Here is your comprehensive list of the minor league transactions of this past season. Remember, if your name is on the list, the transaction ain’t minor to you.
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Wade on,
September callups “I don’t view September as a reward situation,” he said. “If there’s a particular player that we feel we need to take a good, hard look at, there’s an opportunity to do that.”
So Long Salem: The Final Good & Bad Report
The book closes on the Salem Avalanche as an Astros affiliate with the end of play yesterday. It was a forgetable season. The Avs finished with the worst record in the Carolina League (56-84) and they ended the year with three players getting arrested at a local eatery.
Clemens and Ori were charged with disorderly conduct and Goethals with assault and battery. All three were taken to the Roanoke County-Salem Jail before being released on bond, according to a news release from the Salem police….The release does not describe any of the events leading to the arrests. It states only that Clemens and Ori were arrested on the scene and that Goethals was charged “after an employee of the restaurant obtained a warrant for his arrest” from the Roanoke County/Salem magistrate’s office.
As for the team’s play this year, Jordan Parraz had this to say to sum it all up.
“We all wish we could be on a winning team,” Parraz said. “But we just didn’t have the players or the talent or the chemistry or whatever.”
This is not to say that there weren’t memorable times in Salem. Here is one of the funniest stories of the Astros’ time in Salem.
Who could forget back in 2003 when Houston Astros’ farmhand Todd Self, frustrated by a bad at-bat, slammed the dugout bathroom door shut so hard that he locked himself in?
“I was hollering [for help] and they were laughing at me,” Self reported at the time.
Self was stuck in that bathroom at Kinston’s Grainger Stadium so long he actually needed a fielder to take over for him at first base and wasn’t freed until after the game ended.
So let’s see how the last Astros farmhands faired in Salem.Read More
SalemOswalt wins pitchers’ duel with… Jason Marquis?!?!
Astros at Cubs, 9/1/08
Astros 3, Cubs 0
W: Oswalt (13-9) L: Marquis (9-8) S: Valverde (38)
I love the fact that Roy swears he’s not doing anything differently. Sure, Roy… the drop of 2 runs in your ERA after the ASB is just a matter of balls falling in gloves.
Anyways, Roy was the Roy of old once again, dealing to the tune of 4 hits and no walks over 8 1/3 innings. Of course, 2 of those hits were in the ninth, leading to a save opportunity that was much more interesting that we thought it would be.
The offensive side of the ledger featured some great baserunning by the Puma, who tagged up and took second on a Blum sac fly that plated Tejada, which put him in place to steal third and trot home on Hunter’s single up the middle. Berkman also later went first to third on a wild pitch when Soto threw wildly trying to nail Miggy at the plate.
On the flip side, I’d like to issue a perssonal memo to Jose Castillo:
Breaking your bat on a 3-0 fastball from Samardzija – a guy who had just managed to walk Hunter Pence, for crying out loud – is not a good way to win a job for next year.
Astros @ Cubs–Commence Operation: Cub Free Fall
Astros (71-66) at Cubs (85-52)
The Astros visit Wrigley for the last time this year to play the fuckin’ Cubs–who are ripe off back-to-back losses where they stranded 19 men on base. Is panic setting in for Cubfandom? Could this be the beginning of the end? Read More
WOHR
Cardinals 2, Astros 3
W: Doug Brocail, L: Russ Springer
Astros Recap
Yahoo Recap
Box Score
SnS Ladies Night at Minute Maid Park tonight. We were not alone, there were a lot of Jakes fans. As usual, some were behaved, most were not. Read More