Minors Stuff

Herd:



SP Dillon Gee had surgery to repair a torn labrium... he's out for the season.



B-Mets:


Tuesday, July 7 at Portland 7:00 pm RHP Brad Holt (0-2, 9.90) vs. RHP Junichi Tazawa (7-5, 2.85)

Wednesday, July 8 at Portland 7:00 pm LHP Mike Antonini (5-3, 5.82) vs. TBA

Thursday, July 9 at Portland 7:00 pm RHP Dylan Owen (1-5, 5.48) vs. LHP Felix Doubront (5-2, 3.71)

Friday, July 10 at New Britain 7:05 pm LHP Eric Niesen (0-4, 6.35) vs. TBA

At least half of the Binghamton Mets players stayed in the dugout after the final out of Saturday night's game. Instead of making a quick retreat back to the clubhouse, they stayed to watch the fireworks show that entertained the 5,000-plus fans who watched the 4-0 victory at NYSEG Stadium."We were talking about it while watching the fireworks," catcher Mike Nickeas said. "I was talking to Stewie (Caleb Stewart), and I said this is the most fun I've had, or we've had, as a team playing the game. We felt like a team tonight."In case you missed it, the B-Mets held a players' only meeting before last night's game. The talk at the meeting was of taking responsibility for their play and their attitude, of picking each other up and having fun.For one night, it worked, as the B-Mets won, 4-0. "We played the game today like we're a bunch of 12-year-olds, and it felt awesome," Nickeas said.Nickeas was one of the players to call the meeting, along with veteran teammates Stewart and Shawn Bowman."We got to talk about our attitude and how we need to come every day and have the right attitude and be positive and be a better team," Ike Davis said. "We have to focus on the positive," Nickeas said. "In this game, it's so easy to get down on yourself and to have negative thoughts all the time because we fail so often. The meeting was about being positive and having fun playing this game."


http://www.pressconnects.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=PluckPersona&U=f37835fbe0f5406eb8d0c1d1c6de3d8f&plckController=PersonaBlog&plckScript=personaScript&plckElementId=personaDest&plckPersonaPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3af37835fbe0f5406eb8d0c1d1c6de3d8fPost%3ad970df82-5779-47da-9b6d-91475d784204&sid=sitelife.pressconnects.com


Gnats:


A two-out, two-RBI single from Raul Reyes in the top of the sixth inning gave the Savannah Sand Gnats the, 4-2, win over the hometown Greenville Drive Sunday night at Fluor Field. Chris Schwinden (5-4) worked six innings for his fifth win while Rhiner Cruz earned his 14th save of the season. His 14 saves tie him for the active league lead with Steve Smith of Lake County.


Kai Gronauer singled with one down in the sixth and Evan LeBlanc followed with a walk to put two on with one out for Savannah. Jefry Marte grounded out but it was a productive out as both Gronauer and LeBlanc moved up 90 feet in preparation for the Reyes two-out single. Reyes would finish the game 2-for-4.


Schwinden pitched well for the Sand Gnats as he allowed two runs on eight hits with six strikeouts in his six innings of work. He has now gone at least six innings in four of his last five starts. Manny Olivares permitted one hit in two innings of work to bridge the gap between Schwinden and the closer Cruz.


Stefan Welch hit the ball hard all night for Savannah and it paid off as he ended up a home run shy of the cycle, going 3-for-4. Sean Ratliff recorded his 25th multi-hit game of the year by going 2-for-4 with a run scored. All told, four Sand Gnats finished the night with multi-hit games.


With the win, the Sand Gnats (6-5, 41-40) improve to 5-1 over Greenville at its home park in 2009 and are 7-3 overall versus the Drive. They are one of only two teams to have a winning record against the first-half champs.


Southpaw Robert Carson (6-5, 2.27), who boasts the third best ERA in the league, takes the mound tomorrow for the Sand Gnats looking to become Savannah’s first seven-game winner in 2009. He will be opposed by RHP Hunter Strickland (5-4, 3.16) of Greenville in the 7:05 p.m. contest.


Clones:


Spending the majority of last season on the shelf following suffering an arm injury, Clones’ reliever Mike Lynn is ready to get back into the swing of things.

As a matter of fact, he’s pretty antsy.

Working hard all offseason, Lynn has put his hard luck rookie campaign behind him and is focused on excelling in ‘09.

“I had surgery in September,” he said. “Some bone spurs and scar tissues in my elbow. It wasn’t a serious surgery, but I did need about six months to rehab it. It feels good to finally be healthy.”

Being used in a seventh inning relief role so far this season, the Louisville-native is happy to have an opportunity to prove himself and has responded marvelously, hurling three scoreless innings in two appearances this season.


http://www.dembrooklynbums.com/2009/07/05/lynn-ready-to-make-waves


Queens:




"Yeah, they've got a lot of guys injured, but you know what? If we were hurt, they're not going to worry about it," said Shane Victorino. "You try to stomp them. You try to win. We know it's not the team that they can be, but we still have to go out and win, and we took three games like we should have."


http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/phillies/20090706_Bob_Ford__A_Mets-induced_mirage__or_money_in_the_Bank_.html

Wright, meanwhile, appears to be aging in dog years. His average has dropped 39 points since June 16, a slide that includes 23 strikeouts in 81 plate appearances. Fanning once every 3.5 at-bats, Wright is on a pace to finish the season with an astounding 168 strikeouts — like some washed-up power hitter who can’t see the ball anymore.


As recently noted on ESPN.com, only three hitters in history have whiffed that often and still hit .300 – Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds and Ryan Howard. But unlike those three, Wright has stopped hitting home runs, which makes his swing-and-miss ratio all the more perplexing.
Ask him how he developed so many holes in his swing, Wright sadly shakes his head; he has no idea. Ask how he can cure the epidemic of strikeouts and the reaction is exactly the same. No clue.


“If I had an answer I probably wouldn’t be striking out that much,” Wright said in an otherwise silent clubhouse. His eyes seemed distant, his words seemed hollow, like he was repeating lines from a teleprompter.


http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/files/newsstand/discussion/klapisch_weary_wright_needs_rest

International:


The 16-year-old German outfielder Max Kepler-Rozycki has agreed on terms with the Minnesota Twins organization. Keith Law of ESPN had the scoop, which was later confirmed by Baseball America on Friday; the second day Major League clubs are allowed to sign International free agents. According to Baseball America the Boston Red Sox, New York Mets and the Cincinnati Reds also showed interest in one of the highly touted European prospects in recent years.


“Kepler is the toolsiest kid we’ve ever had in Europe,” said the scout. “No question.”
Numerous scouts came to Regensburg, Germany to see him play for the reigning champion BUCHBINDER LEGIONAERE this year. An official announcement probably will not come for a few weeks. Due to regulations by Major League Baseball he cannot play professionally this season anyway. Like other young European prospects before him, Kepler-Rozycki likely is going to finish school first and later to join an instructional league.


http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/files/newsstand/discussion/european_top_prospect_max_kepler_rozycki_to_sign_with_minnesota_twins

General:


Mike Rizzo, the acting general manager of the Washington Nationals, said Saturday the team will not conduct a firesale at the trade deadline