And with not a bang, but a whimper, the Mariners' minor league season has come to a close.

AA PLAYOFFS: NO WITTY CAPTION FOR YOU

Game 3:  Carolina 4, West Tenn 2
Carolina wins series 3-0

Luis Muñoz:  6 IP, 8 H, 4 ER (HR), 3 walks, 6 K, 2 wild pitches, hit batter
Jason Kershner:  no outs recorded, 1 H
Roman Martinez:  2 IP, 2 K
Greg Halman:  3-5, R, K
Jamie McOwen!:  1-4, double, 2 K
rest of DIAMOND JAXX lineup:  4-26, 4 walks, 6 K

You'll notice a dearth a coverage for this series.  As previously stated, the current rendition DIAMOND JAXX were a shell of the team that captured the 1st Half title in the North Division due to callups, injuries and regression... so against a more currently complete Carolina team, this was likely a formality.  And it was.

It's been fun, guys.  Until next year....

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Yeah, there's still baseball left. I'll keep it brief.

AA: Carolina 11, West Tenn 2
Carolina leads series 2-0

Tracy Thorpe: 5.1 IP, 5 H, 5 ER, 6 walks, 5 K
Roman Martinez: 1.2 IP, 1 H, 3 K
Jason Kershner: no outs recorded, 1 ER, walk
Shawn Kelley: 1.2 IP, 5 H, 5 ER (HR), 2 walks, K
Anthony Varvaro!: one out, 1 H
Mike Wilson: 2-4, 2 doubles, 2 RBI, K
rest of DIAMOND JAXX: 3-26, 7 walks, 7 K

There's still at least one game left, but in case you can't tell, this series, and the DIAMOND JAXX season, is basically over.

- Everett ended their season not with a bang but with a whimper, managing only a run in the 1st inning in a 2-1 loss. The Eugene Emeralds finished tied with Salem-Keizer at the top of the NWL West division with a 40-36 record, but the Vocanoes have the tiebreaker, and move on to the NWL Championship.

Everett, meanwhile, sits all alone in the NWL West basement with a 32-44 record. They closed their season with a 6 hit performance from the batters, 4 of which came from sub-Mendoza liner Ryan Royster and from Manny Pimentel.

- West Tenn played Game 1 in the Southern League divisional playoffs, and indeed they got rolled by the Carolina Mudcats, 7-1. Joe Woerman lost a handle on his command in the 2nd, allowed a run, and then put two men on in the 3rd before Cameron Maybin blasted a 3 run backbreaking bomb to make it 4-0.

Johan Limonta doubled home a run in the 5th, but the wind had already been knocked out of West Tenn's sails, and Joe Woerman capped a bleh night by getting taken deep by Scott Cousins with one out in the 6th. In the 8th, against Marwin Vega, three seeing eye singles and an Adam Moore passed ball helped Carolina add two more to make it 7-1 and put the game well out of reach.

To stay alive, West Tenn now faces the task of winning 3 of the next 4 games, with 3 of those games in Carolina. RIIIIIIGHT.

Stats below the jump.

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The season's not over yet for two teams.

- Against a Eugene Emeralds team still scrapping with Salem-Keizer for the division title, Everett (which is simply battling to get out of the cellar) rallied for a couple runs, with help from a Geoff Vandel wild pitch, to take a 4-3 lead on Eugene in the top 6th. But Luis Nuñez botched a leadoff grounder at 2B in the bottom half, and Blake Tekotte made him pay immediately with a game tying RBI double off Eddy Fernandez to snatch the win from Aaron Brown after an erratic but effective 2 hit, 5 inning performance.

Eugene had a chance to win in the bottom 9th after Dan Robertson doubled with two outs, and Matt Renfree intentionally passed Jaff Decker. James Darnell lined a single to left, but Bennett Billingsley picked it, fired home and got Robertson at the plate for the 3rd out! It was the utilityman Billingsley's first outfield assist of the year, and it sent us to extras.

But Renfree lost control of the strike zone in the bottom 10th, and three walks and two wild pitches later, Cole Figueroa came in for the winning run.

- The DIAMOND JAXX begin their quest for playoff glory (uh...) today at 5:05 pm PDT with Game 1 of the 5 game series in Jackson against the Carolina Mudcats. The radio feed for both teams is available on the West Tenn main page at MiLB.com. Not sure who's going to start for West Tenn (and they may not be either) but here's a playoff preview.

- And finally, congratulations to Mike Wilson for being named to the Southern League Postseason All Star Team.

Stats for Everett's game below the jump.

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- Luis Nuñez has discovered the utility of ball four, and I don't mean Jim Bouton: he drew ANOTHER walk yesterday.

- Wisconsin's season may have been one prolonged disappointment, but Michael Pineda made sure they ended the season with a bang, striking out 14 and allowing only a 5th inning infield single from Domnit Bolivar in a season ending one hitter. Pineda struck out at least one batter in every inning and all but one of Pineda's K's were swinging strikeouts.

1st: Groundball, flyball, strikeout (swing)
2nd: Strikeout (swing), strikeout (swing), strikeout (swing)
3rd: Groundball, groundball, strikeout (swing)
4th: Groundball, strikeout (swing), strikeout (swing)
5th: Groundball, flyball, groundball, strikeout (swing)
6th: Groundball, strikeout (swing), flyball
7th: Groundball, flyball, strikeout (swing)
8th: Groundball, strikeout (swing), strikeout (called)
9th: Strikeout (swing), strikeout (swing), pop up

Groundballs: 9
Flyballs: 4
Line Drives: 0
Pop Ups: 1
Walks: 0
Strikeouts: 14

Pineda's line drive rate over the last month? 10.3%.

- Also finishing with a bang despite a whimperous season were the High Desert Mavs, using a 4 run 6th to power ahead, enough to withstand a 3 run Lake Elsinore rally in the bottom half to close the season with a 6-4 win.

- The West Tennessee DIAMOND JAXX, however, ended their regular season with a whimper: rainy weather cancelled their season finale against the Mississippi Braves. They'll go to the playoffs thanks to winning the Southern League North division 1st half championship. They get the rarely seen but often dominant Carolina Mudcats, whose key to victory is one of the Southern League's better defenses: their .660 defensive efficiency is a close 3rd behind league leaders Huntsville and Birmingham, good for a 2nd lowest 4.34 runs per game. Their pitching is alright but hardly spectacular, thanks to the requisite control issues... though closer Chris Mobley is pretty tough to hit. Good luck getting flyballs to drop against these guys.

- Three good things about the Rainiers' season finale:

1. Chris Jakubauskas bailed out a struggling Robert Rohrbaugh in the 4th and responded with 4 shutout innings in which he struck out 8.

4th: Pop up, strikeout (swing), flyball, strikeout (swing)
5th: Strikeout (swing), line drive, strikeout (called), strikeout (swing)
6th: Flyball, strikeout (swing), groundball
7th: Pop up, strikeout (swing), strikeout (swing)

2. The September callups for the M's left a slight vacuum in the Rainiers roster for closing day. In the case of Brandon Morrow, he was done for the year here anyway so big deal. Replacing Luis Valbuena was as easy as Kevin Howard sliding over to 2B, but supplanting Tui at 3B was AZLer Scott Savastano, who responded with two hits, and was the man aboard in the 9th for...

3. ... Prentice Redman's season ending walkoff 2 run home run to win the ballgame 6-5. Yep, Redman did not warrant a look from the M's, but he made sure that he and the Rainiers closed the season, as many others did yesterday, with a bang.

Stats below the jump. West Tenn has at least two games left and Everett finishes their season Wednesday.

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- LATE.

- Speaking of LATE... turns out they did play Game 2 of the DSLMs playoff series after all.  They just had a delay in getting the results back to MiLB.com.

As expected, the DSLMs bats revived once the series returned to Santo Domingo North for Game 2... though only for a couple of well-timed big innings.  Bruno Mercedes, the relief ace in the Twins series, got the call to start and... ran into trouble.  Bruno had cruised through the 1st and 2nd, and was two outs on his way in the 3rd when Jose De La Cruz lined a single and the excessively named Robedluis Fuentes doubled him in to make it 1-0.  Bruno finished the 3rd without further damage, but met his demise in the 4th. Sundrendy Windster jacked one over the straightaway center wall with one out to make it 2-0, and Bruno plunked the next batter before he got the hook for Jose Perdomo.  Perdomo himself plunked a batter, allowed a lined single to load the bases, and leaked a runner home on a groundout to make it 3-0 before getting out of trouble.

And then the DSLMs awoke in the 5th.  Three batters reached base and two scored out of the gate to chase Argenis Sanchez, and Bertoni Garcia came in, struck out Rudy van Heydoorn... then walked the next two batters to reload the sacks before getting pulled himself for Alejandro Mendez, who uncorked a wild pitch to bring in Ramon Morla and TIE THE BALLGAME at 3.  Alejandro walked Hector Mercedes to reload the sacks... but Efrain Nuñez grounded out to 2nd to end the threat.

Hassiel Jimenez passed two balls in the 6th, including strike three agaist Cesar Osuna to put him on, to set up a go-ahead RBI single that cashed in Osuna to give Los Gigantes a 4-3 lead.  Miguel Celestino loaded the bases with two outs in that frame, but got Carlos Willoughby to strike out and end the threat.

The DSLMs got to the bottom 9th, three outs from their playoff demise.  Victor Ozuna lined a single and Ramon Morla bunted himself on.  Rudy van Heydoorn bunted them over for one out, and Alejndro Mendez, still in the ballgame for Los Gigantes, intentionally walked Axel Wel to load the sacks.  Hassiel Jimenez, having giveth runs via screw ups earlier, then tooketh runs away by facilitating a screw up himself, getting plunked to force in a run and TIE THE BALLGAME.

Then Hector Mercedes, needing only a sac fly, base hit or well placed groundball, took a page from Richie Sexson, went for the whole shebang and jacked a WALKOFF GRAND SLAM to tie the series up at one game apiece!

- The DSLMs now needed to remember their bats for yesterday's 3rd and deciding game in Boca Chica.  Manager (Not That) Jose Guillen turned once again to his horse Henry Perez, hoping that O Enrique could contain Los Gigantes on their home turf.

He failed.  The first two Gigantes batters reached base, and with one out, Victor Santana ripped an ill advised suck pitch over the LF fence to make it 3-0 Gigantes.

Perez held it together, though, getting out of the 1st, withstanding 2nd and 3rd with two outs in the 2nd to escape unscathed, and escaping the 3rd despite three hitters reaching base (Hassiel Jimenez atoned for yesterday's gaffes by catching the first runner stealing).  Perez, however, did not escape the 4th unscathed, as Jose De La Cruz led off with a walk, got bunted over to 2nd, and came home on a one out single from Julio Izturis to make it 4-0 Gigantes.  Series over, correct?

HELL NO.  Janelfry Zorrilla and Angel Zapata each bunt themselves on against Miguel Ferrer to lead off the 5th.  Ramon Morla walks to load the bases, and Rudy van Heydoorn himself draws a walk to force in Zorrilla, get the DSLMs on the board and keep them loaded... for Axel Wel.  And Wel singled to left to cash in Zapata, cut the lead to 4-2, and keep them loaded.  Ferrer ran like a scolded dog for the clubhouse and Franklin Noel came in to put out the fire, except the pine tar on the DSLMs bats was actually grease, and Hassiel Jimenez lined a single to right to cash in Morla, cut the lead to 4-3, and KEEP THE BASES LOADED.  Hector Mercedes then... lined a single to center to cash in van Heydoorn and TIE THE BALLGAME while... KEEPING THE BASES LOADED.  Maybe the actual Mariners should have sent a videographer down to the Dominican to take some notes on how to keep the pressure on in a rally.

But then Efrain Nuñez surprisingly got pulled for a pinch hitter, and his replacement, Augusto Marte... struck out.  Maybe Efrain got hurt, because otherwise I don't get it.  Janelfry Zorrilla, in his 2nd AB of the inning, flew out to right to end the rally.

Here they went again in the 6th.  Angel Zapata led of with a walk, then Victor Ozuna walked, and Franklin Noel got the hook for the neatest name in the Gigantes bullpen, Raymundo Montero.  Ramon Morla bunted them over to scoring position for one out, and while Rudy van Heydoorn's flyball was caught in left for two outs, Zapata came in to give the DSLMs a 5-4 lead, as Ozuna took 3rd.  Axel Wel got an intentional pass, and then once again, fate killed the rally like a turntable screech at a party.  Wel took off for 2nd on a pitch to Hassiel Jimenez, and on the throw, Ozuna broke for home, but he broke just a bit too early, because 2B Julio Izturis snifed it out, cut the throw off, threw to 3B Cesar Osuna and tagged Ozuna on the basepath for the 3rd out.

The DSLMs really could have used those potential runs.  Bruno Mercedes got treated like a high school pitcher, brought in for the 6th just one day after 3+ innings of work.  Julio Izturis led off the 7th by drawing a walk off Bruno, and Carlos Willoughby bunted him over, but it was all for naught, because Hector Sanchez took Bruno deep to give Los Gigantes a 6-5 lead.  Sundrendy Windster did get on with two outs and took 2nd on a wild pitch, but Bruno got out of it without allowing another run.

