Wow, I haven't blogged since the All-Star Game

Sorry I haven't been posting as much since the All-Star break, but there really hasn't been much to report on. We've had terrible losing streaks and big win streaks. Through it all, we enter our last 19-game stretch only 4.5 games out of a Wild Card berth. Detroit will need to finish off the year on a low note, as well as Atlanta and Omaha (not to mention we'll need to kick it up a notch to finish the year). We're not dead yet, and until we're eliminated I will hold out hope.

That said, let's take a look back at how things have been going over the past few weeks:

- At the halfway mark, Cyrus Torres was the king of baseball. He had an ERA in the mid 2's, no losses on his record, and became the first rookie ever to start the All-Star game. At the time, it looked like he would be a top-3 Cy Young candidate. These days, he'll be lucky if he can even steal a Rookie of the Year win. His ERA has ballooned to 4.10 and his record sits at 13-5. He has looked positively shaky on the mound and is pitching worse than Ive ever seen him since the break. Hopefully he can turn it around, because without those 5 losses we'd be in the playoffs right now. Let's see if we can get our old Torres back for the stretch run.

- On the other side of the coin, Ebenezer Brett has been the best pitcher on the team in the second half. Since coming over from the Wood Chippers, he has sported a 3.91 ERA and a 6-2 record. Not exactly up to his old Cy Young standards, but at age 30, he is showing us that last year's injury hasn't stopped him from being an infinitely useful rotation piece. I believe Fargo gave up on Brett too early; he's got a great contract ($5.8 mil a year through season 11, at which point he'll turn 33 and we can dump him for free before he gets old) and he has been showing that his early season struggles were mostly just temporary rust. Max Guillen will likely be a very good major league player someday, but after the additions of Jose Moreno, Bart Hamelin, and Omar Gabriel through trades this year (not to mention draftees Jeremi Rice, Raymond Rossy, and Cedrick Pickering, as well as IFA Alex Romano) I certainly think it was understandable to part with one of our many minor league arms in order to get a piece that could help us right now.

- Speaking of our newly-acquired minor leaguers, we only got one big young bat this year, but it's a good one: Josh Nixon has been an absolute monster in rookie ball, hitting .441 with 36 home runs and 49 doubles over the course of 76(!) games. He finished with a 1.483 OPS and had 7 multi-homer games (or roughly 11% of the games in which he played). He is on the fast track to a Rookie league MVP, and if his stats this year are any indication, that may not be the last MVP award this guy wins.

- Taking a look at potential ML awards, besides Torres' newly uphill battle for Rookie of the Year, the only real possiblity is a Gold Glove for Rob McNamara. His 3 recent errors will hurt him, but if he plays consistent and solid defense through the end of the year, I wouldn't count him out of an award that, to my eyes, he has rightly earned.

Well, that's about it for now. I am on the edge of my seat waiting to see whether our playoff aspirations this season will actually bear fruit... stay tuned for end-of-the-year team awards and other notes, whether or not we make the playoffs.

Cyrus Torres to start Season 9 All-Star Game

Well, it seemed like a longshot once upon a time, but today it was announced that the starter of tonight's All-Star Game for the American League will be none other than our own Cyrus Torres, whose accomplishment is made even more impressive by the fact that he's a rookie and he made his first 4 starts of the year in AAA.

Torres is currently 11-0 (easily possessing the most wins for a pitcher this year who has yet to lose, not to mention being tied for 2nd in the majors in wins). His 2.76 ERA and 1.12 WHIP both rank first in the league among all qualified starters, and while his 87 strikeouts don't seem terribly impressive, his 7.32 K:IP ratio is actually 13th in the league. Better yet is that he has a ratio of exactly 3 strikeouts for every walk, ranking him third in the AL in that category (interestingly, our other rookie SP, Jeffery Rivera, is an impressive 5th with 2.88). In 15 ML starts this year, he's had 13 quality starts, and a 14th in which he gave up 4 runs over 8 innings ("quality start" or not, I'd take that any day). He's tied for 3rd in the AL in quality starts despite only making 15 starts so far this year (as opposed to the 19 made by those ahead of him). Basically what I'm saying is, Torres has easily been the best or second-best SP in the league this year as a 23-year old rookie. Only Tampa Bay's Warren Hargrave can really make a claim as being the AL's best pitcher so far this year, and it's close enough that if they continue at their current paces, Cy Young Award voters may have a tough time picking a winner. I think it's safe to say, however, that barring a total meltdown or the second coming of Jesus getting called up from AAA, Cyrus Torres is cruising to this year's Rookie of the Year award.

