August 25, 2009 Eugene 4 - Everett 3

A cool but nice night for baseball. The Aquasox are in a tailspin right at the wrong time of year (is there ever a RIGHT time for a tailspin?). They had lost 4 in a row and 9 of their last 11 coming into this game. Unfortunately after this game it would be 5 in a row and 10 of their last 12...

We saw the professional debut of Jorge Reyes for Eugene. He was formerly the star of the college world series a couple years ago when pitching for Oregon State. He pitched well for 4 innings on the helpful end of three double plays and only giving up one run on Anthony Phillips' 7th homer of the season.

Andrew Bovich pitched an inning for the Emeralds giving up a run. He has a strange motion that includes a small hop off the rubber as he's making his throw to the plate. Bob and I wondered if that was legal. We also wondered if the Aquasox Chris Kirkland's motion to the plate, where he takes a small step to the plate enroute to coming to his set position in the stretch was legal. The umpires seemed fine with both procedures.

For the Aquasox we had Chris Kirkland start the game and he again looked spotty through 6 innings. He had trouble finding the plate in the first inning, walking two but being saved by a nice double play around the horn 5-4-3. In the second he hit a batter and walked one, but left them both stranded when he struck out the number 9 hitter for the Emeralds. After giving up a home run to 19 year old Edinson Rincon in the third he eventually ran out of luck in the 5th inning. A one out controversial double down the first base line followed by a single (where Kirkland watched the line drive pop out of first baseman Gerardo Avila's glove and didn't cover the bag) and a sacrifice fly scored a run. A single followed to score another and then another single to score a third. On the final single, hit by Nate Frieman the 6'8" cleanup first baseman for the Emeralds, was hit off the wall in right but a nice throw by James Jones easily caught the lumbering Frieman.

Bob noted that the Emeralds probably would have the league's best leg wrestling team based on the size of their quads...

For Everett double players were a killer with 3 in the first 4 innings. They eventually got some hits and a rally against David Erickson in the 6th inning scored one and left two on base when Welington Dotel swung at three curveballs in the dirt to strike out...

Pat Dillon noted that Mario Martinez's last walk was on July 29th - he didn't walk in this game going 0-4 with a strikeout and hit into one of those double plays.

One of the low points in the game was where Jose Rivero was picked off second in the 7th inning with one out and Ben Billingsley on second. The first baseman snuck in behind Rivero and he was out by a yard.

The game ended on a screaming line drive by Trevor Coleman right at Emerald pitcher Nick Greenwood's head. Greenwood somehow got his glove up to catch the ball and Welington Dotel was easily doubled off first. It was one of the hardest hit balls of the night and it ended the game appropriately on another double play.

Here's the box score.

Here's the Herald story.

August 21, 2009 Salem Keizer 7 Everett 2

With the playoffs on the line, the Aquasox need to win 5 of their 7 remaining games with the Volcanoes in order to recover their 3 game deficit.

The Aquasox sent Taylor Stanton to the mound. He lasted 5 innings and gave up 6 runs. The Frogs had only 1 base hit through 6 innings and the game wasn't really much of a contest...

Of note for the Aquasox were some defensive plays. Welington Dotel threw a strike to the plate to keep a runner from scoring from second in the third innings. Beautiful throw - we've noted before that Welington has an excellent arm and like to show it off.

Matt Cerione threw out a runner at third with a very nice one hop throw.

And the "I've never seen that before" moment of the game (there seems to be one in every baseball game) was in the 8th inning when Caleb Curry flew out to right field. The runner at second base, Juan Martinez (Volcano third baseman) went maybe 15 feet off the bag and then retreated to tag up. Welington Dotel made the catch in right and then made a nonchalant throw to Anthony Phillips who was sneaking up behind the slowly retreating Martinez. And by the time Martinez realized the ball was coming so close to him and made a jump for the bag - Phillips put the tag on him for the out and double play. Very nicely done by both Dotel and Phillips.

It's unfortunate that all of the highlighted plays by the Aquasox involved defensive plays with Volcanos on the bases (which was the case for much of the night).

