Second blog announcement

Will be made public at this evening's ballgame!

Hammond coming back? - UPDATED

Sorry, but this is going to be quick - will fan fave, Joey Hammond be called up to replace the now departed Chris Coste? (scroll down to the bottom)

This may be it for today as I'm "on assignment". More later...

*** UPDATE ***

Joey's most definitely back, going 2-5 in today's ugly 10-15 loss to Indy. I blogged about Joey way back in November. In other former Lynx player type news, according to Baseball America, Luis Terrero has been called up by the Chicago White Sox and Howie Clark is making a return to the Blue Jays (I'm still looking for confirmation of both moves).

Injury rehabs, or in the case of Roger Clemens, "rust rehabs" are in the news. Apparently the SWB Yankees are hoping the Rocket will touch down in Pennsylvania - "We’ll just sell a billion tickets,” Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre general manager Jeremy Ruby said. “We’re crossing our fingers and hoping it happens."

Don't hold your breath though, it's highly unlikely he'll visit anything but a "home" park. Another former MLBer of Canadian renown who might stick for a while with his new AAA club is Rheal Cormier. Cormier is pitching for the Richmond Braves who, as coincidence would have it, will make a stop in Ottawa at the beginning of June.

Finally, while I'm not often a fan of the editorial commentary, one of the Phillies leading bloggers, Beerleaguer, turns it's attention today to the minor leagues as a possible partial solution for the problems in Philadelphia:

"Around baseball – from Jack Cust in Oakland to Willie Harris in Atlanta – teams are finding outfield production off the scrap heap, AAAA players with less pedigree than Werth. I don’t know whether dipping into the dry farm system is the answer (Gary Burnham and Lou Collier are both hitting). The point is, the time has arrived when teams can accurately assess what they have and what they don’t..."

The Coste is clear - UPDATED

Sorry about that, but what can you expect on short notice. Chris Coste has been recalled by the Phillies.

More later.

*** UPDATE ***

Not that anyone in the Lynxfan household saw it, but last night was probably the biggest win in the other Ottawa franchise's history. I will confess that I was flipping back and forth between the hockey game and other shows, and managed to catch Buffalo's tying goal with about 5.8 seconds remaining. Consensus on the ride this morning was that the "old" Senators would have packed their tent at that point and gone home.

Which is a nice segue to the subject of the title of this post. Chris Coste has indeed gone back to Philadelphia, ostensibly due to Ryan Howard's placement on the DL. The question on Chris' mind though must be: "Will I be sent back down when Howard returns?". Two schools of thought on this one - one camp says he will, the other that the Phillies and Charlie Manuel will find a spot for him as a pinch hitter. The Phillies have indicated that they are in the second camp:

But the Phillies hope Dobbs, who went a career-best 4 for 4 with a triple, two runs scored and two RBIs, Wes Helms and Coste, who primarily will be used as a pinch-hitter, can hold the fort while Howard recovers.

"There's no way I'd ever want to lose Howard," manager Charlie Manuel said. "Not for one day or two weeks. But at the same time, I think we've definitely got to get him well where he can feel comfortable playing. I'm selfish. If I could have him on the bench, I would definitely want that."

At the risk of sounding negative, I was a little underwhelmed by Coste. I certainly expected him to be disappointed at being sent down, but it stung a little how he threw Ottawa under the bus (read: "facilities leave something to be desired"*). Honestly, I think a guy like Chris Roberson with his "I'm gonna bounce back" demeanor had the more mature attitude between the two of them - and yes, I know: at 34 years old, Coste's clock is ticking much louder than Chris Roberson's. In any event, best wishes to Chris Coste, I never thought he should have been here in the first place.

* Blogger's note: Chris updated his website at some point and removed the references about Ottawa. The original version was noted by myself and the Ottawa Sun.

Then and now

Like most Saturdays, it's been busy (and I still haven't mowed the lawn). The regular ride in the Gatineau Park was followed by Zak's Little League Picture Day out at the Sportsplex, then a two hour practice at the Eagles Nest. I was surprised (pleasantly) to run into the dynamic duo that is "Bryan and Ryan" from the Lynx while we were out at the Sportsplex. Apparently, Skratch and Trash Monster were out at another baseball function in Orleans, but it didn't matter - a more approachable, at ease pair of guys you won't find anywhere.

As promised, some of the roster changes from March 31 to present.

Here's how things looked on March 31, 2007:

CATCHERS:

Jason Jaramillo - still in Ottawa.

