Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
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Las Vegas at Round Rock, 5:05 p.m.
Top prospect Chad Billingsley is starting for the 51s (26-20), who have lost some ground in the standings with several top players going to Los Angeles. Tucson is .002 behind them, in a virtual tie for first place in the Pacific Coast League-Pacific South Division.
Joel Guzman is not in the starting lineup. Guzman's numbers really don't jump out at you these days - .356 on-base and .446 slugging percentages are fairly tame for the PCL and below what Russell Martin, Andre Ethier and Willy Aybar had done this year for the 51s. Guzman is still only 21, so it's no big deal - just that he still doesn't seem ready for the majors yet.
Round Rock has a 27-17 record, good for second place in the PCL American South. The Express has shut out Las Vegas in two consecutive games. Guzman is 1 for 8 in that span.
Round Rock starting pitcher Chris Sampson is 11 for 20 at the plate this season with a 1.171 OPS.
The game-time weather (local time 7:05 p.m.) is partly cloudy, 92 degrees.
Update: A rough start for Billingsley, as five of the first six batters reach base on a double, three singles (two on the infield) and a walk. But he strikes out the next two batters and escapes the first inning trailing, 2-1. Jeff Duncan and James Loney had singles and Dewlyn Young a sacrifice fly for Las Vegas in the top of the first.
But you are right about Arizona's time zone.
Martin has magical powers!
Mere coincidence. The Sabre Philosophy™ tells us that the catcher has no impact on the pitcher's performance.
laroche has really been turning it on lately. in his last 86ABs he is hitting. 349/456/535 17bb 8k
not toooo bad.
oh golly gosh, i dont think bowden is that dumb- he would be getting ripped off.
Ruggiano (especially at his age), should be playing for Vegas. I'm not sure what purpose Weber is there for.
Actually I have thought after each of Billingsley's mortal starts lately that he may miss pitching to Martin. Meanwhile, look what has become of the big club with Martin up. He may actually have some magical powers.
If he doesnt, then it really makes little sense to keep players 22/23 at an American Legion league like the SALLY.
honestly, while pedroza's ISO's are awesome, i still dont think he can hit upper level pitching. His batting Avg is average considering his age and college pedigree and he still strikes out a bit too much. and he is only hitting .239 against lefties, which was a knock on him in college.
I know not striking out has some value, but not at the expense of drawing walks.
striking out in the minors is vastly different then striking out in the majors.
I dont mind strike outs for major leaguers if they are getting on base and hitting for power but prospects top prospects need to show contact skills.
In a town some 50 odd miles outside of KC, Mo., Luke Hochevar is pitching tonight, this will be his last appearance and if the Dodgers don't get him to sign a contract by 9:00 p.m. PDT, he will go back into the draft pool.
that 900 pm PDT deadline inst for 5 more days!
If Martin really is the problem, then would it be worth it to call up Billingsley to reunite the two of them? :)
That sounds like the "cant walk off the island" argument. I disagree totally.
I think its at the minor league level where discipline should be encouraged, because if you form bad habits down there of swinging at pitches out of the zone just to make contact, its going to really hurt at the mlb level where mlb'ers exploit those weaknesses. I think its a bad situation when you have hitters afraid to strike out. It just leads to bad habits I think.
I had thought of purchasing it just to support them, whether or not I actually listened to it.
Hochevar thus far 4 IP at least 5 hits, 3 runs, 6 Ks and 2 walks, sounds (I only have radio) that he has a pretty good fastball, breaking stuff inconsistent, in K/BB is 19/7. His team is up 6-3.
The radio guy observed that there are some Royal scouts there but could they afford Hochevar if he is available.
Also, Hanrahan continued his comeback. After tonight's game, he'll have a 3.17 ERA in 48.1 IP, while allowing only 2 HRs and striking out 44. He's walked 26 batters however.
It was 7-0 after 5 1/2.
He should be blaming Bowden for having LeCroy on the roster, not himself.
Phil Nevin homer wins it in the 9th, 8-7.
If Robinson is crying now he better save some tears because the dodgers are up next.
