Cheers.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Club 27
Cheers.
Clip Joint Is Ace-tastic
At the dish, Nick Johnson has found new life. After dipping down to .185, he homered yesterday and followed up with another long ball and a double today. Add in a walk and Johnson (.214) scored three times. Tim Fedroff and Cord Phelps also had two hits apiece in the Clippers 6-3 victory. Beau Mills went 0-for-4 with a K in his AAA debut.
Zach McAllister takes the pill in game 2 against the Iron Pigs, tomorrow at 6:35p.
Other Minor Points of Interest --
Rob Bryson, the last piece of the CC Sabathia deal, continues to impress as he climbs the ladder. Returning from yet another injury (ankle in the spring), Bryson has recently been moved up to AA Akron. Tonight, in his second outing, he fanned 3 of the 4 he faced. On the season, Rob (0-1, 1.33 overall) has a gaudy 12.4 K/9 average. If the guy can stay healhty, he can function as either a nice trade piece or an MLB option in 2012.
21-year old outfielder Abner Abreu, ranked as a top-10 organizational prospect in 2009 following an .839 OPS season at Low-A, might have finally figured out how to hit Carolina League pitching. Over his last 10, Abreu (.244) has 4 multi-hit games, 4 round trippers and 12 RBI. Tonight, he homered, tripled and singled twice, as he drove home 5. On the season he has 11 home runs and is 19/22 stealing bases, although he has fanned 225 times in 725 High-A AB's over the past two seasons.
The Mahoning Valley Scrappers beat the tar out of former St Ed's stud Stetson Allie, en route to a 10-3 win. Allie faced 13 hitters and put 8 of them on base. Of the 3 hits, 2 walks and 3 hit batsmen, four came around to score, as Stetson (5.95) chalked his first professional decision up as a loss.
Cheers.
Friday, July 22, 2011
A Quest Called Tribe
Oddly, I am not talking about Jason Kipnis, who, despite going hitless in his major league debut, showed me enough to make me believe he belongs here. It began with a stellar defensive play up the middle during which he made a throw falling away from first that got to Matt LaPorta on one hop just in time. I had heard that the limiting factor to his promotion was his defense. Now, I have seen the kid make some errors down in Columbus, but he looked like a wizard tonight. The most important piece is not the range (which is nice) or the arm (that we all knew was there), but rather the instincts and decision making that he displayed on the biggest stage of his life. Better than his D was the ball he took off of his knee in the 8th inning. With the Tribe in desperate need of baserunners against a pitcher (Gavin Floyd) who had dominated them all night, Kip moved not an inch as the ball came at him. He took one for the team. As the smattering of White Sox fans at the Prog threw their hands up in indignation, he trotted to first while holding back a sly grin. This is an old school baseball play. In an age where pitchers are not supposed to throw inside and batters are expected to dive out of the way, Kipnis disregarded the status quo... in his first major league game. I applaud him for it.
So, if I am not railing against Kipnis, then who? Although Lonnie Chisenhall can look over-matched at times, when he locks in, the ball rockets off of the bat. He also fields the hot corner well, even if his throwing could use some work. More than the youth, I am disgusted with the retread crap. I might actually have to hire a marksman to take out Austin Kearns... and Chad Durbin... and Matt LaPorta. A AAA roster is made up of four types of players: young talent (we have already covered that), former big leaguers struggling to hang on (Kearns, Durbin, Orlando Cabrera), failed prospects (big red light goes off over LaPorta and Fausto Carmona) and the irrelevant group of career minor leaguers. How many players on the Indians 25-man are unequivocally big league players? I will give you Rafael Perez, Asdrubal Cabrera, Travis Hafner, Joe Smith and, I guess, Chris Perez. Outside of those five guys (three of them in the bullpen), the Tribe could very easily be an International League franchise.
That is enough. I hate losing.
Fun Fact: Adam Dunn is 2-for-65 (.030) against left-handed pitching this season.
Here's to getting some men on base against Edwin Jackson tomorrow (1.43 WHIP).
Cheers.
What I Learned Today
"I think it is becoming plainly obvious to pretty much everyone that terrestrial radio is an outdated medium for delivering music. Between mobile phones, iPods, satellite radio and services like Spotify, Pandora, Slacker, you just don’t need it much anymore. This isn’t even to mention the new cloud services that Google, Apple and Amazon have out now." (WFNY)
The five man rotation is the Dodgers' fault. It does not keep pitchers healthier. And it sucks.
We know that Grady Sizemore is out 4-6 weeks after sports hernia surgery. But, what is a sports hernia? For a well articulated explanation, go here. Otherwise, just understand that Grady has endured a tremendous amount of pain in the abdomen/groin region, including the... testicles. Ouch.
Cheers.
Pretty Girl Update! - Kate Upton
Kate Upton Perfectly Timed Slow Motion - Watch more Funny Videos
Thank god for the man who invented super slo-mo.
Clip Joint's Got New Talent
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| Beau Mills |
The Clips dropped their second straight to Scranton yesterday, 6-5. Jason Donald (.336) stroked three more hits and is batting .528 since July 7th. Nick Johnson (.194) launched a pinch-solo home run in the 9th. I actually saw that one and it was no cheapie. A mammoth shot on a 3-2 pitch, the ball bounced high off of the scoreboard in right center and almost left the park altogether. Chen Lee relieved an ineffective Justin Germano (6 IP, 12 H, 5 ER, 2 K) in the 7th and, although he allowed an unearned run, maintained his perfect AAA ERA. In nine appearances Chen has won twice and has struck out far more (21) than he has put on base (8 H, 4 BB) in 14.1 innings. There has been some chatter that Lee is the type of trade chip that could help to bring the Indians that bat they need so desperately for the pennant race. Do it.
The Clippers begin a four game set with Lehigh Valley at 7:05p tonight with Jeanmar Gomez (9-3, 2.40) on the mound.
Other Minor Points of Interest --
Fireballing RHP Felix Sterling (2-3, 4.10) has been promoted from the Arizona League to Low-A Lake County. Go check him out, he is fun to watch.
Catching prospect Chun Chen cracked 2 hits, including a double, and drove home a pair in Akron's 8-4 win last night. I have recently heard Chen (.283, 9 HR, 47 RBI) compared to former Indians farm hand Max Ramirez. That is good news for the club (he can bring back a haul in a trade), bad news for Chun (he will be released about 17 times).
Catcher Jake Lowey, the Tribe's 2011 4th round pick, drove in six runs yesterday in Mahoning Valley's 17-4 win. The 2011 Johnny Bench award winner as the nation's top collegiate catcher, Lowery (.274) singled twice, doubled and walked. He has 25 RBI and an .862 OPS in 29 professional games.
Luigi Rodriguez continues his blazing start for the AZL Indians. L-Rod (.406) finished a homer short of the cycle yesterday, stole his 10th base and drove home his 11th run. Remember the name.
Cheers.
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