Game Recaps (5/4/08)
Oklahoma 4 (TEX + 9), Tacoma 10
The real slugfest was in Lake Elsinore today, but with both teams reaching double digits in hits, this one could’ve been a lot worse. RHP Sean White (5.17, PO, W) gave up all ten of those hits and the four runs (three earned) while striking out three in five innings. The rest of the way was considerably calmer, as LHP Phillip Barzilla (6.28) walked one and struck out one over two frames and LHP Eric O’Flaherty (5.63) was perfect through the final two, ringing up three in the process.
Everyone in the lineup reached safely, though not all the Rainiers batters had a hit. 1B Bryan LaHair (3B, HR, 2 R, 2 RBI, .305) and LF Charlton Jimerson (2B, 2 R, SB, .277) both had three hits in the game, and 2B Tug Hulett (2B, HR, 3 RBI, .157), 3B Matt Tuiasosopo (2B, R, RBI, .255), RF Shawn Garrett (2B, R, 2 RBI, .182), and SS Oswaldo Navarro (R, E, .281) all had two hits, with Tui drawing a walk. C Rob Johnson (R, RBI, .244) added a single and a walk.
High Desert 11, Lake Elsinore 13 (SD + 3)
This game got out of hand after a while, but RHP Kyle Parker (3.15) was not to blame, as he got through five and a third innings allowing just two runs on eight hits, a walk, and three Ks. LHP David Asher (6.39), on the other hand, gave up three runs on three hits and a hit batter while he wrapped up the sixth, and that wasn’t even the worst performance of the night. RHP Juan Zapata (7.50) had two runs score against him on a hit and two walks in the seventh, and opening the eighth, RHP Joe Kantakevich (26.04) would give up five hits without recording an out, culminating with a grand slam. LHP Jose Escalona (3.97) gave up another run on three hits and a K in the eighth. Not quite a drop in the bucket at the point, as the Mavs still had a chance, but their overall efforts on offense would go to waste.
There is some good news coming out of this game, however, and that’s SS Carlos Triunfel (3 2B, 2 R, RBI, .234) going 4-for-5 with three doubles. It’s probably safe to say his average will be over .200 for good now after a rough first month. LF Kuo-hui Lo (HR, 2 RBI, .219), RF Carlos Peguero (2 R, RBI, .289), DH Johan Limonta (2B, HR, 2 R, 2 RBI, .319), and CF Greg Halman (RBI, .264) all had two hits in the game, with Limonta adding a pair of walks, and 2B Chris Minaker (R, RBI, .301) had a single and drew a free pass.
Wisconsin 2, Great Lakes 4 (LA - 3)
In today’s game, RHP Juan Ramirez (4.18, L) suffered from a problem all too familiar to Mariners fans watching their starting pitchers: one inning too many. His line through six innings: five hits, two runs, one walk, nine Ks. In the next third of an inning, he would add two more hits and two more runs. RHP Jake Wild (4.00) would let one of those score, as he uncharacteristically lived up to his name, walking one and throwing two wild pitched in two-thirds of an inning of work. RHP Bryan Harris (2.00) struck out one in the ninth.
DH Joe Dunigan (2 2B, R, RBI, .213) had his first big day of the season, maybe of his career, as he went 4-for-4 with two doubles. LF Gavin Dickey (2B, .387), in his first game since April 21st, had a double, and 2B Edilio Colina (RBI, .318) and CF Maximo Mendez (2B, .118) both had a hit and a walk.
Tomorrow’s Starters:
Tacoma: LHP Ryan Feierabend, in Tacoma, @ 11:30 am PDT
West Tenn: RHP Doug Fister, in Jackson, @ 5:05 pm PDT
High Desert: Off day
Wisconsin: LHP Edward Paredes, at Midland, @ 4:05 pm PDT
Tacoma Rainiers: 15-14, .517 9 GB in PCL Pacific North
West Tenn Diamond Jaxx: 20-10, .667, 1st in SL North
High Desert Mavericks: 15-16, .484, 2 GB in CAL South
Wisconsin Timber Rattlers: 10-16, .385 10 GB in MWL Western
Organizational Record: 60-56, .517
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11 Responses to “Game Recaps (5/4/08)”
May 5th, 2008 at 6:40 am
It bloody figures. I’m heading out later today for Memphis and I’m planning heading up to Jackson to catch the D-Jaxx in action. I was really hoping to see Doogie Fister spin some more magic, but it looks like I’ll get there one day too late…
I’ll be at the game on Tuesday and maybe again on Wednesday (possibly even again on Thursday). I’ll be taking a ton of pictures and I’ll give you all a link to the shots here.
Jay, that Pacific Prospect Report site looks great, but I can’t view any of the vids. I wonder how they got around the MLB restriction on displaying vids on the net? I had three up on YouTube two years ago and got a stern warning to remove them (YouTube removed them for me. Nice fella’s, eh?).
It was great to see Triunfel have a breakout game. He has been hitting better and better and I think that it won’t be long before he starts going yard.
Lonnie
May 5th, 2008 at 8:30 am
It seems T-Rats ballpark hates Joesph Dunigan more than the D-Jaxx ballpark hates Adam Moore.
Looking at both of their road stats makes me think something is going on.
Valbuena - who saw that coming?
May 5th, 2008 at 9:38 am
Good stuff, Lonnie. I guess you’ll be able to check out Dorman then, and maybe Justin Thomas/Marwin Vega doing their piggyback start thing.
The PPR blog seems to use Quicktime, and I have that downloaded, so while I’m running XP it works just fine. I don’t know if he necessarily got around the restriction so much as he doesn’t know about it. Hell, I didn’t until you brought it up.
