Next week’s going to get bumpy.

Meanwhile, it’s a pretty quiet weekend on the homefront - I still haven’t caught up with the goings on in the Arizona Fall League, nor some of the roster moves which have taken place in the last week.

First up, there’s this story from the Pittsburgh Post Register about incoming manager John Russell - seems the brass in Pittsburgh were impressed with John’s ability to motivate a “weak” Ottawa Lynx team.  According to Phillies assistant GM, Mike Arbuckle,

“We knew going into last season that our strength in the minor leagues was going to be from [high Class A] down,” Arbuckle said, “and that our weakest team was going to be at [Class AAA] — and it certainly was.

But when I was there in August, John still had his team getting after it and competing with nothing to play for. You’ve got to be a pretty good manager to get a team to do that. John did a great job with a team that was extremely thin talent-wise.”

I guess I’ll have to both agree and disagree.  Certainly, many of us noted (and blogged) that the guys continued to compete, long after any thoughts of making it to the post-season had vanished.  Much of the credit for that has to go to Mr. Russell.  But I’m not sure how Mike Arbuckle could have thought that the Ottawa line-up was their weakest.  J.A. Happ, Joe Thurston, Gary Burnham, Chris Coste, Chris Roberson, Pedro Swann, Joe Bisenius, Brian Mazone - on paper, Ottawa had a decent team.  What they didn’t have was any respite from injuries.  Stats are for losers, but this was a better team than their final record indicated.

In other “local” news, Gatineau boy Phillippe Aumont had a solid outing in Canada’s 6-3 loss to powerhouse Cuba in the Baseball World Cup yesterday.  Said Aumont,

“I felt great out there,” Aumont said. “I was able to make adjustments and everything was working in the bullpen (before the game).

“It was a big thing for me to get the start against Cuba; knowing how good these guys are, it gives a big boost in confidence.”

The loss drops Canada to 1-2.