Speaking of speedy outfielders, KRIS-TV caught up with Josh Flores in spring training.  They inteviewed him about his freak injury that caused him to miss all of last season.  Look for Flores to be in Corpus Christi this season.

Jordan Lyles is ready to be a Legend… in a Legends uniform anyway.  He talked with his home town paper about preparing for his first go at full season baseball.

“It’s been different. It’s the first time I’ve been able to concentrate on baseball,” Lyles said by phone Friday. “I haven’t experienced things like this. I’ve hit the weight room harder than I ever have and it’s been pretty good so far.”
Lyles says he’s added 15 pounds and reported at 215 when he arrived at the Astros spring training facility in Kissimmee, Fla….“(Spring training) has been everything that I imagined it would be, and I’m happy with the decision to turn pro and not go to South Carolina,”

Tip Fairchild’s hometown paper has been following his career closely and they were the first to let us know that he had been released from the Astros.

“He had a great spring, better than he’s ever had. That’s the hard part,” Bill Fairchild said. “Every time I’ve talked to him, he’s had unbelievable outings. I think he was surprised by (the release), as were many of his friends. The day before he got released, he had a short outing, one inning, and threw five pitches – two ground balls and a strikeout. And he’d done that many times this spring.”

The Express got rained out and their flight got canceled. They were like many other travelers impacted by American Airlines wiring inspections. So, the AAA boys got reminded of life at the lower levels with an 830 mile bus ride from Omaha.

We had to make a decision to just get on the bus,” said Express chief executive Reid Ryan.

The Austin Paper this morning has a story about Lance Niekro and growing up in the Astros’ clubhouse.

Reid Ryan recalled that Niekro, who had a surprisingly deep voice for a 6-year-old, once hunted down his father in the clubhouse. The young Niekro was on a mission to warn his dad to eat the clubhouse spread because mom was cooking meatloaf at home.

“Every time I look at Lance, I get a smile on my face,” Ryan said. “I think it would be a real neat story if he made it back to the big leagues.”

Corpus Christi

If the chicks who dig the long ball were at the game last night, they were happy because all the runs scored were the result of homers thanks to a 27 MPH wind blowing out to center. However, the Hooks didn’t win the the home run derby. All 3 of the Drillers HR were hit off Brian Bogusevic. Iorg and Sutton homered for the Hooks both have been impressive at the plate to begin the season.

Drew Sutton, who has a hit in all six games he has started, ripped his first home run of the season, a two-run shot in the third that drove in Kazuo Matsui. That brought the Hooks within 3-2. Eli Iorg’s solo homer, his first, accounted for Corpus Christi’s final run. Iorg has hit safely in six of seven games.

Iorg also struck out for the first time this season giving him 1 K in 27 AB. Kaz Matsui went 2 -4 in his rehab start, hitting 2 more doubles.

Salem

After back to back last at bat wins, the Avs lost a late one last night. Wilmington scored 4 in the 9th for a 5-4 win. Polin Trinidad had another solid start, allowing 1 run off 5 hits in 5 innings. The Av’s pitching and defense fell apart in the 9th. Here is how the local paper described it:

Dominguez came in to close out the game in the ninth, but instead allowed a leadoff single and followed it with a walk. A wild pitch put the runners at second and third, and then, Wilver Perez — Wednesday’s losing pitcher and Thursday’s DH — hit a grounder to Sutil at short.

Sutil made the scoop, but his throw was low and bounced past first baseman Ori. One run scored and Perez went to second on the error.

The next batter, Josh Johnson tripled to the gap in left-center field, bringing Anthony Seratelli and pinch-runner Jarrod Dyson home to tie the score with still no outs in the inning.

Jeff Howell’s single to left brought the winning run to the plate.

Sutil took the loss hard:

“When you don’t feel comfortable with yourself … ” Sutil started. “When you don’t have security, that’s when it [errors] happens. … I’m not hitting good. Maybe it’s the problem. I’m thinking too much about hitting when I’m on defense.”

Lexington

The Legends had visitors from Houston arrive yesterday. A bunch of them:

Tom Wiedenbauer, minor-league field coordinator, was joined by pitching coordinator Britt Burns, hitting coordinator Orv Franchuk and Matt Galante, an infield instructor and special assistant to the general manager.

And they got to see first hand what Manager Greg Langbehn has been fussing about in the Legends 5-2 loss to Greenville. Langbehn on this team last night.

“But the bottom line is we competed for one inning and that’s not good enough. They need to figure out, to learn, how to compete every night for all nine innings. Right now, we’re just not doing it.”….”it just wasn’t a good night,” Langbehn said. “We get to come back tomorrow and try to get better. That’s all we can do. It’s early. We’ve just got to try to figure out a way to be more consistent and keep competing.”

Craig Corrado is off to an impressive start this season hitting .429 and has stolen 4 bases. He has yet to be caught stealing in his pro career (14 out of 14).

Hooks go to 5-0 with a 8-7 12 inning win over Arkansas. Rob Crosby hit a solo homer in the 9th to tie the game and Eli Iorg had the game winning hit in the 12th.