Dusty Wathan - still in Ottawa, but was sent to Reading temporarily before rejoining the Lynx last month.


INFIELDERS:

Brent Abernathy - traded to the Washington Nationals around April 9.

Gary Burnham - still playing here, but for how much longer?

Brennan King - still patrolling 3B.

Carlos Leon - still in Ottawa.

Danny Sandoval - still in Ottawa.


OUTFIELDERS:

Ron Calloway - still with the Lynx.

Lou Collier - still with the Lynx.

Chris Roberson - thankfully, still in Ottawa. Flyballs have no chance with Chris.

Jim Rushford - still local.

Pedro Swann - sent to AA Reading.


PITCHERS:

Joe Bisenius - still in Ottawa.

Eude Brito - local, but on the DL.

Fabio Castro - called up by Philadelphia.

Matt Childers - solid starter, still here.

Jim Crowell - released, now playing for Syracuse.

Kane Davis - in Ottawa.

John Ennis - playing for the Lynx, currently on the DL.

J.A. Happ - solid LHP, still in Ottawa.

Yoel Hernandez - called up by Philadelphia.

Brian Mazone - release granted, playing in Korea. This one hurts.

Justin Miller - released.

Brian Sanches - solid closer, still local.

NOW:

CATCHERS:

Chris Coste - sent down by Philadelphia. Solid, versatile (1B, catcher, 3B) player.

INFIELDERS:

Joe Thurston - as close to certain as you can get; every ground ball is a "routine" out with Joe.

OUTFIELDERS:

Since Pedro was sent down, there have been no other changes.

PITCHERS:

Zach Segovia - reliable SP, a little snake-bit on the run support.

J.D. Durbin - recent acquisition, assigned to Ottawa on May 4.

Rick Bauer - sent down from Philly on April 23.

Matt Smith - optioned to Ottawa by the Phillies on April 26.

Ryan Cameron - called up to Ottawa from Reading on May 6. I profiled Ryan back in March.

Heath Totten - called up from Reading.

Jason Anderson - sent down by Philadelphia a couple of days ago.

The more things change...

At some point this weekend I'm going to try (heavy emphasis on "try") to post the changes in the Lynx lineup since Opening Day. Another change this week: reliever John Ennis has been moved to the DL with Heath Totten coming up from Reading to replace him. As Doug Bird notes in his report over on PhuturePhillies, from a scheduling/travel perspective the team is on an absolutely brutal road trip. Fortunately, they've not had to dip too deep into the bullpen on too many occasions. Tough loss last night against Louisville in a well pitched game all around - newcomer J.D. Durbin went five innings, giving up six hits and two earned runs.

When the team gets back to Ottawa, they're likely going to note some changes to the local scenery; the leaves have come out, the flowers are in full bloom and the smell of lilac is in the air. This is definitely my favorite time of year - caught the scent of gasoline and a freshly mowed lawn last night on our way home from Zak's Little League game... spring in Ottawa has truly arrived. "The boy" is having an absolute blast playing baseball this spring and I can see the effect of his studying various Blue Jays players; he's adopted Paul Molitor's batting stance and bat "waggle" (he's still working on the swing part of it). During tryouts a couple of weeks ago, the coaches evaluated the kids skills in order to seed the teams evenly. In the hitting portion, a coach threw him ten wiffle balls - after the first five, Zak put up his hand to delay the next pitch, then turned to hit left handed in his best John Olerud stance. Bekah asked me what her older brother was doing.

"Showing off", I replied. The coach turned and gave me a "is this kid for real?" look. I shrugged and acted as if I was someone else's Dad...

Quick little video from last night - nice steal of home on a passed ball at the end. (Youtube should have it ready by 2.30 p.m. at the latest).

Mystery man - UPDATED again

A pair of tickets to any game to the first person who can identify the mystery Philadelphia employee in the Lynx dugout last week. Hopefully he wasn’t scouting Brian Mazone – the news that Neate Sager broke yesterday, has now been confirmed: Brian’s going to try his luck in Korea (presumably, South Korea). It probably shouldn’t come as a complete surprise though; last year he was apparently talked out of jumping to the Korean peninsula by none other than Chris Coste. Perhaps the advice was different this spring…

Nice win in Louisville yesterday afternoon, including Danny Sandoval hitting one out – we’re on a home run hitting tear! If they can win today, they’ll have taken 3 of 4 from Louisville and will be well positioned to take their shot at division leader Buffalo. And there’s a strange bit of timing – both Ottawa teams will be in Buffalo this weekend. The Sens finished the regular season in third place behind Buffalo – exactly where the Lynx currently sit relative to the Bisons. Cue the “Twilight Zone” theme….

