Contemplating the Crawdads

(pictured, Matt West)

.... again

After winning the first two games of the series against Delmarva, Hickory managed to drop the last two to return to the .500 mark for what seems like the 15th time this season. Hickory has not been more than 3 games over .500 or 2 games below .500 in the 2009 season.

As opposed to Wednesday night's loss to the Shorebirds' Nathan Morneau, the offense really did not have much of a shot at Rick Zagone, the Orioles' 6th round pick in 2008 from the University of Missouri. Other than a minor control blip in the 5th inning, the 6'4" lefthander pretty well had things under control. He threw an OK fastball, but changed speeds enough to keep the Crawdads hitters off balance all night. Zagone gave up two hits, one was a high hopper that perhaps a 6'5" Zagone would've fielded with an outstretched glove.

Carlos Pimentel did himself proud, allowing just the unearned run in the 6th inning. His undoing-- his failure to field a dribbler by Joe Mahoney between the mound and first base. Mahoney eventually scored the only run. Pimentel threw 95 pitches in 6.2 innings and pretty well controlled the Shorebirds' offense. Tyler Tufts was outstanding, setting down all 7 batters he faced.

Have to give props to Shorebirds' shortstop Greg Miclat, Baltimore's 2008 5th round pick out of the University of Virginia. Very strong arm, can flat out track down a baseball. Made several plays in the hole at short, including a very impressive sliding stop of a ball deep in the hole, before firing a strike to retire Mike Bianucci in the 2nd inning. Miclat put on a defensive display throughout the series.

So now, its on the road to Hagerstown as the team bus left after the game Thursday. Still anyone's division, but with 30 games to play and 3.5 out in 5th place, its time to make a move or wait until the second half.

Clark Murphy was sent to extended spring on Thursday with Leury Garcia taking his spot on the roster. Garcia started at short on Thursday and looked quite smooth with the glove and displayed a strong arm.

Matt West managed to collect the hat trick on back-to-back nights as he struck out 6 times in 2 games. He looks lost as to where the strike zone is-- taking lots of pitches!

Mark P.

(pictured, Mike Bianucci)

..... there's a drive!

Crawdads lost 6-2 on Wednesday in a game they probably should've won-- on paper, and with the opportunites presented to them on the field.

Hickory faced the Orioles 2008 11th round pick, one Mr. Nathan Morneau, who entered the game with an 11.81 ERA in two starts totalling 5.1 innings pitched.

The left hander presented a very hittable fast ball, an OK change, and a curve ball that refused to bite all night. To his credit, Morneau threw what he had for strikes-- in 4 innings pitched, he threw 85 pitches, 60 for strikes, 7 strikeouts, the final four looking. This was a hitable pitcher who labored, but the scoreboard said he gave up only two runs. Here's how it happened:

First inning: David Paisano and Mike Hollander lead off with singles; they never moved again as Erik Morrison and Matt West struck out, sandwiched around a Mike Bianucci popup to third.

Second inning: Timmy Rodriguez leads off with a bloop single to right, Hogan follows with a screamer to the wall for a double, leaving runners at 2nd and 3rd. Jake Kaase gets a run home on a grounder. Hickory hit into some bad luck, as with the infield drawn in, Edward Martinez hits a sharp, low liner to 1B Joe Mahoney, who dropped the ball, but still had time to record an out at first and hold the runner. Paisano then ended the inning with a liner right at CF Xavier Avery.

Third inning: Hollander leads off with a double, then scores an out later on a Mike Bianucci double. After Bianucci moves to third on a wild pitch, West and Rodriguez strike out.

Fourth inning: A lead off walk comes to no avail as two of the three hitters are caught looking, the other lines out to right.

Delmarva relievers then retire 15 of the final 18 Crawdad hitters, one reached on an error, a second a bunt single. In the final 5 innings, Hickory saw only 49 pitches, only 2 of those innings had double digit pitch counts.

For the most part, it appeared to be a selfish, undisciplined night for the offense, who let a struggling pitcher off the hook and paid for it.

On the pitching side of the ledger, Martin Perez never really got in a groove. It appeared he reverted back to his love for his off speed pitch; the one exception was the fourth inning when he appeared to muscle up for a 1-2-3 inning, the only one of the night, with 2 Ks. Otherwise, Perez, too, was very hittable and just didn't look comforable at all. Seventy-eight pitches: 27 balls, 51 strikes.

Perez gave up only 2 runs, one earned as Bianucci misplayed a single allowing the runners 2 extra bases (doubtless a low sun shining into rightfield at sunset had something to do with it, as he also misjusdged a fly ball into a single in the first.)