More good news comes in the form of us having three other players either voted or selected to this year's All-Star team, giving us four overall:

- Vic Servet will be starting in CF for the AL after amassing the highest vote total of any CF in either league. Servet has had a tremendous comeback year, hitting .308 with 17 homers and 23 doubles in 87 games so far this year. That home run total already eclipses last year's grand total of 14, and the doubles are more than Servet has had overall in either of the last two entire seasons. His OPS of .896 is the highest we've seen Servet have since the team played in hitter-friendly Montreal back in season 5. This will be Servet's 3rd career All-Star appearance.

- Tim Juden started the year rather disastrously, but he has come back in grand style, amassing 11 wins and a 4.07 ERA en route to being selected as a reserve pitcher on this year's All-Star team. This will be Juden's 3rd selection.

- Rob McNamara was expected to give us a solid offensive and defensive upgrade, but few expected him to be this good. In 83 games he has hit .320 with 17 home runs and 27 doubles (only 7 doubles away from tying his highest career mark). He has been a huge defensive upgrade up the middle, and his glove has been just as big a reason as his bat for our success this year. This will be McNamara's 2nd selection, and his 2nd in a row.

Danny Milligan, who is third in the league in batting average and first among all catchers, somehow missed the cut. Orval Yeats and his 68 steals (more SB than 19 teams currently possess) also missed out, but that .252 batting average certainly isn't doing him any favors.

Season 9 draft review and other notes

Well, as I promised about a week ago, I am back with a review of our draft. Our players have had enough time to sign and see some action in rookie ball, so it seems like a pretty decent time to review our top-5 round choices and see where they stand so far:

#4 overall: Jeremi Rice - As I said a couple posts back, I plan to complain about this pick. A lot. Look, I don't have a huge problem with Rice. He is an extremely talented pitcher who was the ace of his college team his sophomore and junior years, he throws in the high-90's, and he doesn't walk too many batters. He's not a big strikeout guy, but he's never really had injury problems and he is currently proving me wrong in Rookie ball (15 innings, 1.20 ERA in two starts so far). All in all, even though he always had trouble getting lefties out in college, I think if our coaches work with him he could be a solid #3 option in the rotation.

So what's the problem? With the 4th overall pick in the draft, you don't want a #3 pitcher. You want an ace. Granted, prezuiwf hinted the other day that if Raymond Simmons were available, we would have probably taken him, and he is a better pitcher than Rice. Still, we passed on a choice so obvious that I am convinced it will haunt us for decades: Jesus Amezaga, taken an astounding 10th overall by Augusta, who got the steal of the century by taking a guy who set single-season NJCAA records in ERA, strikeouts, WHIP, and K:BB ratio... largely at 18 years old. Unsurprisingly, he's already got 4 K's in 2.1 innings and no runs allowed so far in Rookie ball.

The knock on Amezaga has always been his durability-- aside from sustaining several injuries during his HS and junior college careers, he was also known to have starts skipped at Kennedy-King College due to fatigue. But I'm sorry, you just don't pass up on a guy like that, even if he'll only make 15 starts a year. He's being used as a reliever right now, but with what the scouts are saying about Amezaga, he could become a truly special ML starting pitcher. Jeremi Rice is going to have to get a lot of wins to make this draft pick a good one for us.

