The “unofficial” Ottawa Lynx blog

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Hits and misses

Posted by Carl on April 8, 2009

Final MLB rosters were set a few days back, but what are you gonna do?  Quick status report on some of the FLPs that the blog follows.

2007 Lynx alumnus Joe Bisenius, begins the 2009 campaign in Reading.  Joe split 2008 between Lehigh Valley and Reading, appearing in just 43 games.

Another Ottawa pitcher, Brian Mazone appears to have just missed making the Dodgers 25 man roster – and not everyone is happy with that turn of events (WARNING: for those of you not fond of Hannah Montana, you may wish to turn your speakers down.  Or off).

On the brighter side, former battery mates J.A. Happ and catcher Jason Jaramillo have both made their respective MLB squads – Happ with Philadelphia and Jaramillo with the Pirates.  JJ’s promotion over Robinson Diaz was seen as a victory of his defensive ability and game calling talent.  Jaramillo will backup starting catcher Ryan Doumit to start the season, and will be reunited with Former Lynx manager, John Russell.

“I’m so excited,” Jaramillo said. “It was an unbelievable moment when I got called in and they let me know I made the ballclub. There’s a lot of stuff that flashed in my memory.

“It’s been a long road, but I’m ready to get started on this journey now.”

Happ, on the other hand, narrowly missed out on being named the Phillies fifth starter – he lost the final spot in the rotation to Chan Ho Park, and wasn’t entirely pleased about being sent to the ‘pen:

Asked what explanation he was given for the decision, a disappointed Happ paused a moment later in the day, then simply answered, ”He [Park] had a good spring,” before quickly adding, ”I feel like I had a good spring as well.”

”If I can get a job in the bullpen and if I can have some success down there, then I think an opportunity will come where I can get back a starting job,” Happ said.

”If he’s one of the best 12, I think he’d benefit from being up here,” pitching coach Rich Dubee said. ”I think he’s proved himself last year at Triple-A and I think he proved himself somewhat up here. I think the key factor is how much work he gets if he does make our staff.

”He’s not a guy we want to let sit around and not get any work because he’s still in the process of becoming a consistent major league pitcher.”

Finally, blog favorite Joe Thurston has made his way back to the bigs, this time in a St. Louis Cardinals uni.

La Russa declined to go into much detail as to why Barden started over Freese in the opener, but he was more forthcoming about the choice of Thurston. The coaching staff has liked Thurston’s defensive play at third base, and the hope is that his left-handed bat will help against Snell.

Thurston also took the No. 8 spot in the batting order — a spot that evidently will be occupied by Cardinals pitchers less often in 2009. La Russa acknowledged that Thurston fits the profile of the “second leadoff” hitter, but didn’t want to stack left-handed hitters in three consecutive spots — ninth, first and second.

In last night’s game against Pittsburgh, Joe went 2-5 and drove in two runs.

Joe Thurston beats Pirates catcher Ryan Doumit’s tag – April 7.

Posted in Coaches, FLP, LHP, News, RHP | 1 Comment »

Blog neglect

Posted by Carl on March 26, 2009

And not for lack of information – in fact, there’s so much FLP type news it’s been impossible for me to keep up with.

First off – it doesn’t appear that Jason Jaramillo will be cracking the lineup for the Pittsburgh Pirates.  With an average in Spring Training well below the Mendoza line (around .148 last time I checked), he may have lost the back-up role to Robinson Diaz.

 

Former Lynx manager, John Russell has some tough decisions to make.

Meanwhile, FLP J.A. Happ is locked in a duel with Chan Ho Park for the fifth spot in Philadelphia’s rotation.  J.A.’s ERA in ST is hovering just above 3 (3.15), while Park is just below at 2.87.  Philly GM, Ruben Amaro Jr. has indicated that either could be used in relief as well.  One wonders if the fact that J.A.’s a southpaw will tip the scales in his favor.

JAHAPP1

J.A. in Philly red.

Interesting find over on Bobby Valentine’s blog * (Valentine is the manager of the Chiba Lotte Marines of the Japanese Pacific League) -

I’m looking forward to getting to know Gary, who is a very talented artist, as well as a very talented baseball player. He’s from Connecticut yet I had never met him before last year. Gary was a player for the La New Bears last year, a team that we had a working agreement with in Taiwan. He did a fabulous job for them, hitting .323 and slugging .500 and with an almost .400 OBP. Gary can play first base, in the outfield, and of course DH. I’m looking forward to his contributions.

Obviously he’s not the highest-paid player on our team ― he may be the lowest-paid player, or one of them ― but I think his contributions will be very, very large.

He’s the type of player who just wants an opportunity; he’s always fought for everything he’s gotten. He reminds me truly of our fans; who never give up. When they believe in something, they give their all, every minute of the day, and fight to the bitter end. Gary seems to have that same kind of spirit.