But the nail in the coffin was the 2-run homer in the 8th allowed by Jake Brigham to Elvin Polanco. The pitch: an 0-2 FAST BALL RIGHT DOWN THE MIDDLE. From then on, Brigham struggled to retired the side in the 8th, allowing a 3rd run, with Delmarva missing a chance for more.

The Shorebirds hit a flare shot to RF to plate another in the 9th and that was it.

A very winnable game, but Hickory did not take advantage.

One more night until Hickory takes an 8-gamer to Hagerstown and Delmarva.

Mark P.

(pictured, Joe Wieland)

My wife, who is a third grade teacher in Hickory, scored me some free tickets to the Crawdads game last night; only one potential problem—my seat was surrounded by 9 year olds.

Around lunchtime yesterday I was given word that Joe Wieland was flown in and was going to get the ball for his first start in an official, pro game. Needless to say, I was ready for some baseball.

There were maybe 500 people scattered across a sea of empty red seats. It’s taking a while for word to get out that the local team isn’t an absolute joke these days. The terrible teams fielded by the Pirates all but eliminated the local’s taste for baseball. 16% unemployment doesn’t help attendance either. You folks in Texas need to go buy furniture and put some boys here in the foothills to work.

It was a surprisingly cold night, cold enough to make me head to the car early. When I left after the 7th inning, the thermostat was dipping below 50 degrees. I woke up this morning to learn that we only watched half of a game that ended up going 14 innings.

All eyes, well at least mine, were on Joe Wieland. The talk during spring training was that hall of fame pitcher and Rangers team President, Nolan Ryan, had taken Joe under his wing. So, the question is “why Joe?”

The first thing you notice about Joe Wieland is his size. He’s every bit of 6’3” and looks bigger than his listed weight of 175 lbs. Joe has a big lower body. I told my baseball buddy, “The guy’s got linebacker calves.” It’s commonly said that Nolan’s leg strength is what allowed the strikeout king to have such a long, prolific career. Perhaps this is part of Ryan’s attraction to Wieland.

The stadium radar gun only functioned about 20% of the time. I saw Joe touch 92mph but due to the pitch speed board frequently firing blanks, I didn’t look to it often.

During the first inning, Joe was leaving the ball up a bit. Luckily a couple line drives flew directly to RF Mike Bianucci. Wieland settled in nicely and started working the lower half of the zone. Joe’s fastball has good downward sink that led to 5 groundball outs over his last 3.2 innings. Over 4.2 innings, the big righthander induced 5 groundball outs, 5 flyouts, and 5 strikeouts. One of those strikeouts came on a nice changeup away from a right-handed hitter.

The wheels started flying off a bit in the 5th. Joe’s curveball was his best friend and his worst enemy during this inning. Wieland struck out the first two batters of the inning on curveballs that bounced in front of the plate. After making the first two batters look silly, the next two batters singled on a line drive and a groundball that found a hole in the infield. The 5th batter was struck out by another curveball that bounced in front of the plate, unfortunately for Wieland, catcher Zach Zaneski couldn’t block this one. As the ball skittered towards the backstop, Jerome Hoes ran safely to first base.

With the bases loaded, Joe gave up another single resulting in 2 RBI's before being pulled from the game. The 19 year old has nothing to be ashamed of. He was a wild pitch away from going 5 scoreless innings with 5 K’s.

Here’s some video from the third. Listen for Queen’s “Fat Bottom Girls” when the chunky Delmarva catcher Victor Castillo comes to the plate. While playing this song every time Castillo came to the plate borders on being bush league, it still made me giggle.

When I left the game, Hickory had not yet scored a run. It was a pretty boring night from the offense up to that point.

Another 4-error night for the Crawdads. While 1B Clark Murphy was not charged with an error, all three of the throwing errors hit Clark’s glove before racing towards the stands. It’s likely that catching these balls would have pulled Murphy off the bag, but man, when this happens at least twice a game I begin to question the first baseman’s stretch.

Finally, you asked and I provide. Reliever video! Enjoy some tape on Fabio Castillo. I have seen Castillo 4 times now, and to me, he’s not a command guy nor is he a guy with overpowering stuff. Fabio trusts his pitches and keeps the ball around the plate. Castillo frequently allows base runners but always seems to wiggle out of trouble. The cold caused me to miss Nam, again. 5 K’s in three innings?! Wow. Anyways, enjoy watching Castillo.



Read Mark's observations below!

...Outplay, Survivor Hickory

A lot has happened on the current homestand, but with my having 3 promotions to tend to over the weekend, and two days full of tarp pulls, there's not been much time for blogging. But, even with the short turn around for an 11 am start after the 14 innings on Monday, I thought there was a good bit that Crawdads/ Rangers fans would want to know.

First of all, Joseph Wieland was as advertised. I want to be 19 years old and have his curve ball. Other than Boscan's starts and Brigham's first start, Wieland had the most impressive individual start I've seen this season. This kid can pitch. He mixed speeds well, he moved the ball around, good spot fastball, and flat had Delmarva look silly on that curve ball. Wow.

