Thanks to the Steve Poltz interview and my jaunt to Vegas for BlogWorld (recap at Knuckle Curve for those interested), we’ve got a little catching up to do:
Wednesday, November 7
- Saguaros 6, Javelinas 2 (box | recap). Will Venable, playing right field and batting eighth, doubled and homered in four at-bats. Jonathan Ellis worked a perfect eighth, striking out one.
- Escogido 6, Azucareros 1 (box). Welcome to the Vince Sinisi show. Batting third and playing left field, Sinisi singled and homered twice in five trips to the plate.
- Navojoa 4, Mochis 3 (box). Oscar Robles, in his usual #2 spot, singled and walked in four plate appearances.
- Culiacan 8, Mexicali 7 (box). Jared Wells entered in the seventh inning of a 2-2 tie. Wells gave up three runs on three hits in two-thirds of an inning; the big blow was a two-run homer by former big-leaguer Reggie Taylor.
- Hermosillo 3, Mazatlan 1 (box). Brian Myrow, batting cleanup, went 2-for-3 with a double and a walk.
Thursday, November 8
- Saguaros 9, Scottsdale 1 (box | recap). Venable, playing right field and batting fourth, went 0-for-4 with a walk and three strikeouts. Matt Antonelli, starting at DH and batting eighth, went 0-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout; he’s hitting .240/.345/.300. Nick Hundley went 3-for-4 with a double out of the #9 hole.
- Navojoa 6, Mochis 4 (box). Robles singled twice and walked in five trips to the plate.
- Mazatlan 7, Hermosillo 4 (box). Myrow went 0-for-2 with two walks and a strikeout.
Friday, November 9
- Scottsdale 10, Saguaros 3 (box | recap). Venable batted sixth in this one and singled in four at-bats; he’s playing a lot of right field. John Hudgins (7.20 ERA, 6.30 K/9) started and gave up five runs on four hits and a walk in three innings; the right-hander fanned three and allowed a solo homer to Tampa Bay’s Reid Brignac. Will Startup (0.87 ERA, 6.97 K/9) worked a 10-pitch sixth, retiring all three batters he faced, including two strikeouts.
- Estrellas 8, Escogido 1 (box). Sinisi singled twice in three at-bats.
- Mochis 3, Mazatlan 2 (box). Myrow singled twice and walked in four plate appearances.
- Obregon 5, Mexicali 3 (box). Wells (6.00 ERA, 6.60 K/9) allowed one hit and two walks (both intentional) in one inning of work; no runs were charged to him, but both runners he inherited came around to score.
- Navojoa 6, Hermosillo 5 (box). Robles went 3-for-5. Luis Cruz, starting in center and batting third (!), went 0-for-4 with a walk.
- Lara 3, Caracas 2 (box). Paul Abraham faced one batter in the ninth and allowed the winning run to score on a fielders choice play to shortstop Omar Vizquel.
Saturday, November 10
- Phoenix 5, Saguaros 2 (box | recap). Venable (.234/.272/.416) went 0-for-4 out of the #6 hole. Hundley (.286/.366/.429) went 0-for-2 with a walk and a strikeout. Ellis (6.10 ERA, 7.84 K/9) coughed up two runs in the seventh to take the loss.
- Escogido 14, Licey 5 (box). Sinisi went 0-for-4 with a walk; what a bum.
- Navojoa 6, Hermosillo 5 (box). Robles went 0-for-4 with a strikeout. Cruz made his second straight start in center field and again batted third. He homered, doubled, and walked in five trips to the plate; Cruz finished the game at shortstop and committed an error in the 12th that almost cost Navojoa the game.
- Mazatlan 3, Mochis 1 (box). Myrow singled twice and walked three times in five plate appearances.
- Caracas 10, Magallenes 6 (box). Abraham struck out the side in order in the ninth; among his victims was former Houston Astros outfielder Richard Hidalgo, who’d homered earlier in the game.
Sunday, November 11
- Azucareros 8, Licey 2 (box). Yordany Ramirez (.296/.296/.370) saw his first action since a Nov. 6 pinch-running appearance; he started in left field and went 0-for-4 out of the #8 hole.
- Aguilas 8, Escogido 7 (box). Sinisi singled and struck out in five at-bats; He’s hitting .328/.373/.623 for Escogido.
- Mazatlan 11, Mochis 2 (box). Myrow (.351/.519/.526) went 1-for-5 with a two-run homer for Mazatlan.
- Navojoa 5, Hermosillo 4 (box). Robles singled and doubled in five at-bats; he’s batting .322/.398/.466 for Navojoa. Cruz again started in center and went 1-for-4; he’s now at .221/.299/.375.
