Triple-A — Tacoma 1, Portland 0
Matt Antonelli: 1-for-4
Will Venable (CF): 0-for-2, 2 BB
Justin Huber: 0-for-4
Brian Myrow: 0-for-3, BB
Chip Ambres (RF): 0-for-3, BB
Nick Hundley (DH): 0-for-4
Luis Rodriguez: 0-for-3
Wade LeBlanc: 7 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 HR, 0 BB, 9 SO, HBP
The Beavers and Rainiers combined for a total of five hits — not your typical PCL game… Rodriguez is hitting .100/.217/.200 in eight games since returning from the disabled list. Part of that may be due to rust, part due to the fact that — strong start notwithstanding — he’s just not a very good hitter… Beautiful outing from LeBlanc. His season ERA is 6.15, but check out these June numbers: 29 IP, 3.41 ERA, 12.10 K/9, .192 BAA. Something appears to have clicked… Jared Wells picks up the save against his old team.
Double-A — San Antonio 9, Midland 0
Drew Macias: 2-for-5, 2B
Kyle Blanks: 3-for-4, 2 2B, HR, BB
Chad Huffman: 2-for-5, 2B
Craig Cooper: 1-for-5, 2B
Colt Morton: 0-for-5
Manny Ayala: 5 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 HR, 2 BB, 7 SO, 2 WP (82 pitches, 54 strikes)
Mauro Zarate: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 HR, 0 BB, 1 SO
Mike Ekstrom: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 HR, 0 BB, 1 SO
Paul Abraham: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 HR, 2 BB, 1 SO
San Antonio got some unbelievable pitching over the weekend in an unforgiving environment… The hitting wasn’t too shabby on Sunday, either: five Missions batters enjoyed multi-hit games; 10 of the team’s 15 hits went for extra bases… Manager Bill Masse, outfielder Josh Alley, and hitting coach Terry Kennedy all got tossed out of this one by the plate umpire at different points during the game. Alley wasn’t even in the lineup.
Paul DePodesta praises the entire San Antonio rotation, which really has been outstanding. At least one reader here will be pleased to see him mention Stephen Faris along with the more highly touted prospects. 
High-A
No games scheduled in the Cal League. Good thing, too, because it was really friggin’ hot…
Low-A — Lansing 5, Fort Wayne 3
Luis Durango (DH): 1-for-4
Drew Cumberland (SS): 2-for-4, 2B
Lance Zawadzki (2B): 0-for-4
Felix Carrasco: 1-for-3, BB
Brad Chalk: 1-for-2, BB
Shane Buschini: 0-for-4
Jeremy Hefner: 7 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 HR, 1 BB, 10 SO (8 GO)
Another terrific start wasted… Cumberland keeps hitting.
Short-Season-A — Spokane 5, Eugene 2
Sawyer Carroll: 0-for-3, BB
Logan Gelbrich: 0-for-3
Cooper Brannan: 1 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 0 HR, 1 BB, 1 SO
Rookie — AZL Padres 5, AZL Mariners 2
Keisy Marte (SS): 1-for-3, HR, BB, E
Danny Payne: 2-for-4, BB
Edgar Garzon (3B): 0-for-5, E
I assume Payne is rehabbing… Bear in mind that playing conditions in the Arizona League render these stats virtually meaningless.
Thanks to LM for the pics and video from the Ems game (see the end of yesterday’s IGD thread for links).
MLBTradeRumors has finally completed their site redesign, for anyone who uses that site to track transactions.
w/r/t Rodriguez = You’re right, he’s not a great hitter. But I think he’s still injured. I attended the last home stand, he had two errors (Throwing) in back to back innnings and was tentative with the bat (he was replaced by Tom King shortly after that). I don’t think his wrist is fully recovered from the break.
#1@Tom Waits: Here’s a repeat so you don’t have to hunt for the report/links …
Here’s pics from Opening Day at Eugene …
http://picasaweb.google.com/LynchMob98/EugeneEmeraldsHomeOpenerJune222008
… got lots of pre-game pics of Sawyer Carroll … and some in-game video which I’ll post later … but he didn’t have a good day at the plate (0-for-3 plus a walk) … but he did get an OF assist, throwing out a runner who had tag’d at 3B and tried to score on a fly ball to RF … strong throw … a bit up the line … but *way* in time to get him … fun!
