FLP Chris Roberson is quietly putting up some very decent numbers down in Norfolk. You will recall that Chris was traded out of the Phillies system to Baltimore earlier this year. In 97 games in a Tides uniform, Chris is hitting a respectable .270, but has been on an absolute tear in his last ten games - .526 in 38 AB. Norfolk has moved the former centrefielder into right (coincidentally, FLP Luis Terrero is in left) and he’s moved down to sixth or seventh in the order instead of leading off. While there’s no evidence to suggest his speed has diminished at all, it seems that he still has difficulty “picking his spots” - he’s picked up 19 stolen bases in 2008, but has been caught 15 times (by contrast, IL leader Wayne Lydon of Syracuse has 39 SB vs. 8 CS). Just sayin’.
Not long before the Tides sealed the win, Joe Thurston seemed to be on his way to putting Pawtucket ahead in the 10th inning. He had just laced a pitch thrown by Rocky Cherry down the right field line. The ball kicked off the wall, rolling underneath the glove of Chris Roberson toward the middle of the field.
Roberson quickly regrouped and then launched a throw from the warning track.
“At that point, I was just like, ‘I’m going to get him,’” Roberson said.
Seconds later, the ball landed in the glove of Mike Costanzo and he applied the tag to Thurston as he attempted a slide.
“I don’t think I ever had one like that,” said Roberson, who leads the International League in outfield assists with 15. “That was pretty good.”
Joe and Chris, Ottawa 2007. Photo credit: Patrick Shanks.
Hopefully Chris will make it to Baltimore when rosters expand in September.
Thanks to FOTL, Hansioux for the frequent Gary Burnham updates. In case you’ve missed it, Hansioux recently added this comment:
… anyway, off topic but i am here to share Gary Burnham news as usual. Gary after the second stay in the Taiwan minors is doing great in the La New Bears lineup. He hit his 6th homerun, and had 5RBI in 2 games.
La New Bears actually got a new position player from the US, Brent Matheny, who is a single A player. I hope the managers come to their right minds and keep Gary.
Finally, Gary was at the Taiwan All Star game. He was there for the homerun derby, but he picked Mike Johnson to feed him the pitches, who happened to be the league’s leader in wins. So Gary didn’t make it to the final round.
Though here is a funny clip about Gary pre-All star game. He showed off his Mandarin skills. And he speaks it very well.
Hansioux, Gary Burnham news is never “off topic” around here. Roll tape.
(I should have a mandarin translation later tomorrow.)
Councillors Maria McRae and Bob Monette had earlier stated their support for a revitalization of Frank Clair Stadium, but Ms. Leadman isn’t sure. While she watched the stands fall with a “touch of sadness,” she’s not in any rush to build them again.
Ms. Leadman said, “the many attempts have been unsuccessful. There has to be interest from the community.”
The original Ottawa Rough Riders franchise folded in 1996. The team returned in 2002 as the Renegades and the ownership changed hands in 2005, and in 2006. Then CFL commissioner Tom Wright announced the club had ceased operations.
“I would step cautiously,” Ms. Leadman said. “That’s a big investment and once you build a stadium, it’s there.”
Aside from the multiple CFL franchises, she noted that the city also had trouble supporting its AAA baseball team, the Ottawa Lynx, which has since relocated to Allentown, Pennsylvania.
Emphasis added (not that I expect you needed it). So the City (with a capital C) wipes out the southside stands shortly after discovering that they’re no longer structurally sound - readers will note that “shortly” is a relative term, particularly when the City is involved. Ms. Leadman’s comments though are pretty much gospel from the City’s perspective: the city had trouble supporting it’s AAA baseball team. In fact it was the City of Ottawa that had the most difficulty supporting it’s AAA team. As a politician, it’s prudent to look at the facts - and the fact of the matter is the CFL franchise has failed in this city twice, and has had several owners, some of whom were unmitigated disasters. It may be unwise to invest a significant amount of taxpayers money into a new stadium (although I have no doubt that they will study the matter to death through the investment of a significant amount of taxpayers money into consultants). But bringing Lynx Stadium into the discussion does nothing to strengthen Ms. Leadman’s argument. First, the stadium is paid for and has been for several years. Second, unlike Lansdowne Park, it hasn’t suffered from the City’s neglect: Lynx Stadium isn’t falling down and shouldn’t for the foreseeable future. And finally, due to the hard work of Miles Wolff, Bruce Murdock, councillors Bob Monnette and Rob Jellett, and the unselfish nature of Lynx owner Ray Pecor, even though the Lynx left there’s still baseball being played at the stadium.