Wieland allowed only one hit in the first 4 innings, but had to work around defensive miscues in the 1st and 4th inning, and a grazed jersey hit batter in the 2nd inning.

In the 5th inning, Wieland struck out the first two batters on, what else, curve balls. The next batter, Luis Berrando, hit a sinking liner that LF Eric Fry initially caught, but the ball came loose during a slide to get to the ball. Xavier Avery (4-for-7) hit a ground ball single into right that Clark Murphy may have misjudged where his second baseman was-- he took 2 steps toward the ball, then retreated to first-- and Erik Morrison not able to get to the ball. The bases became loaded when Wieland struck out LJ Hoes on a nasty curve ball in the dirt, but a wild pitch allowed the inning to continue. Wieland made a rare mistake on a fastball over the plate to Ron Welty as he singled in both runners for a 2-0 lead for the Shorebirds.

Shorebirds pitcher Ryan O'Shea did his best Greg Maddux impression for six innings as he perplexed the Crawdads with a well placed fastball and an effective change up, as Hickory had only three base runners through the first 5 innings. O'Shea, with only 7 walks in 31.2 innings entering the game, was around the plate all night and the Hickory offense went up swinging early in the count.

Hickory finally had their first hard hit ball in the sixth on a liner to center by Jake Kaase, which set the stage for a line drive homer by Morrison to break up the no-no and shut out.

Hickory worked around another error in the 7th inning but finally the defensive miscues caught up to them in the 8th to give Delmarva a 3-1 lead.

A little inocuous play in the Crawdads 8th turned out to be a big break: With one out, David Paisano was hit on the wrist by a pitch. Unable to continue in the game, Paisano gave way to Jared Bolden at first base. Before the first pitch, Delmarva pitcher Eddie Gamboa caught Bolden napping at first for an easy pickoff. However, time had apparently been called by the home plate umpire negating the pick off. Jake Kaase then hit a ground ball to the mound for a double play; except, Bolden's hard slide into the shortstop covering was enough to enable Kaase to reach first.

At this point, Delmarva pitcher Eddie Gamboa had a decision to make: throw Morrison a fast ball, which Morrison has crushed for a week now, including the 6th inning homer, or a breaking ball, while risking Kaase stealing on the pitch. First pitch, fast ball inside for a ball. The next two pitches, with several throws to first mixed in, Gamboa got Morrison to chase breaking balls in the dirt to go 1-2. The next pitch, with Kaase going, was a hanging change the screamed "Hit me!", and Morrison did for a tripled down the line in left, scoring Kaase for a 3-2 deficit.

The Shorebirds failed to put the Crawdads away when opportunity presented itself throughout the night: 14 runners stranded, plus a key insurance run in the 9th was caught in a rundown off second base on a bouncer to the mound.

In the 9th, after Mike Hollander hit a line shot to the mound that was snared by pitcher Joe Esposito, Eric Fry hit a solo shot with 2 out in the inning to prolong the game. A very poor pitch as the Shorebirds catcher set up inside on a 3-1 pitch, but Esposito left it over the plate.

After Hickory spent 3 futile innings against Brent Aller, he of the 2.16 WHIP entering the game, Aller finally came back to reality by walking the first two hitters to open the 14th inning. Zach Zaneski placed a perfect 2-strike bunt down the line at third to load the bases. After Clark Murphy struck out in a 13-pitch at bat, Bolden eventually worked a walk for the win.

Yoon-Hee Nam pretty much had his way with the Shorebirds lineup as he used a very effective change up to toy with Delmarva's offense. From day one, Nam has been Hickory's most effective reliever out of the pen, and he continued that tonight.

So, one day after a poor outing to close out the Lake County series, Hickory gets a big boost to climb above Delmarva in the standings.

So, what happens on Tuesday? Which team will show up: the one inspired by the previous night's play, or the one that goes through the motions and got manhandled on Sunday 9-2?

Mark P.

PS: My role with the Crawdads will be changing a good bit, which will take me out of the press box much more than previous. I hope I will be able to blog some, but most nights, I will not be in a position to see every pitch as I was before now.

(pictured, Martin Perez)

Difficult decision last night: watch the series opener between the Rangers and Angels or go see Jake Brigham and Martin Perez pitch at L.P. Frans Stadium. A free team set of baseball cards sealed the deal for me; we headed to the ballpark.

The game was hard to watch at the beginning, then calmed down in the middle only for frustration to return by the end. Righthander, Jacob Brigham started the game for Hickory. Brigham’s performance looked worse than his line of 4 innings, 5 hits, 3 ER, 1BB, 6 K’s. The first three innings were particularly rough.

