Minor League Discussion

[volzok]

Chattanooga lost 3-1

Box score

Hopper went 1-4
Ruiz went 2-4 with a double
DJ went 0-2 with 2 walks

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Sarasota lost 12-2

Box score

Votto went 1-4 with a double and 2 K
Moran went 1-4 with 2 RBI
Guevera went 1 inn, 0 hits, 1 K. His ERA is at 2.49

[volzok]

Today was the All Star game for the Midwest league

East won 4-2

Gutierrez went 1-2 with a RBI and a run
Hendley went 1 inn, 1 hit, 0 runs, 1 K
Morenko went 1 inn, 0 hits, 1 K

[volzok]

Billings won 14-3

Box score

Roberts went 1-4 with a Grand Slam, 5 RBI, 2 runs and 2 walks
Sandoval went 3-6 with a double, 2 runs, a HR, 2 RBI and 2 K
Feliz went 6 inn, 5 hits, 1 run, 1 BB, 2 K

[volzok]

Tidbit from On Deck Baseball yesterday

RF Austin Kearns doubled twice, scored a run, and plated 2 runs and 3B Edwin Encarnacion was 2-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI, as Louisville (CIN) lit up Durham (TB), 9-4. Kearns is 7-for-18 (.387) with 4 doubles in 4 games with the Bats. How long will Kearns remain at Triple-A? How long will he remain a Red? E-Double is tied for 5th in the IL in RBIs (46) and is hitting .295 overall.

[volzok]

Baseball America talks with Homer Bailey

SOUTH BEND, Ind.--There's not much that comes between Homer Bailey and his Stetson cowboy hat, but he'd gladly take it off for a Reds cap someday.

Last year's Baseball America High School Player of the Year and first-round pick, Bailey is pitching in his first full season at low Class A Dayton and is opening eyes not only with his mid-90s heat but also his wardrobe and Texas charm.

Bailey sat down before one of his recent starts--decked out in blue jeans, a t-shirt, cowboy boots and a camouflage baseball hat--and discussed with us his life beyond baseball.

On his skills as a hunter: "It's scary how much I know about rifles. I've killed a lot of stuff. I'm going hunting with my Dad in Mexico for whitetail deer this offseason and I'm really looking forward to it. Lately I've been looking on the Internet a lot for big elk hunts. I want to go to Canada, like Saskatchewan or Alberta, or maybe even Alaska.

On his mounted collection back home in La Grange, Texas: "We have deer, ducks, a marlin, a bobcat . . . we’ve got quite a bit. I didn't bring any with to Dayton. I did buy a shotgun when we were in Wisconsin, but I still haven't shot it yet."

On why he likes to hunt deer: "When I go deer hunting, especially after bucks, I could care less how big it is. All I want are those horns. We kill so many of them that we have to give them to friends. I just tell them, chances are good I'm going to kill one, so if you want the meat you can have at it."

On what he did with his $2.3 million signing bonus: "The first thing I bought was a truck, a 2004 Ford F-250 King Ranch, and I ended up wrecking it this offseason. I was coming home from Austin and I was going down a road that I've gone down hundreds and hundreds of times. It just so happened it was raining and less than five miles from home it hydroplaned and I flipped it three times. I was so (upset). I climbed right out and was fine and all. I called my parents because they lived right down the road and asked if they could come get me. All they wanted to know if I was OK and I said, 'Forget about me, look at all my crap.' My iPod was ruined, I had a gun that was all messed up and I had a thousand-dolloar cowboy hat that was demolished."

On his expensive taste in cowboy hats: "It's a Stetson El Presidente 100X. I have one back in Dayton. It's a top of the line hat that I like to wear. I don't wear it much now because it's warmer. When I go out in Austin, I'm usually wearing it."

On his opinion of baseball: "I don't even consider baseball a hobby. I don't ever watch games on TV. Baseball is just something I do because I’m good at it. Most of my friends rarely, if ever, talk about baseball."

--JEFFREY ZAMPANTI

[missionhockey21]

Chattanooga lost 3-1

Box score

Hopper went 1-4
Ruiz went 2-4 with a double
DJ went 0-2 with 2 walks

How can a MLB quality 2B continue to do so bad at AA? This is just sad IMO. The walks are a nice and all but c'mon.

[Wally Mo Pena]

Kearns was 0fer last night with a k and a walk.

[volzok]

Louisville won 7-4

Box score

EdE went 1-5 with 2 runs
Denorfia went 2-4 with a HR, 4 RBI and a walk
Olmedo went 3-4 with a double

[volzok]

Two Reds players will be in the Futures game on All Star weekend. Both on the world team. Edwin Encarnacion and William Bergolla.

Complete Roster link

[volzok]

Chattanooga lost 7-5

Box score

Ruiz went 1-4 with a RBI
DJ went 0-4 with a walk and a run
Basham hard luck loss in his first AA start this yr. 4 inn, 6 hits, 1 run, 0 earned, 1 BB, 4 K

[volzok]

Sarasota won 5-4 in 10 inn

Box score

Votto went 0-4 with a run, RBI and a K
Tiburcio went 3-5 with 2 runs, a double and a solo HR
Himes went 2-5 with a RBI

[volzok]

Tidbit from On Deck Baseball

CF Chris Denorfia smacked his 4th homer for Louisville in the loss. Denorfia's stock continues to go up. The 24-year-old outfielder is 27-for-81 (.333) with 18 RBIs in 24 games with the Bats. Denorfia projects to be a quality back-up outfielder in the majors.


