The Herd:
Easily the most unusual story on the Buffalo Bisons this season has been "rookie" pitcher Ken Takahashi. Seriously now, how many first-timers to American baseball turn 40 years old during their opening season?
Takahashi, a veteran of 14 years of Japanese baseball, had an 0.95 earned-run average for the Herd in nine relief appearances. Tuesday in Coca-Cola Field, he threw six shutout innings in his first kick at the starting rotation.
Takahashi didn't get rewarded with a win as the bumbling Bisons disintegrated late in a 5-1, 11-inning loss to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees before 7,326. But manager Ken Oberkfell was duly impressed and said the left-hander will get rewarded with another start.
It was a very bad weekend for the Scranton/Wilkes Barre Yankees. Despite the same perfect weather we had up here in Binghamton, the Yankees had two games called due to poor field conditions at PNC Field. A few years ago, when the field was changed from artificial turf to natural grass, the drainage system wasn't changed at all. And now, the team's paying the price.The situation is so bad that there's talk of moving Yankees home games if need be. Chad Jennings wrote about it in today's edition of the Scranton Times-Tribune, including comments from International League president Randy Mobley. Here's the money section:"If the Yankees have to play home games at other venues, those alternative sites would not have to be in the International League. Syracuse and Lehigh Valley have Triple-A stadiums within driving distance, but the Yankees' Double-A affiliate is also fairly close in Trenton, N.J., and Mr. Mobley said that venue would not be out of the question. The Double-A stadium in Binghamton could also be a possibility."I asked B-Mets general manager Scotty Brown about this on Sunday afternoon, and he said he hadn't, at that time, been contacted by anybody with Scranton or the International League about potentially using NYSEG Stadium for the Yankees.
Lucy:
A perfect night by Louis Ott helped the Jupiter Hammerheads breeze to an 8-3 win over the St. Lucie Mets in a Florida State League game at Tradition Field on Tuesday night.
Ott went 5-for-5 and drove in three runs for the Hammerheads (5-8), who led 6-0 after five innings.
Jose Rosario (6-2) allowed four hits and struck out four over six innings.
The Mets scored two runs in the sixth inning on an RBI double by Angel Pagan and a sacrifice fly by Kirk Nieuwenhuis.
St. Lucie is 3-7.
SEEING STARS: The Gnats received a lot of help from the Drive defense. Greenville committed three errors that led to Savannah scoring all of its runs unearned. The Gnats opened the scoring in the sixth after left fielder Pete Hissey had a flyball from Josh Satin glance off his glove. The miscue allowed Jefry Marte to score. In the eighth, third baseman Will Middlebrooks misplayed what would have been an inning-ending ball hit by Eric Campbell. The Gnats capitalized with a two-run single by Kai Gronauer and an RBI-double by Raul Reyes to pad their lead and hold on for the win.
DECISION MAKING: Savannah's Eric Beaulac worked five innings and struck out nine on his way to picking up his fifth win of the season. He gave up seven hits and two walks but none came around to score. Over his last 11 innings, Beaulac has recorded 18 strikeouts. Greenville's Mike Lee suffered the loss as he saw his defense commit three errors to allow five unearned runs. Starter Nick Hagadone had no decision after pitching three scoreless innings with five strikeouts.
http://www.savannahnow.com/node/749344
K-Port:
As the Appalachian League season approaches the quarter mark, one thing can be said about the 2009 incarnation of the Kingsport Mets.
When you watch them play, you’ll get your money’s worth.
With Tuesday night’s game against the Greeneville Astros lasting 3 hours, 45 minutes, the K-Mets have logged six home contests lasting at least three hours.
That’s a lot of baseball, time-wise, per inning.
It just hasn’t resulted in much success in the win column.
Kingsport dropped its eighth straight home game Tuesday, falling 13-11 to the Astros.
The MetsNew York Mets are a dreadful baseball team right now, and that is a statement you can arrive at without qualifiers. Forget the injuries. Forget the talent disparities. Forget all the safe, easy reasons you can list why the team is in free-fall right now, because they don't matter. The Mets can't hit but they also can't field, also can't pitch, also can't run the bases. It is a disgrace what they have become.
And meanwhile, Nero fiddles while Rome burns.
Or, more relevant, the Wilpons fiddle around while Citi Field turns into a madhouse.
Omar Minaya keeps saying that the worst move GMs can make is to overpay or over-reach when in positions of weakness. He may be right about that. He talks about how the Mets need to plug more than one leak, that there are no magic bullets available. And he is definitely right about that.
But here is the overwhelming undercurrent of this season right now: the Mets need to do something. They don't have the talent to pull off a mega-deal? Fine. But they have the cash to overrule that and to make some kind of big-boy, big-market transaction to take a bloated contract off someone's hands -- or should, assuming the windfall they reap each day from opening the gates at Citi isn't swallowed whole by whatever mess Bernie Madoff left the owners in.
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