- Caracas 10, Magallenes 6 (box). Busy weekend for Abraham (2.38 ERA, 8.74 K/9), who struck out the only batter he faced to pick up the win; he’s fanned each of the last four batters he’s faced.
That’s all for now; more as it happens…
OK, I’ll go first.
From a John Donovan story about free agency on SI.com:
For his part, (Andruw) Jones, 30, realizes that his sub-par ’07 season could have an impact on how much he signs for this time. So he said he might be willing to go for something with a shorter term. Just so he can go through all this again in a couple of years.
“Sometimes, you have to do that to build yourself up again. Sometimes you have to go short term,” he said. “That’s alright. We’ll see.”
Hmmm …
OT – FYI Xtra sports 1360 kicks off today at 3:00PM with san diego’s favorite sports caster Lee “Hacksaw” Hamelton!
Pedroia and Braun win ROY
2: Alright, 15 minutes of made-up on the spot MLB rumors!
I’ve heard that people have called and asked about madeup Padres prospects and Hacksaw will give a nice breakdown of what he thinks thier strengths are and when we can expect to see them in a Padre uni.
5: Yet I often tuned in just for those 15 minutes.
Re: 6 its no worse than the werndell wire
5: I can believe it. You might be able to sneak “Sidd Finch” past Hacksaw. And Werndel is just terrible. I expect that Alderson does most of his interviews by phone to avoid the temptation to use the microphone like a KA-BAR knife.
I can’t contend that Hacksaw just reads headlines and leads on prosportsdaily.com; That site may not have been around when Hamilton last had a talk show.
This year’s NL ROY reminded me of Greene and Bay. Slugging rookie who starts late beats apparent defensive stud SS with inferior offensive numbers but a starting job from day one on contending team. Of course, KG’s injury didn’t help his cause.
OT … I’m not much of a Charger fan … but here’s a pretty brutal look at last night’s game …
http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news;_ylt=ApA5jYbQpJy9EUv8sueSTss5nYcB?slug=ms-morningrush111207&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
10: Lousy Spanos refusing to fire Schottenheimer when we could have promoted Phillips then electing to fire him when everyone worth having was already hired…
9: True. Both of this season’s players were better than both of the 2004 players, and Tulowitzki was a clear choice, I thought.
The free agency period is about two hours old, so here is Keith Law’s top 50 free agents:
http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/hotstove07/insider/columns/story?columnist=law_keith&id=3104954
16. Milton Bradley — He says Bradley would be in the top 10, if he was going to be ready for Opening Day.
17. Mike Cameron
36. Michael Barrett
48. Marcus Giles
13: I’m a little surprised to see Bradley above Cameron. I was under the impression that Jenga might not be ready before the All-Star Break.
From Law:
Bradley would be in the top 10 on this list if he were going to be ready to play by Opening Day, but he’s probably out until June or so after he tore his ACL in late September, the end of a chain of events set off by umpire Mike Winters’ mouth. Bradley is an outstanding hitter when he gets on the field: a legitimate switch-hitter with patience and power from both sides of the plate, good pitch recognition and a fast-twitch swing that allows him to let the ball travel deep into the zone before he commits. He’s played center field in the past, but his size and now the knee injury probably force him into a corner. But if it helps him stay on the field — he’s played in fewer than 100 games in each of the last three seasons — so much the better. There’s risk here because Bradley could come back more slowly than expected from the injury, but there’s a good chance that the signing team gets a star-caliber hitter for the season’s second half.
Geoff, you were noted in Rob Neyer’s blog on Friday:
Knuckle Curve’s Geoff Young wants to see the right call made, but wonders, does the game really need to be any slower than it already is? Well, no. And I don’t think it will be, if MLB does instant replay correctly. As soon as a questionable home run (or non-home run) is hit, the crew chief alerts a team of three MLB officials in a secret lair, equipped with 15 HD-equipped TVs and feeds of every game. If the umpires on the field aren’t immediately sure about the call, the crew chief asks for long-distance help. Majority lair wins. The decision is transmitted to the crew chief. Case closed. I don’t know that this should take any longer than the current process, which often includes one long umpire conference and two long arguments with each manager.
Re: 16 kind of cool that Neyer respects G.Y. enough to disagree with him
But how will the manager’s argue with the replay crew? Do you think we could mic them up and put them on the jumbotron? Give the offended manager a mic and let them go at each other for the whole stadium to hear and see. MLB goes WWE!!
#16: Nice; he mentioned that the other day.
#18: Pete Rose could officiate…