The DSLMs came up in the 8th six outs from doom.  Angel Zapata drew a one out walk, and then Victor Ozuna, two innings after his baserunning gaffe killed the 6th inning rally and potentially cost his team a valuable run... hit a laser over the left field fence to give the DSLMs a 7-6 lead!

The DSLMs got two more runners on, but Luis Azocar relieved a tiring Raymundo Montero, and Azocar got out of the jam without further trouble.  But then we went to the bottom 9th with Los Gigantes on the ropes for the first time in this series, three outs from doom themselves.

Julio Izturis repeated the last rally's harbinger and drew a walk, this time off Nelson Germocen, to lead off the bottom 9th.  Again, Carlos WIlloughby bunted him over for one out.  Germocen,in part to recreate the force out but also in memory of this guy's go-ahead HR the last time up, intentionally passed Hector Sanchez.  Sanchez took a seat for speedy Ramon Abad, representing the winning run, and Germocen put down Victor Santana on strikes for two outs.  One out away!

But Sundrendy Windster drew a walk to load the bases, the tying run now 90 feet away.  And with Cesar Osuna at the plate, a breaking ball got away from Germocen, got away from Hassiel Jimenez, and Izturis came on home to TIE THE BALLGAME.  Abad took 3rd and Windster took 2nd.

All Germocen needed to do was get Osuna, and the DSLMs at least could try to win it in extras.  But Osuna's grounder went right past Germocen and right between Bertin Sanon and Ramon Morla into center field!  Abad scored, and Los Gigantes walked off with the 8-7 victory and the series win to move on to the DSL Championship.

What a way to end your season, DSLMs.  Against the best offense in the DSL, you did not go down without one hell of a fight, and after building a 4-0 lead in the clincher, they still had to make two comebacks to sink you.  Great work, DSLMs.  May the best of you end up playing on the mainland in 2009.

- They snuck by me last week, but Luis Nuñez drew 2 more walks!  He walked on August 28 against Vancouver, and on August 30 against Salem-Keizer.  This brings his August total to 5.

Luis Nuñez season walks total prior to August:  1

- Military Man Nick Hill finished High Desert's 5-4 win with a scoreless 8th and 9th for his 1st Mavs save.  It's not spectacular in itself, but this is a big deal in that, with the Mavs' season finale today, yesterday's appearance was likely Hill's last (barring an unlikely relief appearance on no rest in today's game) before returning to the Army to serve two mandated years with the U.S. Armed Forces.  Word on the street is that he must do so after this season, and if so, I wish the Military Man the best of luck as he serves the United States in arms, and hope to see him again on the field, one way or another, by 2011.

- Brandon Morrow's final start went well despitethe usual iffy control.  The only hit he allowed was a hot grounder to 1B Shawn Garrett in the 1st that portly Paul McAnulty somehow beat out.

1st:  Flyball, groundball, groundball, flyball
2nd:  Strikeout (swing), groundball, strikeout (swing)
3rd:  Groundball, strikeout (swing), line drive
4th:  Groundball, strikeout (called), walk, groundball
5th:  Strikeout (swing), walk, pop up, flyball
6th:  Flyball, flyball, walk, line drive

Groundballs:  6
Flyballs:  5
Line Drives:  2
Pop Ups:  1
Walks:  3
Strikeouts:  5

Stats below the jump.  Also, today is the season finale for several teams, so tomorrow's Wrap-Up will be the last full one of the season.  West Tenn's playoff games and Everett's final games will be all that remains beyond that.

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- Game 2 of the DSL Mariners playoff series with the DSL Giants was scheduled but no results are listed. Hurricane Gustav passed a few days ago, and an earlier game for the other playoff series did occur. But another rain storm may have struck the island in time to postpone the DSLMs game. Given they had varying forms of inclement cloud cover passing over the island throughout yesterday (per Weather Channel radar animation), I'd gather that's what happened. They have playoff games for both series scheduled today, so I anticipate this series will resume today as usual.

NO WAIT EDIT:  They did post results.  Looks like there was simply a delay in relaying the information.  I'll run down any and all games between Saturday and yesterday tomorrow.

- Amidst other events, it slipped by me: yesterday's AZLMs game was their season finale. They finished with an overall record of 21-35 and, needless to say, did not quality for the AZL playoffs in either half. The key to their relative weakness was their younger lineup: their .667 OPS was 3rd least in the AZL, their 73 doubles last in the AZL, their 144 team walks drawn last in the AZL, and their 17 team HRs tied for 2nd least with the AZL Angels. We did see improvement as the season progressed from 6th round pick Jarrett Burgess (227/297/293) and catcher Henry Contreras (345/360/429), and Scott Savastano showed flashes in an unspectacular but consistent season (298/365/415).

The young pitching also struggled with the developing kids behind them, the .618 defensive efficiency in the league's lower half while the 6.13 runs allowed per game was 3rd most. The staff's 428 K's was 2nd least in the AZL, so it was up to the defense more oftne than usual to make outs, and there just weren't enough.

- Thanks to Lance via the comments at Mariner Minors for relaying this info to a vacationing/indisposed J and, by proxy, the rest of us: Steven Hensley has been shut down for the season with an elbow problem. Granted, there's only a handful of games left, so the time missed is not a huge deal, but let's hope the 4th round pick from this season's draft is okay for 2009.

- Not much else to say, other than guess who made his final start of the season last night in Tacoma? And it was a good one....

Stats below the jump.

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- So much for a high scoring DSL playoff game: Anthony Fernandez pitched 6 strong innings for the DSLMs, striking out 8 while allowing only 2 runs, but Edward Concepcion of the DSL Gigantes threw 6 strong innings of his own, albeit with more help from the defense, as he only struck out 3 while walking 3 and allowing only an unearned run to outduel Fernandez and the DSLMs bullpen despite a fine effort against a good offense.  Unspectacular but useful Gigantes reliever Franklin Noel (24 app, 2.28 ERA, 51.1 IP, 22/50 BB/K*) threw three perfect innings in relief to lock up the 2-1 win and take one of the two needed wins to knock out the DSLMs.

* - Remember, DSL pitchers get a big strike zone, so don't read much into the high K rate.  Key on the walk rates, and abnormally high or low K rates.

As has been the case these entire playoffs, the lineup left their hitting at the Santo Domingo North complex, finishing with only 3 hits, getting their only run on a Hector Mercedes sac fly, and even that was set up by a Gigantes error.  Once Los Gigantes popped in two runs in the 2nd off Fernandez, it may as well been 2 goals in a soccer match.  The DSLMs just didn't have enough hitting to sustain a rally, let alone get more than the gift run they got.

- Unlike the DSLMs, the Pulaski Mariners' playoff run came to a quick end.  One day after a 7-4 defeat, the Elizabthton Twins blanked the PMs 7-0 in Elizabethton to sweep the three game series.  Like Nick Czyz, Brooks Mohr got bombed out of the gate, and in his case did not finish the 2nd inning.  Stephen Penney did a fine job with 4.2 shutout innings of relief, but with Liz Twins starter Daniel Osterbrock dealing, striking out 11 PMs over 7 innings, this game was as good as over before the 3rd, and the final 7 innings took on the aura of a formality.

Congratulations to the Pulaski Mariners for a fine first season in the App League.  The Liz Twins just had more offense, came out mashing from the get-go and put both games out of reach before the PMs knew what hit them (pun obviously intended on account of look who's writing this).  But that doesn't detract from fielding a new team at a new level in a new league and outplaying most of the league.

- Despite only one base hit and no free passes, Gavin Dickey stole FOUR bases for High Desert against Rancho Cucamonga yesterday.

1.  Dickey grounds to short with one out in the 2nd and gets on after PJ Phillips muffs it.  Dickey then steals 2nd base.

2.  Dickey then stole 3rd base.  He later scored on a Carlos Triunfel sac fly.

3.  Dickey grounds to 3rd with two outs in the 3rd, but 3B Larry Infante throws YIKES AND AWAY to put him on.  Dickey follows up by stealing 2nd.  Unfortunately, the Human Temp Agency, Kevin Reynolds, responded by grounding to 3rd, and Infante did not screw up the throw this time.  Inning over.

4.  Dickey grounds to 2nd with two outs in the 8th, and beats it out to get on. Dickey then swipes 2nd base... but once again, Reynolds came up empty, striking out to end the frame.

Steals by Gavin Dickey for High Desert coming into last night's game:  5
Steals by Gavin Dickey last night:  4

Stats below the jump.

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- In the do-or-die game of their playoff series, the DSLMs could not get much going at the plate against the Twins in Boca Chica. However, neither could the Twins, and the DSLMs workhorse Felix Bautista, aka The Other Felix, pitched into the 6th without allowing a run. After Victor Ozuna popped in the first run of the game in the top 6th, and Bautista done, manager (Not That) Jose Guillen turned to another horse: Henry Perez, who pitched brilliantly in a 1-0 loss in Game 1. Henry was up to the task, finishing the 6th and not allowing more than a single hit over the rest of the game to seal the Twins' doom and move the DSLMs into the DSL semis.

The DSLMs now get a juggernaut in the DSL Gigantes, the Boca Chica South campeones whose .742 OPS is best in the DSL, though as previously mentioned, their pitching and defense leaves some to be desired. They walk far more batters than the Twins and their pitchers' control problems frequently get Los Gigantes into trouble. This should play opposite to the low scoring series the DSLMs just completed with the low-scoring Twins. The DSLMs will have a bit of a pitching edge (which may be neutralized some as top pitcher Henry Perez will need some rest), and the key will be if the DSLMs bats can score enough runs against the iffy Gigantes pitching/defense... because chances are likely the DSLMs pitching can contain, to some extent, the high scoring Gigantes offense.

Gigantes bats of death include 1B/DH Hector Sanchez (348/458/502), corner OF Sundrendy Windster (268/356/460 with a team leading 10 HR, huge in the DSL) and an on-base machine in IF Julio Izturis (284/471/355). Most of the team runs an OPS in the 720-750 range, pretty good for the dead-ball DSL.

Key starters include workhorse Edward Concepcion (14 GS +1, 4.20 ERA, 75 IP, 2 HR, 20/64 BB/K), the erratic Argenis Sanchez (14 GS, 3.57 ERA, 70.2 IP, 1 HR, 30/61 BB/K), and strike throwing out machine Miguel Ferrer (11 GS +2, 2.44 ERA, 62.2 IP, 1 HR, 16/42 BB/K). Marcos Prada (13 GS, 4.60 ERA, 58.2 IP, 2 HR, 29/39 BB/K) also starts but isn't that great and I doubt we see much of him in this series. The bullpen, almost to a man, takes advantage of the large DSL strike zone and nets a lot of K's but walks a ton of guys as well. The DSLers, by and large, are patient, and if they can get to the Gigantes bullpen, they can probably sit on their bad control and chunder forth a few extra runs.

- Meanwhile, the PMs are now in the hole after Nick Czyz bombed and got pulled before the 3rd inning, leaving the PMs in a 4-0 hole from which they never quite emerged in a 7-4 loss. The PMs got within 5-4 in the 5th, but the bats quieted down and the bullpen let 2 more slip.

- Sign Number Umpteen That the Mavs Have Officially Said "Screw It" To This Season: 3B Ronnie Prettyman started yesterday at SS. (Triunfel played 2B)

- Joe Woerman got a mulligan from me after his last crappy start, but the bad one against Mississippi yesterday does not get a pass: he walked 6 in 4 innings and only recorded 4 groundouts and a K.

1st: Flyball, strikeout (swing), walk, line drive, walk, flyball
2nd: Line drive, groundball, flyball, groundball
3rd: Pop up, groundball, walk, line drive, flyball, groundball, groundball
4th: Line drive, walk, bunt groundball, walk, walk, groundball, flyball

Groundballs: 6 (plus 1 bunt)
Flyballs: 5
Line Drives: 4
Pop Ups: 1
Walks: 6
Strikeouts: 1

- Luis Valbuena is on fire, 19 for his last 45 with 6 walks. Granted, all but one of those hits are singles (and the other was a double), and his LD rate this month has actually slid over the last few weeks, so he's largely benefitting from positive variance. But given this guy was hitting everything into the ground in June, I'll take it.

Stats below the jump.

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- With Tropical Storm Gustav having passed, the DSLMs and DSL Twins played Game 2 of their playoff series in Santo Domingo, and the DSLMs bats finally awoke. Rudy van Heydoorn doubled in a run in a 1st and later scored on a wild pitch. Rudy doubled home another run in the 3rd, and the Twins did not respond off of a strong Miguel Celestino until getting a gift run in the 7th off a muffed catch in LF by Angel Zapata with a man on 2nd. But the DSLMs loaded the bases in the 8th and Hector Mercedes cleared them with a one out double to stretch the lead out to 6-1.

Bruno Mercedes pitched for the 2nd time in 3 days and struggled, giving up a couple runs on a 2 out double to make it close. But catcher Hassiel Jimenez caught runner Carlos Vasquez off the bag between 1st and 2nd, threw to 2nd and 2B Bertin Sanon ran him down to end the game and tie the series at one game apiece.

The DSLMs will see if they can bring their bats to Boca Chica this time, as they face the DSL Twins in the decisive Game 3 today.