As a token of his gratitude to Valentine, Gary arrived in camp with a gift for his new manager -

gary_sketch_modified.jpg picture by carlk23

In his debut with the Marines, Gary hit two doubles in a 9-1 win over the Tohoku Rakuten Eagles.

* unfortunately, Valentine has elected to discontinue his blog.

Posted in Coaches, FLC, FLP, News, Recap | 4 Comments »

Dispatches from the wilderness

Posted by Carl on February 26, 2009

Even as the UOLB sinks deeper into irrelevance, many of the team’s alumni begin their 2009 campaign.  Some, in new uniforms seem right on the cusp of making the big club -

kanganzhu: Both [Jason] Jaramillo and [Robinzon] Diaz will battle for the backup catcher position. Since both are relatively new to the organization, could you give us your early impressions of both players as they fight for the roster spot?

Russell: Jaramillo comes from us in a trade for Ronny Paulino. We’re excited to have him. I was fortunate enough to work with him when I managed the Phillies in Triple-A. He was my catcher. He’s a student of the game with solid catch and throw skills. He’s a switch-hitter, which is valuable and gives us options.

while others continue to struggle -

The Phillies were humbled by the Pittsburgh Pirates to open pre-season baseball. The Pirates picked up an 8-2 win behind nine pitchers… The loss went to Joe Bisenius (0-1), who was hammered for four earned runs in one inning of work, with the big blast coming in the form of a three-run home run by Shelby Ford.

And from the “has it really been that long since I updated the blog?” department, a long overdue congratulations to Former Lynx catcher and good guy, Dusty Wathan on his promotion to the Lakewood BlueClaws, the Phillies Class A affiliate in the South Atlantic League.

Q: What surprised you the most in your first year as manager?

Dusty Wathan: The only thing that surprised me was what you forget about, what you assume guys know. But you had to teach them. That’s not the way we’re going to do this. This is the way we’re going to do this. Nothing serious, but just the way we do things in the pros.  

And finally on this late February morning (some 40 days removed from Opening Day), I’ve been asked by a few people about the status of the legal issues as between the City and the Ottawa Lynx.  The short answer is that it is ongoing, some two and a half years after it began.  Among other things, this should serve as a cautionary tale for local sports franchises that believe the City will respond quickly and/or reasonably when they’re confronted with a lawsuit. 

But it probably won’t.

Posted in Can-AM, Coaches, FLC, Friends of the Lynx | Leave a Comment »

All good things…

Posted by Carl on January 18, 2009

Elsewhere, the Chiba Lotte Marines said they have acquired the services of infielders Chase Lambin and Gary Burnham.

Neither player has major league experience but both had tryouts in Lotte’s fall camp last year. Lambin, 29, will make ¥20 million while Burnham, 34, will earn ¥13 million after both tied up one-year deals.

Bobby Valentine’s team also said it has released infielder Jose Ortiz, right-hander Winston Abreu and left-hander Wu Si-yo.

For someone who’s likely never made more than $50,000 in his 11 years in the minor leagues, $13M Yen (roughly $135,000 US) is the gold at the end of the rainbow:

“Guys who have been in the majors for two or three years can earn as much as $60,000 for a five-month season,” the 32-year-old Burnham said. “That’s why it’s not easy to get a free-agent job.”

Of course, there are exceptions to the rule, Burnham said.

The Rochester Red Wings, another Triple-A organization, set a cap of $8,000 per month — no matter who you are or how long you’ve been playing.

That would hardly stop a guy looking for work from signing, though. “Unfortunately, beggars can’t be choosers,” Burnham joked. “My definition of rich is being ahead of my bills for two years.”

He even started building his retirement fund two years ago:

“My goal is to make $250,000 by the time I’m 35,” Burnham said.

Certainly this contract, albeit only for one year, should put him well on his way to the $1/4M (for those of you paying attention, he’ll be 35 in October).  Last year in Taiwan, in 7o games Gary put up numbers which were beyond “respectable”:  .323 AVG, .401 OBP, .523 Slugging, .924 OPS – certainly deserving of a shot in Japan’s premier league, if not MiLB.

Congratulations Gary!

Posted in FLP, Friends of the Lynx, News | 2 Comments »

Senor Roberson

Posted by Carl on January 13, 2009

Now – how do you say “Van Halen” in Spanish?

Posted in FLP, OF | Leave a Comment »

Far east tour

Posted by Carl on January 1, 2009

Much, much further east than the Coventry Road exit.  It is not surprising given the level of blog inactivity, that our man in the east, Hansioux, hasn’t checked in in a while.  For those of you just joining us, Hansioux is a fellow member of the Gary Burnham fan club – probably the founding member in Taiwan.  Hansioux provided the UOLB with regular updates about Gary’s progress as a member of the La New Bears. 