“We’ve just got a great bunch of great guys who like to play baseball hard and don’t like to lose,” Iorg said. “When that’s the feeling in the clubhouse and the dugout, you win games.”

The bullpen held the game in check for the late inning heroics. Brian Gordon, Ryan McKeller, Evan Englebrook and Chris Blazek combined for 8 innings of one run ball.

“I’ve got to give credit to the bullpen — they did a great job today,” manager Luis Pujols said. “That’s a hell of a job.

“We got some good pitching out of the bullpen and the hitters did a great job — they never gave up.”

Lexington

The Legends lost their home opener 6-3. Anthony Bello pitched pretty well but manager Greg Langbahn found plenty to be disappointed with.

“I liked the fact we were up 2-0 heading into the fifth. I didn’t like the way we played defensively,” Langbehn said. “We were really sloppy, which was disappointing. We just gave them too many extra outs.

“Offensively, I was a little disappointed. I didn’t think we competed overly well at times. Just took a lot of hittable pitches and got ourselves deep into counts and didn’t have good at-bats. … I was pleased with how Bello threw the ball.”

Colin Delome & Steve Brown had solo home runs in the game. Four of the five Legends hits went for extra bases.

Roster Move: Left-hander Jeff Icenogle (calf) is on the disabled list. Right-hander Jacob Leonhardt, up from extended spring training, takes the roster spot and is scheduled to start Wednesday.

Round Rock

Round Rock lost to Omaha 7-5. Chad Reineke gave up 6 earned runs in 3 1/3 innings for the loss.

Lexington

Asheville beat the Legends 5-4 in 11 last night. Astros pitchers did well with one exception. Leandro Cespedes struck out 6 and walked 3 during his 4 innings of work, allowing only one run and two hits. Abad, Robinson and Kelly combined for 5 innings of shutout ball with Kelly tallying four k’s along the way. Pacella took the loss without an earned run. The exception of the night was Mike Koons who allowed 3 runs on 4 hits and a walk in 1 inning. He and Max Sapp allowed 3 stolen bases in that inning. Overall Asheville runners were 5 out of 6 against Sapp. This is a trend we will be watching.
At the plate, Nick Moresi accounted for all of Lexington’s runs with a grand slam in the 7th that tied the game. The Legends struck out 11 times during the game. They also committed 3 errors.

Corpus Christi

Brad James gave up 2 home runs in the 2nd inning but still ended up with a quality 6 inning start.

“I thought he did a nice job. He gave up two home runs, but other than that he did a good job,” Pujuols said. “He gave us six good innings there and hopefully we can get that all the time.

The Hooks bats responded and gave the Hooks a 5-2 lead going into the 8th. Sammy Gervacio, who had pitched a scoreless 7th surrendered 2 runs in the 8th to make it 5-4. Gervacio appeared to have struggled with his control as he hit a batter, and had a wild pitch in the 8th on back to back batters. Kyle Middleton blew the save in the 9th allowing 3 runs.

The Hooks rallied for a run in the 9th and one in the 11th for the win.

Luis Pujos’ reaction:

“The way the guys played, that’s what I want to see all year. I told the guys in our big meeting yesterday that the only thing I’m asking of them is the four hours they’re going to spend here with me and the coaching staff, to give their best,” Pujols said. “If they give their best, we’ll end up winning the game. We didn’t make any errors. I don’t think it’s going to happen every night, but at least they’re going to try.”

Iorg is paying attention:

“I knew the guy wasn’t going to come in on me. He hadn’t come in on me in two at-bats so I was looking for something out,” Iorg said. “He loved his curveball. He only threw me one fastball my first at bat . . . I just wanted to stay on it and hit it to right field. Sure enough, he threw me a curveball and I hit it. That happens very rarely but I guessed right and that’s what happened.”

Corpus Christi Caller writer Greg Rajan discusses that the relationship between Corpus Christi and the Hooks has moved from the honeymoon stage to the marriage stage. He mentions the challenges of keeping attendance up when the talent maybe lacking based on what he calls a farm system “dry spell”.
Salem

Roanoke.com features Chris Salamida as one of the returning faces of the Avs this year. Chris will start in the pen to get stretched out before moving into a starter role after “throwing exceptionally well in spring training.”

Quote

“[Cooper] told me, ‘I know what you can do,’ ” Manzella said. “It’s a chance for you to show new people in the organization what you showed us last year.’ They said [to] just go out and play and be ready to step in at any point in the year if something were to come up, injury or otherwise.

On Iorg:

Quote

“We’re pretty excited about Eli,” said Tom Wiedenbauer, Minor League field coordinator. “He had such an unfortunate year last year with the injury. He was really starting to turn the corner and doing some good things when he got hurt. It’s exciting to see him get a chance to play again. He’s going to be a multidimensional player. He can steal bases, hit for power, play defense, throw. He does a lot of things.”

On Delome:

Quote

“He’s a strong kid, has some power,” Wiedenbauer said of DeLome, a native of Beaumont, Texas. “As he matures physically, he’s going to have more power. He runs well.”