- How's this for a name: the Vancouver Canadians reliever who pitched the 8th and 9th innings of Vancouver's 5-1 win over Everett was Mathieu LeBlanc Poirier. The last two names are his surname and would go on the back of his jersey... if NWL teams did that sort of thing. Other than that, there's isn't much else to say about the lefthanded Quebecois, who is getting a brief test run in the NWL after an unlucky but productive stint with the AZLAs.

- The Montgomery Biscuits sent their B lineup out against Edward Paredes, making his 2nd AA start, and go figure he had himself a good night, throwing 6 shutout innings and striking out 6 with 9 groundouts on only 3 hits and 2 walks.

1st: Line drive, groundball, groundball
2nd: Groundball, groundball, hit batter, strikeout (swing)
3rd: Groundball, pop up, strikeout (called)
4th: Flyball, groundball, groundball, walk, strikeout (swing)
5th: Hit batter, strikeout (swing), walk, groundball
6th: Groundball, strikeout (swing), flyball, strikeout (swing)

Groundballs: 9
Flyballs: 2
Line Drives: 1
Pop Ups: 1
Walks: 2 (plus 1 hit batter)
Strikeouts: 6

As the 1st half North division champs, the DIAMOND JAXX will likely face the much improved Mississippi AA Braves (I blame the brief but inspiring veteran presence of Jeff Francoeur's cameo appearance) in the Southern League playoffs, and chances are likely that they're going to get creamed, but their hopes will rest on the abilities of guys like Paredes, so if they can finish strong... never say never.

- Speaking of never saying never... you can say 'never' now to the Rainiers PCL playoff chances: the Salt Lake Bees, who matched the Rainiers step for step in the win column once they got within 5 games, have officially clinched the PCL Pacific North division.

The Rainiers shouldn't have even been in the race, with Salt Lake starting the season 21-1 and the Rainiers playing a hair under .500 ball most of the way. But then the Bees cooled off and played .500 ball, the Rainiers rattled off 12 straight wins, and suddenly, with about two weeks left, the Rainiers were 5 back and people suddenly pushed the idea of a Rainiers pennant race.

Sure enough, however, though the Rainiers stayed hot, the Bees woke up, kept pace all the way, and 5 games was as close as the Rainiers would get before the Bees locked it up. I'm a Rainiers fan as much as anyone and I would have loved to see them come all the way back, especially against the Angels' AAA affiliate... but I think the small sample size of the Astros miracle 2005 NL Central run (where they went from 8 back to tied in 8 days), the Phillies comeback on the Mets in the NL East last year, and the M's famous run in 1995... have colored some perspectives on how unlikely it is to make up a 5 game deficit in such a short span of time. Even after their winning streak closed the gap, the probability of the Rainiers making up 6 games (there is no one game playoff if tied, and the Bees have the tiebreaker) in less than two weeks, given a wealth of statistical precedence, was remote at best. Great run, Tacoma Rainiers, but the pennant race was over long ago, and in the big picture of the division title race, this excellent run is akin to making a 10-1 deficit a 10-7 loss. It looks better at first glance in the newspapers... until you take a closer look at the boxes.

But that is not to detract from what the Rainiers did this past month. Winning games and playing great in August? That's awesome. Winning streaks despite half the team getting called up to the Mariners failboat? That's awesome. A lot of awesome things happened in Tacoma this month, and the comeback in the standings, though not enough to prevent a walkover, was a statement in itself.

And hey, there are still games left, so if you live in Puget Sound and want to be reminded what winning baseball looks like, take the chance to head to Cheney Stadium one more time before the season ends.

- Chris Jakubauskas became the latest injury-lister to come back. He relieved another fellow Team DLer, Robert Rohrbaugh, in the 5th, worked through the 6th, and though he allowed 2 unearned runs on 4 hits, he struck out 5 on 48 pitches, 34 for strikes. We'll see if he finished strong, and then we'll see if the org keeps him around or cuts him loose. Normally, these Indy vets come and go, but the 29 year old Jakubauskas appeared to be on his way to forcing himself into the 25 man conversation when he got hurt.

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- After getting rocked his first time out, 3rd round pick Ben Pribanic looked far better in a 3 inning relief stint with the AZLMs yesterday.

4th: Strikeout (swing), flyball, flyball, strikeout (called)
5th: Strikeout (swing), bunt groundball, groundball, hit batter, line drive
6th: Groundball, flyball, strikeout (called), walk, flyball

He's still showing flyball tendencies, but given he just got hammered his first time out, this is a relief.

- Jarrett Burgess in August: 309/356/420... 10% LD rate, .424 BABIP, 25.3% K/PA. He certainly needed a good month, but there's a lot of luck involved here.

- Robert Rodriguez in August: 107/138/161... 10% LD rate, .207 BABIP, 46.6% K. He's just blown.

- Pulaski's last regular season game got rained out, but congratulations to the PMs on winning the Appalachian League's East Division title in Pulaski's first year back in the league. Their reward? A 3 game Championship Series with the West division champions, the Elizabethton Twins. The Liz Twins led the league with 6.33 runs per game, an .823 OPS, 142 doubles, 263 walks, and 88 HR. No, really, they led the league in all those respective categories.

The Liz Twins home park, Joe O'Brien Stadium, is possibly a contributing factor, as they have also allowed the 3rd most runs in the league (5.27). Their 181 walks issue is tied for the lowest total in the App League, while their 52 HRs allowed is the most. Maybe it's the park, maybe not: their .602 defensive efficiency is lowest in the App League.

With no park factor data below A ball, there's no definite stats to point at and say yes or no. I'll have to do some research this offseason on the subject, but in any case, the PMs are facing a team that can score a lot of runs and surrender a lot of runs. Win or lose, this should be a fun series.

- Pulaski's playing for a championship, but Everett's just trying to stay out of the division cellar. Going into yesterday tied with Vancouver for the bottom slot, they eked out a rain shortened 4-2 win to move out and leave the Canadians by themselves.

The culprit for Everett has been consistent weakness across the board: their .702 OPS and 4.69 runs per game are 3rd least in the Northwest League, their 573 K's are tops, their 249 walks are 2nd least, their 5.41 runs allowed per game tied for worst, their 44 HRs surrendered 2nd most, and the kicker: their .617 defensive efficiency is worst in the league by a comfortable margin. They can't even make the youth excuse, as they have one of the NWL's more veteran rosters, with the majority of their team in the 22-23 year old age range (whereas the average NWLer is 21-22) with only a handful of teenagers.

- One guy that's going to get on M's fans' nerves in a few years is Venezuelan pitcher Jose Perez. He struck out 10 T-Rats in yesterday's 4-0 Cedar Rapids win. He had struggled in his first 3 starts with the Angels affiliate since his callup from Orem of the Pioneer League, where he struck out 77 in 58.1 IP with only 8 walks but also surrendered 7 HR and ran an ERA in the 4's with a 17% LD rate. The guys is a strikeout machine that doesn't walk anybody once he gets the hang of things, and if he can do a better job of keeping the ball down... I suspect he'll be another in a long line of useful Angels SPs.

- West Tenn had 11 hits total in their doubleheader sweep defeat to Montgomery. Mark Kiger (227/356/294) had 5 of them.

The M's are allegedly trying to keep the DIAMOND JAXX roster loaded for the playoffs, but I'm not sure it's worth it. The current team as is just isn't very good, let alone competitive in a short series. They're far too flat, the pitching far too hittable, too many inconsistent, struggling arms, far too many empty lineup spots, and the hitters who can hit aren't consistently productive enough to offset any of this. Whoever they face in the Southern League playoffs will probably take the series in a walkover. What use is Shawn Kelley in the 8th inning of a 3-0 deficit or a 10-2 rout? You may as well call him up to AAA and be done with it. But if they want to load a playoff-bound roster and take their best shot, even if it's a longshot, then go for it.

- The first game of last night's Rainiers doubleheader was resumption of a scheduled game from way back on April 6. I love how, with two outs in the bottom 1st, a flurry of substitutions takes place for players who are no longer with the Rainiers, and in a couple of cases not even with the org anymore.

Defensive Substitution: Chris Denorfia replaces center fielder Nicholas Blasi, batting 1st, playing center field.
Defensive Substitution: Matt Murton replaces left fielder Todd Linden, batting 4th, playing left field.
Pitcher Change: Vincent Mazzaro replaces Brad Knox.
Offensive Substitution: Pinch runner Luis Valbuena replaces Bronson Sardinha.
Offensive Substitution: Pinch runner Michael Saunders replaces Greg Norton.
Offensive Substitution: Pinch hitter Victor Diaz replaces Wladimir Balentien.
On-field Delay (of about 4 months and 3 weeks).
Victor Diaz strikes out swinging.

Also, Nick Blasi, subbed out for on the River Cats side, was at one point on this Rainiers roster. He's currently with Charlotte, his 3rd AAA team this season.

- After his awesome start last time, Brandon Morrow threw 79 pitches (47 for strikes) after picking up where Robert Rohrbaugh left off in the suspended game, but took a bad beating in the 5th.

2nd: Strikeout (called), flyball, groundball
3rd: Walk, pop up, strikeout (swing), flyball
4th: Flyball (HR), strikeout (swing), groundball, flyball
5th: Line drive, walk, flyball (HR), walk, flyball, groundball, flyball, flyball, pop up
6th: Groundball, groundball

Groundballs: 5
Flyballs: 8 (2 HR)
Line Drives: 1
Pop Ups: 2
Walks: 3
Strikeouts: 3

The two HRs were his 1st and 2nd long balls allowed in Tacoma as a starter. His LD rate going in was only 12.5%, and obviously wasn't affected too much, but Morrow certainly hasn't been a groundball pitcher. His rate there was 40.6% and that certainly went down a bit yesterday.

Stats below the jump.

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- In Game 1 of the DSLMs playoff series with the DSL Twins, Henry Perez pitched one of the best games of his career, striking out 11 while pitching into the 7th. Unfortunately, the one run he allowed was one run too many, as the DSLMs got shut out in a 1-0 loss. But the lanky 18 year old lefthanded Perez, clearly the ace of this year's DSLMs, pitched one of his best games of the season when the DSLMs needed it the most. Unless he's got some character or logistics issues we're not aware of, the M's org may want to consider getting Henry Perez the necessary visa and paperwork, and bringing him stateside next season.

The big issue I can see is a low groundball rate, which hangs around 30-31%. I'm not as worried about the 9ish% walk rate (per PA) as the DSL generally sees high walk rates, plus he runs a consistent 26-27% K rate (though granted that's with the big DSL strike zone). According to Churchill, Perez is a fastball (87-89), slider, changeup guy to whom the coaches are trying to teach the curveball to. His command is considered 'average', though whether that's average in general or average relative to the DSL isn't known. If it's the former, that's pretty good, given Perez is only 18. Even if it's the latter, you're talking a projectible talent that's pitching above his competition.

- Game 2 of the DSL playoffs was supposed to go today but we'll have to wait: ANOTHER tropical storm is battering the island.

- Michael Saunders isn't the only Mariners prospect who left the minors to go play in the Olympics: Kuo Hui Lo left the team in late July to represent Taiwan, where he ran a 238/438/429 over his 7 games with Taiwan (Taiwan bricked group play with a 2-5 record). Lo returned yesterday for the Mavs and his patience didn't follow him across the water: though he knocked in the only Mavs run of the game, he struck out 3 times.

- You know who the Mariners should call up in September? That starting pitcher in Tacoma who pitched into the 8th inning yesterday. I hear he's pretty PHAT.

Stats below the jump.

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- I talked previously about his growing pains, but this year's 6th round pick, Jarrett Burgess, has actually hit the ball well lately. Burgess has 4 multi-hit games in his last 9 games, including 3 doubles and a triple. After struggling his first 5-6 weeks in pro ball, the 18 year old has managed a more respectable 286/329/377 in the month of August. His line drive rate has improved into the teens (from 7% in July), and a 55-60% GB combined with his speed always gives him a fighting chance on those pitches he doesn't drive. Speaking of footspeed, he swiped his 15th base of the year yesterday (in only 182 AB). The kid's got an uphill climb, but he's starting to gain traction as the season comes to a close.

- The last thing you want to do in a doubleheader is wear out your bullpen any more than you need to. The games are 7 innings in the minors, fortunately, and this is usually manageable. You get 4-6 innings from your starter in the front, have another guy finish, maybe 2 guys if the 1st one can't get that far... then try to do the same for the nightcap.

Kyle Haas and Blake Nation did just fine in a 3-2 PMs win on the front end (and Haas really needed a good start after an otherwise pitiful August). But the best laid plans of mice and men go awry when you can't score any runs in your nightcap. Reliever Andres Esquibel allowed the tying run in the 6th to blow a mammoth 1-0 lead, and thus we went into an 8th, then a 9th, then a 10th inning before Kenn Kasparek, dropkicked out of Everett after 8 reasonable starts and landed right in the PMs bullpen, served up a suck pitch for a walkoff solo HR with one out in the 10th.

The PMs managed 6 hits in the nightcap, only one of which was more than a single. They also used 3 relievers.

- While his stat line indicates that Tracy Thorpe has hit the wall, his last start actually didn't go too badly, save for a rough 1st and 3rd inning. He struck out 6 batters in just over 5 innings, and got 9 groundballs to 3 flyballs and 4 line drives (okay, that's a little much for 5+ innings). Unfortunately, he gave up 3 runs between those two frames, including a leadoff HR to start the game, and got tagged for another after he departed in the 6th.

