Week 05/12 - 05/18: Ask And Ye Shall Maybe Receive vol. XIII

[Jacksonian]

Fire away.

[Tralfaz]

I'm trying to figure out who I'm gonna see pitch for the Express Saturday night at The Dell.  Buckholz last night, and Carlos the night before.  Wandy or Gothreaux coming up, but not sure about other possibles.  Also, is Brooks Keishnick (sp?) in the rotation?

[Jacksonian]

Quote:
I'm trying to figure out who I'm gonna see pitch for the Express Saturday night at The Dell.  Buckholz last night, and Carlos the night before.  Wandy or Gothreaux coming up, but not sure about other possibles.  Also, is Brooks Keishnick (sp?) in the rotation?

They've been keeping to a pretty regular 5 man rotation, so you should see Gothreaux on Saturday.

[Greg D]

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Also, is Brooks Keishnick (sp?) in the rotation?

Chris Fussell (for the moment) is the 5th man in the rotation.

[VirtualBob]

OK.  The first homestand I thought he might just be struggling with AAA, but having watched him a second time around, I'm really worried.  Maybe it's just my unaccustomed angle from the 1B side, but he has looked absolutely horrible the last few days.  He finally has his average above the mendoza line, but only thanks to some very weak slap hits to RF.  Is it my imagination, or has his swing actually gotten *longer*?  It looks like he sort of reaches back with the delivery, then hits the ball like he was swinging a tennis racquet ... almost stiff-armed.  He reminds me of a tennis player I once played slow-pitch softball with ... this guy routinely served the ball into RF with a stiff-arm swing that was good for a lot of doubles and a few triples.  Unfortunately, this is not slow-pitch softball.

[jaklewein]

Man, is this guy on fire or what?  5HRs in 3 games.  Jacksonian...have you heard any rumors, anthing at all....about a time table on his move to Salem?  I wouldn't be asking if the current OF's in Salem were holding there own, but to say that they are struggling would be an understatement in my opinion.  Nobody's blocking the guy...surely he'll move soon.

[Jacksonian]

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Man, is this guy on fire or what?  5HRs in 3 games.  Jacksonian...have you heard any rumors, anthing at all....about a time table on his move to Salem?  I wouldn't be asking if the current OF's in Salem were holding there own, but to say that they are struggling would be an understatement in my opinion.  Nobody's blocking the guy...surely he'll move soon.

The Astros historically don't rush their players within a season.  Usually they'll make a mid-season callup rather than an early season one.  As Lexington and Salem share the same All-Star break, end of June, I'd start looking around that time for any movement, assuming Pence continues to hit.

[Greg D]

1B Scott Robinson, 3B Saul Torres and OF Mario Garza all up from Lexington.

1B Justin Humphries and INF Bryan Triplett demoted. INF/OF Ryan Kochen retires.

3B Pat Peavey promoted to CC.

 The Link

[Duman]

Also joining the legends from extended spring training is Beau Tolbert (17th round 2004) as an outfielder.  Kinda suprised it is him over Paraz.

The Link

[Jacksonian]

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1B Scott Robinson, 3B Saul Torres and OF Mario Garza all up from Lexington.

1B Justin Humphries and INF Bryan Triplett demoted. INF/OF Ryan Kochen retires.

3B Pat Peavey promoted to CC.

 The Link

I'm not sure I understand this.  If the move was to improve the competitiveness of Salem, as DeJesus suggests, I just don't see it.  IMO, Lexington took a bigger hit and than Salem improved.  Robinson should be better than Humphries.  But, beyond that I don't see a significant improvement at Salem.  However, taking Robinson and Torres out of the low-A Lexington lineup should hurt the production of that team significantly.  I still see Salem as a last place team, and now I'm hoping Lexington can hang in there and earn a playoff spot.

[VirtualBob]

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Also joining the legends from extended spring training is Beau Tolbert (17th round 2004) as an outfielder.  Kinda suprised it is him over Paraz.

The Link  

Also, Ben Francisco has joined Salem ( Anybody have any info on him ) And Alex Eckelman was promoted to RR.

[VirtualBob]

I've seen one report that Duckworth was assigned to RR and one that he was released.  Anybody know which is right?

[VirtualBob]

Quote:

Quote:
Also joining the legends from extended spring training is Beau Tolbert (17th round 2004) as an outfielder.  Kinda suprised it is him over Paraz.

The Link  

Also, Ben Francisco has joined Salem ( Anybody have any info on him ) And Alex Eckelman was promoted to RR.

I dug a little and found my own answer.  He was a regular OF last year at Akron and played several games there this year.  He seemed to have decent stats, but he is obviously not a great prospect if he was released and is moving down from AA.

[Tralfaz]

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I've seen one report that Duckworth was assigned to RR and one that he was released.  Anybody know which is right?

He had the choice of becoming a free agent or going to RR.  As of Saurday night, I was there, he was not in the dug out.  Since then, I've seen no reports as to his status, besides that he sucks.

