A brief feature on Chisenhall's switch to 3B. Another entry has notes on Herrmann, Rondon and others.

One interesting note is that '08 HS lefty draftee T.J. House has shown enough polish to likely crack the rotation at Lake County, despite having yet to throw an official pitch as a pro.

Unusual story. Tried to write a quick comment on it but failed - seems like it would need a larger treatment to do it justice.

Slight groin strain, no classic for Grady. can't say I'm unhappy about that. Only downside from a fan perspective is perhaps seeing less of Brantley.

Past and future middle infield?

Man, would I love to see something like this, say, next August in a tight race?

BA was blogging the game inning by inning and had a nice review of Rondon. "Clean arm action - explosive fastball sitting at 93" . Nice.

Good article by David Hall at Kinston.com . He took over the beat from Chris Kline, now at BA, and always catches non-baseball context in his stories, to very good effect.

Sipp's back throwing 93 again, but I'm not sure I like the qualified "largely pain-free" assessment of his elbow.

The GCL Tribe began their season today, dropping two close games to the GCL Yanks after a rainout yesterday.

Tony Sipp made his first appearance since undergoing Tommy John surgery last year, pitching a scoreless inning to start the second game before giving way to 18 yr old Alex Perez who finished the game out.

Also making his first post-surgery appearance in a game was Matt McBride, who DH'd and had a hit and a stolen base. Great to see some guys actaully coming back after extended absences due to injury.

The GCL Tribe team has a lot of young talent this year, featuring a rotation fronted by TJ MacFarland, who pitched well in the first game, and a roster filled with prep draftees and grads from the Dominican Academy. Also a couple of international signees, Aussie Jason Smit (may be hurt, he didn't play in either game) and Taiwanese catcher Chun-Hsiu Chen.

The bulk of the talent as usual is on the pitching staff, but the G-Tribe does have some fairly high ceiling athletes on the offensive side as well, with Abner Abreu (3B) perhaps getting the most early attention. '07 draftees Bo Greenwell and Kevin Rucker join Devi Cid to make a very athletic outfield.

Looking forward to following the youngsters for the rest of the year, especially given the anti-inspirant vibe from the parent club this year.

Lake County recap...

In other news, Trevor Crowe goes on the DL with back tightness, Stephen Head takes his place in the Akron OF, coming in from EST where he was recuperating from shoulder surgery.