Team Results
18-10, 2nd–PCL American South, 2.5 games behind Albuquerque.
Round Rock goes 7-0 during the week. The hottest team in the Pacific Coast League has ran off nine straight wins and has won 10 of their last 11 ballgames.
Maximum Overdrive
The Hector/Humberto catching platoon. Humberto Quintero is batting .361 (13-36) over his last 10 games, while Hector Gimenez has a .389 BA (7-18) over his last 6 games with 7 runs driven in.
2B Brooks Conrad. Has knocked in 18 runs over his last 12 games while hitting .319 (15-47) over that stretch. Ten of his fifteen hits have been for extra bases (six doubles, one triple, 3 homers). Continues to lead the Express with 25 RBIs for the season.
The Express bully. When you go 9-0, you’re clicking on all cylinders. Yet if you had to point to one area most responsible for the winning streak, hands down it would be the relief crew. Over the nine games, the bullpen has given up just 2 earned runs in 29.2 IP for an 0.61 ERA. The two biggest contributors out there are essentially recent rejects from other organizations. RHP Travis Driskill (released by the Devil Rays) has yet to give up an earned run this season over 14.1 IP. RHP Chris Baker (late of the Rangers) is unscored on in his last 14 innings.
Stuck in Neutral
Nobody we’d care to talk about.
Walking Wounded
LHP Philip Barzilla. Broke a bone in his right hand in his start last Tuesday. Didn’t make subsequent scheduled appearance on Sunday.
Among the PCL Leaders
- OF Charlton Jimerson is atop the leaderboard in triples, extra base hits and strikeouts.
- Jimerson and OF Luke Scott both have 6 longballs which ranks in the top ten in the league.
- Scott is in the top ten in the PCL in walks.
- Conrad is in the top ten in the league in RBIs.
- Conrad and Jimerson both have 9 doubles to rank in the top ten.
- Jimerson’s 22 runs scored puts him in the top ten.
- RHP Chris Sampson still ranks among the PCL leaders in ERA (2.57) and WHIP (0.89).
Miscellany
- OF Mike Rodriguez returned to action on Sunday (as a DH) after missing three weeks with a leg injury. He had a walk and an RBI single in four trips to the plate.
- Gimenez hit his 1st home run at the AAA level on Sunday.
Team Results
16-13, T2nd–Texas League South, 1.5 games behind Midland.
Went just 1-4 on the week as the starting pitching was particularly gruesome with a 7.52 ERA and 8 gopher balls served up (10 homers overall allowed in the 5 games if you count the relievers’ contributions).
Maximum Overdrive
CF Josh Anderson. Hitting .352 (19-54) during his current 11-game hitting streak. Has cut down on his strikeout rate this season compared to last year’s numbers at CC but still needs to draw more walks (just 6 so far this year).
Stuck in Neutral
RHP Juan Gutierrez. Continues to struggle, giving up 4 longballs in his most recent start last Tuesday. Over his last 4 starts, has an 8.47 ERA with 22 hits (7 of which were the over the fence variety) and 8 walks allowed in 17 IP.
Walking Wounded
2B Jonny Ash. Placed on the DL on Friday with an injury to his left hand. He originally hurt it back in spring training but the organization only found out about it recently. The CC Caller-Times quotes manager Dave Clark as saying Ash won’t be able to swing a bat for at least two or three weeks.
LHP Josh Muecke. On DL with bruised left hand. Currently working out in extended spring training. The aforementioned newspaper indicated that Muecke has said he will return to game action on May 18.
3B Mark Saccomanno. On DL with broken wrist. Should return by the end of this month if initial projections were correct.
RHP Monte Mansfield. Currently at extended with shoulder tendinitis. Reportedly close to returning.
Among the Texas League Leaders
- OF Hunter Pence (.333), C J.R. House (.333) and Anderson (.331) are all in the top ten in BA.
- Pence is among the top ten in OPS.
- INF Josh Bonifay and Pence rank among the RBI leaders with 24 apiece.
- Pence (25), SS Ben Zobrist (22) and House (21) remain in the top ten in runs scored.