During the pre-game time while players were signing autographs over the dugout, none of the kids knows who any of the players are, so Sawyer did not draw a crowd … so I figured what the heck, he was right in front of me, and I had my scorecard and a pen handy … so I bum’d him for his autograph … I told him “see you in San Diego†… which brought a bit of a sheepish “thanks†and a smile from him He’s a big guy … and seemed to have a pretty quiet, humble, and serious demeanor to him during our very brief exchange …
Most fun was a chance to chat with “Rid†(ie. manager Greg Riddoch) … he said they’ve got 11 players on the way (didn’t ask for details, sounded like guys they either had recently signed or were still about to sign) … so the team I saw tonight doesn’t sound very similar to the team Rid expects to have for the majority of the season. I did ask him about Logan Forsythe and he sounded pretty bum’d about him … said he didn’t know anything except that Logan will have his thumb examined down in SD very soon (tomorrow, Monday, iirc) … so it sounds pretty bad … the Ems could have used him at 3B today … both for his bat plus for his defense as the guy they had in there (Derek Shunk, 17th round pick out of Villanova) booted a couple of balls, only 2 of which were scored as errors but it coulda/shoulda been more …
So the game itself was a bit of a bummer … 5-2 loss … offensive highlight was HR by SS Dean Anna (26th round pick out of Ball St), who was playing his first game for the Ems (ie. he didn’t play in any of the initial 5-game road trip to Boise).
And I got one video of Sawyer Carroll posted …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBheKGbCDtU
Hey, let’s not dis the AZL Padres … it was fun to see their first box score showed a save by a fella named Lynch … so I’ll enjoy checkin’ them out while he’s around
Also, here’s a report on the first Ems game which focus’ on SS Dean Anna … who was clearly the Ems player of the game for both his hitting and his defense …
http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/dt.cms.support.viewStory.cls?cid=116412&sid=7&fid=1
#3@LynchMob: I was bummed about Forsythe, too. I like “hitters who are athletes” a lot more than “athletes who might learn how to hit.”
AZcentral.com’s review of the DBax draft confirms that Arizona was very interested in Allan Dykstra. I have no luck with links, but it’s in Nick Piecoro’s blog.
#6@Tom Waits: Yep. This is listed on MLB Trade Rumors as well.
#6@Tom Waits: I’ll try for you …
http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/NickPiecoro/t1212303600
Other news: RIP big guy.
George Carlin passed away. Damn. What a smart funny guy and he loved baseball.
Here’s his famous bit about baseball vs. football.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YphEUa5LPjM
Offensively, to this point, Gerut has been every bit as good and perhaps better than guys like Kotsay, L.Gonzalez or anyone else that I initially preferred to him. Defensively, he seems to be an average centerfielder (no arm but gets good jump on the ball) and though he seems to be a bit of a ‘tweener’ offensively (little power and only slightly above average speed). If he can hit at this level (.750+) and play all three outfield positions with efficiency (nice value) and stay healthy (big ‘if’) then the guy can play 3 to 4 more years.
I think looking at yesterday’s box score for San Antonio tells me that it’s time to take Morton’s name off the “prospect” lists …
http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=milb&t=g_box&gid=2008_06_22_sanaax_mroaax_1
… he went 0-for-5 with 2 Ks in a game where the rest of the starting lineup managed 15 hits … this drop’d his minor league season numbers to .146/.191/.225 in 89 ABs (to go along with 15 MLB ABs at .067/.167/.067) … hey, I’ve been rooting for the guy as much as anyone … it’s just time to move on, me thinks.
#9@Didi: When we were kids, my friends and I played one of his concert tapes that included the football / baseball bit until it fell apart. I wouldn’t have pegged him at 71. From age 40 to now he didn’t seem to grow any older.
#10@JP: Gerut’s been slightly better than Kotsay and Gonzalez at the plate so far. LGon has the most at-bats. The gap isn’t big; one hot or cold streak would scramble the order. They’re all above 100 OPS+ and a .329 wOBA.
#9@Didi: Truly sad. One of the most intelligent and incisive comics there’s ever been. His unique blend of intelligence and ruthless wit made him painfully funny.
#13@Phantom: I should also say that calling Carlin a comic almost seems beneath him. He really was more an activist than aything else.
Speaking of Arte:
SAN DIEGO — The world’s richest man has his eyes set in Southern California for his next multimillion-dollar investment, NBC7/39 reported on Thursday.