Anthony Phillips had a single batting lefthanded and then hit a ball off the rightfield wall when he turned around to bat right handed against David Quinowski (who throws left handed).

We were surprised to see James Jones batting average at .315 until we heard Pat Dillon mention that he had "snapped a 1 for 27 stretch Monday night"...

Other items of note...

Third baseman Chris Dominguez looks very good for the Volcanos. He was a third round draft pick and is a big player who hit the ball hard. He had two hits and a walk in 5 plate appearances. Looking at his numbers though, he only had 6 walks versus 42 strikeouts coming into the game. He had a walk and a strike out in the game. He's hitting .248 and his OPS is .765 - so his season isn't going all that well overall.

Volcano first baseman Luke Anders made a nice diving play and throw to the pitcher to get Cerione at first.

Volcano pitcher Jason Soffel looked very strong. His fastball hit 93 mph and was hurt by a couple errors in his inning of work.

As bad as this game was, it paled compared the the following night's "must win" game where the Aquasox got no-hit by the Volcanos...

Here's the box score.

Here's the Herald story.

Who'll Make It...

We've seen 7 games this year and here are some thoughts on our favorite players who might someday be in the major leagues...

James Jones - he looks like a ballplayer. Long and lean. He has a big swing and makes solid contact (hitting .414 after 70 at bats - 1.088 OPS - 8 walks and 13 strikeouts). He runs well (though he's been caught stealing in all three attemps) and looks to be excellent in right field. Good arm. Probably our best prospect.

Mario Martinez the third baseman was written up in the Herald earlier in the year as the best prospect on the team. He's hitting well (.854 OPS) and plays acceptable third base. 10 walks and 36 strikeouts.

Gerardo Avila at firstbase can hit the ball a long ways (OPS .862 with 8 walks and 36 strikeouts) and plays excellent first base.

Ben Billingsley looks like a possible "Willie Bloomquist" - he can play a lot of positions well, has a good arm, and leads the team with 9 stolen bases. On the "Willie Bloomquist" side he also isn't hitting especially well (.746 OPS).

We also hope that Hawkins Gebbers can make it - he was an extremely hot hitter at the start of the season, but has cooled down of late. His OPS is .783 (probably acceptable for a second baseman, but not really good) with 11 walks and 22 strikeouts. And he's been caught in his 4 stolen base attempts. His defense looks good at second.

Anthony Phillips has been a favorite of mine last year and this - mostly for his defense. Well, I guess, totally for his defense. He has a .580 OPS. He probably won't make it unless he can hit the ball better. They want him to be a switch hitter, but he doesn't look very good batting left handed (which is the majority of the time since most pitchers are right handed) and that's really hurt him.

Outfielder Welington Dotel was promoted earlier in the year and might have a chance.

None of our pitchers really stand out. Andrew Carraway was promoted earlier and looks like the best of the bunch.

Jose Rios is only 19, so that's a factor in his favor. And he's pitching well against older competition.

In the "more than one strikeout per inning" list we'd have to include: Chris Kirkland (56 Ks and 15 BB in 51 innings), Taylor Stanton (51 Ks and 20 BBs in 50 innings), Christian Staehely (32 Ks and 7 BBS in 25 innings) , Philip Roy (20 Ks and 6 BBs in 14 innings), and Daniel Cooper (17 Ks and 7 BBs in 16 innings along with 8 saves).

Brad Pullen has also pitched well in relief - 18 innings in 15 games with 18 Ks and just 3 walks. His ERA is 2.89 and his WHIP 1.18.

August 8, 2009 Eugene 8 - Aquasox 6

FROGSTOCK!

This game was painful to watch. Not so much for the outcome, but for several factors that I'll try to list here but to give you a hint - Aquasox pitchers walked three batters and hit another with the bases loaded...

The Aquasox starting pitcher was Luke Burnett, a strapping 6'8" 250 pounder. Big guy. Biggest guy on the team. But he pitches like Jamie Moyer. The top fastball that I saw on the radar gun was 82 mph. 82 mph fastball! YOW! He doesn't seem to get his body into the pitch like other pitchers and sort of holds the ball over his head and "short arms" it to the plate. Very unimpressive. It was painful to watch the big guy throw his plethora of junk balls to the plate. But in his defense, his curveballs, changeups, splitters, and whatever else he was throwing was generally effective. He threw 5 painful to watch innings giving up 3 earned runs on 6 hits and 4 walks while striking out 6. His results aren't that but I just expect more from a buy guy like Luke.