- Zobrist continues to lead the circuit in walks and is among the league leaders in OBP.
- Anderson is tied for the league lead in steals with 10.
- RHP Matt Albers remains among the league leaders in ERA (2.19) and WHIP (1.19).
Miscellany
- The series finale at Springfield was rained out and, since the Cardinals and Hooks don’t play one another again until the second half, will not be made up. Thus, CC will only play 69 games for purposes of qualifying for the 1st half title in the TL Southern.
- They did manage to get in one inning of that Springfield game in on Saturday before the wet field and continued rain caused a cancellation. The game was tied 2-2 at the time, with both CC runs scoring on a Hunter Pence longball. That would’ve been Pence’s 7th homer of the season and his second in as many days. Unfortunately, it won’t count.
Quoting
Inconsistent calls by the replacement umps has been a problem all season, and things boiled over for Clark after Friday’s game:
“I felt like there were a lot of bad calls behind the plate,” (he) said. “All we ask for is some consistency, for guys to be better with the strike zone and I don’t think we’re getting that. It’s time for a change, that’s for sure. They’re running guys out there that really and truly, the game is too fast for them.”
“It’s hurting the kids more than anything. This is these guys’ careers and they have to deal with this right here and it’s not fair. There’s not a thing we can do right now until (the regular umpires) come back. I bet if you talk to anybody around the league, they’ll tell you the same thing and it’s probably the same around minor league baseball. This is professional baseball and we’re not dealing with professional umpires – that’s what it’s really boiled down to.”
On one call in particular:
“That was (expletive),” (the manager) said, referring to equine manure. “That was absolutely (expletive).”
Team Results
12-18, 4th–Carolina League Southern, 8.5 games behind Kinston.
Salem won three of their first four games to start the week, but all those games were at home where the Avalanche have a respectable 9-4 game. They then headed out on the road and finished the week with three straight losses to division-leader Kinston to put their road record on the season to a sucktacular 3-14.
Maximum Overdrive
RHPs Chad Reineke. In his only start during the week, Chad picked up his 3rd win by giving up just 1 run over 7 innings on 3 hits. He did struggle with his command, walking 5 despite having yielded just 6 walks in his 5 previous starts this season. Has an 0.70 ERA over his last 4 starts.
Stuck in Neutral
1B/3B/DH Neil Sellers. After peaking with a .435 BA on April 19, Sellers has gone just 9-56 in 15 ballgames since.
1B/DH Mario Garza. A season-long tailspin has him at .121/.275/.152. A bit inexplicable given that the 25th-rounder (2003) out of the U of Florida hit .292/.403/.492 in 80 games for Salem last season.
OF Matt Cunningham. Like Garza, a part-time player for the Avalanche who’s also struggling with a slump to start the season. A .167 “hitter”, 4 of his 6 hits this season are doubles. Adding to his curious statistics are the 6 walks and 5 plunks which give him a not unrespectable .362 OBP.
RHP Robert Stiehl. The former 1st-rounder who’s gone through a couple of shoulder surgeries has a 9.60 ERA over his last 10 games. In 15 IP during that span, he’s allowed 25 hits and walked 10 for a 2.33 WHIP.
LHP Troy Patton. The Tomball HS alum has allowed 14 earned runs on 21 hits and 12 walks over his last 4 starts covering 15.2 IP.
Walking Wounded
RHP Ronnie Martinez. On DL and remains in extended spring training with an arm problem.
Among the Carolina League Leaders
- Sellers continues to lead the league in doubles (13) and is among the league leaders in RBIs (20).
- C Lou Santangelo (35) and OF Ervin Alcantara (32) remain among the league leaders in strikeouts.
- Reineke (1.77) and RHP Evan Englebrook (2.16) continue to be in the top ten in ERA.
- Reineke (37) and RHP Jimmy Barthmaier are in the top ten in the CL in strikeouts.
- Reineke (0.95) and Englebrook (1.08) remain WHIP leaders.
Miscellany
- 3B Billy Hart hit his 1st career home run on Tuesday.
- OF Beau Torbert has walked just once in 104 plate appearances this season.
