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Monday, April 30, 2007

Rolie Polie Ohlie

Injuries/News:

Tim Norton was placed on the Charleston disabled list over the weekend. There’s no concrete word as to why, but I’ll see what I can dig up...Marcos Vechionacci is still out.

AAA:

Ross Ohlendorf, who has a wonderful name, took the loss for Scranton. The big right-hander’s final line was 5.2-6-4-4-2-5-2 and his ERA is now up to 4.91. If Ohlendorf wasn’t looked at as the centerpiece of the Randy Johnson trade, I would place him right next to Steven Jackson in the soon to be demoted category. For now, he’s going to get lots of time to right the ship. Unfortunately for him, he is digging quite the hole, especially in regards to his peripherals.

Eric Duncan was 1 for 4 with a single, 2 strikeouts, and a caught stealing. I’m going to attempt to not get too caught up in what goes on for Duncan day-to-day as he tends to be streaky. Alberto Gonzalez was 2 for 4 with 2 singles, a strikeout, and his 5th error of the season. Gonzalez fell into a rut for a bit there, so hopefully he’s going to warm up now.

AA:

Scheduled day off.

A+:

Jose Tabata did not play and given his removal from the game the day prior, I’m going to assume he’s hurt. We’ll see. Reegie Corona, Francisco Cervelli, and Colin Curtis all had positive offensive nights for Tampa. Corona was 1 for 3 with a single and a walk. His OBP is now up to .364. Curtis is really locked in and went 2 for 4 with a single, a double, and a strikeout. Curtis has 2 strikeouts in his last 18 ABs and has had a very impressive start to his 2007 campaign.  Francisco was 2 for 3 with a single, a double, and a walk. Partly due to lack of competition and partly due to merit, Cervelli is putting a stranglehold on the title of best C prospect in the organization.

A-:

Charleston’s offensive prospects had good nights on Monday, for the most part. Mitch Hilligoss was 2 for 4 with 2 singles, a walk, and a strikeout. He is now up to .284 thanks to his 12-game hit streak. Austin Jackson had a game where he did not strike out, which is always a welcome surprise, as he went 1 for 4 with a single and a walk. Seth Fortenberry continued to heat up as he went 2 for 4 with a double, a home run, a walk, a strikeout, and 2 stolen bases. Seth is known as a toolsy OF and he showed them all on this night.

On the negative side of things, Jose Gil had one of his worst nights of his career. The C went 0 for 4 with 4 strikeouts. After a brief hot streak, Gil has gone into a huge slump and is now 0 for his last 11 and 1 for his last 18. Wilmer Pino had a better night, but is still not where he needs to be. The 2B was 1 for 4 with a single and a stolen base.

Spotlight On:

Tyler Clippard taking the mound for Scranton. And, oh yeah, some Phil Hughes guy takes the mound for the ML team as well.