Friday May 8th, 2009 Minor League Updates

[texasdave]

AAA - Louisville hosts Scranton/Wilkes-Barres at 7:05 ET. Louisville leads the INT-West, while Scranton/WB is on cruise control in the INT-North. S/WB has a record of 22-5. This should be an excellent test for Homer Bailey who is making his 6th start of the young season. Scranton/WB has a sick team batting line of .310/.384/.474/.858. Scranton/WB is plating a little over 7 runners per contest. Good luck, Homer. Offensively the Riverbats get a reprieve as Eric Hacker drags his 7.50 ERA to the mound for the SWB Yankees.

[texasdave]

AA-The Carolina Mudcats take on Mobile this evening at 7:15 ET. Jordan Smith attempts to slow down the BayBears. Smith is sporting a 4.24 ERA after three starts. In 17IP he has issued just three free passes. He has, however, whiffed just seven batters in these same 17 innings. The Mudcats face Barry Enright. To be honest I neither know nor care a single thing about Enright, but his stats seem pretty solid in 2009.

Know a Mascot: This link sends you straight to Muddy the Mudcat's Bio. Anyone besides me feel a little inadequate knowing that Muddy has a Bio and you don't?
http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/f...=.jsp&sid=t249

You are looking at 180 pounds of prime Mudcat there.

[texasdave]

High (Adv) A - Talk about a roadie, Sarasota travels all the way to Jupiter on Friday to take on the Hammerheads at 7:05 ET. If listening on radio expect about a month and a half delay. And if those nasty solar winds flare up, fugedaboudit. Jeremy Horst will be making his sixth start. He has given up 2 ER or less in all of his previous starts. He is sporting an impressive 1.98 ERA, although he may be outpitching his peripherals at this point in time. The Hammerheads counter with Alejandro Sanabia and his 2.03 ERA. Runs very well may be at a premium.

The Physics of Baseball on Jupiter: The dense atmosphere and heavy gravitational pull on Jupiter makes for an interesting game. A baseball will feel like it weighs about 47 pounds on Jupiter and high heat clocks in at about 12 MPH. This is good because swinging a bat in the dense atmosphere is akin to swinging in a vat of jello. The mound is just 9 feet from home plate and the bases are 14 feet apart. Down both lines it is a mammoth 67 feet and dead center is well over 102 feet away. A fence-clearing blast to dead center stays in the air about 4 minutes in which time the center fielder can run back about 38 feet. The gravitional pull makes jumping impossible, unless you are either Eric Davis or Jim Coombs. A video of Willy Taveras stealing second looks hauntingly similar to a video of Sean Casey stealing second base on Earth.

[texasdave]

Low A - The worst team in the Eastern Division of the Midwest League (Dayton) is at home against the best team in the Western Division of the Midwest League (Kane County). The probables aren't listed, but I'm betting each team has one. First pitch is at 7:00 ET.

[OesterPoster]

Weather radar does not look good right now for Louisville-Cinci-Dayton, but it appears to be a pretty fast moving front.

[thorn]

Originally Posted by texasdave

The Physics of Baseball on Jupiter: The dense atmosphere and heavy gravitational pull on Jupiter makes for an interesting game. A baseball will feel like it weighs about 47 pounds on Jupiter and high heat clocks in at about 12 MPH. This is good because swinging a bat in the dense atmosphere is akin to swinging in a vat of jello. The mound is just 9 feet from home plate and the bases are 14 feet apart. Down both lines it is a mammoth 67 feet and dead center is well over 102 feet away. A fence-clearing blast to dead center stays in the air about 4 minutes in which time the center fielder can run back about 38 feet. The gravitional pull makes jumping impossible, unless you are either Eric Davis or Jim Coombs. A video of Willy Taveras stealing second looks hauntingly similar to a video of Sean Casey stealing second base on Earth.

Excellent stuff Texasdave

[GOYA]

Originally Posted by OesterPoster

Weather radar does not look good right now for Louisville-Cinci-Dayton, but it appears to be a pretty fast moving front.

Yes, I've been watching the radar because I have tickets for tonight. It looks like it should be clear for the start time in Louisville. If not, just a small delay. I hope Homer gives Miley's club a good spankin'.

[OnBaseMachine]

GOING, GOING, GOMES: OF Jonny Gomes (Louisville) last night vs Rochester homered for the 3rd consecutive game...he’s currently riding a 5-game hitting streak (6-19, .316)...with 6 HR is tied with IF/OF Wes Bankston for the team lead.

HEISMAN TROPHY: CF Chris Heisey (HI-zee) last night vs Mobile collected a season-high 4 hits to lift his batting average to a whopping .378...he ranks among Southern League leaders in batting average (1st), slugging (1st, .653), extra-base hits (T1st, 16), hits (2nd, 37), on-base pct. (2nd, .479) and doubles (T3rd, 10)...he’s reached base safely in every one of his 27 games this season and is currently in the midst of a 7-game hitting streak (13-27, .481, 4rbi).

ZACH-TASTIC! RHP Zach Stewart last night at Jupiter pitched a complete-game 5-hitter, allowing just 1 run and 1 walk with 6 strikeouts...4 of the 5 hits he allowed came in the 1st inning...he retired 25 of his final 26 batters...last night’s outing came on the heels of a sterling 8.0 inning performance Saturday vs St. Lucie (8h, 2r, 1bb, 4k)...for the season, the 22 year-old is 1-1 with a 2.27 ERA in 6 starts (35.2ip, 29k).

DRAGONS OF THE MONTH CLUB: OF David Sappelt (.300, 2hr, 7rbi, 8sb) and LHP Matt Fairel (1-1, 2.61era, 4gs) yesterday were named Dayton’s Hitter and Pitcher of the Month for April.

http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs...cincinnati.com

[OnBaseMachine]

Homer's not quite ready for the majors yet. Three walks in the first inning tonight. I like the progress he's made tonight's a reason why I think he needs to spend the bulk of the year in the minors.

[OnBaseMachine]

Chris Heisey led off with a ... double. He's a doubles machine.

[dougdirt]

Chris Heisey.... still good. A single in his next at bat.

[OnBaseMachine]

Heisey then stole second base. He's 8-for-9 in the SB department.

[Grande Donkey]

What is Heisey's BABIP?

[11larkin11]

Stubbs and Sutton are red hot right now. Don't look now, but Stubbsy is up over .290

[OnBaseMachine]

Alonso is 1-for-2 to extend his hitting streak to 12 games.