#16 overall: Josh Nixon - Now THIS was a good pick. Ironically, Nixon accounted for the only home run given up by Jesus Amezaga last year, a solo bomb (though Amezaga still got the win, 3-1). Nixon was a premier hitter for his junior college team and even played a decent second base (though the organization probably sees him as more of an outfielder). He's always stayed healthy, which is a plus. A minus is his apparently volatile temper, but hopefully our coaches will be able to calm him down. All in all, Nixon was a pretty good pick (even if B.C. Harper may prove to have been a better choice) so I'll tentatively chalk this up as a win for us. Oh yeah, he's also OPSing an absurd 2.142 so far in 4 games of Rookie ball. Guess he was ready for the leap to the pros after all.

#70 overall: Raymond Rossy - A pretty solid 2nd round pick, and a guy who has a possible major league future. What the organization really likes about this guy is his durability; his college coaches commented on how he could throw 30 pitches in relief every day of the week and still be 100% the next day. Having a workhorse like that in the bullpen would be a very welcome addition. Unfortunately, his skills are not quite as revered as his stamina, and he only has two pitches: a good sinker and a good changeup. He's a bit of a paradox as his durability makes him an ideal middle reliever, but his skills seem to limit him to lefty specialist duty. It will be interesting to see how the organization develops him. At the moment, he's got 2 saves with a 4.50 ERA in 2 games as our closer at the Rookie level.

#102 overall: Cedrick Pickering - This pick would seem to have "bust" written all over it. After dropping down teams' depth charts due to injury concerns, Pickering got taken out of his first game and has already had to miss a start due to elbow soreness. Scouts like his slider, but his other pitches aren't great, he can't strike guys out, and he's supposedly an awful fielder. To be honest, I'm not sure if this would even be a good pick if he were healthy. Why we wasted a 3rd round pick on a guy who projects to be a poor man's, injury-prone Ben Wilson is far beyond me.

#134 overall: Butch Fingers - The organization hasn't offered him a contract, so it should be safe to assume he'll never don a Snow Pirates uniform. I will give him props for his funny name.

#166 overall: Brendan Henry - Basically a lot like Pickering, but without the injuries. If Pickering was a 3rd rounder, then technically this is a very savvy pick. Unfortunately, like Pickering, I wouldn't expect much from Henry, though I guess I'll reserve judgement until we see him in action.

Overall, I might rate this draft a C+ or B-. Maybe I'm being hard on prezuiwf, and the success of Rice would make this a much better haul for us, but I am just so fumed about Amezaga that I can't really call us true winners here.

A couple miscellaneous notes:

- Knock on wood, but Cyrus Torres currently has the most wins (8) by any pitcher in the majors who has yet to take a loss. He has continued to absolutely dominate, and if you take out his disastrous start against Philadelphia, his ERA would currently be 2.51. He has already been Cy Young caliber for us, easily one of the top 5 pitchers in the AL so far this year, and he is garnering lots of All-Star buzz. Hopefully his hot pitching will continue in his next start, against the hapless Texas Express later this week. You've got to believe he's a current favorite for Rookie of the Year.

- Speaking of All-Stars, we currently have four players who would be in if the voting ended today (assuming we count Torres, as the managers select the pitchers). Our other stud rookie, Danny Milligan (who currently has the third-best batting average in the American League) is currently receiving the second-most votes at catcher, closely behind St. Louis' Darrell Prince. Rob McNamara, who has slowed down but still has a .915 OPS and an AL eighth-best .327 batting average, trails New Orleans' Ronnie Payton at 2B (perhaps deservedly so). Finally, Vic Servet continues his spectacular resurgence, currently receiving the most votes at CF of anybody in either league.

- Ebenezer Brett will almost certainly be watching the All-Star festivities from his couch, but he gave us a solid start earlier this week, pitching 5 inning, 2-run ball in a win against the New York Moneymaker. He allowed 6 hits and no walks, a very encouraging sign for a guy we're counting on to rebound a bit as we make our run at the playoffs this year.