1st: Line drive (HR), strikeout (swing), strikeout (swing), line drive
2nd: Flyball, strikeout (swing), groundball
3rd: Line drive, line drive, flyball, groundball, strikeout (swing), pop up
4th: Groundball, strikeout (swing), flyball
5th: Groundball, groundball, groundball, groundball
6th: Strikeout (swing), walk, groundball, groundball

Groundballs: 9
Flyballs: 3
Line Drives: 4 (1 HR)
Pop Ups: 1
Walks: 1
Strikeouts: 6

Stats below the jump.

Continue reading this post »

- Today's recap will be light on content.  Below are the dates of the last games of each team's respective season, among teams still playing this season.  An (x) denotes teams that will, or are likely to, make the postseason, and will play some extra games once their regular season slate ends.

AZL Mariners:  August 29
Pulaski Mariners (x):  August 29
Everett Aquasox:  September 3
Wisconsin T-Rats:  September 1
High Desert Mavs:  September 1 (what could be the last Mavs game in High Desert is August 29)
West Tenn DIAMOND JAXX (x):  September 1
Tacoma Rainiers:  September 1

- The Battle of the Hanns began with Philip Hann (Everett) ahead of Cheyne Hann (AZLMs) on the depth chart, but with a fine performance in Peoria, Cheyne has roared ahead, landing in Wisconsin, where he debuted with three scoreless relief innings in yesterday's 4-0 loss to the Quad Cities.  Granted, this could be nothing more than a congratulatory cup of coffee for Cheyne, but he's probably a few good season-closing performances away from solidifying his position for 2009.

- Carlos Triunfel got himself ejected in the 9th inning of the Mavs' 5-1 loss to San Jose last night.  Phenom did not concur with home plate umpire Masaki Nonaka's strike zone, and advised him of this perspective gap after swinging and missing strike three to lead off the top 9th.  Nonaka did not appreciate the criticism and sent him to the clubhouse a little early.  While Triunfel could have had legitimate issues with the strike zone, one has to imagine he's frustrated with being held back from a rumored promotion to AA after his groin injury last weekend.

- He returned to AA and had three good starts, but Joe Woerman finally got lit up last night against the Montgomery Biscuits (which, incidentally, are the Rays' AA affiliate).  Most of the damage came in a big 7th inning, from which Woerman got chased.  He began and ended his start by giving up too many line drives for comfort, and the fateful 7th inning was a meltdown of walks and line drives.  So you could say it was an effective 6 inning start that just went on a few batters too long.  Woerman should take a page from Jarrod Washburn and learn how to give his manager the 100 Pitch Stare.  (That, however, is all he should take from Jarrod for what I hope are obvious reasons)

1st:  Bunt groundball, strikeout (swing), line drive, line drive, hit batter, strikeout (swing)
2nd:  Pop up, flyball, groundball
3rd:  Groundball, strikeout (swing), strikeout (called)
4th:  Pop Up, flyball, groundball
5th:  Strikeout (swing), strikeout (swing), groundball
6th:  Groundball, groundball, groundball, groundball
7th:  Line drive, line drive, walk, walk, line drive

Groundballs:  8 (plus 1 bunt)
Flyballs:  2
Line Drives:  5
Pop Ups:  2
Walks:  2 (plus 1 hit batter)
Strikeouts:  6

Doug FISTER exacerbated the issue by allowing all three of Woerman's inherited runners to score before getting out of the frame, wiping out a 7-2 DIAMOND JAXX lead.

Fortunately, the DIAMOND JAXX had a rally or two left in them.  Greg Halman blasted off on Roger Deago with nobody out and a man on in the bottom 7th to give West Tenn a 9-7 lead, and Adam Moore atoned for a gaffe I'll get to in a bit with an RBI single in the 8th to pile on.  FISTER was allowed to finish the game, vulturing the win (with his FIST) from Woerman.

- For his well developed skills, Adam Moore lets a lot of balls get by him.  He passed his 23rd ball of the season in the 1st inning of last night's game, and the passed ball was costly, as it came with the bases loaded, allowed a run, and moved the runners up a base.  (Joe Woerman fortunately struck out the next batter to end the frame)

Stats below the jump.

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- Congratulations to the DSL Mariners, who completed the DSL regular season with easily the best record in the Santo Domingo North division (42-24) and will be one of the 6 teams in the DSL playoffs.  The other DSL teams joining them are the DSL RangersUno (46-22, just ahead of the DSL Angels by a game in the San Pedro division), the DSL NacionalesUno (a runaway winner at 54-17 in the Santo Domingo West division and easily the best record in the DSL), the DSL Twins (45-24, winning the tightest division of the DSL, the Boca Chica North, by a game over the DSL CubsUno and DSL YankeesDos (GringosDos?), with the BlancoSoxUno 3 ames back and the DSL Reds Rojos, in 5th place, only 5 games back), the DSL Gigantes (49-20, an easy winner by 5.5 games in the Boca Chica South) and the wildcard DSL Angeles (46-24 in San Pedro for the best record among all non division winners).

Team OPS:

DSL Giants:  .742
DSL RangersUno:  .714
DSL NationalsUno:  .713
DSL Mariners:  .705
DSL Twins:  .671
DSL Angels:  .645

The Gigantes have the DSL's best offense, scoring 6.74 runs a game and running a .742 OPS, impressive in the dead-ball DSL.  The Nats lead the DSL with 198 stolen bases.  The two scrubs on this list, the Twins and Angels, don't hit for as much power as the others and don't steal as many bases.  The M's had the best offense in their complex but compared to the other teams, they aren't particularly spectacular.

Team ERA:

DSL NationalsUno:  2.29
DSL Twins:  2.36
DSL RangersUno:  2.47
DSL Angels:  2.57
DSL Mariners:  3.42
DSL Giants:  3.98

Team strikeouts:

DSL NationalsUno:  703
DSL Angels:  637
DSL RangersUno:  560
DSL Mariners:  559
DSL Giants:  521
DSL Twins:  512

Team walks allowed:

DSL Twins:  154
DSL Mariners:  232
DSL NationalsUno:  244
DSL Angels:  264
DSL RangersUno:  286
DSL Giants:  316

It's pretty easy to see how the teams with pop-gun lineups got this far: good pitching, which also indicates solid defense.  The Giants' relatively prolific offense allowed them to get away with relatively meh pitching, and the Nats' solid offense was more than enough given they had some of the best pitching in the DSL. The DSLMs are good overall, but not particularly spectacular at anything, and they'll probably need some luck to swipe the DSL title.

- One previously unsigned draft pick the M's did manage to sign is 14th rounder Luke Burnett out of Louisiana Tech, and Luke made his pro debut yesterday with the AZLMs, striking out two in a scoreless inning. Of their first 20 picks, 15 are signed and playing professionally for the M's, so not too bad so far... though one of those that isn't, unfortunately, is their 1st pick, reliever Josh Fields.

I still have no word on whether Fields signed or not.  Of course, if he doesn't, the M's get a compensatory pick in 2009, and given where the team is currently at depth-wise... losing Fields and having to take a make-up pick next year wouldn't be the worst fate in the world.  The pick was a bad one anyway, given the ease of finding relievers in baseball, and if the team can get a chance to fix their mistake by taking a more useful player with a similar pick in 2009, then why not do that instead of cave to silly over-slot demands from an unproven college closer?

- All three active Mariners-org rookie ball teams (DSLMs, AZLMs, Pulaski) combined for 12 hits yesterday.

- It seemed like his season was over, but Chris Jakubauskas took a drive up I-5 to make a rehab start in Everett and looked incredible, striking out 7 of the 9 batters he faced and getting two outs into the 3rd.  Given this fine head start, Walter Suriel proceeded to... throw suck pitches, allowing 4 runs in 4.1 IP to give Salem-Keizer the 4-3 win.

- Two interesting changes manifested in the Mavs pitching staff last night.  SP Anthony Varvaro came out of the bullpen to relieve Jake Wild in the 6th and worked through the 7th without allowing a hit or a run.

6th:  Groundball, groundball, pop up
7th:  Strikeout (swing), walk, flyball, groundball

Varvaro's obvious Achilles heel right now is his propensity for walks, so perhaps finishing the season by having him work from the bullpen against 4-6 batters, and focusing on hitting his spots in smaller doses, may be the best bet for now... though for all I know, they probably just used him on the spot on a throw day or something.

But one legitimate change is the return of Austin Bibens-Dirkx to the Mavs bullpen.  ABD came in and worked a hitless 8th, going groundout, pop out, swinging strikeout.  A most triumphant return.

- Edward Paredes got a carrot-callup to AA West Tenn and started yesterday.  It went about as badly as you'd expect for someone who was up-and-down in A ball making the leap to AA.  Paredes got shelled for 8 runs and did not finish the 4th in a 15-5 drubbing from Mobile.  For what it's worth, Ryan Ketchner wasn't much better, getting pounded himself for 6 runs in 1.1 IP.

Aaron Cotter also got a promotion from High Desert to AA, and looked far better than the other two, finishing the 5th for Ketchner, then working the 6th and 7th without allowing a run.

- The resumption of the suspended game in Portland allowed another returning player some action: Robert Rohrbaugh pitched the final 3 innings once play resumed for a curious "save", allowing only one hit while striking out three.  Also, order was restored in the Universe, as Kevin Howard did not hit a 4th home run.

Stats below the jump.

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- While the primary item of interest from the Rainiers was Brandon Morrow's start yesterday, there was another item that made the news: recently acquired reliever Jorge Sosa has tested positive for an amphetamine, earning himself a 50 game suspension from MLB.

The positive test came while Sosa was with the Rainiers... though the half life of drugs in your system can vary considerably. It could be residual presence from usage during his Mets time, or he may have used while with Tacoma. It could be either case, or both cases.  We don't know most of what goes on behind closed doors, though the fact that the Mets dropped him like a bad habit out of the blue in mid-May despite a meh but seemingly productive performance leads me to wonder if the Mets let him go because they 'had a hunch' that Sosa was going to 'run into problems'.

Sosa and the Mariners will have quite a bit of time to think about it either way.

- With one game left in the DSLMs regular season after yesterday, manager (not that) Jose Guillen emptied the bench, using 14 different position players and 6 pitchers in yesterday's 6-4 win over those failed roiders from the DSL Cardinals. The DSLMs are heading to the DSL playoffs after this, so Guillen probably wanted to make sure as many players as possible got the chance to shake off any rust.

- Either Ben Pribanic has a long way to go, or he doesn't handle 105 degree desert weather very well. His ERA currently looks like a grocery bill.

- Paging Two R's and Two L's. Paging Two R's and Two L's:

Daniel Carroll hit his first career professional home run against Quad Cities yesterday. Carroll took a Ryan Kulik suck pitch over the LF wall with one out in the 3rd.

Sadly, the breakthrough blast did not key a T-Rats win, as starter Keith Renaud sucked more than Kulik, failing to finish the 5th inning in helping faciliate a 5-3 Quad Cities win.

- GOOD LORD JAMIE McOWEN. Three more hits makes him 10 for his last 17. Two doubles yesterday too. And stolen base #27... swiping 3rd base, no less. Someone's making a season-ending statement.

- On a lesser Mavs note... with 4.2 nausea-worthy innings yesterday, Alfredo Venegas became only the 2nd High Desert Mavs pitcher this year to surpass 100 innings pitched on the season, with Anthony Varvaro and his 116 facepalm-inducing innings being the other.

- Shawn Kelley got rocked in the 8th inning last night, blowing a 5-2 DIAMOND JAXX lead and setting up Mobile's extra innings walkoff victory. It's the second straight appearance in which the previously untouchable kelley got pounded, and I don't want to say he's wearing down: he HAS struck out 9 in those 3.2 combined innings, and the first outing against the Mudcats was all groundballs, though the Baybears did tee off on him in the 8th. If the season wasn't almost over, I'd say it's adjustment time for Kelley. As it stands, it should roll off his back, and he should reload, work on his game between now and next Spring, and be ready to own hitters again in 2009, whether it's at AA or AAA.

- Marshall Hubbard started this game in left field. This is actually the 5th game he's started in LF, and this time he looked far better. Balls in air hit to Marshall Hubbard:

1st: Double
4th: Flyout!
6th: Flyout!
7th: Flyout 7-3 double play!
8th: Double
10th: Single, moving runner to 3rd, which set up the winning run on the next AB

The double play is the only outfield assisted double play from LF by the DIAMOND JAXX this season.

- Breakthrough: Brandon Morrow positively owned the Portland Beavers, striking out 11 of them over his 4 2/3 innings, the longest outing that he's managed yet, and easily his best.

According to Ian Ruder of the Tacoma News Tribune, Morrow threw 72 pitches, struck out 5 of the last 6 batters he faced with only one well-hit ball, and regularly hit 98 on the gun in PGE Park. Morrow, on his outing last night:

Tonight was the first time that I’ve felt comfortable out of the windup. I got a good rhythm and I stayed back out of the windup and felt comfortable finally.

I was initially ambivalent about whether or not we should see Morrow in September... but a big step forward like this has me on board with the team's intentions of test-driving him in the rotation next month on an 85-90 pitch count. Routinely hitting 98 already? Mixing his pitches well and feeling comfortable from the windup? Razzing Daren Brown for pulling him after 72 pitches, instead of feeling bushwhacked and being relieved about getting pulled? I say go for it!