Both team’s pitchers benefited from a larger than normal strikezone. With a lightning storm flashing in the distance, the home plate umpire appeared determined to squeeze in 5 innings before things got nasty. The ump was clearly frustrated with Lake County’s slow working pitchers and the multiple, lengthy visits to the mound by their catcher and pitching coach. To everyone's surpise, we didn't encounter a single sprinkle as we watched the lightning in the distance behind centerfield.

Brigham would have had 10 k’s if he could have located his fastball. Instead he plunked two batsmen—he hit one in the side and ear-hole’d the other. Brigham’s fastball routinely caught too much of the plate. In the fourth inning Jake struck out the side throwing curveballs at about a 75% clip. At one point in the inning I counted 6 straight curveballs, and the Captains still couldn’t touch it.

Too little too late. Oh, and one of the unearned runs was on a throwing error by Brigham as he had caught a baserunner attempting to steal second but threw the ball behind second baseman Jake Kaase. A man on third raced home after the ball dribbled into centerfield. It was one of those nights. So when considering Jacob’s line, you have to consider the impact of the two HBP’s and the throwing error.

Here’s some Brigham video. The video picks up with a runner on first and none out in the top of the 3rd. Watch for the headshot. Oh, and the Captains did not retaliate, though I was ready for it with camera in hand. Remember, this was the team that Hickory had the big dust up with on their roadtrip and resulted in something like 5 guys being ejected from the game.



Martin came in to pitch the 5th and surprisingly had a lead to defend after the Crawdads responded with 6 runs of their own. Perez (5 innings, 4 hits, 2 runs, 1 BB, 5K’s) pitched well, but gave up a run on a pair of doubles in the seventh. With a one run lead in the top of the 9th I expected Hickory to turn to their pen, but they rolled Martin out for one more inning. Perez gave up his second homerun of the year to the first batter of the 9th, allowing the game to become tied. It’s hard to knock a guy like Perez; if anything, it seemed like he didn’t pitch off of his fastball. Martin wasn’t attacking batters inside with the fastball like I have seen in more successful outings of his. Admittedly, this is a bit of nit picking on my part...

Here’s some Martin Perez video just because it never gets old watching this kid.


The Crawdads lost in 10 innings.

Other notes:

CF David Paisano has the average up to .315 after another multi-hit night, going 3 for 6. It’s incredible to watch David run and throw. In the third inning, the 21 year old scored from second on a flare that fell just in front of the centerfielder, and there was no play at the plate to be had. Paisano’s long, gliding stride is a thing of beauty.

Seems like the first long road trip of the year did the team some good as far as camaraderie goes. There was a lot more communicating on the field than in the first month and a half on the season. Too bad it didn’t prevent defensive miscues as the Crawdads committed 4 errors to add to their league leading total.

To my surprise, CtheC’s own Mark Parker did an awesome job singing God Bless America at the game. Bravo.

(pictured, David Paisano)

The Crawdads played their first home game in almost two weeks last night. Hickory went 4-4 on the trip that took them through Ohio and New Jersey.

Now that we have 33 games in the books, let’s look at how things are shaping up, shotgun style:

-CF David Paisano has his average up to .305. His on base percentage of .349 would be higher if David could draw a few more walks (he only has 5 walks on the season). Regardless, the numbers indicate a player who has improved at the plate since his season in Spokane last year (.262 BA, .332 OBP).

-With two more hits in last night’s game, Bianucci is hitting .366 with an OPS of 1.095. His bat is too good for this league.

-Matt West, who started the season slowly, is hitting .298 over his last 84 at-bats. The third baseman still leads the team with 10 errors in 32 games played.

-Clark Murphy is struggling less. That’s probably the most positive we can be about the 19-year-old’s start. It took Murphy 9 games to get earn his first BB. The first baseman’s start of the season could be defined as “swing and a miss”…not a lot of contact, not much discipline, and a ton of strikeouts. After the slow start, Clark has 10 walks on the season and has the average up to .235. No homeruns yet and only 5 extra-base hits total. His error total has held steady for a while now. I am interested to see how he looks in the field now after appearing like Bambi on ice earlier this season.

-Font: 24 innings, 25 K’s, 16 BB’s, 17 Hits. Allowing .202 opposing batting average. Manager Hector Ortiz said he was throwing the offspeed stuff for strikes last night. This fella is good.

-Perez: 26 innings, 31k’s, 9 BB’s, 17 Hits. Allowing .187 opposing batting average. Only one homerun allowed in those 26 innings.

Richard Bleier made me look silly, at least on this occasion. In my (admittedly amateur) game reflections I have been tough on the groundballer. Bleier doesn't get my baseball pants crazy like Perez, Font, and Boscan do. The three guys just mentioned produce "wow" moments when they pitch. Richard makes me wonder when the wheels are going to fly off. To his credit, they never did.