- When we traded Benji Crespo for Don Wang last year, many fans were skeptical at best. It didn't help when Wang was moved to the bullpen due to his inability to pitch into the 6th inning at the tender age of 33. However, the deal now looks a lot better; if you haven't heard, Crespo blew out his elbow a couple weeks ago and will now have to undergo surgery that may shut him down for the rest of the year (or at least until the very end of the season). After scaring us by pitching quite well in the majors last year (3.69 ERA in 39 innings), he was much worse this season (5.67 ERA in 39.2 innings) and the elbow injury is an enormous blow for Philadelphia, who saw Crespo as a rotation mainstay. It will be at least two months before he will be able to throw a baseball again. Wang, in the meantime, has posted a rock-solid 3.51 ERA in 207.2 innings so far in Syracuse and has been one of our most dependable pitchers. Perhaps this trade was a true win after all.

- One last thing: while Omar Gabriel scared us half to death in his first couple starts since being traded from Omaha, note that he has quietly allowed only 1 run in his last 20 innings, and 0 in his past 16, to bring his Low A ERA down to 3.51. Maybe it was rust, maybe it was the jitters, but it looks as if Omar Gabriel might just be scary good after all.

A quick tidbit

For those of you disappointed with last night's loss, The Post-Standard today published a nice little article on the Snow Pirates' season so far. They note that while the team started the season with the 2nd-lowest payroll budget in the AL (behind Nashville), it is currently tied for the 7th-best record in the league. A win tonight (in Ebenezer Brett's much-anticipated Syracuse debut) could leap us ahead of Milwaukee and Atlanta and tie us with Detroit. We are currently 7 games back in both the division and the Wild Card.

Go pick up today's paper and read the article, there are a few choice quotes from Brett and Vic Servet in there as well.

BREAKING NEWS: Snow Pirates acquire Ebenezer Brett

In retrospect, perhaps we all should have known the eventual fate of Max Guillen. After being traded back to us (his original team) earlier this season, he was flipped right back around after only 13 games in AA to Fargo. He had a 3.03 ERA for us this year and probably hadn't even finished unpacking his things. Max, you will be sorely missed.

The truly newsworthy item, of course, is who we got in return. Ebenezer Brett. Yes, THAT Ebenezer Brett (as if there could be more than one), the guy who has made 6 consecutive All-Star teams and has a Cy Young to his name (and another one he should have gotten last year). "But," says those of you who have been living under a rock, "why would Fargo part with such a talented pitcher for a pretty good relief prospect?" Of course, the answer to this is that although Brett has a lifetime ERA of 3.13, he blew his arm out last year, tearing his labrum and requiring surgery. This year, he has been unceremoniously moved to the Fargo bullpen, and in 11 games, he's posted a dismal 5.40 ERA. His WHIP is 1.69 and opponents are OPSing .855 off him. Scouts say his control is down, he's lost a lot of his effectiveness, and his fastball is in the 80's. In many ways, he is Ebenezer Brett in name only.

Still, this trade was an intriguing one for both teams. Fargo gets Guillen, who is very talented and will definitely help them in the future. In Brett, even if he is as bad as he's been lately, he is STILL a much better option than some of our other guys. It seems likely one of the rotation spots is his to lose, so he must like the idea of playing for a team where he can prove his mettle as a starter again. Of course, it's very possible that his start this year has been a combination of statistical aberrations and rust, meaning he could come over here and be very good for the remainder of his contract. If that's the case, we got an absolute steal in this trade. An even if it's not, it upgrades our pitching tremendously, which is exactly what prezuiwf has said he's wanted for a while now. After today's win we're still tied for 3rd and 7 games out, so one hot streak will completely turn this division around. Adding a pitcher like Brett at this point in the season seems like a great way to improve our chances of doing just that.

Anyway, I will be back later this week with a draft recap (and why I think we made the absolutely wrong pick with the #4) but until then, I hope we can see some wins so we can really get back into the division race in style.

Trade review: Olmeda for Gabriel

Hey guys-- sorry I wasn't able to blog about the latest minor league trade when it went down, but I've been a bit busy with a new job. Riding high on a 6-game winning streak also gives me far less to grumble about. Losing tonight was tough, but if for every 6 wins we have 1 tough extra innings loss, I think I can certainly accept that.