He'll get at least one more Tacoma start... and then, when rosters expand in September, he'll likely be among the few September callups.  I'm guessing he'll take Dickey Time's spot in the rotation, though anything can happen, especially with this organization.

Unfortunately, the game was suspended after the power went out at PGE Park. Reportedly, the cause of the malfunction was a rift in the space time continum caused by a violation of the natural order of the Universe, aka Kevin Howard's 3rd home run of the game.

Stats below the jump....

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- A lot of DSLers draw walks at a heavy clip, but one guy with a truly uncanny walk rate is the curiously named Rudy van Heydoorn. After a puke-worthy 194/288/313 season last year, the 19 year old returned with a newfound ability to work the count, currently sporting a healthy 18.7% walk rate and having cut his K rate from 28.5% during that dismal 2007 to 19.8% this year. With 3 walks yesterday, he upped his season total to 42 in 193 ABs, which over a full 162 games would be well over 120. He's 13 for his last 31 ABs, with 14 walks vs only 7 K's. Five of those 13 hits were XBHs, and he drew multiple walks in 5 of those 10 games.

The DSL mantra is that you don't get off the island with a walk, and 38.5% of his plate appearances end at the plate... but he's also added power, with 7 home runs in the dead-ball DSL over 151 AB to go with 5 doubles. It's not huge power but it's enough to possibly make him interesting enough to bring to the mainland. He may have a very European looking name, but Rudy's profile at the plate, so far, looks a lot like Brad Wilkerson... not that he's anywhere close to replicating Wilkerson's performance in the bigs, but that's the impression that I get from looking at a bunch of integers on a spreadsheet.

- After putting up good numbers in the VSL last season, I was surprised that Mexican hurler Jose Rios started 2008 in the Pulaski bullpen. After a spot start yesterday in which he threw 6 strong innings, walked 2 and struck out 8, I was curious why an otherwise effective pitcher was bullpenned.

Turns out he wasn't as effective as he seemed. In 2007, he ran an average-ish 16.1% K rate with an okay-ish 8.6% walk rate. As one would expect, in the PMs pen, his K rate improved in 2008 (26.5%), which tends to happen when you can throw max effort to a few batters instead of having to face a lineup twice and being expected to take a team into the 6th. His walk rate came down slightly (7.4%) and his groundball rate remained similar (54% to 57% last year). Being an unknown quantity as a starter and facing a meh Greeneville lineup (team .688 OPS, 3rd worst in the App League) gave him an edge yesterday. If he started every five days, he probably would remain reasonably effective but wouldn't come across as much more than what Kyle Haas or Taylor Lewis gives the PMs every 5 days. Those guys are just bikes in the prospect peloton, and the org made the choice to develop Rios in the pen.

It's not a huge difference, and if anything, he likely fits into the Alfredo Venegas category of productive swingman that's a breakthrough or two from becoming a prospect.

- The Aquasox got absolutely owned by Salem-Keizer Volcanoes pitching. Starter Andrew Reichard struck out 11 Aquasox over his 5 innings, strikeout reliever Michael Eifel added 4 more in the 6th and 7th, lefthander Eric Neitz added another, and four of Justin Fitzgerald's five outs were strikeouts.

That's 20 strikeouts over the 10 innings it took to complete this game, and it's a minor miracle that Luis Nuñez managed to drive in a run in the bottom 5th given how pwned the Aquasox lineup was yesterday. This could have easily been a 1-0 shutout. Nuñez and Anthony Phillips were the only Aquasox hitters who didn't strike out. Ryan Royster tried on a Golden Sombrero, and three Aquasox netted themselves a hat trick: Nate Tenbrink, Brandon Fromm (Fromm even got lifted in the 9th, saving him from joining Royster in the Sombrero fitting room) and Jharmidy De Jesus.

Looks like home plate umpire Javier Cantu got a lot of practice with his right jab calling all those punch-outs, as the Aquasox also struck out a lot of batters, a bullpen relay combining for 15 K, a total of 35 strikeouts in all. THIRTY FIVE. And the vast majority of them were swinging strikeouts, though no word on how big Cantu's strike zone was. The game, even with 1 hour and 18 minutes in rain delays, took 3 hours and 10 minutes despite extra innings.

Thirty five strikeouts in one game. Only four Aquasox have more than 35 K on the season: reliever Eddy Fernandez, reliever Matt Renfree, Doug Salinas and team strikeout leader Walter Suriel.

Everett reached base 6 times in this game, and stole 3 bases. They certainly did everything they could to get anything they could.

- After his 3rd straight multi-hit game, Jamie McOwen is 7 for his last 13. Only one hit, however, was an XBH (a double on Tuesday against Lancaster). He's been making a lot of impact in August, where he's running a 289/372/408 line despite only 5 XBH, with help from 10 walks, tied with April for the most he's had in any month. With speed-assisted doubles/triples power to the 23 year old Florida International grad's hitting, his key need to develop as a hitter will be to draw more walks and get on base to use his speed (26 SBs in 37 tries this season). Work the count, Jamie. Don't be Juan Pierre. You don't want to be Juan Pierre when you wear that jersey.

- Well, they certainly paint him in a different light than I "do", but PHAT ANDY 22 is the subject of a feature in the Tacoma Weekly.

Just for you, JI, because I know you'll love this paragraph:

Baldwin is a real fan of as well as a participant in sports. "I grew up liking all sports, but I never had anybody I wanted to model myself after in any sport. I liked the Giants and Barry Bonds and the Vikings were the only NFL team I followed." He also loves Brett Favre and said it would have been "fantastic" if the former Packers’ quarterback had wound up his career in Minnesota.

Unfortunately, he did not have a good outing in PGE Park last night against Portland. PHAT ANDY 22 gave up 5 runs over 7 frames, and the Rainiers eventually lost in extra frames when Hubertime gave up a walkoff bomb to Paul McAnulty.

Stats below the jump....

Continue reading this post »

- Turns out the 'Carlos Triunfel to West Tenn' information was ultimately not the case, as either the info was leaked before the org made an official decision, or the org suddenly changed their mind. The latter is possible: Triunfel reportedly had a pulled groin anyway and wasn't going to play Monday no matter what... and the org might have decided to hold up on that intended plan once Triunfel got hurt. We don't know where exactly the org stood on the move, but at the least they are seriously considering it. He'll be back in the Mavs lineup in a day or so, and it looks like he'll likely finish the season there. Somewhere in Jackson, Erick Monzon breathes a sigh of relief.

- Phillipe Aumont made another start for Wisconsin yesterday and gave the T-Rats 4 reasonable innings in a 3-2 win over lowly Kane County. He started the 5th, but walked the leadoff batter and manager Terry Pollreisz gave him the hook for Natividad Dilone after that.

1st: Groundball, walk, line drive, strikeout (swing)
2nd: Walk, groundball, popup, groundball
3rd: Strikeout (swing), flyball, groundball, flyball, groundball
4th: Line drive, groundball, strikeout (called)
5th: Walk

Dilone got credit for the win after throwing 3 hitless innings in relief of Aumont.

- One of Travis Mortimore's best starts was wasted by a bullpen meltdown in High Desert's 8-5 loss to Lancaster, but it still deserves note. Mortimore, plagued by flyball tendencies since July as a Mavs SP, got 12 groundballs without walking a batter, and worked into the 6th while allowing only two runs (one earned) and striking out four. Mortimore is definitely not as bad as his run totals would indicate, as much of it is a result of getting Cal Leagued. You can't give up flyballs at this level... but at a higher level, even if he doesn't improve his groundball rate, he should be capable of getting guys out over long relief or as a starter. The one thing he will need to cut down on is his 5.0/9 walk rate, though like the 12 groundballs, the 0 walks over 5.1 IP is a big step forward, especially against a Lancaster team that's 3rd in the Cal League in walks drawn.

1st: Groundball, groundball, groundball
2nd: Flyball, flyball, groundball, strikeout (swing), groundball
3rd: Strikeout (swing), groundball, strikeout (called), line drive, groundball
4th: Flyball (HR), groundball, groundball, flyball, strikeout (swing)
5th: Flyball, flyball, groundball
6th: Flyball, groundball, groundball

Groundballs: 12
Flyballs: 6 (1 HR)
Line Drives: 1
Walks: 0
Strikeouts: 4

- Tracy Thorpe hit the ground with a thud. As you'd surmise, the Earth shook, and 5 runs later, the 1st inning came to an end. Thorpe lasted 5 more frames, to his credit, matching his 6 inning outing on August 13, but unfortunately, he allowed 6 more hits and 6 more runs than he did on that start.

1st: Line drive, line drive, flyball, hit batter, popup, flyball (HR), strikeout (swing), flyball
2nd: Flyball, strikeout (swing), groundball
3rd: Groundball, flyball, line drive, groundball
4th: Groundball, flyball, popup
5th: Popup, groundball, walk
6th: Flyball (HR), popup, flyball, groundball

Groundballs: 6
Flyballs: 7 (2 HR)
Line Drives: 3
Pop Ups: 4
Walks: 1 (plus 1 hit batter)
Strikeouts: 2

Also, to cap it off, an oddity: Thorpe, who began this season as a reliever, started this game, and the two relievers who finished it, the returning Ryan Ketchner, and Doug FISTER, began the year as starters in the West Tenn rotation.

Stats below the jump...

Continue reading this post »

- Hold up a moment on the Carlos Triunfel promotion: our resident Mavs fan was at the Mavs game last night and says he saw Triunfel sitting on the bench. This is despite Churchill's source telling JC that Triunfel was promoted and due to start for the DIAMOND JAXX last night. The reason for the gap between the received information and last night's circumstance could be anything from a simple circumstancial delay to conflicting information, so keep your eyes peeled.

EDIT:  Jason Churchill received some follow-up information from Mavs play by play man Alex Freedman that comfirms that Triunfel was never called up:

Carlos Triunfel had a pulled groin and sat out to rest it. He's expected to be back in the Mavs' lineup tonight.

The Mariners say this: "We haven't promoted Carlos to this point. We considered it, are still considering, I guess you could say. But we've yet come to that conclusion and it's probably getting late."

- A lot happened at the AZLMs game yesterday. Austin Bibens-Dirkx made another fine rehab outing:

1st: Groundball, bunt pop up, groundball, groundball
2nd: Strikeout (swing), strikeout (swing), groundball

Leury Bonilla had two hits as the team's DH in his 4th rehab game with the AZLMs. Fray Martinez relieved ABD and got his first career win (vs 8 losses) in what's been a tough season for the converted infielder. And a bonus baby who hasn't done much in a while, Robert Rodriguez, came to the plate 5 times and struck out all 5 times for the rare Platinum Sombrero. El Mariachi is 3 for his last 32 with 14 K. 72.2% of his batted balls in play for August have been groundballs.

- He had been moved to the bullpen due to mediocrity-related issues, but the Aquasox needed a starter and thus gave Doug Salinas another shot at it yesterday, where he showed over 4.2 innings... why the Aquasox moved him to the bullpen in the first place. He surrendered three, yes, three home runs and allowed 7 runs in all off 7 hits and 3 walks. He's not absolutely terrible: Salinas has improved his K rate each month (6.75 per 9 in June, 8.27 in July and 10.61 so far in August), had improved his groundball rate some as a reliever (45.5% to 51.9%) and cut down his line drives a bit (18.2% to 13.0%). But Salinas still runs an excessive walk rate (4.98 per 9) that routinely gets him into trouble when hitters do turn around on his stuff.

- Everett's short relief spawn of the devil, Robbie Dominguez, is currently running a 6.66 ERA.

- Joe Woerman has rediscovered success since his return to West Tenn as a starter, but don't be entirely fooled by the headline Jaxx's Woerman two-hits Baybears. The game was called in the top of the 7th inning due to rain, so it was really 6 shutout innings rather than a CG 2 hitter. Still, two hits over 6 shutout innings (the teams got pulled before the bottom 7th), with 11 groundouts to 6 flyouts, is pretty good.

1st: Flyball, groundball, groundball
2nd: Groundball, walk, groundball, groundball
3rd: Groundball, groundball, walk, flyball
4th: Groundball, flyball, groundball
5th: Strikeout (swing), flyball, hit batter, groundball
6th: Groundball, flyball, groundball, popup

Groundballs: 12
Flyballs: 5
Line Drives: 0
Pop Ups: 1
Walks: 2 (plus 1 hit batter)
Strikeouts: 1

After a rocky start with 23.1% line drives in West Tenn, Woerman allowed none yesterday, while only walking two. If Joe Woerman can continue to keep walks and line drives down, he can hopefully rebuild towards a second tour of duty in AAA next season, whether with the M's or another organization.

- Also, with word that Triunfel was on the way, West Tenn SS Erick Monzon made the most of his bonus opportunity to salvage playing time once Triunfel didn't show up. Monzon reached base all three times he came to the plate, including hitting a solo home run. That said, small sample sizes at this point mean nothing to astute coaches and scouts, and Monzon isn't all that great any way you slice it.