Before Bleier disappears over the horizon as he journeys on, let's look at his work as a Hickory Crawdad.

Over 24.7 innings pitched, Bleier allowed a league that carries a .249 batting average to hit only .225 . Left-handed hitters were especially on their heels, hitting an anemic .087. Richard Bleier allowed only 1.46 BB/9 while maintaining a 65% groundball rate.

In my view, Bleier's promotion was the result of his mature approach on the mound. Unlike the younger pitchers, Bleier gets outs throwing strikes. He doesn't dance around the plate. In Hickory, he located all three of his pitches, and all three of those offerings seemed to induce the groundball.

In his first start for the Blaze, Bleier went an impressive 7.2 innings, allowing 2 earned runs and striking out 6. The lefthander continued to keep the ball in the infield as he produced a groundball/flyball ratio of 14-3. Richard walked 3 and allowed 7 hits.

I still worry about the 87ish mph fastball. Bleier's game also relies on throwing his offspeed stuff for strikes. His curveball is good, his slider is a bit better than good, but it could get nasty if he stops locating those pitches. If Cal League hitters are given the opportunity to sit on the 86-88mph sinker, things could get nasty.

Congrats Mr. Bleier and good luck in California. You know you'll miss us...

Take it for what its worth:

Hitting:

on pace for 270 doubles --- most 272 in 1998
on pace for 55 triples --- most 46 in 2004
on pace for 335 walks --- fewest 355 in 2005
on pace for 20 sac hits --- lowest 25 in 2005

Pitching:
2,58 ERA --- lowest 3.51 in 2003
have 5 shutouts now--- most 13 in 2003
on pace for 975 hits allowed --- fewest allowed 1051 in 2003
on pace for 495 runs allowed --- fewest allowed 532 in 2003
on pace for 340 earned runs allowed --- fewest allowed 454 in 2003
on pace of 60 home runs allowed --- fewest allowed 71 in 1997
1.16 WHIP --- lowest 1/24 in 2003


Fielding;

Pitchers:
on pace for 40 putouts --- fewest 54 in 1994
on pace for 130 assists ---- fewest 128 in 2005
on pace for 195 total chances ---- fewest 203 in 2005
.872 fielding % --- lowest .851 in 2000

Catcher:
.99099 fielding % ---- best in team history ---- .99037 in 2003

1B:
on pace for 35 assists --- fewest 62 in 1993

2B:
on pace for 250 putouts --- fewest 246 in 2007
on pace for 45 errors ---- most 36 in 2006 & 1994
.937 fielding % worst overall --- .943 in 1994

3B:
on pace for 130 putouts ---- most 117 in 1996

OF:
on pace for 15 errors --- fewest 14 in 2007
on pace for 15 DPs --- most 13 in 1997

Sounds like the Crawdads and Captains gave the kiddies of Eastlake a real display of sportsmanship this morning for their "education" day.

I spoke with the Crawdads radio broadcaster, Andrew Buchbinder, who said essentially that the Lake County pitcher retaliated in response to Ryan Schlecht hitting a batter in the 7th inning. Schlecht apparently didn't know where the ball was going for most of his 2/3 of an inning of work as he contributed three walks and a wild pitch to the effort. So, yeah, I'm sure he was throwing at someone.

Mike Bianucci, the first batter at the top of the 8th, was plunked by Mike McGuire, and later ejected for charging the mound. Matt West, Eric Fry, Jake Kaase and Matt Nevarez were also asked to leave the game. Of course, expect some suspensions, and perhaps a lengthy one as Nevarez was not in the game, but had come in from the bullpen to join the melee.

While no one likes to see players come to fisticuffs on the field, especially when the stands are full of kids, it is good to see the Crawdads show that they are not going to be pushed around either. This has not always been the case in recent seasons.

In my five seasons with the club, there have been two incidents on the field, both on the road. I still remember a series in 2005 against Savannah in which speedy outfielder bailed out of the way of a pitch at the legs seven times in a four game series. The strategy was simple by the Sand Gnats; tire the legs out. Not one Crawdads pitcher threw inside in retaliation the entire series. It was a team that finished 54-80. Most of the last four seasons has been this way.

Hopefully, the guys can put the 14-6 thumping behind them and come closer together as a team as a result of this.

Here is the schedule in an approximately a 26 hour period beginning Friday afternoon at 4:30 pm. Doubleheader at Lake County, a 497 mile bus trip from Lake Erie to Lakewood, NJ on the Jersey shore for a 4:05 pm on Saturday. Great scheduling by the South Atlantic League!

On 6/6/2007, the Texas Rangers’ front office was working diligently at the 07 Major League Baseball draft. With their first 5 picks, the Rangers selected highly regarded prospects Beaven, Main, Borbon, Neil Ramirez, and Tommy Hunter.

