday, Hawpe and Sullivan with Gonzalez, Smith and Fowler, with Ryan Spilborghs being the bridge between the two generations of outfield patrols in Coors.

Gonzalez shines amid Rockies' gloom - MLB - Yahoo! Sports

Yes, but...

Rockies win in 10th at L.A. as CarGo hurts knee - The Denver Post

More ouch:

Francis' stint on DL proves sore subject - The Denver Post

Other stuff:

2010 Colorado Rockies Top 20 Pre-Season Prospects in Review - Minor League Ball
Rockies Mailbag: Sneak peek already provided by top prospects - The Denver Post - My apologies if this was already linked
Interleague schedule in 2011 sends Rox to Yankee Stadium - The Denver Post

Matt Reynolds, congratulations and we look forward to celebrating your major league debut with the Rockies. I'm sorry you have to do it under these sappy circumstances.

Some Memorable Chicago-St. Louis History: Cubs vs. Cardinals Preview, Friday 5/28, 1:20 CT

Al Yellon — Fri, 28 May 2010 16:00:55 -0000

Recently, Chris Jaffe at Hardball Times ranked what he felt were the ten greatest Cubs/Cardinals games of all time.

While there are indeed some great games in that post (the Sandberg Game, Don Cardwell's no-hitter, a critical game in the 1945 pennant race), Chris neglected to mention one particular series that was perhaps the most intensely played regular season series in Wrigley Field history.

The Cardinals had been scheduled for a four-game series at Wrigley starting on Labor Day 2003, September 1. It became a five-game series due to a rainout on May 11 which we dubbed the "Typhoon Game" -- a game played in 45 degree temperatures with 40+ MPH winds that got called after four innings of play in appalling conditions. The Cubs came into the series trailing St. Louis by 1.5 games. On September 1, a scheduled 1:20 start was delayed nearly three hours by rain, but after it started, Mark Prior threw eight shutout innings in the first game of the series and the Cubs won 7-0. In the 2nd game, the first of a scheduled day-night DH, the Cubs left the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth and it took a two-run walkoff by Sammy Sosa in the 15th inning for a 4-2 Cubs win that took almost five hours and pushed back the start of the night game by an hour.

In that second game, the Cubs were trailing 2-0 in the last of the 7th with the bases loaded when Moises Alou hit a ball that landed down the LF line near the bullpen, just fair. Unfortunately, Triple-A replacement umpire Jay Klemm (who never umpired in the majors again after 2003) called it foul -- it would have cleared the bases and given the Cubs a 3-2 lead. Reliever Antonio Alfonseca jumped out of the bullpen and bumped Klemm, earning a seven-game suspension (Cubs fans, not happy with Alfonseca's performance in '03, joked that the team was going to appeal and ask for the suspension to be increased). The Cubs lost the game 2-0.

But we're not done yet! The next afternoon, Matt Clement was trailing 2-0 in the sixth when for some unfathomable reason, Dusty Baker called on rookie lefthander Felix Sanchez to make his major league debut in this critical situation: runners on second and third and two out. Sanchez walked Fernando Vina and then gave up a grand slam to J.D. Drew. (Sanchez, at the time considered a pretty decent prospect at age 21, made two more appearances for the Cubs in '03, was sent to the Tigers in a minor league deal the next year and never again pitched in the major leagues.)

The Cubs pulled to within 7-6 on homers by Aramis Ramirez, Alou and Alex Gonzalez and took the lead 8-7 in the bottom of the eighth. In the ninth, Joe Borowski came in and retired the side in order, striking out future Cub Jim Edmonds swinging to end it -- that's about the loudest I ever heard Wrigley during a regular season game. The 8-7 win on September 3 put the Cubs only half a game behind the Cardinals -- and the next day, in a back-and-forth game, the Cubs again won by one run, 7-6, moving ahead of the Cardinals and within half a game of the Astros, who they eventually defeated for the NL Central title.

Those games were all memorable, and the entire series was unforgettable. Let's hope the Cubs make some great memories for us this weekend. Cardinals? Bring 'em on.

Today's Starting Pitchers


Randy Wells Cubs	vs.	Chris Carpenter Cardinals

3-2	W-L	5-1
3.99	ERA	3.09
45	SO	61
11	BB	18
5	HR	9
vs. StL	--	vs. Cubs

	W-L	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	BS	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP
2010 - Randy Wells	3-2	9	9	0	0	0	0	56.1	60	26	25	5	11	45	3.99	1.26

	W-L	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	BS	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP
2010 - Chris Carpenter	5-1	10	10	0	0	0	0	67.0	58	28	23	9	18	61	3.09	1.13

Chris Carpenter has always been tough on the Cubs -- 9-3, 2.81 in 17 career starts, and even better last year, when he was 2-0 with a no-decision in three starts with a 1.42 ERA. He has allowed nine home runs already this year, though; he gave up only seven all last year. They have occurred in a strange pattern: two in his first start, three in his second, then none for five straight outings, then four in his last three. Derrek Lee and Alfonso Soriano have had good success against him; combined, they are 27-for-79 (.342) against him with three HR.

Randy Wells' only career start against the Cardinals was last July 12 at Wrigley Field, a game better known as the "Sean Marshall In Left Field" game. Wells gave up four runs in seven innings, not a bad outing; all the runs were on a pair of two-run homers by Ryan Ludwick. The rest of the Cardinals went 5-for-22 (.227) against Wells, all singles, and he held Albert Pujols to an 0-for-4.

Today's game is on WGN and FSN Midwest. As yesterday, the Cubs are also being picked up by the MLB Network for national coverage -- I assume using the Cardinals feed, as MLB Network usually doesn't pick up WGN. Here is the rest of the MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

SB Nation game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Cardinals site Viva El Birdos.

Today's first pitch thread will be up at 1:15 pm CDT, and the overflows will post at 2:15, 3:15 and 4 pm CDT.

Discuss amongst yourselves.

The Sunday Funnies: Merry Solstice, Or The Ghosts Of Cubs Past

Mike Bojanowski — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 23:00:19 -0000

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