- In fact, all four DIAMOND JAXX runs came on solo jacks, and three of them came in the 1st inning, as Monzon and Marshall Hubbard went back to back, and Adam Moore added one with 2 out. Greg Halman piled on with two out in the 6th.

Stats below the jump....

Continue reading this post »

Aside from the obvious no-no subjects, you can talk about anything from Pat O'Day's O'Douls addiction to the Olympics, such as Spain's synchronized swimmers being banned from wearing waterproof lights on their swimsuits.

Tropical Storm Fay, which pounded the Dominican Republic, killed a few people and shut down the DSL for a day or so, hit Florida, but not as a hurricane.

And stuff.  You guys don't need table topics.  Have at it

- The big news, obviously, is that Carlos Triunfel got promoted to AA West Tenn on Sunday, and will be their starting SS the rest of the way, and into the playoffs (West Tenn is the 1st half North division champs).

As I said before, Triunfel might have been better served to finish the year in High Desert and hit the ground running in AA in 2009. That said, I'm not opposed to this decision. If Triunfel has nothing else to learn in High Desert, then bring him up. Triunfel has finally discovered how to drive flyballs into the outfield instead of beating them into the ground, and it's showing in his results (387/425/613 in July, 346/426/500 in August). The Cal League inflates offensive numbers, and this gives the org an opportunity to test drive his newly developed abilities at a higher level and a more neutral environment to see how far he truly has come.

There are concerns: though Triunfel's groundball rate dropped, his line drive rate didn't noticeably appreciate during July, with most of the statistical change coming in added flyballs. Flyballs soared for extra bases in the Cal League, but in the Southern League and other environments, many such balls are probably harmless flyouts. To wit, though, his LD rate in August has been a more robust 15.2%, a high infield fly rate steeply declined over the breakthrough period, and even discounting that, he still runs a healthy groundball rate (45% this month) and grounders give him opportunities to get on base, especially with his footspeed.

Worst case scenario, he struggles, he gets an idea of what he's facing at the next level, and he hits the ground running in 2009 and tries to emerge from adversity once again. Concerns about him finishing strong instead of finishing with struggles belie the fact that the kid's struggled his entire pro career against players 3-4 years his senior, with barely enough skill to smack a groundball and run it out until the last couple months... and it hasn't deterred him at all from doing the best he can.

His defense remains an issue, but I must note that A ball fields are usually in terrible shape, and AA fields are usually better. It could help a little. Plus, more players drive the ball in the higher levels, so he'll see fewer grounders than he previously has. These changes may not help a lot, but it will help some.

And believe it or not, even at his worst, Triunfel might actually be an upgrade for West Tenn at SS, given the incumbents were the punchless Erick Monzon and Mark Kiger. If he can turn on AA pitching at all, in fact, he's a huge upgrade. Watch out, Southern League.

- While the Mariners didn't bother to sign their 9th round pick (RHP William Morrison out of Western Michigan) or 10th round pick (RHP Nate Newman out of Pepperdine)... they did sign 3rd round pick Ben Pribanic, who made his first appearance yesterday out of the pen for the AZLMs. Pribanic... got destroyed in the 4th, allowing 5 runs on 3 hits and 2 walks while recording only one out in a 13-1 loss. Could have gone better, and I'm not going to hold a terrible debut against him. A few more outings like this, and yeah, we can worry, but I'll give a mulligan.

Pribanic was the 98th pick in the draft. Other notable 98th picks in MLB history: Scott Hairston and Jack Morris.

- Robert Rohrbaugh, not seen for ages, made a solid rehab outing in Everett yesterday, working the first three innings and not allowing a run, striking out three and walking one. He's a flyball pitcher so the larger flyball ratio isn't a big surprise.

1st: Flyball, strikeout (called), walk, strikeout (swing)
2nd: Popup, flyball, groundball, strikeout (swing)
3rd: Flyball, groundball, popup

Philip Hann gave up the go ahead run in the top 9th to make it 5-4, but pinch hitter Travis Howell tied the game in the bottom 9th with a two out single that scored Beef Roids, and Tyson Gillies followed that with a 2 run walkoff bomb, only his 2nd home run of the season.

- Edward Paredes and Jose Jimenez had poor outings for the T-Rats, leaving the T-Rats in a 4-0 hole (that became a 5-0 hole) from which they would not escape. The story, however, is the shutdown relief that Joe Kantakevich threw once he allowed that 5th run to score. JK finished the ballgame with only one hit and 2 walks allowed, while striking out 4 in 4 innings. JK has had a tough season, so to come out and throw an outing like this from the pen, even in what was essentially mop-up relief (the T-Rats had 4 hits), has to feel good.

- So I'm a dork who doesn't pay close enough attention to the news: the reason DSL games weren't reported the last couple days is because they weren't played... because Tropical Storm Fay was drilling the Dominican Republic. Despite reports of some deaths, as you'd expect from such a storm, the DSLers should be fine: this happens every other year or so, and if the complexes couldn't take a tropical storm, there wouldn't be a Dominican Summer League.

... in fact, they played yesterday. Stats below the jump....

Continue reading this post »

- The DSL scoreboard for yesterday shows all but one scheduled game without any results or advisory of a rainout.  And while the DSL scoreboard shows no word on Thursday's game, J from Mariner Minors has tracked down the lines from that game.

I'm not sure what's up in the Dominican, but for some reason we're seeing a delay in the return of information on recent games.

- One day before, Matt Renfree was in Tacoma performing shaky but serviceable emergency relief for the Tacoma Rainiers in the 9th inning of their 10-3 win Friday.  Yesterday, after taking the long drive up I-5 back to Everett, he relieved Chris Kirkland with two outs in the 8th, stranded two of Kirkland's runners, allowed a solo HR in the 9th but escaped with the save and nailed down Everett's 6-5 victory over Eugene.  It may not have involved partying, but Matt Renfree had himself one heck of a weekend.

- As some of you noticed last night, Brandon Morrow did not have a great night against the Sacramento River Cats.  While I commented on how relatively ordinary their offense and home park were, this team doesn't suck: their 75-52 record is tied for the best record in the PCL, and they have one of the league's best pitching staffs.  That's what happens when your big club's Moneyball GM stockpiles young replacement level talent.

The hitters are the usual Billy Beane brand of patient hitters that let pitchers with poor control beat themselves, and if there's one pitcher that fits this mold perfectly right now, it's Brandon Morrow. Morrow still struck out five batters, and ultimately he only walked two, but the River Cats sat on his erratic control and waited for him to make mistakes.  Even if they didn't capitalize on all of them, this was enough to work his pitch count and send him to the showers with two outs in the 4th, 61 pitches later.

All that said, I'll say it again: right now, the primary goal with Brandon Morrow right now is to stretch him out and get him comfortable with throwing 100-110 pitches every 5 days, results be damned.  Once he can handle throwing a full slate of pitches, then the Rainiers coaches will pound away at his control, his pitch selection, his location, facing lineups and adjusting to circumstances.  Right now, he's going to show flashes, but he's probably going to get pounded and hitters are going to make him throw 20 pitches in an inning to see if he'll walk the world before throwing three strikes to a batter.  Don't worry for now.

- Along with their recently rolled out 2008 data, Minor League Splits has a fun little toy called the Minor League Equivalency calculator.  It currently is only for hitters, though a tool for pitchers is in the works.  You can plug in the stats for any hitter at any league in full season A ball or above and convert his numbers to any league at any level all the way up to MLB, adjusted to any team and their home park.

Here are some conversions of selected minor leaguers' numbers to MLB equivalents, assuming home games at Safeco Field.  For guys currently with the big club or guys who have played at multiple levels, I'll list their converted stats for each level, to show how their performance at each level would have converted.

Wisconsin:

Edilio Colina:  203/231/256
Denny Almonte:  173/207/271, 146 K in 338 AB
Alex Liddi:  159/197/223
Daniel Carroll:  166/196/199, 16 SB, 9 CS in 191 AB

High Desert:

Chris Minaker:  204/226/293, 28 doubles in 438 AB
Carlos Triunfel:  198/229/274, 20 SB in 401 AB
Greg Halman (Mavs):  184/211/354, 16 SB in 264 AB
Johan Limonta (Mavs):  209/274/313
Carlos Peguero:  208/220/316, 6 walks, 112 K in 375 AB

West Tenn:

Adam Moore:  254/301/384, 25 doubles in 397 AB
Johan Limonta (AA):  249/304/412
Luis Valbuena (AA):  246/310/373
Marshall Hubbard:  242/320/391
Michael Saunders (AA):  235/296/374
Greg Halman (AA):  234/265/375
Mike Wilson:  228/303/426, 18 HR, 115 K in 374 AB

Tacoma:

Jeff Clement (AAA):  287/377/544
Jeremy Reed (AAA):  304/354/463
Victor Diaz (with Rainiers):  241/301/453
Prentice Redman:  269/323/446
Rob Johnson:  265/312/378
Tug Hulett (AAA):  257/327/423
Matt Tuiasosopo:  234/294/365
WLAD (AAA):  230/299/472
Bryan LaHair (AAA):  227/300/382

Make of these converted stat lines what you will.

Now on to actual stats:

Continue reading this post »

While their general civic coverage may leave a lot to be desired, the Seattle Weekly deserves credit for making a reasonable, consistent effort to cover Seattle's local sports teams despite being a culture-minded weekly rag.  In fact, this week's cover story is about Brandon Morrow, his breakout performance this season in the bullpen, some coincidental comparisons to Tim Lincecum, and his trek to Tacoma to convert into a starter.

Like any feature on sports from a rag that doesn't focus on baseball, there's not a lot of stathead-intensive analysis or much more than observational and anecdotal evidence.  But go ahead and give this story a look.  There's quotes from Bob Fontaine and some other scouting folks you wouldn't expect.

- The Mavs got one hit by four Visalia Oaks pitchers yesterday.  Bryan Augenstein, the D-Backs' 7th round pick in 2007, a recently promoted Midwest League All Star, and returning from an injury layoff, started the game with 3 perfect innings.  Jorge Perez, a reliever that's been Cal Leagued with a 5.74 ERA, releved Augenstein and walked his first two batters, eventually allowing a run on two groundouts before escaping.  The Mavs' 2nd run came in the 6th, when Gavin Dickey broke up the no-hitter with his leadoff line drive double, eventually scoring after... a couple of groundouts.  By this point, Visalia already had an 8-2 lead, thanks to some severe run damage against Anthony Varvaro that sent him running for the hills in the 5th.

To Varvaro's credit, he only walked one batter in his 4 completed innings, and in his previous 9 starts (all 4+ innings), he's walked fewer than three batters in 5 of them.  And in the other four, he hasn't walked more than 5.  It's something positive in what's been a tough season in the hell of High Desert for Varvaro.

- Maybe the Las Vegas 51's should change their nickname to the Las Vegas Slumpbusters.  The Rainiers completed a 4 game sweep of Vegas with a resounding 10-3 victory last night, and since the start of June, the Rainiers have gone 10-2 against the Dodgers' AAA affiliate, a lineup led by... John Lindsey... John-Ford Griffin... and Terrible Terry Tiffee... and... uh....

Granted, the 51's have played .500 ball all season, though this is mostly the product of a useful defense and pitching staff doing their part to keep the scoring down as much as they could, not an easy task when you play half your games at Cashman Field, such a launchpad that they had to build the walls higher than usual to keep the balls in play.  You'd think, if Ned Coletti really loathed his talented young players taking time from the veterans so much, that he'd send them down to Vegas instead of letting them rot in platoons or bench duty, but apparently not.  The overcrowded, overpriced veteran outfield led to no demotion for Matt Kemp, plus 3Bs Andy LaRoche and Blake DeWitt have combined for 197 ABs in AAA.  Maybe Coletti was scared his top prospects would blow their league-minimum paychecks at the craps tables or something.

- My Quality Start rule with PHAT ANDY 22 was not a cop-out.  He gave the Rainiers 6 strong innings of one run ball yesterday.  Something's waiting for readers after the stats below the jump....

Continue reading this post »

- August is the month of minor league updates for several useful sites: Minor League Splits has finally uploaded a ton of data from the Mariners org, and pretty much everyone from the AZL on up is searchable. Still no data from the DSL or VSL but given they had next to no data on 2008 before now, I'll gladly take it. This data is an upgrade over First Inning's pitcher stats in that MLS has line drive data, very important for getting a handle on how much variance has affected pitchers' numbers. The site as a whole, when updated, is a baseball nerd's statgasm for the minors, so go check it out.

- Some fun facts about Everett's 4-0 loss to the last place Yakima Bears:

Number of bases by Luis Nuñez (includes hits, walks and steals): 6
Number of bases by rest of team: 5 (this includes a Tyson Gillies triple)
Number of hits by Aquasox players not named Tyson Gillies or Luis Nuñez: 0

Some more numbers:

Runs per game allowed by Yakima this season: 5.49 (most in NWL)
Runs scored by Aquasox in 4 games this series: 10
Runs per game scored by Yakima this season: 4.14 (2nd least in NWL)
Runs scored by Yakima in 4 games this series: 21
Losses this series by Aquasox to Yakima Bears: 3
Number of innings completed by the Aquasox with a lead: 6
Record of all other NWL teams against Yakima this season: 33-15

Everett is not having a good series. One game left.

Number of walks on season by Luis Nuñez as of August 7: 2
Number of walks by Luis Nuñez since August 7: 2

There is hope.