With their 6th pick, the Texas Rangers selected a middle infielder from the Houston area, Matt West.

Baseball America ranked West as the 104th overall prospect that year. The Rangers took him with their 80th pick and later handed him $400k to sign.

West drew the attention of area scouts after hitting .575 with 8 home runs, 43 RBI and 31 stolen bases during his final year of high school in Bellaire, TX. West was also named a member of the first Rawlings Preseason All-America Team.

Matt inked his deal with the Rangers and cashed his signing bonus on 6/19. Two months later, the 18 year-old was handed a 50 game suspension for testing positive on a steroid test.

West’s positive test opened the eyes of every front office in MLB. Before West, a stereotype existed that assumed steroids were only abused by Dominican players and aging stars looking to prolong their careers. The opponents of steroid use always warned us that one day our teenagers would imitate their role models on the field. Matt West fulfilled those prophetic warnings.

After the suspension was handed down, Matt West was asked about the substance he took, “I couldn’t tell you…the name had, like, 50 letters in it, so I don’t know what it was. I was surprised. I was surprised because it was something in my system I didn’t know I was taking. Just a GNC product.”

General Manager Jon Daniels said the news was, “Very disappointing. It just goes to show you that you can never know everything on these guys. We try to do our homework, but the bottom line is Matt was tested positive and Major League Baseball suspended him. We're going to try and work with him to get him through this."

At one point the team did consider cutting ties with Matt West altogether but in the end decided to stick with their second round draft choice.

Matt West is a young guy who still has a lot of potential. Hopefully the rest of his career will not be defined by his teenage mistake.

Let’s attempt to look at the player independent of the suspension.

After signing with the Rangers, Matt hit .301 in 103 AB’s in rookie league. He sported an OBP of .397 but only slugged .388. West failed to hit a homerun in the Arizona Rookie League. The team played West at SS, 2B, and 3B during those 29 games.

After serving his 50 game suspension, West played in 67 games for Spokane (short season). In 240 AB’s Matt hit only .258. His OBP slipped to .367 and slugged only .358. The team penciled in West at third base every game in Spokane. It appears that the organization believes as West fills out, his body type and good arm will be best suited at the hot corner.

The 6’1”, 200lb, 20 year old began his first season at low-A Hickory with a thud. Through 12 games Matt was only hitting .184, however, Matt has exploded at the plate recently. In his last 38 AB’s, West is hitting .368 with an OPS of .944. West’s streak of excellent hitting reached a new level after working with Scott Servais (director of player development) on his batting stance. The two worked specifically on relaxing Matt’s hands. In his last 20 AB’s, West is hitting .500 with an OPS of 1.283.

Defensively, Matt leads the Crawdads in errors with 9 at 3B. I view West as having good, not great potential defensively. He has a good arm and moves well enough, but has yet to look comfortable at 3B.

Due to his age, Matt is still a projectable player. He has good skills across the board. Matt seems like he has potential to become a serviceable fielder, but like many of the young guys in Hickory, the bat will have to carry him.

.... go round and round.

The Crawdads take their first "real" road trip of their season as they make the first of three 500 mile trips over the next 9-10 days. (Previous trips to Kannapolis and Asheville are commuter trips, and Greenville is only 1:45 away) Tomorrow its to Lake County (OH) outside of Cleveland for the last time in a regular season as the Captains join the Midwest League in 2010.

In the SAL league, you must have a day off if a team is making a trip of 500 miles or more. The second leg of the road trip from Lake County to Lakewood, NJ is calculated by the league at 497. This means that the Crawdads will play a night game on Friday, then take an all night bus trip to Jersey to play a--- get this---- 4pm game on Saturday. Not sure what genius allowed Lakewood to play a 4pm game on the first game of a series, but it is what it is.

Another "round and round" is the current state of the 'Dads. After the win today, Hickory is at .500 (12-12) The Crawdads have been no better than two over .500, or no worse than one game under .500.

I remember this time last year when Augusta made the trip into Hickory. The Greenjackets were led by top minor league pitching prospect Madison Bumgarner and 1B Angel Villalona. In talking with Augusta's radio guy, Nick Barrale, he mentioned that the team was playing sloppy and just couldn't quite seem to gel. Barrale felt that the Greenjackets could be a second half team; the pitching was outstanding, but games were being lost that should've been won-- including, as it turned out, a pair of games in the Hickory series. His prediction turned out to be dead on as Augusta played on a different level than the remainder of the league from July on and coasted to the SAL championship.

I can't help that Hickory could possibly take the same route. This is a tremendously talented team on the mound, and there is enough on the offensive side to get 4-5 runs a night; but the issue of focus that I mentioned after Friday's game is haunting.