It’s an interesting study in contrasts, Lansdowne Park and Lynx Stadium. For one, they used dynamite to begin to destroy it. For the other…, well, you already know.
And we’re back - quick HOF report and photos in the next couple of days. A few weeks back I promised an update on 2006 FLP Val Majewski. Val was in Ottawa during the days of the Baltimore affiliation, the season after surgery for a torn left labrum - unfortunately, Val’s a southpaw.
After coming back in 2006, Majewski had a lackluster season with the new triple-A affiliate in Norfolk. He was moved to left field and first base to alleviate some stress on his throwing arm and his bat speed, never a strong suit, did not fully return. Majewski got a surprise assignment to double-A Bowie to start 2007, but earned a promotion after hitting .295/.358/.410 in 332 at bats.
He told ITW “Last year, my shoulder was affecting my swing. I was looking at videotape and saw that I was favoring it a bit. I didn’t realize it up there at the plate, but the video showed tentativeness. Once I realized I could trust my shoulder strength, I tried to mimic what I had done successfully in the past.”
Offense
Two full years after his labrum surgery, Majewski’s bat speed has still not fully recovered. He was off to a slow start in Bowie, but hit .310 in June and .353 in July to earn a promotion. Unfortunately, he flopped again down the stretch for the Norfolk Tides.
Tired of waiting for the arm/shoulder to come around, Baltimore cut him loose and Val found himself playing in the independent Atlantic League with the Newark Bears (and fellow FLP, Keith Reed). But just a few months into the short indy season, Val was signed by the Houston Astros organization and is playing for their AA affiliate, the Corpus Christi Hooks. Check that, he’s now with the Round Rock Express, Houston’s AAA team and it’s not hard to see why:
2008 Season
Team
League
AVG
G
AB
R
H
2B
3B
HR
RBI
TB
BB
SO
SB
CS
OBP
SLG
OPS
COR
TEX
.333
16
66
11
22
6
0
3
10
37
3
9
0
1
.362
.561
.923
In his first three games with the Express, he’s hitting .273 with a homerun. This of course, is the stuff that does our heart good at the UOLB - guys going out, working hard and proving the naysayers wrong.
The resident blogger’s currently on a long overdue vacation. Unfortunately for my girls, the week will still be dominated by baseball - hopefully mixed in with some shopping and a little time by the pool.
Tough news out of Syracuse: FLP Kane Davis was released. Kane was having an up-down kind of season, with a record of 6-7 and an ERA over four. The final start came on June 24 against the Mudhens and it wasn’t pretty: two innings pitched, allowing nine hits and nine earned runs.
Hopefully Kane can find his stuff again, soon, and hook up with another team. Which is a nice segue to FLP Zack Segovia. As you may recall, the blog recently noted that Zack was picked up by the Washington Nationals and he appears to have regained some of the promise that the Phillies drafted him for.
Around this time a year ago, Zack Segovia was pitching in the Philadelphia Phillies organization, specifi-cally Tripe-A Ottawa. Just three months earlier Segovia was on the Phillies’ Opening Day roster and would make his major league debut not long after.
A second-round pick in 2002, Segovia now finds himself with the Potomac Nationals, trying to work his way back into the graces of the baseball gods after a precipitous spiral down through Philadelphia’s system.
However, in the Nationals’ organization Segovia seems to have reversed his movement, pitching first in the Gulf Coast League before heading to Low-A Hagerstown.
Now with his fourth team of the season, Segovia led the P-Nats to a 1-0 win in his Carolina League debut, the first of two seven-inning affairs against Salem Monday.