*** UPDATE ***

Stop with the email. Ottawa's in Indy this weekend, followed by Buffalo here in Ottawa starting on Tuesday. Secondly, the "mystery man" has been identified. Just gotta confirm I can reveal his ID before I post it.

*** UPDATE II ***

The mystery man is none other than minor league catching coordinator Mike Compton.

Mike Compton during his playing days


Hat tip (and two tickets): "Educated" Lynx fan.


*** UPDATE III ***

A little more about the Korea deal and Brian's replacement, Jason Anderson.

Back in the swing of things

Well, not entirely, but I'm getting there. About the only thing that "normalizes" travel for me is my bike; it goes wherever I go. For all it's beauty, one of the things baseball lacks is the sheer exhilaration of hard, sustained aerobic effort - nothing is better for clearing my mind of the clutter that builds up during the day.

Solid win for the Lynx last night after coming off an 11-1 loss - hard to get real bent out of shape over the Monday night game though, it's a long season. The nice thing about baseball is that a team gets the chance to get right back on the field the next day and put the loss behind them quickly. Great to see Lou Collier hit one out, which effectively puts an end to the similarity between the Lynx and Louisville (i.e. "they each have one Homer" Hat tip: Neate Sager).

Lou-hoo-hoo-hoo!!!

Being out of town, I missed Phillippe Aumont's debut at Lynx Stadium - too bad the team wasn't in town. It would have been nice if he could have thrown out a first pitch, or been honored in some fashion in front of his hometown fans and family. According to MiLB.com, he'll be pitching at Lynx Stadium again this Sunday.

Speaking of future prospects, PhuturePhillies Ottawa contact has posted a good interview with J.A. Happ. And finally (for now), here's one of the two announcements I've been mentioning: ottawalynx.blogspot.com will be closing its doors, likely by the end of this week. I've made the decision to change blog formats from "Blogger" over to "Wordpress". I've also registered a website "http://ottawalynxblog.com" to host the blog and my hope is that it will be a little easier to remember (and find) than the current address. I'm in the process of moving all of the 350+ posts from Blogger over to Wordpress - a task I hope to have complete by this weekend. Moving links and changing the new template will be a work in progress. For now, I'll be updating the blog here and at the new site - in a week or two, this site will automatically re-direct to the new one. Right now the new site looks a lot like PhuturePhillies - but how could I not use red for the template?!

Stay tuned for the second announcement...

(Live blog: Lynx up 1-0 in the seventh in Louisville...)

Back home

Sorry about the lack of quality blogging of late - I've been down in Toronto on work-type stuff since Sunday night (didn't think it was wise to broadcast on the web that my wife was home alone with the kids). I've got a lot of catching up to do with the team and team related news - I've essentially been cut-off from the internet for the last 2.5 days. I did, unfortunately, notice an 11-1 loss last night. Ouch.

Blogging tomorrow will be equally sporadic as I try to catch up with things at the office - should have something up around noon, including the first part of the "big news" I've been promising. It probably won't live up to the hype, but hey, what ever does?

It's good to be back home...

Like a band of gypsies we roll down the highway...

On the road again. The Lynx are away down south this week and for some of next week too. This frees me up to prattle on, if only a little bit, regarding last week's action.

Friday evening's game, the last contest of the Lynx homestand, was a gas gas gas. Ahem. The boys in white and red won but I did not take many photos due to the hilarity that was happening in our area of the park. I more or less kept my camera in my lap, right next to my gut, which I kept busting all through the baseball game. Jokes, capers and shenanigans galore, daddio! We kept good company. Had some fun companions who hollered and cheered and were as clever as heck.

My pals and me, we cheer for our team and although we sit near the visitors, we almost never holler anything negative against the opposing team. Often we will pick a visiting player and cheer for him in a sincerely positive way. Why not, eh? This past Friday our choice was Louisville first baseman Joey Votto. "Ooh! He's cute!" said the ladies. "Yeah? And he's Canadian." replied we fellows. We Googled him on Tatiana's mini-computer, looking for dirt to dish, perhaps. All we came up with was his full name (Joseph Daniel Votto) and hometown. (Toronto, Ontario) Not much to run with but enough. Just enough.