After a good win Friday night, the 'Dads took a 3-0 lead into the 5th inning of Saturday's game and life is looking good; Lakewood, in fact, looked a bit demoralized in their body language.

Wilmer Font started the night striking out the side, Hickory was all over Lakewood's starter Jason Knapp (Phillies 2nd round pick in 2008) scoring two runs in the first.... should've had more, stranding two.

In the third, the 'Dads saw 24 pitches and had Knapp on the ropes after a Mike Bianucci solo shot off a hanging curve, but did no further damage.

Font allowed his first hit in the fifth --- a lead off homer by Travis Matthair, who sat on a first pitch fast ball and drilled it. Next batter, Zach Collier, reached on a bunt single. Then the wheels fell off. A balk by Font and a passed ball by Leonel De Los Santos (ball skipped between the legs), and suddenly, the Blue Claws had life, behind only 3-2.

Fabio Castillo was the hard luck loser on Saturday, as he gave up 4 infield hits (one later changed to an error on Sunday), and had a sure double play botched by 3B Matt West (4 errors in 2 days), and a ground ball single just under the diving Clark Murphy at first... and well, you get the point.

Later in the game, a botched run down led to another run and the offense had 9 of the last 10 retired, including 5 strikeouts. In short, possibly the worst 5 inning stretch of the season.

So today?

The best game of the season.... the wheels rolled around again.

Matt West had a day as the DH and he looked relaxed at the plate with a flair single and three hard hit balls in a 3-4 day with 3 RBIs. Erik Morrison more than handled the hot corner including a high leaping grab in the 9th inning; he also knocked in a pair of runs with a single and triple

Jake Kaase, who is becoming a favorite in the stands with hard nosed play, was 2-4 with his first homer of the season.

Doug Hogan, becoming my personal favorite player, had the most entertaining play of the day with a leg out, hustle triple.... I'm out of breath remembering this play.

But the star of the day was Martin Perez.- allowed only one hit through 5 1/3 innings before being removed after a line double off the wall in the 6th by Leandro Castro.

Perez threw 67 pitches, getting first pitch strikes on 13 of the 18 hitters. He went back to nibbling in the 2nd inning getting full counts on the first two hitters after starting out 1-2. After that point, he had only two 3-ball counts the remainder of the afternoon, including the Castro double. The other hit, in the first... a seeing eye grounder between Murphy at first and Kaase at second. Not dominant, but quite business like... as we say here, "get 'er done."

It will be interesting to see how the players react to the road trip. A lot of time together over the next 8 days. Should be interesting.

Mark P.

(pictured, Mark Hamburger)

The minor leagues are full of fascinating stories, and Mark Hamburger's rates right up there. The Minnesota native pitched for Mesabi Range Community and Technical College where he went undrafted in 2007. Not giving up, Hamburger journeyed to the Metrodome to participate in the Twins open tryout. Of 110 participants, Mark was the only one inked to a deal at the age of 20.

Hamburger came to the Rangers' organization in a deadline deal with Minnesota last year that sent Eddie Guardado to the twins.

Last August Jamey Newberg wrote an excellent report on Hamburger. Rather than just rewording the article and claiming it as my own, I recommend you go check it out here.

Here is a video of Hamburger's perfect 9th from 4/30/09.

..... I'll never stop. (the offense? or this article?)

Had every intention to write this last night, but an 8 am tarp duty awaited. Great way to start the day.

For a game lasting 2:08, a lot happened and I hope I can remember it all.

The best part of the night, the offensive was finally rewarded with base hits for their line drives. As I wrote on Tuesday and Thursday, Hickory continued to hit the ball hard but had little to show for it. In the first two innings, it appeared as if the same script would repeat itself against Lakewood.

The Crawdads first batter, David Paisano, hit a rope that was caught by a leaping Jeremy Hamilton, who needed every one of his 6-foot one-inch frame to make the catch.

In the second inning, Hickory loaded the bases with one out, only to see Blue Claw pitcher Tyler Cloud strike out the 8th and 9th place hitters, Doug Hogan and Edward Martinez respectively.

The dam finally burst in the 3rd inning.

Paisano, eschewing the line drive, hit a ground ball just inside the bag at third for a stand up double. One out later, Eric Fry singles in Paisano and Mike Bianucci hit a screamer to left center for a double.

The coup de grace: Matt West broke the Crawdads nearly two week homerless streak with a no doubter shot to left to close a 4 run inning.

On the other side of the ledger Cliff Springston pretty well had his way with the Blue Claw lineup. He was perfect through three with only one hard hit liner to third.

Lakewood's first base runner, Anthony Gose, reached with one out in the 4th. Gose hit a grounder wide of first. Murphy fielded the ball cleanly, but when he went to make the underhand toss, Springston had not arrived to cover. Once the pitcher arrived, the rhythm of the play was clearly thrown off and Murphy's toss was past Springston, allowing Gose to reach.