Power surge carries Bats from Courier-Journal

By Joshua Spurlock
Special to The Courier-Journal
FORT Mill, S.C. -- The Louisville Bats rode three home runs to a 6-4 victory over the Charlotte Knights last night.

It was the Bats' fifth consecutive victory, tying their longest win streak of the season and giving them the longest current win streak in the International League.

"I think the big thing is you want to win the close ballgames," said Bats manager Rick Sweet, whose team beat Charlotte 3-2 in 10 innings Monday night. "That means the club's doing a lot of little things that are important to win."

Louisville's key runs came in the fourth inning, when Chris Denorfia hit a two-run homer, and two outs later Ray Olmedo hit a solo shot to give the visitors a 5-1 lead.

Olmedo finished 2 for 4 with three RBIs.

Dane Sardinha hit a solo homer in the ninth.

Sweet said hitting home runs is "something we've been very short of this year, but I thought the guys that hit them today had good swings.

"In fact, of the three home runs, two of them came out for early batting practice today, so we're working on it -- not so much working on long balls, but we're working on having good, quality at-bats."

Charlotte closed the gap to 5-4 in the seventh on Brian Anderson's two-run homer off relief pitcher Joe Valentine. Anderson had an RBI single in the fifth.

The Knights outhit the Bats 11-8 but left nine runners stranded.

Bats starting pitcher Brian Rose (3-4) gave up seven hits and two runs in five innings.

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Dragons' slate wiped clean for second half

Dayton hoping to make playoffs for 1st time since '02
By Marc Katz
Dayton Daily News

DAYTON | They get drafted and signed, or sign as free agents, in mid-June. At least most of them do.

In an instant, they are amateurs no more, playing on sandy fields they probably helped rake and mow themselves.

Days off are almost nonexistent. Almost every day is a game, preceded by practice, followed by weight training. An apartment — or bus — is a place to sleep. A ballpark is home.

As the second half of the 2005 Class A Midwest League season begins tonight with the Dayton Dragons at Fort Wayne, the first full year of professional play comes to a close for most of the Dragons.

The progression begins with a half-year in rookie league ball, followed by "low" Class A. In the Midwest League, the 140-game schedule is divided into halves. After the first 70 games, teams start over at 0-0 in an attempt to make the postseason playoffs.

Despite losing records, some demotions and a the releases of a few friends — demons in any line of work but a little more image-shattering when you grow up playing a game only to find out it's really a business — those who play continue to cherish the experience.

"What's good is you play every day," said outfielder B.J. Szymanski, a former football and baseball player at Princeton who was drafted in the second round by the Reds last June. "What's bad is you play every day."

He wasn't being facetious.

"In spite of that grind, you want to play again," Szymanski said. "In college, if you don't do well, you've got to wait a week for another game."

Second baseman Trevor Lawhorn looks at it the same way.

"It's the game you grow up loving," Lawhorn said. "You can't get rid of it. For me, I'm a professional baseball player. That's all I want to do."

Relief pitcher Jared Sanders, who began the season as the Dragons' closer but now throws more in middle relief, can't think of anything he doesn't like, except when opposing batters reach base.

"It's all good," Sanders said. "It's what we signed up to do. It's a lot of fun. It should still be fun. In college, it was tougher because we had school. Here, you wake up and come to the field ready for the game. You can concentrate more on baseball instead of 'I've got a final today.' "

Concentration on winning came hard for the Dragons in the first half, which they finished with a 30-40 record and in last place in the Eastern Division. Without significant improvement, this will be the third straight season without a trip to the playoffs — no small feat because four of the six teams in the division qualify for the postseason.

Despite the poor first half, though, the Dragons did win three of their last six games and two of the last three. History says a turnaround can happen. The last Dayton team to make the playoffs, in 2002, went 32-38 in the first half, then 41-29 in the second.

And now, most of the Dragons have had at least a year of experience.

[volzok]

Bats blast 3 homers, win sixth in a row

By Daniel Smith
Special to The Courier-Journal

FORT MILL, S.C. -- The Louisville Bats belted three home runs and beat the Charlotte Knights 7-4 yesterday for their sixth victory in a row.

The Bats (36-37) can reach .500 tonight if they complete a four-game sweep of the Knights (21-50), who have lost seven in a row.

The Bats jumped ahead 1-0 in the first inning when Jason Romano hit an 0-2 pitch out of the park. Romano was 2 for 3 with three runs scored.

After Charlotte tied it at 1 in the second, Chris Denorfia put the Bats up for good with a three-run homer in the third. Santiago Perez added his first home run of the season, a solo shot, in the seventh.

Charlotte's Joe Borchard made it interesting in the sixth, hitting his 11th home run of the season to make it 6-4.

Jeriome Robertson (3-7) gave up four runs and seven hits in 52/3 innings to earn the victory. Tom Shearn and Brian Shackleford combined on 31/3 innings of one-hit relief. Shackleford earned his first save.

Arnie Munoz (1-9) took the loss, giving up six runs and seven hits in six innings.

The Bats will return home tomorrow to play host to Rochester at 7:15 p.m. in the first of a four-game series.

Bats third baseman Edwin Encarnacion has been named to the International League All-Star team. The IL's best will compete against the Pacific Coast League stars on July 13 in Sacramento, Calif. Encarnacion is hitting .292 after going 2 for 5 yesterday.