During his at-bats, Mr. Votto was taunted with our rowdy cheers of, "JOE-seph DAN-iel! Clap clap. Clap clap clap!" He must have been thinking, "Oh my goodness! They know my middle name! How ever am I going to hit the baseball now?" I love hanging out with my pals and acting all silly at the ball park. Oh yes, and taking pictures, when I remember to. Here are a couple:


A longtime Ottawa baseball fan, enjoying the sunshine.


Joe Thurston makes the play, topples over.


Danny Sandoval arrives on a Triple!


Jeff Keppinger fires to Joey Votto.


Oh say can you seagull?

Click here for the rest of the game in pictures.
For many more Lynx baseball photographs, please click here.

I'll explain

the blogging absence later tonight (hopefully)...

Roster moves

Just a quick post before I hit the road for today. Clay Condrey's received "the call" from Philadelphia (last Saturday) and Ryan Cameron (whom I discussed here) has been sent down.

Speaking of "The Call", here's an interesting Youtube video chronicling three players' recollection of their call up (including Chris Coste's).

Please stand by

This will likely be the "one and only" for me today. Right now the Lynx lead the Red Wings 2-0 (bottom 1), after splitting the double header yesterday. Buffalo took over the division lead with an incredible come from behind win yesterday (scoring 9 runs in the bottom of the ninth to win 15-14 over visiting Pawtucket). Quick update on Jim Rushford: He would appear to be healthy as he was in yesterday's games and is in today's lineup also. Good news. Bad news: The Phillies continue to struggle mightily. That it's coming at the hands of Barry Bonds is all the more sickening.

Look for two big blog announcements in the next week or so - one should be coming in the next day or two, if my schedule permits. Unfortunately, today's schedule permits very little and I've gotta bounce.

Late start today - UPDATE

Sorry, but Saturday's my day to get other stuff done - principally, riding my bike. It was another nice win last night and I couldn't decide who to give the "game ball" to - Dusty Wathan, who went 2-3 with a double that looked for a moment to have HR potential, or to Matt Childers who went 8 solid innings, and knocked in a pair of his own. Gotta go with Matt. It's been interesting seeing Gary Burnham in right field and Dusty Wathan playing first of late - is the move designed to get Dusty more at bats because there's something brewing? Is Jim Rushford injured? Jim was pulled in the second inning of the May 1 game against the Bats after appearing to pull up lame at third on a Brennan King hit that likely should have scored him.

"Mystery Philadelphia coach" man was still in the dugout last night (note: should have a photo up later). Who's he looking at now? With Ryan Howard benched today, pinch hitter Greg Dobbs hitting .200 for the season, and catcher Rod Barajas sitting at .235, could Chris Coste be next to get the call? You might think his .186 average would prevent such a move, but he was hitting .170 last year in May in SWB before being called up.

Finally (for now), there's a good CBC interview with Chris Roberson which you can find here - it's in the archives for May 4. Hat tip: "Educated" blog reader.

*** UPDATE ***

Brian Mazone pitches 6 innings of 2 hit ball to win game 1 of the doubleheader with Rochester 2-1. Ottawa now within 2.5 of the division lead.

You snooze

you lose. Last night, I noticed that there was a fourth coach in the Lynx dugout, only this one was wearing a Phillies jacket with an American flag on the right shoulder. Knowing that Tom Gordon was experiencing more shoulder problems, I wondered if the Phils weren't looking at someone in Ottawa to replace him. I was going to publish my speculation, but never got to it today. Now we find out that Yoel Hernandez has been called up to take a spot in the bullpen. In all honesty, I was going to guess that they were taking a look at Joe Bisenius, who by the way, was awfully good last night, or Brian Sanches.

Clarification

Just a quick update on my post from yesterday. I’ve received a few e-mails on this one and I guess I have some clarifying to do. First, I understand that a casino is different from the baseball stadium in that the profits are shared directly with the province and the local community. I get that. I also understand the difference between the “public-private partnerships” which were formed that lead to the construction of the various ice pads, and the agreement struck to build Lynx Stadium.

What I was attempting to point out was the appalling irony here – the City goes off in search of new “revenue streams” while it systematically and concurrently cuts off others. It borders on negligence, if not certainly incompetence.

In any event, I think the examples cited illustrate very clearly one of the central themes of this blog: My frustration and disappointment about the gap, the disconnect between what this organization deserves and what it gets.