West Tenn is a slight pitchers park, STG, so it makes a bit of sense that Moore would have a little more trouble there, but relative to the league, the T-Rats park is actually supposed to favor hitters. The league overall is another story, but I have been… not surprised so much as slightly disappointed by Dunigan’s lack of returns so far.
Valbuena was running OPS around .770 in his tour of Everett and the next half of a season up in Wisconsin, but this is the first time I think we’ve really seen him put it together. I’ve liked him because he’s a lefty and appears to have much better plate discipline than what we’re accustomed to seeing out of VSL graduates, but this is one of those rare times when everything seems to be coming together for him. His discipline is better than it’s ever been, hits are falling in for him, and he’s getting those doubles and home runs again. I’m not going to suggest that he take over Lopez’ spot or anything, but I think he should be in consideration for utility infielder at least, maybe as soon as next year if he can keep the pace up.
May 5th, 2008 at 9:43 am
I don’t believe that anyone (in all honesty) can say that they saw Valbuena having a breakout year. Looking at his stats in prior years though, when he broke in with Everett (2005) he had a pretty decent stick. 2006 he started the year in Wisconsin and was promoted to Inland Empire late in the year. He maintained a respectable BA with Wisconsin (.286), but dropped a bit when he made the move to IE (.252). 2007 he was with West Tenn and struggled a bit batting just .239. He may have been better served staying in High-A a bit longer (he played in just 43 games with IE).
In a manner of speaking, he has progressed fairly decently through the minors culminating with this year where he seems to have AA pitchers figured out. It will be interesting to see if the organization leaves him at West Tenn all year or promotes him at the tail end of the season to Tacoma. Valbuena is just 23 years old.
Lonnie
May 5th, 2008 at 9:52 am
Plan on seeing sequences of pictures of batters swings and of pitchers deliveries when I get done in Jackson. Should be interesting.
Lonnie
May 5th, 2008 at 9:54 am
Valbuena’s 22.
STG: I don’t think Dunigan’s issues are with his home park. He hit like crap at home and on the road alike until this past week. He’s raised his OPS 270 points in the last 4 games, which pretty accurately shows you why it’s too early to read anything into splits.
May 5th, 2008 at 10:09 am
Thanks for the clarification.
Is Gavin Dickey Mr. Glass? And is there a different development path for two sport college players who go the baseball route?
May 5th, 2008 at 10:39 am
Any idea what’s wrong with Kantakevich? After good seasons with Everett and Wisconsin the last couple years, the results he’s been getting are way beyond “struggling to adjust to a new level,” and seem to suggest either “something way wrong with mechanics,” or “trying to pitch through an injury.” Any insights?
May 5th, 2008 at 11:34 am
Here’s one I’ll throw out to you all. I read over at Lookout Landing that the M’s may dump High Desert next year and move elsewhere. Is there any truth to that?
May 5th, 2008 at 11:57 am
No team wants to play their home games in High Desert, . The Ms as an organization prefer to put their affiliates in tough hitting environments and High Desert was literally their only choice for a High-A affiliate after Inland Empire jumped over to the Dodgers.
If they can switch affiliates, they almost certainly will.
May 5th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
I leave you guys alone for a few hours and what do I get?… This post is going to be flagged by the spam bots a couple months down the line, I swear…
Dickey: There are different development allowances that one makes for two-sport athletes who are dealing with baseball full-time for the first time. Look at Tui, or Mike Wilson. I’m not putting Dickey in the same group, he was much farther down the draft board, but there seems to be an adjustment period of at least two and usually as many as three or four years before they start to catch up (kind of similar to summer league players, now that I think about it). As to his health problems, I really don’t know, but I did read that he was pulled from one game after legging out an infield single, so I’m thinking it’s an issue having to do with that. Medical info is hard to come by, and teams aren’t supposed to report on it, but if someone’s hit by a pitch, like Carroll for example, no sense in not reporting it, everyone knows what’s up.
Kantakevich is in a group with Woerman and Roman Martinez (and Harmon in terms of performance, but…) where they’re guys with histories of success who are really struggling quite badly right now with no clear explanation that I’ve heard. I’m guessing injuries, but going back to what I said with Dickey, it’s really hard to figure out exactly what’s going on when the best information you can get is generally whether or not someone is on the DL. We know Stephen Richard is hurt, we know Nolan Gallagher is hurt, but until we see that much out of the rest, the most we can do is piece together what we can from listening to games, and that’s not something I’ve had the ability to do very often. I’ll see if I can dig anything else up.
And Jonathan’s right, no one particularly wants to be in High Desert, but in some respects, it was as much High Desert being left with the M’s as the M’s being left with High Desert. The D’Backs snatched up Visalia, the only other reasonable park on the market, pretty quickly and Lancaster got a decent gig with Boston coming to town.
The M’s haven’t exactly been a model parent club for years. There have been rumblings of a situation opening up similar to what Inland Empire had when Milwaukee’s contract expires with West Virginia and they start looking to the Midwest League for a closer affiliate. The M’s may be forced out of their longtime relationship with the Timber Rattlers. If the Cal League doesn’t play out in a way that they like, there’s also been talk of them moving their advanced-A affiliate out to Carolina, or more likely, Florida. The High Desert thing was never intended to be a long-term relationship.
Otherwise, it’s up to the discretion of the ownership. The Rainiers and the Aquasox dance with the M’s because the local angle makes them ideal partners. The other affiliates, not so much, so we may be entering a period where our other affiliates switch around every two years, barring changes up top.
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