"Watcha gonna do brotherrr! When the blue run wild on you!"- in my best hulk hogan impression
He then says that they would take Kershaw, and he's their top target here, but if he's gone, things get a little messy. Jeremy Jeffress, Drabek and Reynolds could enter the picture, and the pick will almost definitely be a pitcher.
something interesting. according to him, we still have a chance at hochevar:
there are some indications that there have been some very early, very preliminary, very loose talks between the Dodgers and Scott Boras about signing Hochevar, for whom the Dodgers retain exclusive negotiating rights until next Tuesday. While the chances of something getting done there still seem minute, that's significantly more than the zero chance that seemed to be the case a couple of weeks ago.
horray!
I dont understand this. In every other sport if a player is playing poorly, you take the player out. Why should being a catcher involve special "stay in the game no matter how poorly they play" perks?
Baseball still has very strange traditions.
Ever try to catch up on a show like that, based on the last half of the season finale? Makes an ordinarily confusing show a complete riddle. I then read the entire episode guide on Wikipedia (great source of information), and basically now understand two seasons worth of the show after just one day. Not a bad way to save time!
I guess you have to really like unanswered questions in your TV shows in order to like Lost. It almost seems inevitable that there will be things that don't make sense, don't fit, or are still left unanswered by the time the series is done. I don't relish the task of the writers, having to keep track of all of this as they figure out what comes next, trying to prevent any errors in the script.
I will admit, it was intriguing enough that I will likely Tivo it next season.
"His Washington Nationals had just beaten the Houston Astros 8-5, had just won three games in a row for just the second time all year. Yet here was Frank Robinson, 70 years old, half a century in the game, with tears welling in the corners of his eyes and rolling down his cheeks. His right hand obscured part of his face. He all but chewed on his pinkie. As he pushed each phrase through his lips, he sighed deeply, all because he asked a grown man to perform a task he is ill equipped to perform."
And of course old Frank is getting mad credit for convincing the umps yesterday to call a run-scoring balk on Oswalt who stopped during his move to the mound and stepped off the rubber. The resposible umpire admits he missed it (it's obvious on replay) and Frank convinced him to check with his colleagues which he did, bringing the game-tying run home.
No firing of Robinson this year, that's for sure (which I agree with, given the circumstances) (the circumstances being a team that is not going to the playoffs no matter what you do and that is about to undergo so some significant roster overhaul).
Laroche had clutch hits in both games,is just real solid,consistent player.
I was impressed with Chin Lung Hu .He's a wizard at short with big range.He hits the ball pretty hard also.Tony Abreau hasn't looked real special in these games.
Justin Ruggiano and Anthony Raglani both made nice diving catches with some clutch hits,but don't seem to leap out at you as future major leaguers.
Matt Kemp looked bad on a couple breaking pitches in the dirt,but got some timely hits,and showed good outfield range.My son got his autograph after the game and he is a very charismatic guy
Casey Hoorelbeck has an interesting delivery and was effective tuesday night.Carlos Alvarez was a gas can tonight(4 straight hits)
Mark Alexander has a closer's mindset.He came in ,bases loaded ,one out and got a dp ball in the eighth and closed it out in the ninth.He turned it up a notch on the last hitter,flamed him with three fastballs.He looks like a keeper.
The catcher Brad Cresse was impressive.He drove in 7 tuesday(obviously an aberration) but hes a big hard throwing catcher who gets good swings.
Just my humble opinion is all.
I hate Frank Robinson because he is a grouchy man who thinks he is God's gift to baseball and everyone else in the game is beneath him. And if you keep saying that no one likes and no one respects you eventually that becomes reality.
He keeps getting managerial jobs despite having very little managerial acumen.
For the same reason Miltie gets all the credit for hating Kent and his line drives.
When I read the story, my next thought was Jim Tracy. I thought about all the times teams ran wild on Jason Phillips.
Those 1966 Orioles made a 10-month old boy cry.
Nothing else did. I was a model child.
They made an 8 year old boy cry. Every game, I was a little to competitive for my own good as a child.
I think Santana was just a temporary replacement for Dunlap who is on the DL for being too fat (or something). But with the way Santana keeps hitting, I dont see how they can send him back to extended ST.
I think Santana has better contact skills then Pedroza. I do think Pedroza should be promoted but I still dont think too highly of him.
http://tinyurl.com/mg5qh
Stephen King, SS Winter Park HS, Florida
It's Eva's brother. Met him a few times on campus....
Round Rock's infield was playing good defense. A leaping catch by the second baseman stole a hit and another great diving catch was turned into a DP.
We had a sleepy 10 month old and 3 year old with us so we had to leave after five. I was disappointed to miss the comback, to not see Guzman on the field and in the teams overall performance.
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