Columbus dropped a 7-5 home decision to Louisville (box/gamer). 23-year old RHP Tyler Clippard allowed only one hit over 6IP with seven strikeouts. Clippard is now 0-2 in August but has a 2.86 ERA and 1.18 WHIP over four starts in August (22IP) with 22 strikeouts and 10 walks. 29-year old RHP Jim Ed Warden took the loss surrendering five runs on seven hits and one walk in just one inning of work. 24-year old 2B Leonard Davis was 3/3, missing the cycle by a single. Davis had three RBI and scored twice. 29-year old 3B/SS Ed Rogers was 1/4 with a double & RBI.
Record: Columbus 62-65, 3rd place IL West (17GB with 14 games remaining) [eliminated]
Tonight: Columbus versus Louisville (pitchers TBD), 7:05PM
Harrisburg was swept away by Portland with a 3-2 loss on Sunday (box/gamer). 23-year old LHP Justin Jones started for the Senators allowing two runs (one earned) on four hits and one walk over 6IP with 10 strikeouts. 26-year old RHP Josh Perrault pitched two scoreless innings of relief, striking out one. And 24-year old RHP Adam Carr took the loss allowing a run on three hits and a walk in the bottom of the ninth without recording an out. 23-year old 1B Bill Rhinehart was 1/4 with a double; 25-year old DH Garrett Guzman was 1/3 with a double & run scored; and 22-year old SS Ian Desmond was 1/3 with a run scored.
Record: Harrisburg 68-61, 3rd place EL South (7GB with 13 games remaining)
Tonight: No game scheduled
24-year old RHP Erik Arnesen and two relievers combined on a seven-hit 3-0 shutout of Myrtle Beach (box/gamer). Arnesen held the Pelicans to six hits and one walk over 6 2/3IP with four strikeouts. 23-year old RHP Kyle Gunderson and 24-year old RHP Josh Wilkie pitched the final 2 1/3 innings allowing only a walk and a hit with Wilkie picking up his fifth save of the season. 24-year old SS Dan Lyons was 1/3 with a double & two RBI; 20-year old 3B Stephen King was 2/4; 25-year old CF/LF Boomer Whiting was 2/3 with a walk & run scored; and 25-year old 2B Michael Martinez was 1/4 with a walk, stolen base & run scored.
Record: Potomac 30-26, 1st place Carolina North (3 games ahead with 14 games left)
Tonight: LHP Ross Detwiler (6-8, 5.08) at Kinston LHP Kelvin De La Cruz (3-1,4.05), 7:00PM
24-year old RHP Osvaldo Rodriguez made his first start for Hagerstown after dominating the DSL. Unfortunately for Rodriguez, the Suns managed only six hits in a 6-0 loss to Columbus (box/gamer). Rodriguez allowed two runs (one earned) on five hits and one walk over 6IP while striking out seven. 22-year old SS Jose Lozada was 1/4 with a double and 22-year old 2B Blake Stouffer was 2/4.
Record: Hagerstown 21-35, 6th place Sally North (17GB with13 games left) [eliminated]
Tonight: RHP Cole Kimball (5-8, 5.56) at Columbus (pitcher TBD), 7:00PM
Vermont was swept 2-1 by Staten Island headed into the All-Star break (box/gamer). 19-year old RHP P.J. Dean allowed two runs on two hits and four walks over 4IP. He also threw a wild pitch and balked twice. 20-year old LHP Kevin Light threw three scoreless innings of relief, allowing two hits while striking out three. 21-year old SS Danny Espinosa continued his hot start, going 3/3 with a walk, double, stolen base & run scored. He is now 5/6 with a walk in his first two professional games. 23-year old LF Jake Dugger and 19-year old RF Yhonson Lopez had the other two Monster hits, both singles.
Record: Vermont 23-34, 4th place NYP Stedler (9GB with 18 games left)
Tonight: No game scheduled, NY/Penn League All-Star break
The GCL Nationals doubled up the GCL Marlins 6-3 (box). 19-year old LHP Jack McGeary was really good over his seven innings of work allowing a run on only two hits while striking out 10 and not walking a bater. 18-year old SS Smiley Gonzalez was 2/4 with a stolen base & run scored. 21-year old 3B Ronnie Labrie was 2/4 with a stolen base, RBI & two runs scored; he is now hitting 328/415/471 in 35 GCL games. 18-year old DH Adrian Nieto was 2/4 with a double, RBI & run scored; he is 4/7 with three RBI in his first two professional games. 20-year old RF J.R. Higley was 1/3 with one RBI and 22-year old 1B J.P. Padron was 1/3 with a double & two RBI.
Record: GCL Nationals 28-19, 2nd place GCL East (0.5GB with 8 games left)
Tonight: No game scheduled
The DSL Nationals1 and Nationals2 did not play.