Having said that, and since the matter is being litigated, it may be time for me to move on and let this issue go. And the email isn’t all critical: To a friend south of the border – thanks for the note. I hope you get out to Durham and catch up with the team.

Work. Sleep. Baseball.

Is there any room for anything else in anyone's life anyway? Hmm.

Everything gets good and busy after May Day. This homestand is a really cool thing to watch. How did I ever have any time to do anything else outside of baseball, anyway? Here are some photos from Tuesday and Wednesday's games versus the Louisville Bats.


Joe Thurston.


Homer Bailey.


Joe Thurston & Dewayne Wise.


Mark Bellhorn over Chris Roberson.


Rick Bauer fires.


Carlos Leon slides. Safe!

Sure, I stayed at home on Thursday, I had work to do here, but I tuned in. A very groovy broadcast. Thanks, lads. I'll be at the yard Friday at 6:05. See you there, okay? Yeah.

Click an image for a larger view. More Ottawa Lynx photos can be found here.

My name is Bekah….

“Hello, Bekah.”
“It’s been 16 hours since I last hugged Skratch….”
[quiet applause]

Another nice evening at the stadium last night. Bek and I arrived extremely late due to Zak’s first little league game – unfortunately it was another tough night for the boys in red; the hitting is just not there lately. Still, getting out to see baseball is always good. And the games are moving at a nice clip – even when they have to play a full nine, it’s pretty rare that they go beyond three hours. Yesterday’s game was over by about 8:30 – we got home in time to catch my son losing it over an Indians home run against the Jays (all of this while the Sens were playing, I might add. Hockey, schmockey.)

PhuturePhillies has a very in depth breakdown of April which is worth a look – not sure that I agree with all of it, but then you’re clearly not expecting expert analysis from yours truly. Or at least, you shouldn’t be. I can give a little bit of stadium advice though – last night I was caught with very little cash on hand (about $3 after my daughter’s first round of pizza). While we were in the Skratching Post, Bekah told me she was still hungry. When I mentioned to Ms. Rumble, who was manning the Post, that I was down to just plastic, she informed me of the “Cat Cash” option – you can buy it with a credit card and the poker like tokens are treated like cash at any of the concessions. So I bought the “cash” and then two hotdogs – which my daughter quickly rejected because I’d put mustard on hers. Mustard that she’d asked for. Oh well - at least some people found my situation educational.

Speaking of poker, this is interesting on a number of levels. Setting aside my feelings about gambling for a moment – we’re now hearing that Ottawa “To prevent further erosion of our local economy and to increase revenues flowing to the municipality from the province, Ottawa must compete on an equal playing field, which would require the city to build a similar facility,"

The new catch phrase is revenue streams. We have to find new “revenue streams”. Forgetting of course, the one's that are already flowing.

And then there's the recent bail out of local "Public-private partnerships", PPP for short. We were told:

“Public-private partnerships allow Ottawa residents to incur little or no debt while enjoying the benefit of outstanding facilities. The Bell Sensplex is a prime example of new infrastructure sooner and for less cost to everyone. With this facility, Ottawa will be better positioned to host major international amateur events,” said Mayor Bob Chiarelli.

Yep. That one worked out really well.

Through all of this, the City has had one unmitigated PPP type success for the last fifteen years. Unfortunately, since it doesn't involve gambling or hockey, it doesn't get the recognition (or the parking spaces) it deserves.

"Feelin way too da*n good"* - UPDATED

It was another beautiful night for baseball in Ottawa yesterday evening. The game kicked off with Zack Segovia tossing the ball he used in warm up to his namesake, Zak. Section MM (where our seats are) was rockin’ with the kids who sang the anthems and their families. My recommendation? Have three or four choirs in every night to sing if it will bring out that kind of crowd – one version in English, one in French, Spanish, Mandarin…. you get the idea. The feedback I picked up on, not that I was eavesdropping, was all positive. Adding to the atmosphere was a friendly Louisville Bats manager, Rick Sweet, who joked with the crowd between innings and tossed foul balls to the kids. (* And speaking of rockin’, that Nickelback rumor turns out to be true – they’ll be playing at the park on July 5. Hopefully the team will be able to capitalize on what is sure to be a well attended event.)

The wind died down nicely during the day and wasn’t a factor in the 4-2 loss to the bats. If there was any consolation, they didn’t fare too badly against the “phenom”, Homer Bailey, and it was a Canadian, Joey Votto who hit one out off of Zack. Rumor from a speed gun voyeur: Bailey’s fastball was topping out at 97 mph. Wow.