- Phillipe Aumont made his return to the rotation, finishing 4 shaky but useful innings against the infamous Peoria Chiefs, the first time the T-Rats have played them since the massive Peoria-Dayton brawl where that Peoria reliever ended up in the slam for throwing at the Dayton dugout, missing said dugout and plunking a fan. True to form, they plunked Edilio Colina in the 3rd and knocked him out of the game (okay, it was an accident).

Aumont, meanwhile, had himself a more measured outing:

1st: Plunk, groundball, line drive, groundball
2nd: Strikeout (swing), flyball (HR), groundball, groundball
3rd: Walk, wild pitch, strikeout (swing), groundball, groundball
4th: Groundball, strikeout (swing), line drive, flyball

Plenty of groundballs, and though they got RISP in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd frames, aside from the home run, runners only got into scoring position via smallball. Peoria couldn't really hit Aumont all that much.

- Mike Wilson woke up with a couple hits yesterday, after what had been a 3 for 26 slump in which he managed to draw 10 walks in 36 PAs but also struck out 10 times. When over half your plate appearances end without a ball in play... THAT's a slump. Credit to Mike for drawing walks and working his way through it with patience.

- Travis Chick got the start for Tacoma yesterday and responded with the game of his life, throwing a complete game two hit victory against the slumpbusting Las Vegas 51's.

1st: Strikeout (called), pop-up, flyball
2nd: Strikeout (swing), pop-up, flyball
3rd: Flyball, groundball, strikeout (swing)
4th: Flyball, flyball (HR), groundball, strikeout (swing)
5th: Strikeout (swing), pop-up, groundball
6th: Line drive, flyball, strikeout (called), groundball
7th: Strikeout (called), groundball, flyball
8th: Line drive, groundball, strikeout (called)
9th: Groundball, strikeout (swing), groundball

Groundballs: 7
Flyballs: 6 (1 HR)
Line Drives: 2
Pop Ups: 3
Walks: 0
Strikeouts: 9

Chick threw 120 pitches, 81 for strikes. He struck out a batter in every inning. I'm not sure what else to say about this, given this came out of nowhere.

Stats below the jump....

Continue reading this post »

- Now the M's are testing Austin Bibens-Dirkx for real, and he's passing so far. Just one day after making a one inning rehab start, the AZLMs sent him back out for another one inning rehab start, and he responded by going flyout, groundout, strikeout. A key step for ABD's "rehabilitation" is for him to be able to throw on back to back days without trouble, so provided there's no pain or anything beyond residual soreness... mission accomplished on this front.

- Cheyne Hann, not to be confused with Everett reliever Philip Hann, may be ready for a higher level. Out of a small but reasonable sample of 39 batters faced in his 6 appearances, Cheyne has struck out an astonishing 46.7% of them. He is flat out dominating Arizona Leaguers... which in the grand scheme isn't saying much, but it definitely indicates an ability to take on the next level. After inducing 6 groundballs out of 7 balls in play in July, his groundball rate plummeted to 27% in August. He could well be hanging pitches, believing (rightfully so in this case) he can just blow hitters away. Looks like Cheyne needs higher level competition that will make contact with strike three, before he falls into the patterns that could make him a flyball pitcher.

- Tracy Thorpe finally cracked the five inning barrier and yesterday's start, and not by sitting on it.

Tracy took a no-hitter into the 6th inning, losing it with two outs on a line drive single, and that was after the leadoff batter reached on an E-3 muff by Marshall Hubbard on what was a routine grounder to short. Tracy finished the frame without damage and called it a night after that. In all, Tracy allowed one hit in 6 shutout innings of a 2-1 win over the division leading Carolina Mudcats. The hit was the only line drive he allowed.

Groundballs: 5
Flyballs: 3
Line Drives: 1
Pop Ups: 4
Walks: 3
Strikeouts: 5

Three weeks ago I figured Tracy Thorpe was as good as gone. Now it looks like the 27 year old might actually have some sort of chance as a starting pitcher. He still needs to cut his walks and flyballs way down, but he's striking out a batter per inning and owning AA hitters for free much of the time.

- 27 year old IF Kevin Howard crossed Cheney Stadium before the latest series with the 51's and Rainiers began, leaving the 51's clubhouse and walking into the Rainiers clubhouse as the latest new member of the Rainiers. He can draw a walk and put the ball in play, occasionally for a double, but that's about it. He's a meh glove at 2B but the Rainiers have used him in both games this series at SS, go figure.

Last night's Rainiers game went 14 innings, lasting nearly 5 hours. For an unspecified reason, Ryan Feierabend exited in the 3rd inning after 53 pitches. He had given up 2 unearned runs and 6 hits, and two more potential runs remained on base when Mumba Rivera came in, but Mumba got out of the frame without further damage. The possibility of a disaster outing on a less-than-sharp night is my only guess for Feier's quick exit. The end came in the 14th, when Prentice Redman led off with a double, took 3rd on a groundout, and Jerome Williams intentionally walked two straight batters to load the bases and create a force at any bag... only for Jon Nelson to get a grounder into left field for the walkoff.

Stats below the jump:

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- Austin Bibens-Dirkx's latest rehab outing with the AZLMs yesterday: strikeout, flyout, groundout in one inning of work. Looking good, ABD.

- It appears that the Aquasox are taking the same path with Bobby LaFromboise that the T-Rats are taking with Brett Lorin: limiting his pitch count and innings to ease up on the young pitcher's workload, especially given he missed a couple weeks in July with a minor injury. On what the Everett Herald called a "three inning limit", LaFromboise shut out the lowly Yakima Bears over his 3 innings before taking a seat for a bullpen relay that put the team in a 3-2 hole before the Aquasox rallied late for a 4-3 win.

Following his incredible run of groundballs in the last start, the flyball-prone LaFromboise had 4 flyballs to one groundball after two (plus a wild pitch and two walks), but got 3 straight groundballs in the 3rd before finishing the frame with a flyout. He may learn to keep the ball down yet.

Lost in this: Jharmidy De Jesus' 1st career A-ball home run to lead off the 3rd inning. It's not his FIRST first: he had 6 HRs in Peoria. But congratulations to the young prospect. And he added more in the top 9th, he laid down the suicide squeeze to bring in Nate Tenbrink for the go-ahead and eventual winning run.

- Funny how quickly Joe Woerman's walk problem disappeared once he got sent back down to AA. In two quality starts totaling 13 innings, Woerman so far has walked two batters, while striking out 12. Incidentally, both were hard luck losses.

That's all I got. Stats below....

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- Baseball Reference's stats for the Arizona Summer League are now live! We see that the AZLMs and their 5.02 runs per game are below average (5.56), they have hit the fewest doubles in the league (52) and are tied for the 2nd fewest XBHs (84 total).

Pitching-wise, their team 5.27 ERA is worst in the league, and their 6.12 runs allowed are 3rd most, though this means their 43 unearned runs ties them for 2nd fewest with the AZL Rangers. Their .621 defensive efficiency and 76 team errors have them in the middle of the pack. Combining the 2nd half with the 1st half, they have the 2nd worst record in the league at 16-25 (one game under Pythag, incidentally).

All that said, struggles are likely from the same culprit as usual: youth. Their average team age of 19.8 years makes them the 2nd youngest team in the AZL (where the average age is almost 20 on the dot) behind the AZL Brewers (B-R mistakenly lists the hitters average age as 15.9: this is likely either a typo or a bad calculation, and is probably in the low 19's). Give these kids a year or two of chops and they're probably playing better, making their pitches, hitting more consistently and for more power, etc.

- I was digging for information on Leury "Latin Campaneris" Bonilla, who just returned from a long injury layoff, DH'd for the AZLMs and had 2 hits. While searching on Yahoo, Yahoo likes to give auto-suggestions as you type, to anticipate what you might be looking for, and along with Leury Bonilla's name, it auto-suggested "Leury body disease". The latter reveals nothing more than a bunch of diabetes research from some doctor named Leury. As for Leury Bonilla himself, I can't recall what his injury was and neither a general nor a news search turned up any info... but here he is, and he's got a few weeks to get his chops back and maybe get back to High Desert before season's end.

Meanwhile, if you're looking for disease research by Dr. BJ Leury, there's plenty of information out there!

- After a scoreless 7th and 8th, Pulaski reliever Stephen Penney tried to give away a 7-0 lead in the 9th, but got as far as 7-4 before getting the hook for the curiously effective (and curiously named) Blake Nation, who got the final out to seal the win.

Though Penney was among the PMs mentioned a couple days ago with an impressive K/BB. Along with his resultingly tiny walk rate (1.1%), he's running a 61% groundball rate, which belies his .410 BABIP. A relatively low K rate (13.1%) means a lot of balls get put into play, and something tells me that many of the non-groundballs were getting hit hard. To Penney's credit, his K rate has improved each month, from 6.3% in June to 13.0% in July to 18.2% so far in a busy August. His BABIP has correspondingly fallen, from a laughable .500 in June to a not-as-laughable .405 in July to a lesser-laughable .370 so far in August, while his GB rate spiked to 69% in July and has hovered so far at 58% this month. His rate stats are mostly similar between home and the road, except for a .486 BABIP on the road (to .349 at home) that given the 20 inning sample size is probably the product of variance.

In the 9th inning meltdown yesterday, Penney surrendered three straight doubles, and 5 of the 6 balls hitters put in play were in the air (one was a line drive). The groundball was a double down the line. Not sure how much the defense played a role in teh extra bases, but that many flyballs isn't good... and isn't typical of Penney. I'm inclined to call the meltdown just white noise in what has been a steadily improving year for the relief prospect, though he's got a ways to go before being little more than the relief pitching love child of Sean White and Carlos Silva.

- Blake Nation, meanwhile, obviously walks more batters than Penney (8.9%) but runs a high K rate as well (23.8%) and a strong groundball rate (69%). His groundball rate has actually gotten stronger over the season, as it ran 61% in June but has improved to a steady 73% in both July and August. We're only talking about a 19.1 inning sample size, but safe to say that if App League hitters can get a piece of Nation's pitches, they're probably going to hit them on the ground... and this is a league where guys can put up some power numbers and offense. If he can keep it up and stay healthy, Blake Nation's going to become a serious topic in the prospect conversation in the next year or two, and not just because of his name.

- Harping on the pitching in this otherwise ordinary Pulaski game, Nick Czyz allowed only one hit over 6 frames, and has had an excellent start to his career in Pulaski. The lefthander's 23.0% K rate and 57% groundball rate looks promising, though his walks have spiked to 11.9% in August, he's only running a 3% HR/FB rate, and his BABIP has hovered in the .300-.320 range since July, so he's averted some bad fortune, which has helped his numbers.

- Brett Lorin, being used on a limited scale the rest of the season to protect the team's investment, pitched into the 4th inning of what was eventually a 6-5 loss before leaving with two outs in the 4th. All of the damage he allowed, two runs, came on back to back sac flies in the 4th, after blowing away the side with K's in the 3rd.

1st: Line drive, groundball, flyball
2nd: Flyball, walk, groundball
3rd: Strikeout, strikeout, strikeout
4th: Walk, flyball, flyball, flyball, groundball

Lorin has walked 11% of batters he's faced in Wisconsin, though has struck out 25.7% of them. His 48% GB rate is respectable, though his .391 BABIP isn't encouraging. I don't have LD rates available so I can't immediately confirm if this is purely negative variance or if he's getting tattooed too often.

- There isn't much else I can say about Brandon Morrow's start last night aside from what Matthew noted in his write-up. I'll just add that Brandon has other pitches, so he should probably use them.

Stats below the jump....

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- Juan Fuentes is putting up an impressive line in Pulaski (383/462/506), and while his approach at the plate has improved, he's also had some good luck. His 21% LD rate, while solid, indicates his .430 BABIP is due for some regression, though it's a substantial improvement from the 10% rate he had in Peoria last season. His walks (up to 13.6% from last year's 9.3%) and strikeouts (11.9% from last year's 9.3%) are slightly up, and obviously he's showing a bit more power. He's having an impressive August, running a 30% LD rate and a .467 BABIP to go with a 432/517/514 line. He's due for a bit of regression, but regression in his case is something like 300/360/400, still not bad, especially for a catcher (though he's also getting time at 1B due to the logjam at that position). Once the youngster adds some power to his line drive contact hitting, the M's will have themselves a good player coming up the ladder.

- Everett had themselves an 11 inning thriller. Down 5-1 in the bottom of the 9th, Jharmidy De Jesus' sac fly for the 2nd out preceded three straight singles (with help from a throwing error from Tri City RF Leonardo Reyes) that TIED THE BALLGAME at 5. The batter right after De Jesus, Luis Nuñez, grounded to 3rd for what could have been the game ending groundout, but he beat the throw to 1st.

With one out in the 10th, however, Tri City's Thomas Field took Chris Kirkland deep with one out to make it 6-5. But in the bottom half, Manny Pimentel doubled with one out, and pinch runner Nate Tenbrink came around on a Flaming Bees single to once again TIE THE BALLGAME.

The Dust Devils couldn't get anyone home in the 11th, and in the bottom half, Tyson Gillies drew a walk with one out, then stole his 18th base of the season, then came around to score the winning run for the Aquasox on a Ryan Royster double.