When we last updated the former Lynx 1B, he wasn’t seeing much in the way of regular playing time.  The good news is that things improved and he began to get in more and more games.  The “East Windup Chronicle” picks up the story as the La New Bears were heading in to the Olympic break:

Gary:  Well, the team let go of Andrew Lorraine go in mid July. I was activated and heard through some people that the team was trying to replace me for a utility guy that can hit. I was like…oh no! I asked my interpreter if they were bringing in someone else and he couldn’t tell me. It was terrible.

 So the team brought in a new player to check him out and see if he could help the club out. Brent Metheny. According to the interviews given by the manager and in the paper the reason to bring in Brent was to strengthen the roster and not to replace me. That made me feel good, but I really didn’t know who to believe.

In the meantime we had 6 games leading up to Olympic break and I have been hitting well. Not that I have been hitting poorly. I’ve been over .300 the entire time and driving in runs, but for the past six games I’ve been mashing the ball and I think my performance helped me stay. So that is where we are now. We’re on a three week break now. This is a huge time frame for me because as of Aug. 13th my tax bracket drops down to 10% and not 20% because I have been working in Taiwan for longer than 6 months. So this is a big victory for me so far.

Reading further in the article, the strain of facing the constant prospect of being cut was beginning to show.  It was nice to see that he hasn’t let his artistic ability go to waste -

Gary: … I’ve been working hard and I have a pretty big following and even bought a scooter and painted it. I call it the FIRE CAT………..the fiercest cat on the streets of Taiwan!!!!!

On Monday, the East Windup reported that Gary has signed with the Chiba Lotte Marines of the Japanese Pacific League.  Incidentally, the Marines are managed by Bobby Valentine who took the Mets to the World Series in 2000.  Knowing very little about baseball in Asia, I’ll still go out on a limb and say the calibre of play is higher in the Japanese Pacific League than in Taiwan; the 12 teams in the Pacific and Central Leagues represent the highest level of baseball in Japan.

Interesting also to note that the article claims that Gary is engaged “to a woman in the States”.  Here’s hoping for another break-out season for Gary in 2009!

Posted in FLP, Friends of the Lynx, IF, News | Leave a Comment »

Happy New Year!

Posted by Carl on December 31, 2008

The blog enters its fourth year and second full season after the Lynx left town with an apology for those looking for regular updates:  Clearly, frequent blogging has slipped lower on my list of priorities and I can’t honestly say that I expect that to change in the near future, notwithstanding the addition of time this year.

There’s much to catch up on and I hope to get into some of the overdue news items in the coming days.  First up, as most remaining Lynx fans/followers know, FLP Jason Jaramillo was traded to Pittsburgh for catcher Ronny Paulino.  Now that the books are closed on the 2008 season, it’s noteworthy that from a statistical standpoint,  J.J. (arguably) took a bit of a step backward:

Year Team Lg Age Org. Level Unif Pos Ln G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO HBP IBB SH  SF DP  AVG OBP SLG OPS
2002 OKL Big12 19 - NCAA       46 104 18 34 8 1 3 17 0 0 11 13 0   3 3 .327 .381 .510 891
2003 OKL Big12 20 - NCAA -     57 213 44 82 18 1 9 42 0 0 22 25 0   1 6 .385 .432 .606 1038
2004 OKL Big12 21 - NCAA       61 240 48 84 12 0 8 57 0 0 34 23 3   0 1 13  .350 .435 .500 935
  PHI GCL 21 Phi Rk   c   1 3 1 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .667 .667 .667 1334
  BAT NYPL 21 Phi A-   c   31 112 11 25 5 0 1 14 0 1 12 27 1 0 0 2 .223 .299 .295 594
2005 LAK SAL 22 Phi A   c   119 448 46 136 28 4 8 63 2 3 44 72 2 3 1 1 15  .304 .368 .438 806
2006 REA East 23 Phi AA   c   93 322 35 80 25 1 6 39 0 1 32 56 4 0 1 5 13  .248 .320 .388 708
  SCR IL 23 Phi AAA   c   2 6 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 .167 .143 .167 310
2007 OTT IL 24 Phi AAA 15 c   118 435 52 118 13 4 6 56 0 1 50 79 5 3 2 4 18  .271 .350 .361 711
2008 LEH IL 25 Phi AAA 15     115 421 48 112 20 0 8 39 1 1 42 82 6 4 2 2 12  .266 .340 .371 711

 

Fewer hits, runs scored, RBIs and walks, coupled with a lower average, and higher strike out totals.  Not dramatic declines, but the numbers in the areas where he did improve were also not that impressive – slugging percentage (up 10 pts) was offset by a 10 pt. decline in OBP.  Home runs were up 2 – from 6 in 2007 to 8 in LHV.  All of this of course, following what should have been a franchise move to a more baseball “friendly” environment – a “better stadium”, more fans and “better” weather.  Funny how that worked, huh?

