Here are the highlights from the weekend bus trip:
Round Rock:
Troy Patton got the win in his third AAA start bringing him to 2-1 and bouncing back from getting roughed up in his last outing. Regarding his velocity this is what he had to say
Quote
“I’ve thrown 120 innings so far, so it’s the point in the season where my velocity lowers down,” Patton said. “I’ve been working on sinking my fastball and locating it on the corners. There are a lot of pitchers in the big leagues that throw in the high 80’s so I see no reason why I can’t succeed if my velocity is down. I think tonight I showed you don’t have to have great velocity to succeed.”
CC Hooks
The Hooks stretched their winning streak to six Saturday behind 17 hits; 8 of those for extra bases. Sunday their streak came to an end despite a strong pitching performance by Paulino.
Salem
The Salem paper continues to do some nice feature stories on the weekends. Saturday, they did a feature on the role of the trainers in helping players deal with the daily grind and a side feature on what they do to try to keep kids offsteriods. There was also a story on how Brad James’ promotion is giving Rory Shortell another chance to start, Mitch E’s quest for the Salem RBI record and injury updates for Reed & Walker.
On the field, they went 1-2.
Lexington
Jimmy Van Ostrand continues to work his way back from a hamstring twinge. Sunday, he took batting practice and is day to day. Also noted in the story is that in their win on Sunday, Eric Taylor has an 11 game hit streak and Jordan Parraz added to his team lead in hits, runs, RBI’s and doubles.
With Sunday’s win, the Legends have won 5 of their last 7 and have pulled to 4 games of first place Hickory. Ralph Henriquez who has had very few two hit games this year, had two in one inning Sunday
Tri Cities
The Valley Cats got a glimpse of what a major leaguer looks like on Sunday. Moses Alou was rehabbing in Brooklyn. Alou helped the Cyclones beat the Valley Cats 7-3.
With Delome & Dixon getting a taste of reality in July (Delome .250 after a .429 June & Dixon .194 after a .389 June) Brandon Barnes and Matthew Cusick have been the bright spots for the Valley Cats of late. Cusick is hitting .297 for July and .303 for the season. He has hit in 8 of the last 9. Barnes is also hitting .303 for the season and is riding a 9 game hitting streak that includes 4 multi hit games. Barnes is showing significant progress in all areas at the plate from his first two season in the organization except in keeping strikeouts down.
Greeneville
What do you say about Greeneville? Wayne Phillips of the Greeneville Sun sums it up:
Quote
But if your pitching ranks last in your league, and your team batting average also ranks at the bottom, you have lots of problems.
You have just read the history of the 2007 edition of the Greeneville Astros.
He also talks about the hope of a 10th team in the appy league
Quote
Rumors have it that the Washington Nationals are the frontrunners to put a rookie league franchise in Pulaski for the 2008 season.
In his last six games, Devon Torrence is showing some life as he learns to switch hit. He is 4 for 18 with two doubles. He has also drawn 9 walks. To shoot down the feel good balloon, he has also k’d 9 times. His OBP for July is .377. He is showing progress with going deeper and deeper in counts.
Friday, Kyle Greenwalt pitched 5 strong innings but the Astros lost 2-1.
For the season, the G-stros are 5-26. Their team batting average (.211) is above their winning percentage (.161) but just barely.