An hour, five-minute rain delay held up the start of the second game, a 5-1 Potomac loss in Jhonny Nunez’s 17th start of the year. Nunez fell to 2-8 on the year with the defeat.
But the story yesterday was Segovia seemingly finding the corner and turning it with Potomac.
Here’s hoping that the elbow and his control are all the way back, and back for good.
The Philadelphia Inquirer is reporting that FLP, J.A. Happ will make his first start for Philly in ‘08 tonight against the New York Mets and (gulp) one Johan Santana. There’d been a great deal of speculation about who would fill the open roster spot in Philadelphia after Brett Myers was optioned to the Triple-A city that shall remain nameless.
The Phillies won’t really need a fifth starter until Saturday when they face the Mets. The problem with that though is that Cole Hamels and Jamie Moyer were set to pitch the first two games against New York and the Phillies might want to keep it that way. The option would be to find someone to make a start against the Braves Thursday night in Atlanta.
J.A. Happ ( 5-6, 3.54 ) has been pitching well at Lehigh Valley (ed: Triple A city that shall remain nameless) and it’s long been whispered that he might be the next one to get the call. One issue with bringing Happ into the rotation is that he would add another left-hander, giving them three left-handers in the rotation. Happ was 3-1, 2.51 in five starts in June and last pitched on Saturday, putting him on a schedule that would have him pitch next on Thursday.
It’s not likely that Happ’s new teammate, Kris Benson, who made a rehab start with the IronPigs on Monday is ready to pitch in the big leagues just yet. Benson needs to keep picking up some velocity, which will come as he adds arm strength, but for now, he’s not likely to be a candidate. The only other Triple-A pitcher who would really warrant any consideration would be lefty Brian Mazone ( 8-6, 3.28 ) who has been steady all season, even through the early season struggles that the IronPigs (ed: team formerly known as the Ottawa Lynx) faced when they lost 23 of their first 25 games.
The pitching staff is pretty well loaded at Double-A Reading if the Phillies want to dig deeper into the minor league system. With Antonio Bastardo on the DL, Carlos Carrasco ( 5-7, 4.18 ) would seemingly be the best pick out of the Double-A ranks. The bad news is that Carrasco is coming off his worst month of the season and has seen his ERA jump over a full run in the past month. Carrasco last pitched on Friday night, putting him on schedule to pitch again Wednesday night, but pushing him to Thursday would be no problem at all.
The Phillies could put together a “bullpen game” and just run a bunch of relievers out to the mound for a game either against Atlanta or New York, but that’s not exactly a great situation. If they do, Steve Green ( 4-0, 3.08 ) could be a nice addition to the bullpen and he did make one spot start for Lehigh Valley and gave them four very strong innings.
Finally, the Phillies could go outside the organization. A phone call to Shawn Chacon? Not likely, although it’s not out of the question. Maybe the Phillies will finally pull the trigger to get one of the starters out there - Randy Wolf, Dan Haren, Ian Snell, Ben Sheets or a list of others - who have been floated on the trade market early on.
You will recall of course, that initially the thinking was that guys like J.A., Zack Segovia and Joe Bisenius (among others) had poor seasons in Ottawa because of the weather. Turns out all three were playing with fairly significant injuries.
The Lynx diaspora: It’s quite likely the 2007 Lynx’s contribution to the IL squad for the Triple-A All-Star Game will go completely unnoticed — Ottawa’s erstwhile boys of summer will have four representatives (really; OK, not really) in the July 16 game in Louisville.
Joe Thurston, the second baseman and 2-hole hitter through most of last season’s Long Goodbye, has been spanking the ball for Pawtucket (.324 average, tops in the circuit) and will make an IL record-tying fourth all-star appearance. Catcher Jason Jaramillo, the Lynx rep in last season’s game, is headed back along with his Lehigh Valley IronPigs batterymate, left-hander Brian Mazone . Closer Brian Sanches is the Columbus Clippers representative. Crazy. Maybe they just needed to stay one more season?
That’s a “quick hit” for tonight (blogger: The house is being torn up err… reno’d starting tomorrow). Coming soon: FLP update on Val Majewski.