Anyway, this trade was fairly straightforward. We traded Omaha Tony Olmeda, the highly-touted catcher prospect we signed out of Cuba last year, for Omar Gabriel, an equally hyped prospect who came from the Dominican Republic last year. We also gave up Ed Hunter, a former 21st round pick who hasn't been terrible in the minors, but he is inconsequential; for the sake of argument it was basically an Olmeda-for-Gabriel trade.

Prezuiwf has been trying to unload Olmeda for some time so as to thin out our organizational depth at the catcher position and add depth at other positions (namely, pitching). Given that two of our three best hitters this year are catchers, it seems to be our least needed position. Olmeda is only 19 years old and has performed well in the minors, but as he was signed to a major league contract and only has one option year left after this season, he'll be forced to join the major league squad at age 21. The Snow Pirates prefer to let prospects simmer longer than most other organizations, so from the moment we signed Olmeda he was likely on the way out. Olmeda will certainly be a great player in his prime, possessing the durability to play a full 162-game schedule at catcher and having the hitting ability to back it up. Overall, definitely a good prospect, but apparantly not as useful as Danny Milligan and Felipe Reynoso look to be over the next decade or so.

Gabriel has been a bona fide puzzle ever since he was signed by Omaha last year. He sported a decent 3.71 ERA in rookie ball, but the Hot Pockets organization felt he wasn't yet ready enough to move up to A ball. So far this year, we've discovered why. In two starts in Low A, he's earned a 10.13 ERA and an opponent batting average of .333. He's got a blazing fastball and a suberb changeup, and in many ways is a rich man's Max Guillen. He's a pretty good strikeout artist and scouts rave about the sneaky slider he uses in addition to his other plus pitches. Still, he has struggled mightily in his limited time since the trade, and while I'm not worried at all, I trust that Low A pitching coach Don Childs will have his work cut out for him with this guy. Don't expect him in the majors for several years, but when he gets there, I still expect him to be an excellent long reliever and occasional spot starter.

A couple additional notes on the Snow Pirates:

- Cyrus Torres went 7 innings for the win last night, bringing his record to 4-0 and his ERA to 2.66, easily making him the best rookie pitcher in the AL so far this year. What's more enticing, however, is his consistency: he has started 6 games so far, and all 6 have been quality starts. If he keeps this up he has one heck of a career in front of him. Maybe this 23 year old can teach the 30-somethings on the team a thing or two about pitching.

- Alberto Felix apparantly remembered that he's supposed to suck now. He let up 22 earned runs over his past two starts, ballooning his ERA to 7.26 on the season. Hey, at least we're only paying him $7.5 million. And just think, we'll be treated to a whole other season of this next year!

- In a pleasant surprise, Don Wang is listed as the starter in tomorrow's finale against Augusta. He has definitely earned it; I know his stamina prevents him from going more than 5 innings on a good day, but his 3.32 ERA this season is too good to ignore. Hopefully he can avenge tonight's loss.

- Minnesota's recent plummet back down to Earth shows that this division is still anybody's to win. Last-place Milwaukee is only 5 games back, so one bad week can still bury a team in this division. Our biggest priority should be minimizing mistakes and keeping opposing runs to a minimum. Our offense has been consistently doing its job for a while now. We dropped to 2.5 games back tonight (tied with Detroit for 2nd), but a few more wins could still catapult us into first place before the week is out.

- As I mentioned in my last post, I went to my first Snow Pirates game of the year last week at Alliance Bank Stadium, a fantastic 9th inning win against Augusta with Torres on the mound. It was a great game, but it was doubly awesome because I got my first glimpse of the new Budweiser Quarter-Deck, the promenade section that just opened this year. A few seats had to be taken out, but it is well worth it-- Captain Snowbeard Shakes 'n' Burgers is now the best place in the stadium to get food, drinks, and snacks, and Frosty's is a great place to get a beer (and, at the very least, its prominence in the new section draws the long lines away from the beer stands elsewhere in the stadium). Plus, the Quarter-Deck is the perfect spot to take in a panoramic view of the stadium before the game, as well as the best place to be if you've got standing room tickets or just want to congregate with rowdy fans during close battles (like the one I saw last week). If you haven't been to a game yet, I wholeheartedly suggest you catch one just to check out the new section (and, of course, to support the Snow Pirates).