Mexican entrepreneur Carlos Slim announced his plans to extend his telecommunications enterprise to the United States. Slim owns Mexico’s telephone company, known as “Telemex” and was recently recognized as the world’s richest man.
In his next investment, Slim said he wants to extend a telephone and Internet service company to 22 states in the United States, including California. Among the cities he is eyeing are Riverside, San Bernardino, Las Vegas and San Diego.
The business plan also includes a company in the Tijuana that can serve the border region.
Interesting news about the Padres and their plans to sign amateur free agents on Baseball America:
When the July 2 signing period begins, international sources say the Padres will sign at least two players to seven-figure deals, with a third possibly happening if they can secure a deal with Adis Portillo…..This year, international scouts expect one of San Diego’s top international signs to be outfielder Luis Domoromo, who international scouts say will likely receive a $1.2 million bonus on July 2. Domoromo is a power-hitting outfielder, though scouts say his ability to translate his raw power from batting practice into game situations will determine his future. A lefthanded hitter, Domoromo is primarily a pull hitter right now. “He’s not a real toolsy guy, but he’s got a good body,” said one international scouting director. “He’s a strong kid who has some power. He’s one of those guys you sign and they have to hit.”
I’m not sure who the other player they are talking about is however.
#15@malcolm: As soon as I saw the lead in to your post I thought the Moores were selling the Padres to Slim. I read the article in the UT this morning about the Moore’s divorce and so it just happened to be on my mind. That would certainly be a change. . .
In the U-T’s minor league summary from last night, they have a short blurb about Emeralds’ SP Simon Castro. This report had Castro’s fastball sitting at 93, which I would guess makes him enough of a prospect to get a mention on the Farm Report. Consider this a request for updates on him.
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/weblogs/minor-league/2008/jun/23/leblanc-heating/?padres
Regarding that AZCentral.com draft review…
I find it absolutely hilarious that people (I won’t call anyone out for 2 reasons, 1. poor form, 2. I’m too lazy to go look up who said it) were preparing to rip the Padres if they took D. Schlereth and were saying we needed to pick more like the Diamondbacks… Then, wonder of wonders, the Padres took Dykstra (whom the Dbacks wanted) and the Dbacks took Schelereth (to whom the Padres were linked). LOVELY symmetry.
OT … Uh, this almost seems like it *can’t* be for real …
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ps2Swv8dhu4
… yow!
BW, Sorry, when I saw the net heading”World’s richest man planning investments in SD” I wasnt thinking of telephones either. Of course, billboards——-baseball in Anaheim.
#19@Peter Friberg: The DBax draft this year was much different than many recent DBax drafts, though. This year they were very conservative.
From 03 to 07 they drafted half of a good starting lineup (Jackson, Quentin, Drew, Upton), a possibly dominant pitcher (Scherzer) and one of the best HS arms of the last few years (Parker). And that’s just first rounders. It’s an awfully good model.
Dykstra’s got the two best tools / skills: plate discipline and power. I’d put him right in Elsinore to start. I wonder if his initial assignment is what’s holding up the announcement of his signing? Carrillo negotiated High A as his starting point back in 2005.
Whether or not the Diamondbacks were going to take Dykstra doesn’t affect whether or not it was a good pick for the Padres — that’s like saying that the Rays were going to take Matt Bush 4th so therefore it wasn’t really that bad of a pick (and look how good the Rays have been at drafting over the years).
It’s certainly possible that Dykstra turns out to be a great pick — I’d guess something like Pat Burrell (with even worse defense if that’s possible) is his best-case (assuming they hold on to Adrian). A player like that has a ton of value plus the Padres would be getting the prime of his career before he departs as a free-agent (which I think is a main reason on why they prefer college players over high schoolers). But, a one dimensional player has to hit and looking at his splits from this year, there are red flags from his stats this season:
http://baseballanalysts.com/archives/2008/06/top_draft_picks.php
http://aluminum.minorleaguesplits.com/draft/dykstal42-b.html
Of course, as upset as I was with the Dykstra pick, I guess it could have been worse, they could have taken a reliever!
#23@Schlom: I’m really, really not that worried about his Friday splits. That’s not a red flag. I wouldn’t even call it a yellow flag. 33 at-bats on Fridays don’t outweigh 82 games on the Cape, when the competition was better and he was sporting wood. Heh.
#20@LynchMob: That girl is the bomb!