Record: DSL Nationals1 50-15, 1st place DSL S.D. West (22 games ahead with 6 games left) [clinched]; DSL Nationals2 26-39, tied for 3rd place DSL S.D. West (24GB with 6 games left) [eliminated]
Today: DSL Nationals1 versus DSL Nationals2, 10:30AM
chuckc | 18-Aug-08 at 7:52 am | Permalink
Brian I agree with your assesment of the nats draft this year, very disappointing to not budget the maximun amount of cash for something as important as this. That being said, Jack McGeary seems to be improving with every start. His groundball to flyball ratio suggests he has a pretty good sinker. What are your thoughts on this and whats the timeline on when he will start to play full time.
Brian Oliver | 18-Aug-08 at 7:55 am | Permalink
chuckc - I think McGeary’s transition to full-time is entirely his decision. If you were to ask the Nationals, I am certain they’d want it to happen one year ago.
My guess is McGeary does the Stanford/Nationals thing one more year before going full-time on baseball starting in 2010. But that’s just a guess.
Chris | 18-Aug-08 at 8:32 am | Permalink
I agree on the McGeary thing. Id like to see Smoker have a good year next year and have McGeary see he needs to be there full time.
Went to the Vermont game yesterday at SI. Dean was not sharp and his command really left him in the 3rd inning. he couldnt control his fastball, everything was up. He was throwing 88-92 on the stadium radar gun and showed a good curveball.
Michael Guerrero is not a CF, although he didnt deserve the error in the 3rd inning. Also, Norris could have been credited with a hit(and RBI) in the 3rd. The official scorer was in a bad mood i think
I was very impressed by Espinoza. He went the other way for a double and ran better than I thought. He made all his putouts look very routine, looked very natural. And he played with a kind of swaggar, like he knew he was the best player on the field. Very impressed overall, glad we went overslot for him
SlowPitch63 | 18-Aug-08 at 8:47 am | Permalink
Brian,
We’re all terribly disappointed in the Nats poor signing record and the revelation that their small signing budget could not support both Crow and Ramirez.
I’m a fan, therefore I hope.
Absent a major FA signing in the off season (unlikely in my opinion), for what should we look to determine if this is an aberration or is this low budget approach the way this team is going to do business?
I’m looking for straws to grasp here.
Let’s play two!
Brian Oliver | 18-Aug-08 at 8:58 am | Permalink
SP63 - I am going to be very interested in how they handle their 2009 draft pick budget. At this point, the Nationals are on target for three top 50 picks in 2009 (#1 & 10 in the 1st and likely 45-50 in the second … depends on how sandwich picks there are). Using this year’s slot recommendations, that’s $4M + $2.07M + $784K [#50 pick] or $6.854M. Normal slot inflation will bump that up about $700K, so conservatively the Nationals will have to budget $7.5M on just the first three picks and that is assuming they all sign for slot which we can pretty much assume is not going to happen given draft history.
Strasburg is likely to command somewhere near $6-7M all by himself (assuming he is the #1 overall pick). The #10 guy is going to have an interesting bargaining position given the fact the Nationals will lose the pick outright if they do not sign him.
SlowPitch63 | 18-Aug-08 at 9:06 am | Permalink
Brian,
Thanks as always for such a well reasoned and knowledgable response.
The trouble with the Nats violating a trust is quite simply that everything can now be questionned.
I just hope the Nats don’t draft some 3rd round talent with #10 so they can sign him cheap and claim victory. I know I shouldn’t borrow trouble but they have a long way to go to regain my confidence.
You, however, always deliver.
Let’s play two1
Garrett Trump | 18-Aug-08 at 9:19 am | Permalink
I am glad to see oslvado rodriguez finally moved up considering he is 24 and has dominated Dominican League. Does anybody know what kind of stuff Mcgeary has? Does anybody know when Hicks is supposed to make his debut?
Brian Oliver | 18-Aug-08 at 9:28 am | Permalink
Per Hicks’ father, Graham starts on 8/26
From PGCC on McGeary … “McGeary’s game isn’t about overpowering raw stuff, but the ease with which he throws his 90-92 mph fastball and 76-78 mph breaking ball consistently for strikes. He is one of the most polished and projectable lefthanders in the draft—and comparisons to a young Andy Pettitte and a young Tom Glavine have been frequent”
Garrett Trump | 18-Aug-08 at 10:49 am | Permalink
Thanks Brian
Pilchard | 18-Aug-08 at 11:51 am | Permalink
Really good to see McGeary with a dominant performance. That said, there is little doubt that his inactivity from September through the middle of May will be a huge issue until he can devote full time to baseball. I am afraid that for the next two years that we will see slow starts from him, and he will head off to Stanford just when he is rounding into form. Hurts that Palo Alto is 3000 miles from Viera.
Nate | 18-Aug-08 at 2:48 pm | Permalink
Hurts that Palo Alto is 3000 miles from Viera.
I suspect folks from Palo Alto would respectfully disagree.