This was one of those plays that under other circumstances may have been a hit (Gose seemed to beat Springston to the bag) and was originally scored as such. But, an inning later, with it being the only hit allowed, the play was changed to an error.

Then of course, after the scoring change, Lakewood responds with two hits and the 4th inning call becomes a moot point.

Despite the three errors on the board, including the one above, the defense was outstanding. In fact, continuing the 4th inning from Gose reaching: the next batter, Travis D'Arnaud hit a looping foul ball down the line. West sprinted back from his third base position and made the catch falling into the tarp. Gose, hoping to catch West napping, tagged and went to second. West alertly fired to second to double up Gose.

Back to Springston: Allowed 2 runs in the 5th, on three hits, but finished his 7 inning stint strong, throwing only throwing 70 pitches, striking out one and walking none. By my count, only 3 line outs, the remainders were ground balls or harmless fly balls

Cody Eppley was hit hard in his only inning of work-- a sprawling catch on the warning catch by Eric Fry to open up the inning wound up being huge as Lakewood scored a run, and could have had more, but perhaps the line drive curse that Hickory suffered under was passed on to the Blue Claws as they hit into a couple of tough outs.

Nevarez struck out the side in the 9th, allowing only a bloop single.

There was an ejection of Lakewood Blue Claw pitcher Esmelvin Jimenez, as home plate umpire Joel Myers felt that Jimenez was throwing at Bianucci..... on a curve ball. Apparenly an umpire who needed to be the focus of attention.

The win was needed, of course, but there is at time a focus issue on this team that is disturbing. Errors, of course, are a part of the game, and Hickory is clearly not a talented defensive team, but its other stuff that's happening is of concern.

Example: Edward Martinez picked up a hit in the 6th inning (incidently, the last Hickory safety of the night). He then proceeded to be picked off at first by the righthanded Tyler Cloud. Martinez never moved, as if frozen by a lefty at first..... this along with pitchers not covering first, or backing up third on a throw from the outfield, missing cut off men, throwing to the wrong base, etc.

There is obvious talent on the team, far superior to the 52-87 Pirate infested debacle of 2008, but there is talent on the other teams as well. The NWL season of 2008 is over and its time to get moving for this season.

... you catch the ball.

Not much to add to Thursday night's 6-4 loss that wasn't in the boxscore. Once again, the Crawdads pitch well enough to win but 3 unearned runs doom the Hickory nine.

Hickory has now allowed 27 unearned runs this season in 21 games, second most in the South Atlantic League. For perspective, the pitching staff has allowed 42 EARNED RUNS. At the other end of the spectrum, Kannapolis has allowed ten unearned run (13-8 record, good for 1st in the North), Lexington has allowed nine (13-8, first place in the SAL South), Delmarva has allowed seven (11-7, 1/2 game out of first in the North).

Key play of the game came in the top of the fourth inning. Score tied at one-all, Lakewood's James Murphy led off with a line double off the wal in right. One out later, DH Sebastian Valle hit a 95 hopper into left field, forcing Murphy to hold at second. Eric Fry came up in an attempt to catch Murphy going to third . However, the throw to West was high. Unfortunately, no one hustled to back up the play, allowing the ball to roll around to the first base side of home plate. Murphy scores and Valle circles all the way to third. One out later, a bloop single to right scores Valle.

Two more unearned runs scored in the sixth, but a tiring Bleier hurt his own cause as well. After a line drive to short to open the inning, Bleier hits Murphy on an 0-2 pitch to start the rally. After a line single to left by Travis Mattair, Bleier had an opportunity to escape damage after David Paisano made a diving play on a liner by Valle. However, a sharp grounder by Zach Collier went off the glove of firstbaseman Clark Murphy which led to both runners scoring.

I do wonder at some point whether or not the pitching will begin to press. The poor defensive play, coupled with at times a dry offensive performance has to be frustrating at times.

The Hickory offense, as they did on Tuesday, hit into tough luck against Lakewood ace Jon Velasquez (5-0 2.25) Four of the 16 outs were line drives at outfielders, a fifth, a hot shot at the third baseman, and a sixth out came courtesy of a diving stop by the Blue Claws' centerfielder.

Typical of the night, in the sixth inning with the 5-3 Lakewood, Hickory had a pair of runners on. Doug Hogan mashed a ball to left that appeared to have homerun distance, but the ball died at the track.

And so the HR-less streak for all but Bianucci is at 2 full weeks.

Matt West, apparently with a new batting stance courtesy of visiting co-ordinator Scott Servais, had four solid base hits-- two to left, two to right.

Back at it tonight......

-Mark P.