[1-4-ALL]

DUCK accepted his assignment as reported earlier  and will be in RR 5/17/05

[Tralfaz]

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DUCK accepted his assignment as reported earlier  and will be in RR 5/17/05

Dammit.

[JimR]

screw you, Trafwhateverthehellyournameis.

the guy has a good arm, and maybe Jackie et al can help him.

i love it when guys who have never played anything but Candyland ridicule professional player.

[Mr. Happy]

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screw you, Trafwhateverthehellyournameis.

the guy has a good arm, and maybe Jackie et al can help him.

i love it when guys who have never played anything but Candyland ridicule professional player.

Spot on. Its obvious (but apparently not to all) that Duckworth has talent. He just suffered a complete implosion of confidence. If the organization thought that he had no talent, they'd have released him outright.

[stubbyc]

Quote:
screw you, Trafwhateverthehellyournameis.

the guy has a good arm, and maybe Jackie et al can help him.

i love it when guys who have never played anything but Candyland ridicule professional player.

I can't understand how you can watch the guy and claim he's got any chance of becoming a successful major league pitcher. He has an 89mph straight fastball, a curveball that isn't nearly as good as it was 2-3 years ago with Philly, and a slider that just rolls up there half the time. If he has such a "great arm" how come he gets so few swing and misses. I think in the entire STL game he got 1 swing and miss.  

He has sucked for more than 3 years now and doesn't need anyone else making excuses for him.

No one's ridiculing him, but I don't think anyone who isn't tired of him serving up bombs in an Astros uniform.

[Assmunch]

Duckworth sucks

[Duman]

Quote:
Also joining the legends from extended spring training is Beau Tolbert (17th round 2004) as an outfielder.  Kinda suprised it is him over Paraz.

I think I found my answer in the old DOB column.  Paraz is a few years younger and can be brought along slower.  Tolbert just turned 22.  

At least this makes sense to me.

[VirtualBob]

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I can't understand how you can watch the guy and claim he's got any chance of becoming a successful major league pitcher. He has an 89mph straight fastball, a curveball that isn't nearly as good as it was 2-3 years ago with Philly, and a slider that just rolls up there half the time. If he has such a "great arm" how come he gets so few swing and misses. I think in the entire STL game he got 1 swing and miss.  

He has sucked for more than 3 years now and doesn't need anyone else making excuses for him.

No one's ridiculing him, but I don't think anyone who isn't tired of him serving up bombs in an Astros uniform.

ditto.

On the other hand, after watching Chris Fussel throw three wild pitches during before-inning warm-ups and Jeremy Griffith throw two in the game tonight, I'm almost looking forward to Duckworth.  And maybe the Pope is right ... maybe Burt & Jackie can help him.  One thing for sure, he can't be any worse than throwing Fussel out there every fifth day.

Oh ... One more thing ... there were a lot of professional baseball people who decided that Duckworth was worth less than his salary ... that's the only way Round Rock even becomes an option.

[VirtualBob]

Quote:
OK.  The first homestand I thought he might just be struggling with AAA, but having watched him a second time around, I'm really worried.  Maybe it's just my unaccustomed angle from the 1B side, but he has looked absolutely horrible the last few days.  He finally has his average above the mendoza line, but only thanks to some very weak slap hits to RF.  Is it my imagination, or has his swing actually gotten *longer*?  It looks like he sort of reaches back with the delivery, then hits the ball like he was swinging a tennis racquet ... almost stiff-armed.  He reminds me of a tennis player I once played slow-pitch softball with ... this guy routinely served the ball into RF with a stiff-arm swing that was good for a lot of doubles and a few triples.  Unfortunately, this is not slow-pitch softball.

And then tonight he fails to cover second base on a drive that Gipson cut off in the RF gap ... Gipson spun and threw a strike to second base where nobody was standing ... the runner would have been an easy out.  He also made yet another throwing error.  He really seems to be struggling.

[stubbyc]

I think that's part of the reason that Purpura wanted Duckworth to say. When you have to give starts to Gallo, Fussell, etc. then you certainly need a little more depth.

[VirtualBob]

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I think that's part of the reason that Purpura wanted Duckworth to say. When you have to give starts to Gallo, Fussell, etc. then you certainly need a little more depth.

Gallo is doing fine, thank you very much.  His ERA is (mostly) the result of failures by those who followed.  Fussel & Griffith, though, have looked worse than theor stats.

[stubbyc]

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I think that's part of the reason that Purpura wanted Duckworth to say. When you have to give starts to Gallo, Fussell, etc. then you certainly need a little more depth.

Gallo is doing fine, thank you very much.  His ERA is (mostly) the result of failures by those who followed.  Fussel & Griffith, though, have looked worse than theor stats.

I'm not really ripping on Gallo, but I don't think the organization sees him as a starter in the future. He had to be thrown into the starting role for an emergency start because there was no one else available IIRC.