With Lou Marson getting the September call up to the Phillies in the fall of 2008, the writing may have been on the wall for the former Lynx catcher; Marson seems to have supplanted J.J as the Philadelphia catcher of the future.  The trade may also have repercussions for another blog “favorite”, Chris Coste (whom we affectionately dubbed “complainer” and “the suck”).

The deal for Paulino also gives the Phightins’ ample flexibility when it comes to the futures of fellow backstops Chris Coste and Louis Marson. Coste, a local hero of the first kind, is likely to be dealt in spring training for either a relief pitcher or another bat off the bench. It has been rumored that both the Baltimore Orioles and Florida Marlins have some interest in the right-handed hitting Coste.

More tomorrow, including another FLP update.

Posted in FLP, Friends of the Lynx, News | Leave a Comment »

December FLP updates

Posted by Carl on December 7, 2008

(Courtesy FOTL, Ken Throop updates us on the last update)

Rich Gale was the Lynx pitching coach in 1994, his only season with us. He
took over from Mike Parrott, our first pitching coach in 1993, & was
replaced by Chuck Kniffin for the 1995 season.

Further to the coaching transactions you mentioned, i received an e-mail
today from the Syracuse Chiefs announcing that former Montreal Expos
infielder Tim Foli has been named manager of the Chiefs for the 2009 season.
Tim was the manager for the Columbus Clippers, Washington’s AAA affiliate
last season. Also named to the staff was former Toronto Blue Jay Darnell
Coles as the hitting coach, & named as pitching coach is former Oakland
Athletics pitcher & former Lynx pitching coach Steve MacCatty (2003-2005).
Also, hired by the Nationals to be the head trainer this year is former Lynx
trainer Mike Quinn (2002). Foli was with the World Series champion
Pittsburgh Pirates in 1979, & Coles played for the Blue Jays when they won
the World Series in 1993.

Thanks for the help Ken!  In more news of the Friend of the Lynx variety, Neate Sager’s Out of Left Field made it to the second round of voting in the Canadian Blog Awards.  No word yet on the results of the round two voting.

There’s a mountain of post-season IL stuff and player transactions to get to – more later.

Posted in Coaches, FLP, Friends of the Lynx | Leave a Comment »

Catching up

Posted by Carl on November 26, 2008

FOTL and the blog in general, Tricia catches me up on some of the goings on of the alumni of your Ottawa Lynx.  Honestly, if I had a shred of decency, I’d hand the reins of the blog over to Trish; most of what has appeared in the FLP department is courtesy of her work.

FLP updates

National League
PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES-Named **Pete Mackanin** bench coach and Sam Perlozzo
third base coach.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS-Named Matt LeCroy manager, **Rich Gale** pitching
coach, and Ramon Aviles coach for Hagerstown (SAL).

Atlantic League
NEWARK BEARS-Named **Tim Raines** manager and signed him to a two-year
contract.

Thanks Trish!

Some time ago, friend of the blog Neate Sager fired over a quick report on the whereabouts of the Ottawa Lynx’s unofficial photographer, Patrick Shanks.  Some of you may know that Patrick is also in a soon to be famous local “garage” band.

Neate reports:

“Thought you might like seeing this… I am in awe a redheaded guy can wear a red shirt in public and pull it off.”

(courtesy of Andrew Carver’s Natcaprock blog)

Waffle house

September begins with an explosion of pop-garage sweetness down at Popes Lane (I idly wonder if there’s any connection with my neighbours in Pope House). The lane’s inhabitants were having their Labour Day shindig, replete with inflatable castle, champagne and live entertainment from Ottawa’s pancakinest duo, Shanker and Romps.

Merchandising action!

That garage in full!

As always, more later.

Posted in Coaches, FLP, Friends of the Lynx, News | 1 Comment »

Set for life?

Posted by Carl on November 11, 2008

Sorry about how quiet it’s been over here (for too long).  If things go as I expect shortly, I’ll likely have more time for this blog.  [cough]

But back to today’s title.  Given the recent news out of Philadelphia, I wondered if fears for my retirement may be misplaced – stock market crash notwithstanding.

With the enviable task of repeating as World Series champions ahead of them, the Phillies turned to a former bat boy to take over as their general manager.

Ruben Amaro Jr. signed a three-year contract Monday to become general manager of the Phillies a quarter-century after he was handing lumber to Hall of Famers Mike Schmidt and Steve Carlton as a starry-eyed teenager.

DSC00818.jpg picture by carlk23

                                                                                    +

IMGP0155.jpg picture by carlk23

 

Just sayin’…

Posted in News | 3 Comments »