The draft is just around the corner, so afterward I should be taking a look at our picks and deciding whether we made our like bandits or got robbed. Lots of great talent in this class, so hopefully we can use our big #4 pick to nab someone that will seal our success in the future. Until then, I'll be blogging with all the breaking news and trades as soon as they happen here in Syracuse.

State of the Ship: All evened up

Given that we've passed the 36 game mark, putting us 22.2222222% of the way through the season, it seems like the perfect time to examine how our team has fared so far!

Ok, not the perfect time... but as good a time as any. After a gruesome 2-9 start, we've gone 16-9 to improve to 18-18. Our series defeat against New Orleans this past week snapped a streak of 6 straight series wins. Right now, we're not as good as we wanted to be, but we're in a great position to break out. Here are my notes on what we've done so far, what our bright spots are, and what we need to improve upon:

- There is no one, anywhere, who will argue against Rob McNamara being our MVP thus far. He's hitting .375 with 9 homers and 13 doubles, and he is well on his way to having the best season of his career so far. He's also giving us exceptional defense up the middle, sporting the second-best fielding percentage of any starting 2B in the AL. Even if he only plays 123 games (as he did last year) he's on pace for about 31 homers, 44 doubles, and 130 RBI. Those are MVP numbers right there.

- Our two big rookies, Danny Milligan and Cyrus Torres, pretty much round out our top 3 players at this point. Milligan is batting .350 (and that's after slowing down over the past week or so) and giving us stellar defense behind the bag. Torres has only been up for 3 starts, but he's won all 3 of them, sporting a cool 2.61 ERA. He pitches again tonight against Augusta, a subpar offensive team so far this season, and he is looking to start his career 4-0. Both of these guys should be easy Rookie of the Year candidates, and don't be surprised to see them both at the All-Star game this year.

- Our fielding has been surprising this year; we're currently 4th in the AL in fielding percentage. This almost worries me, because we're not that good of a defensive team, but still, if our guys can keep up the good work in the field it should allow our pitching to carry more games for us this season.

- Speaking of our pitching, it's been spotty at best. Torres is an extreme bright spot, Don Wang has been excellent as expected, and Marino Fuentes has been such a surprise that he assumed the closer role after Harry Paz got traded. The rest of our pitching, however, has been mediocre if not awful. If you count both Jeffrey Rivera and Ivan Dotel as starters (they've been rotating in and out of the bullpen), then we've got 5 starters with ERAs over 5. Yes, you heard me right. A team that was supposedly built on pitching has only 1 of 6 starters with an ERA under 5, and that's Torres. Our team ERA is third-to-last in the AL, and our bullpen has been about as bad as expected. Overall, if we want to contend at all this year, our pitching has got to snap out of it, and fast.

- Vic Servet deserves special mention, because he is like a totally different player this year. While last season he acted like a malcontent much of the time, this season his teammates have called him a joy to play with, and the joy is showing. He's hitting .304 and already has 14 doubles (he had 18 all of last year). In 130 games he'd hit about 51 at this pace. He only has 3 homers, but hopefully his stroke will come back around as well. He's even giving us improved defense at CF. With my favorite season 8 rookie Orval Yeats still slumping, Servet has even moved into a leadoff role, and he has certainly earned it thus far.

- Prezuiwf has done a lot to restock our farm system. Jose Moreno, Max Guillen, and Bart Hamelin should all be very good ML contributors in a couple of years, and we had to give up very little talent that we had real major league plans for. I think prezuiwf has done a good job finding future talent this year, though I'm a bit critical of his inability to bring much in to shore up our woes at the big club this season.

Well, that's it for now. I'll finally be attending my first Snow Pirates game of the season tonight against Augusta, so if anyone is sitting in section 209, look for me. I'll be the guy in the dirty Jared Brown jersey (I really should pick up a Yeats or Torres jersey while I'm there). See you at the ballgame!