Late blogging start today, primarily due to an unusually early cycling start and the guest blogging stint.  Speaking of which:

Saturday, August 11, 2007

LYNX: TRIFECTA JYNX

Let’s not overlook the fact that Buffalo, having lost six of their last seven games heading into yesterday night, was overdue for a win. But it bears mentioning that the Lynx haven’t strung a three game win streak together since, looking…, looking, May 5. The lopsided score (box, play-by-play) was also one of those blowouts that may have been overdue for both sides, even though Ottawa absolutely pwnd (here’s help for those of you over 30) the Bisons just two nights before. Baseball’s a funny/cruel game.

As the 10-1 score suggests, not much went right for Ottawa; they scraped together four hits to the Herd’s seventeen. Gookie Dawkins had a good night, going 2-2 at the plate with a walk, a double and the lone Lynx RBI. The night was pretty much forgettable for the rest of the team. The usually solid, John Ennis (4-4, 3.73 ERA) and Joe Bisenius (1-3, 6.88 ERA) were both hit hard. On the other side of the diamond, Buffalo’s Jeff Harris (6-7, 4.32 ERA) did his best J.A. Happ impression, yielding only one run and four hits over his seven innings of work.

To make room for infielder Russell Branyan, not only was Chris Roberson not sent down (Geoff Geary was), Zack Segovia
was also DFA’d. Unfortunately, Zack struggled in a year where the expectations for him had been very high. Cole Hamels’ former room-mate, Segovia overcame Tommy John surgery in November of 2003. In 2004 the Phillies thought very highly of him - so much so that they put him on their 40 man roster to protect him in that year’s Rule 5 draft, even though he’d missed all of that season. Baseball America had him ranked #14 in the Phillies top 30 for 2007.

In brighter news, our friend Sybil over at the Unofficial Ottawa Lynx Blog, has been informed by a Lynx Booster Club member that Ottawa sits just eight wins shy of the 1000th win in franchise history.

Posted by ottawalynxblog at 4:06 AM    

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The potential loss of Zack Segovia stings.  Now his DFA’ing is certainly not the end of the world, and there’s a chance that he’ll remain in the organization, but it hurts to see a guy as decent as Zack fall as far as he has this season.  What does being DFA’d mean?  Here’s a primer, courtesy of an educated Lynx fan and friend of the blog.

“Designated for Assignment

You’ll sometimes read that a player has been “designated for assignment.”What does this mean? Essentially, it allows a club to open up a roster spot while it figures out what it’s going to do with a player. As we’ll see below, there are certain situations in which a team needs a player’s permission to either trade him or send him to the minors. So rather than force the player to make a quick decision, the team can simply designate him for assignment while he decides.More commonly, a player is designated for assignment so the club can open up his roster spot while they’re waiting for him to clear waivers, which can take four or five days. Occasionally, a club will designate a player for assignment while they’re trying to trade him. That’s what happened to Hideo Nomo this past June.

“Called Up” vs. “Contract Purchased”When a player is summoned from the minors to the majors, you’ll see that he was either “called up” or his “contract was purchased.” For most practical purposes, this really doesn’t make much difference. If he’s already on the 40-man roster, he’s called up. If he’s not on the 40-man roster, then his contract is purchased (for a nominal fee) from the minor-league team.However, the player must be added to the 40-man roster when his contract is purchased, which often necessitates dropping another player from the 40-man roster, whether by release or trade.

“Veteran Players”Any player who has been in the major leagues for five full seasons may not be assigned to a minor-league team without his written consent. This sometimes puts the team in a bad position, because a player with five years has every right to say, “I don’t want to go to New Orleans. You can either release me and keep paying me, or keep me on the major league roster and keep paying. Your choice.”Also, a player with five years of service time who is traded in the middle of a multi-year contract may demand another trade prior to the start of the season following the one in which he was traded.Any player with at least 10 years of Major League service, the last five of which have been with one Major League Club, may not be traded to another Major League Club without his written consent. This is commonly known as “the five-and-ten rule.”

Player To Be Named Later:  Quite often, you’ll read that a player has been traded to another team for “a player to be named later.”There are two restrictions at work here. First, the transaction must be completed within six months. And second, the player named later can’t have played in the same league as the team he’s being traded to. That’s why the player named later is almost always a minor leaguer.And what if the teams can’t agree on who that player will be? This happens rarely, but if no names are agreed upon initially, the clubs will agree on a price to paid in lieu of a player.Sometimes, at the time of the deal the team receiving the player will provide the other club a list of minor leaguers, and later the club will have their pick of the players on that list. This list is negotiated at the time of the trade. In recent years, the Minnesota Twins lost Enrique Wilson this way. When it came time for Cleveland to make their choice, the Twins did what they could to “hide” Wilson, but the Indians found him anyway.Finally, sometimes “Player to be named later” is used to trade players on the Disabled List, since it can be embarrassing for a club to trade for a guy who’s on the DL.”

In other news, and as we suspected, Ryan Cameron will indeed rack up more air miles - he’s headed to AA Reading.  Geoff Geary has reported to Ottawa, meeting up with the club in Buffalo for the last of the four game set.  Tonight sees Matt Childers going up against Clif Phifer (!) Lee.  The left-handed Lee, who has a spot on the 40 man roster was  sent down from the parent club Cleveland Indians to find his game - in 16 games as a starter this year, he was 5-8 with a 6.38 ERA.  Quite a drop from 2005 when he went 18-5 with a 3.79 ERA.  Whoa.  Analysis?!  We gotta stop blogging over at OoLF.

Finally, in the “giving-credit-where-credit-is-due” department, let me reiterate my praise for the Ottawa Citizen for their coverage of the Lynx and baseball in general this year.  Today’s sports section featured an article on local boy (and possible Cy Young candidate), Erik Bedard and a quote from former Lynx manager, Dave Trembley: “”We’ve seen better performances out of him, but the guy has a way of coming up with a big pitch,” Orioles manager Dave Trembley told the team’s website. “He has got guys on second and third, and he strikes out back-to-back guys, so you know what he’s all about.

Thanks to Tricia from Cat’s Pride for this photo of Zak workin’ for “the man” on Monday.

Note the rally cap.