The fifth inning (Burnett's last of the game) was particularly painful. He gave up a single to right and then a bloop that fell between the infielders and outfielders behind second base. Bob noticed that our third baseman Mario Martinez had a strange stance for the next batter - on the grass sorta facing second base. The next hitter bunted and it appeared that Mario was where he was so that he could cover third and let the pitcher take the bunt. The only problem with that strategy was that Burnett was very very slow coming off the mound to get the bunt (that wasn't especially toughly placed) and then by the time he got his 6'8" frame upright and threw a blistering 79mph fastball over to first - the runner was easily safe. Bases loaded. The next batter hit into a nifty 5-2-3 double play (Bob and I thought our catcher Fuentes got benefit of the "in the area" rule on touching the plate when catching the ball) and it looked like we might get out of the inning. The next batter walked to re-load the bases. As did the batter after him to force in a run. Griffin Benedict (who had struck out his previous two at bats) came to the plate and didn't get a chance to strike out again since he was plunked with the first pitch scoring the second run of the inning. Painful.

Luke was followed by 19 year old Jose Rios who gave up 3 runs (2 earned) in a painful 1 1/3 inning - walking 4 and hitting one. He walked in two runs while having a high of 86 on the radar gun.

Philip Roy followed Rios and gave up just 1 hit and struck out 3 in 1 2/3 inning. He hit 88 on the radar.

Then came 26 year old Eddy Hernandez. This was especially painful to watch. Eddy was an outfielder in the system that never hit, so they're trying to convert him to a pitcher. He throws left handed. There were 2 lefties leading off the 9th inning for Eugene after the Aquasox had tied the game in the 8th. Bob and I had a bad feeling about Hernandez and he lived up to billing. He walked the two lefties on 9 pitches total. It was very painful to watch.

Christian Staehely followed Hernandez and had some difficulties but eventually got out of the inning giving up two runs that were charged to Hernandez - neither of them earned.

The Emerald pitchers Matthew Jackson (90mph), Jeffrey Ibarra (86mph) and Chris Fetter (89mph) had their problems as well...

All game long it seems like the Aquasox were constantly flirting with danger and that the pitchers were constantly facing 3-2 counts.

But the defense came to the rescue on several occasions...

In the first inning the second hitter of the game for Eugene, Winn, hit a line drive in the center-right field gap. Both Jose Rivero the centerfielder and James Jones the rightfielder dove for the ball with Rivero catching it in front of Jones. A nice play to help give Burnett his only 1-2-3 inning.

In the second inning Matt Vern hit a ball off the close centerfield wall to score a run, but Rivero's throw to second was a strike to keep Vern to a single.

On Eugene's final plate appearance a single to left by Frieman scored one but an excellent throw by Ben Billingsley in left caught Edison Rincon at the plate by about 10 steps. Billingsley made several nice throws - always low, accurate, and on a line so that they can be easily cut off if necessary.

We also had some defensive plays that were on the painful side... In the 9th inning Eugene loaded the bases on Hernandez's two walks (see above) and then Christian Staehely came in to face the right handed hitting Winn. So with runners on first and second Winn laid down a bunt that Staehely tried to throw to third for a force. The throw was there in plenty of time, but was a bit to Martinez's right and ended up down the leftfield line. One run scored and runners ended up at second and third. The next hitter, Edinson Rincon, hit a sharp bouncer to the pulled-in first baseman and Gerardo Avila ran at the runner that was halfway down the third base line. A 3-5-2 play got the out, but both runners moved up so that there were runners on second and third still. No real improvement.

On the offensive side for Everett, Gerardo Avila hit a monster to centerfield - long and extremely high. It ended up eventually hitting the very top of the tall wall and Avila had a run scoring double.