It was also a good night for Bekah, who had a breakthrough moment: She actually hugged Skratch. She also helped Dad out with the multimedia duties and snapped photos of people in the crowd:



Zak’s evening was spent in the stands watching Bailey, then over in the picnic area with some other kids, and finally, out on the field for a game of musical chairs where he finished second (which is entirely unacceptable – we’ll work on tactics this week). Throw in a piece of pizza and a hotdog and you’ve got a great night – it certainly beats being at home doing homework, even if the Lynx do come out on the wrong end on the scoreboard. If you look closely at the photo, you can see that one day he'll be able to say he shared a field with Homer Bailey.

I was really impressed with Gary Burnham’s artwork which is on display in the Skratching Post – I’ll get some photos of the two prints available for viewing and post it to the blog tomorrow. Numbered and autographed by Gary himself for only $25. Amazing.

Finally, it appears that the Ottawa Sun has really scaled back their coverage of the team, as opposed to the Citizen’s work. Maybe someone should let them know that they’ve got a “reporter” at the park?

*** UPDATE ***:



See you tonight!

More winning weather - UPDATED

Okay, it may not have been great out at the ballpark yesterday (I took the afternoon "off" from my other job), but they got another one in that mattered: the Indians don't make another trip to Ottawa this year even for postponed games. And the never-ending gale from the northwest claimed the batting cage along the first base line as one of its victims - good luck to whomever has to try to piece that back together. We can't blame the wind for the on-field result though. Brian Mazone pitched a decent game until hitting a bump in the road in the fifth, giving up a couple of runs, and then another couple in the seventh. The Lynx had their chances to break the shutout early on. In the first inning, with one out Roberson was caught stealing with Jason Jaramillo at bat - this didn't make a whole lot of sense to me; considering he was already in scoring position, Roberson didn't need to take third. It stung all the more when J.J. immediately followed up with a base hit that likely would have scored Chris. I wonder if he's got the "green light" to take off at his discretion... Positives: Joe Bisenius pitched two innings of scoreless ball, giving up just a single hit after taking over in the 8th. It was fun to watch Brian Mazone surprise the crowd with a base hit, "upping" his average to .500 for the season.

It was a novelty for to me to watch the game, sans kids - I particularly enjoyed watching the interaction between John Russell and J.J. and to my untrained eye, it appears that for the most part, it's left up to Jaramillo to call the game, but there were batters yesterday where he would take signs from the dugout. For his part, the former catcher, Russell, would occasionally seek a consensus with his pitching coach, before relaying his "sign". Speaking of interaction, the manager was tossed in the ninth inning - unfortunately, I missed it; I had to take off after the seventh. I checked the audio for the game but couldn't find out why he was ejected.

Starting this evening, Louisville's in town for four - their one and only visit this season, so once again, weather will be an important issue. Fortunately, the rest of the week looks good, not great for tonight, but improving as the week progresses. The Bats are coming off a shutout loss of their own down in Syracuse yesterday night, and sit one game below .500, second in the West. It's a pretty fair bet that we'll get a look at Homer Bailey - perhaps as early as tonight (sorry, probables weren't listed at the time this went to press). Homer last pitched in an April 25 loss to Richmond.

And in case anyone's wondering, Mr. Bailey's real first name? David. And let's be honest, the 20 year old Cincinatti prospect is pretty good:

Homer Bailey is a phenom – a natural in the true sense of the word – who leaves many a batter in awe as they stroll back to the dugout. The 6-foot-4, 205-pounder can boast an unmatched pure “stuff” component to his arsenal, lighting the gun up with heat over 97 MPH just to leave the opponent baffled when he turns around with his constantly improving changeup or 12-to-6 curve.

The numbers are ridiculous. Over the course of his minor league career, Bailey is averaging 10.27 K/9 with a very low 1.25 WHIP. As if these are not reasons enough to be impressed, just look and see what Bailey became in 2006, pitching against the highest level of competition he had been opposed to. Bailey made 13 starts at High-A Saratoga, putting up an ERA of 3.31 while posting a 79 to 22 strikeout to walk rate with a WHIP right at 1.00.

Other Bats to watch out for include Canadian Joey Votto and former Twins, Diamondbacks, and most recently Brewers catcher, Chad Moeller.

*** UPDATE ***

Tonight's probable starters: Homer Bailey and Zack Segovia.