#9@Didi: Thanks, I just got lost in youtube for the past hour. I saw Geo. Carlin live in concert in ’78 and my stomach hurt for 2 days after from laughter.
#24@Tom Waits: I was talking more about his home/road, lefty/righty and ACC splits. All are significant red flags (at least in my mind). If he played at Long Beach State, USD or UC Irvine his offensive stats wouldn’t be anywhere close to what they are (due to park factors) — if his stats were more like his ACC or road stats, would he still have been a 1st rounder?
#20@LynchMob: That’s not real. Mainly because it’s impossible (due to the law of physics), also because how in the world would a ball girl have the experience to judge where that ball is coming down?
#26@Schlom: He’s a LH hitter who had a 343/526/757 line against LHP. Nearly a 1300 OPS on what should be his weaker side. Don’t see any flag there. Wake Forest played as a slight hitter’s park from 04 to 07 (101), and during that period (when they faced a lot of ACC competition), all the parks they hit in were slightly pitcher-friendly. You can find that data on boydsworld.com SLASH data SLASH pf2007.html.
There are questions about possible holes in his swing, but I don’t see a reason to doubt that the power is there. He’s shown plate discipline, too, but so did Khalil Greene in college so we should take that with a grain of salt.
From Gammons:
…Second, when Edmonds was released by the Padres, he stopped using the medicine he’d taken for nearly two years after suffering concussions in St. Louis. “Right away, I felt the difference.”
That sucks
#28@Matt: What an arse!
#26@Schlom: And if he hit like his home stats he might have been a top 5 pick!
Why not throw out his away stats like that? It’s just as arbitrary as throwing out his home stats (unless there’s something about his ballpark that makes it a bandbox – in which case you adjust the stats accordingly; or there’s something unique about his ballpark that he takes special advantage of – say a 300 foot right field fence, but I don’t think either of these caveats apply).
Other issues: you’re worried because he somehow hits lefties better than he hits righties? It seems to me like that’s a great thing. All the possible problem splits suffer from small sample size and questionable meaningfullness, and even the bad results you’re citing aren’t actually that bad (his OPS is well over 1.000 for basically every split). If you’re worried about him hitting against good competition, as mentioned he did quite well on the Cape hitting with wood bats.
Also, re what other organizations would do doesn’t matter: doesn’t this run contrary to your arguments in the past that, if it were the Diamondbacks (or some other team with a good draft record) targeting a reach like Dykstra, then we could have confidence in it, but since it’s a terrible drafting team like the Padres, we have to regard it as a massive reach. And now you’re saying, it doesn’t matter what the Diamondbacks think, it was still a big reach and a bad pick.
#26 … here’s background on the ball girl ad … http://adage.com/garfield/post?article_id=127616 … reminds me of the LeBron commercials where he drains a couple of full court jump shots … fun stuff …
Sawyer Carroll with another OF assist tonight for Eugene …
http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?gid=2008_06_23_spoasx_eugasx_1&t=g_box&did=milb
… plus 2 hits in 7-4 (where opponents scored 5 unearned runs in the 5th) …
Cumberland with 3 hits + a walk & 2 SBs in 7-0 Ft Wayne victory tonight …
http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?gid=2008_06_23_wmiafx_ftwafx_1&t=g_box&did=milb
A good night at AA … Inman with 11 Ks in 7 IP … Huffman with 2 doubles … Blanks with 2 hits …
http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?gid=2008_06_23_sanaax_mroaax_1&t=g_box&did=milb
At AAA, Josh Geer gave up 3 HRs, but the Beavers rallied to win 8-5 behind an HR by Ambres and 3 hits from Luis Rodriquez (wrist must be better today) …
http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?gid=2008_06_23_poraaa_tacaaa_1&t=g_box&did=milb
… Thatcher getting the W to get to 3-0 (1.15) …
My roto stats service (cbssportsline) has an article up which has this as the tease …
If you hadn’t noticed, Russell Branyan is playing like A-Rod.
http://sgrlb.baseball.sportsline.com/news/10875095
… and backs up the tease with this …
In his first 22 games this year, Russell Branyan is putting up A-Rod stats, but his track record suggests something much more modest in store for the long haul. Despite his career .231 average, Branyan has enough power to be a legitimate bubble candidate.
Player Walk Rate Whiff Rate Iso Power H/BIP Runs Created RC/27
Russell Branyan 14% 38% 0.530 32% 23 13.0