- Garza went into the game at catcher in one of Saturday’s games, his first action behind the plate since 2003 and just his second game back there in his pro career. Although he was a catcher at the University of Florida, he doesn’t have the arm to play there other than on an emergency basis.
Team Results
16-13, T2nd–SAL Northern, 0.5 games behind Lake County.
Lex went 2-3 in what was a very strange week. After getting whomped by West Virginia by a 17-2 score in a 5-inning rain-shortened game (in which the Power scored 12 runs in the 1st inning on 6 home runs), the Legends came back two days later to defeat the same club by a 15-2 score.
Maximum Overdrive
SS Tommy Manzella. Batting .500 (15-30) during his current 9-game hitting streak. 6 of his 7 extra base hits for the season have come during that stretch. The patient is still anemic (.243/.288./392 for the year) but is improving rapidly and fingers are crossed there won’t be a relapse.
While the hitting has improved of late, the defense has suffered. The Chalmette, Louisiana native has made 5 errors in his last 5 games. For the year, the shortstop has 9 errors in 22 starts. And again don’t go blaming lousy infields: 5 have been throwing errors.
1B Ole Sheldon. Went 6-14 for the week to up his average for the season to .412. He leads all Astros’ minor leaguers in BA and is one of just three players in all of minor league baseball with a batting average over .400.
RHP Sammy Gervacio. Made just one appearance during the week but it was a blanking (whiffed 4 in 2 IP) to maintain the triple goose eggs in his ERA for the season.
RF Eli Iorg. Batting .346 (9-26) over his last 7 games. Has 9 RBIs during that stretch (including 5 RBIs in the game on Saturday) to give him a club-leading 21 runs driven in for the season.
RHP Tip Fairchild. Has a 2.14 ERA over his last 3 starts. The most consistent starter for the Legends thus far, last year’s 12th-rounder out of the University of Southern Maine has a 2.65 ERA for the season with a 26:7 strikeout to walk ratio in 34 IP.
Stuck in Neutral
LHP Brian Bogusevic. The Thursday disaster (didn’t retire a batter while giving up 8 runs on 7 hits, three of which were longballs) puts an exclamation point to what has been a surprisingly bad start to the #1 pick’s career. Not just surprising, absolutely shocking. The numbers for last season can easily be dismissed, but 2006’s stats to date are more than a bit disconcerting and not so readily written off: 10.66 ERA with 25 hits allowed in just 12.2 IP. Perhaps his trials might not be magnified so much if some of the other top picks from last year’s draft weren’t going through some sophomore season struggles of their own. No, you don’t judge a draft after less than one year. And Bogusevic and the others have all sorts of time to straighten things out (and in some cases may be doing so). But we’d be willing to bet that Paul Ricciarini, who oversaw the Astros’ draft for the first time last year, has been reaching for the Maaloxx early and often this season.
RHP Brandon Stricklen. Also culpable in that Thursday fiasco (he gave up the other 3 home runs in that cluster…mess of a 1st inning), the Kansas City native has a 11.57 ERA with 14 hits allowed in just 7 IP over his last five appearances.
Walking Wounded
3B Koby Clemens. Out until late May with dislocated finger.
INF Wlad Sutil. Currently out with “injured neck/shoulder”. Has missed 3 games in a row and may have been put on the DL.
Among the SAL Leaders
- Batting average: Sheldon, C J.R Towles (.356) and 2B Eric King (.344) remain in the SAL top ten.
- OBP: Sheldon (.520) and Towles (.427) are in the top ten in this category.
- Slugging: Sheldon is 5th at .588.
- OPS: Sheldon at 1.108 paces the circuit.
Miscellany
- In that Thursday game, the West Virginia Power set SAL records for most home runs in a game (seven) and in an inning.
- After not having drawn a walk in his 1st 22 games of the season, leadoff hitter and CF Josh Flores suddenly drew 4 in just 2 games this past week (including 3 in one game).
- Similar to CC, Lex had a game rained out this week (on Sunday versus the Power) that will not be made up and thus will only play 69 games in the first half.