And Ben Billingsley hit home run to lead off the sixth inning (unfortunately, he also had 3 strikeouts on the night).

On the painful side, there was the aforesaid sixth inning... After Billingsley's home run and an out Mario Martinez hit a single (his third of the night) and Gerardo Avila followed it with a double (his second of the night (see account above) to score Martinez) . James Jones walked to put men on first and second. Then the pain hit. Juan Fuentes hit a single to right. Our manager John Tamargo held Martinez at third (he's not very fast) even though the Emeralds' right fielder Matt Vern had just picked up the ball. Martinez slowed but then (either by Tamargo saying something or because he saw the ball still in the outfield) he headed home. James Jones - the trailing runner - saw this and headed to third. But then Martinez thought better of the idea of trying to score and from halfway down the line turned and headed back to third. Jones was caught between bases and tagged out trying to get back to second. Ouch!

But then on the next play, with Martinez on third and Fuentes on first and a 2-2 count on the batter with two outs, Fuentes apparently tried to steal second in a delayed steal. He's definitely not fast and as the play unfolded almost in slow motion the throw beat him but he made a nifty slide to avoid the tag and was called safe - until he overslid the bag and was called out...

As Bob said, "We ran ourselves out of that inning..."

Then in the bottom of the eighth inning, trailing by two runs with the bases loaded an easy groundball to the left of Emeralds shortstop Winn went right between his legs for a two run error and a tied game. It looked like somehow the Aquasox might still have a chance. But then, see above, we brought in Eddy Hernandez...

It was painful...

Here's the box score.

And here's the story from the Herald.

August 4, 2009 Aquasox 6 - Boise 4

Tonight's game was subtitled, "Matt Cerione Night".

The Boise Hawks looked sharp in their traveling grey uniforms with florescent lettering across the chest. And they ALL had their socks showing - that gets extra points from both Bob and myself...

Chris Kirkland was pitching for the Aquasox and pitched well other than a couple stretches where he gave up hits in bunches (3 in a row in the 4th and 5th innings). While he gave up 4 runs in 5 innings, he seemed comfortable throwing off speed pitches and his fastball on the stadium gun was up to 95 mph (not sure we trust it though...). He was followed by Philip Roy (who has one of the most "overhand" deliveries I've ever seen - the ball comes right over the top of his head in the delivery) , Jose Rios (just 18 years old), and Daniel Cooper (who got the save striking out the two hitters he faced).

The Hawks had Su-Min Jung start the game - one of three Koreans (Jae-Hoon Ha in right field and Hak-Ju Lee at shortstop being the other two). Jung also threw 95 on the radar gun and pitched well for 3 innings giving up a lead-off home run to Matt Cerione and only one other hit while striking out 3. Trey McNutt made his professional debut and threw 96 on the suspect gun. He gave up 3 runs and struck out 3. Ryan Sontag came into the game in the bottom of the 8th inning with the go ahead run on third. When facing Ben Billingsley he shook off a pitch and then shook off another. But then he started his motion to the plate and (I think) realized that he and the catcher hadn't decided on a pitch yet! So he quickly took his foot off the rubber - but not before I said "balk" and the home plate umpire echoed my opinion. The go ahead (and winning) run (Mario Martinez) scored.

On the offensive side, Matt Cerione went 4 for 4 with two solo home runs. The second one was high and long - over the netting above the center field wall. He also made a spectacular play in centerfield when he ran into the left-center gap and dove for a line drive off the bat of Jae-Hoon Ha - catching it while parallel to the ground. A great catch.

Mario Martinez was robbed of a hit in the 3rd inning when Runey Davis made a diving catch in center. Mario was trying to set an Aquasox consecutive game hitting streak record, so that looked like it might stop him. But he doubled off the center field wall in the 8th inning to set the record.

For Boise, they got home runs from Hak-ju Lee and Bobby Wagner. Nothing special until you realize that the team had 6 home runs total in the season!

John Tamargo, Everett Manager, was thrown out of the game between the 7th and 8th innings when he complained from the dugout about the home plate umpire's foul call on a hard hit ground ball down the third base line. He certainly is a fun manager to watch during the games.