- Shawn Kelley isn't the only reliever running scoreless streaks around here. Converted catcher Jeff Dunbar has thrown 12.1 scoreless innings since coming to Wisconsin. Granted, it comes with an unimpressive 7/5 K/BB ratio, but let's humor an impressive transition (so far) from a former position player, shall we?

- Two R's and Two L's could probably outslug his namesake at this point: the M's Daniel Carroll has really struggled. Though Daniel Carroll opened the season with a quality 22% LD rate, that has dropped into the single digits since his return from a wrist injury. He did manage a 13% LD rate in June with High Desert, the month he returned, but it's plummeted since. Meanwhile, his K % has spiked from the high teens into the mid 20's.

One interesting anomaly: His K rate on the road is 20.6% compared to 26.9% at home. His LD rate is 14% on the road compared to 8% at home. Fox Cities Stadium isn't the friendliest of venues, but then again, DC was tearing up the MWL in April before his injury. So his sinking stats aren't a fluke: he's genuinely struggling right now. For whatever reason, he hasn't been at all right since coming back, and hopefully an offseason will hit the reset button and allow him to get back on track in 2009, because I don't see it happening this season.

- Chris Minaker hit his 40th double of the season for High Desert last night. HOWEVER:

Doubles at home: 27
Doubles on road: 13

Chris Minaker in Mavs Stadium in 2008: 357/373/548
Chris Minaker on road in 2008: 245/291/342
Chris Minaker at West Tenn in 2007: 227/284/286

Chris Minaker line drive % in 2007: 19%
Chris Minaker line drive % in 2008: 10%

Chris Minaker LD% on road: 14%
Chris Minaker LD% in Mavs Stadium: 7%

Chris Minaker flyball % on road: 34%
Chris Minaker flyball % in Mavs Stadium: 48%

Johan Limonta and Michael Saunders showed us that their power numbers were not primarily a product of Mavs Stadium. Chris Minaker's power, however, appears to be a nearly-pure product of Mavs Stadium.

- Brodie Downs and Doug FISTER had bad games yesterday for the DIAMOND JAXX in a 13-7 loss, but here is a factor of note: the starting left fielder was 1B Marshall Hubbard, which is kind of like putting Richie Sexson in left field. Though the top of Huntsville's lineup was a bit LHB heavy, the bottom of the lineup was not, not enough for Brent Johnson in RF (he usually plays LF) to be justified by a platoon shift.

Here are the results for all the balls in play hit in the air towards Marshall:

1st: 2 run double
3rd: Double
4th: Double
8th: Double
9th: Single

Outs recorded: 0

Now, some of those hits were line drives and may not have been catchable, plus the Huntsville Stars had 15 hits in all and many of those balls were sprayed to all fields. But 4 doubles and a single with no outs recorded indicates to me that Hubbard wasn't flashing capable range in left.

You can only see five airballs above hit to Hubbard, so while some of the 13-7 loss can be attributed to his presence in left, I doubt it turns the game completely around to put someone more capable in left. In fact, only one ball was hit Hubbard's way in the 7th and 8th innings, where Huntsville scored 8 of their 13 runs. But still... not the best game for Marshall Hubbard in left. Not sure if Noah Hall was unavailable or what (Mike Wilson was the DH), but as bad as this was, I'm sure Marshall could do better. I don't know if this was a one-off coverage assignment, or the start of an actual attempt to decipher if Hubbard can play the outfield, which would make sense given the glut of 1B/RF/DH types they currently have (Limonta, Wilson, Hubbard).

But hey, at least Marshall had 3 hits today!

- Sorry... though he pitched yesterday, you're not getting a PHAT ANDY 22 rap. He pitched into the 6th but allowed 3 runs on 8 hits and 2 walks, not terrible but not a rap-worthy performance.

Mumba Rivera came in and cleaned up the 6th, but coughed up the go-ahead run in the 8th on a bad throw: with a man on 1st, Mumba fielded a tapbacker, turned towards 2nd and threw YIKES AND AWAY to set up the go-ahead run (on a subsequent sac fly) that eventually sealed the Rainiers' doom in a 4-3 loss.

Stats below the jump:

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- The DSLMs spent the weekend watching water come down.  They were supposed to play a doubleheader yesterday against the AthleticsUno, but got rained out before they could take the field for game one.  And today's game against the DSL Phillies has already been rained out.  With only 10 scheduled games left in their season, it's doubtful all these games will be made up, unless they play doubleheaders for each of the DSLMs remaining games against the AthleticsUno, though that would skew the home/road schedule balance (which understandably matters little since they all play on a single complex in Santo Domingo... though if there's any inherent advantage in batting last, the DSLMs will have had it more times than the A1s).

Getting in a doubleheader with the Phils will be easy since they play them twice before season's end, one each as the home and road team.

This is only the 2nd and 3rd time this season the DSLMs have been rained out, amazing given that hurricanes and other tropical storms typically roll right through the Caribbean.

- With today off, the AZLMs emptied the bullpen yesterday. Ariel Alcantara could only go 3 difficult innings, so after Jean Tome barely managed to finish the 5th (and get touched up for 2 runs in the process), manager Andy Bottin ran four different relievers out for each of the final four frames, in which the AZLMs ultimately came back from 6-1 down to win 7-6 on a walkoff line drive single from Alfredo Mateo.  Three of the relievers had fewer than 10 IP on the year (Taylor Stanton, Cheyne Hann and the recovering Dustin Birosak) so this was an opportunity to get them some work.

- One factor that jumped out at me when looking at the Pulaski Mariners' pitching statistics were the seemingly astonishing K/BB rates for several of their pitchers.

Before we heap accolades on pitching coach Nasusel Cabrera or demand the quick promotion of any of these four... another thing to keep in mind is that a lot of Appalachian League batters run high K rates, and the league average K/9 for App League pitchers is 8.8 (~22.9% of plate appearances), compared to a more standard 3.2 walks per 9.  The result is a league average K/BB of 2.76, which in MLB (where the average between the two leagues is around 2.00) would be pretty solid.  A decent pitcher in the App League should be able to run high K/BB and high K rates, simply because Advanced Rookie ballers are easier to strike out: they still need work in their pitch recognition and patience, and hack at a lot of bad pitches.

- Michael Pineda pitched 6 impressive shutout innings for the T-Rats, powered by 9 groundouts and 5 Ks, against the capable Kane County Cougars, and left with a 1-0 lead, but the story was the man who relieved him: Phillipe Aumont made his return to the T-Rats after a long and hopefully restful layoff, pitching the final three innings.

7th:  Groundball, groundball, wild pitch, groundball, groundball
8th:  Line drive, bunt, swinging K, walk, groundball
9th:  Flyball, groundball, walk, flyball

Though Kane County eked home the tying run in the 8th with smallball, and he was a bit wild, Aumont did a solid job of getting most of the Cougars to beat the ball into the ground.

With the game headed to extras, Ryan Moorer pitched a perfect 10th and ran into trouble in the 11th, men getting on 1st and 2nd with one out, but Moorer escaped without damage.  Joe White led off the bottom 11th with a rare XBH, doubling on a liner to left, and Juan Diaz did not look a gift horse in the mouth, promptly lining a single to cash pinch runner Edilio Colina in for the walkoff victory.

- Travis Mortimore, who got pounded in yet another High Desert start last night, has taken a beating in High Desert, and it's not just the Cal League's pitcher-oppressive run environment that's hurt the lefthander.  His groundball percentage, well into the high 50th percentile 50s since the start of his career, plummeted to 34% in High Desert.  His K rate, which had dropped in Wisconsin (21.1) from his initial campaign in Peoria (26.3), dropped once again in High Desert (15.0).  His steady 9-10% walk rate spiked to 13.3% in High Desert.  And of course, he hadn't allowed a home run in his entire pro career prior to his Cal League promotion, but once he got here, he watched the flyballs leave the yard at a steady clip (11%).

I'm not sure Travis Mortimore deserved a promotion to High A as much as he deserved a chance to start at his prior level, though with the likes of Pineda, Ramirez and Aumont crowding the T-Rats rotation, and Mortimore not being considered all that great to begin with, I can understand the aggressive promotion to give him a chance to throw 100 pitches every 5 days.  As it stands, he's not only in pitching hell, but he's in over his head.

- One side effect of his pounding last night is that it helped faciliate an exciting game with Inland Empire.  Empire led 5-4 after 6, and in the 7th, Bridger Hunt hit his 1st home run off the season off Bryan Harris to make it 6-4 Empire.  The Mavs responded in the bottom 8th: Ronnie Prettyman lined a single to lead off, Travis Scott walked, and Joe Simokaitis performed the ultimate fail, popping up a bunt that 1st baseman Andrew Locke gloved for one out.  Kevin Reynolds, the Human Temp Agency, grounded to 2nd, where 2B Christian Lara stepped on 2nd for one, and threw YIKES AND AWAY over 1st for Ronnie Prettyman to score andmake it 6-5.  Ogui Diaz turned on the hit and run, hitting behind Reynolds to get on and put runners at the corners with two out.  Chris Minaker pinch hit for James Davenport and Minaker smoked a grounder to 3rd, beating it out and cashing in Reynolds to TIE THE BALLGAME!

Empire tried to smallball home the go-ahead run in the top 9th off Aaron Cotter, as Christian Lara led off with a single and Alex Garabedian bunted him over for one out.  But the next two batters flew out, and the Mavs came up with a chance to win it.  With two outs and Jamie McOwen on 1st, home plate umpire Alex Ortiz got into a spat with Empire pitching coach and legendary knuckleballing tomato can Charlie Hough, leading to Hough's surprise ejection.  After this, catcher Alex Garabedian passed a ball to move McOwen to 2nd, then Travis Scott beat out a grounder to 2nd to put the winning run 90 feet away!  But Joe Simokaitis flew out to center and we headed to extras.

Thomas Giles prepared us for imminent doom by taking Aaron Cotter deep with one out in the 10th to make it 7-6.  Empire put two more on but Christian Lara struck out to stop that.  Three outs from doom, Kevin Reynolds struck out for one out.  Ogui Diaz beat out a grounder to short to get on, then stole 2nd, then took 3rd off a wild pitch from reliever Javy Guerra, then Chris Minaker grounded to short, only for SS Jamie Pedroza to muff it, allowing Ogui to score and TIE THE BALLGAME at 7!  No one else could get aboard, though, so we headed to the 11th.

A throwing error YIKES AND AWAY by Ogui Diaz combined with a Julio Santiago wild pitch allowed Empire to put a runner on 3rd with two out in the 11th, but Andrew Locke tapped back to the mound to end that threat.  The Mavs went quietly in the bottom 11th.

Thomas Giles led off the 12th with a walk, and Matt Berezay doubled him to 3rd.  Pinch hitter Scott Van Slyke flew out to right, allowing Giles to tag up and score to give Empire the 8-7 lead.  Berezay took 3rd, but nobody else could drive him in, leaving the Mavs three outs to once again avert doom.

Joe Simokaitis struck out for one out.  Kevin Reynolds bunted a ball and appeared to have it beat, but pitcher Matthew Santor thought he could get him, so he rushed a throw YIKES AND AWAY to give Reynolds 2nd.  When a play at 1st is close, kids, and letting the runner get on won't cost you the game, eat the ball.  Ogui Diaz struck out for two outs, leaving it up to Chris Minaker to cash him in.  And Minaker, who leads the Cal League in doubles, did what he does best, lofting a one-hopper over the LF wall for the ground rule double to TIE THE BALLGAME at 8!  The double was his league-leading 39th of the season.

Then Gavin Dickey immediately blasted a ball to center, past Trayvon Robinson, to cash in Chris Minaker for the walkoff win!

- Because we don't have enough interesting news today... recent M's waiver pickup Luis Muñoz made his 1st start with the DIAMOND JAXX yesterday, pitching into the 5th while allowing 3 runs, two off a pair of back to back bombs in the 2nd.  Muñoz is a serviceable starter by trade, one that on average can get to the 6th inning, and his previous appearances out of the pen were to get the rust off and stretch out.  Muñoz faced 20 batters in all yesterday, and aside from the back to back HRs, he never ran into any serious trouble.

Groundballs:  6 (plus 2 bunts)
Flyballs:  4 (2 HR)
Line Drives:  2
Pop Ups:  2
Walks:  1
Strikeouts:  3

Meanwhile, the DIAMOND JAXX bullpen did not allow another run, and back to back doubles by Johan Limonta and Adam Moore in the 7th broke a 3-3 tie to give West Tenn a 4-3 lead they would not relinquish.

- The Rainiers' 10 game winning streak finally came to an end last night in a 7-4 loss in Tucson.  Travis Chick was the surprise starter, Rich Dorman made his surprise return, and the Sidewinders bats totally surprise-attacked them both.  Chick, making his first start in AAA after a reasonable run in AA, surrendered 3 runs in his first 2 frames, and though he managed to finish the minimum without further damage, Rich Dorman came in for the 6th and never came back out, getting shelled for 5 hits and 4 runs (one of which Jon Huber inherited and eventually allowed to score) before leaving with only one out recorded.  Between Chick, Dorman, Hubertime and Randy Messenger, who worked the 9th, there was enough washed-up talent here to start a new Golden Baseball League team.

Let's see some stats from players who may or may not be washed up.

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