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Two extra inning games and a bunch of early starts yesterday, including a shutout for the 'Cuse and a "Thrilla In New Hampsha." A 2-2 night for the farm.

Syracuse 4 @ Louisville 0

Ty Taubenheim continued his great start in AAA with the Blue Jays organization by throwing seven shutout innings, with just as many strikeouts as baserunners (3 vs a walk and two hits). 59 of his 83 pitches were for strikes. The partial pitch-by-pitch data available from Gameday shows that he only got six swinging strikes out of the 61 pitches I saw, and 11 fly outs vs 7 groundouts, which isn't great, but Taubenheim still has a 0.59 ERA in 19 innings on the young season. Shaun Marcum pitched the last two innings, and while he loaded the bases in the eighth, he was obviously able to get out of it without surrendering a run.

Rob Cosby, batting seventh for some reason, was Mr. Offense, driving home all three runs that were RBI-associated. (The fourth run was a result of back-to-back wild pitches.) A RBI double and a two-run homer was all Syracuse needed from him tonight. Elizardo Ramirez was actually just as effective as Taubenheim; all of the SkyChief runs came against reliever Ryan Wagner.

Binghamton 3 @ New Hampshire 4 (11 innings)

Adam Lind, who apparently decided "Okay, I'm going to become a pro baseball player, but I have to hit between .311 and .313 at every level," homered in the sixth and added two singles. One of those came in the bottom of the eleventh: Manny Mayorson singled with two outs, then a passed ball put him on second and Lind drove him home with a ground ball single up the middle. All 3,368 in attendance at the 11:05 am start went home happy. And, I did not know this until I read Kevin Gray's article in the Union Leader, but Lind is the youngest player on the team.

Jamie Vermilyea gave up the second and third runs in the top of the ninth to force extras in this one; he was not his usual self yesterday. Ryan Houston picked up the win with two solid relief innings: one hit, four strikeouts, a 1-2-3 tenth and three K's in the eleventh. Davis "The Other" Romero got the start and walked two -- his first walks on the season. He's got two of those versus 15 K's in 16 innings.

Dunedin 1 @ Lakeland 6

An 0-for-4 from Ryan Patterson? Say it ain't so. Not much else to report on from this game. And judging from the attendance of 610 (I think I passed that many Yankee fans on the Skywalk at 12:15 yesterday afternoon), it wasn't the hot place to be in Lakeland, either.

Lansing 1 @ Clinton 2 (10 innings)

Congratulations to Big City Joey Metropoulos, who got his first pro stolen base in the second inning last night. He didn't score, though, and it was scoreless through the first two innings. Clinton pushed one across in the bottom of the third, then Lansing tied it up in the fourth. I tuned into the game at 9:59 pm, just in time to hear the game-winning double for Clinton. I am a curse on the Lugnuts.

Russell Savickas actually lowered his ERA from its previous mark of 1.54 on this night, with six innings, one run, eight strikeouts and two walks. Let's hear it for the first relievers of each team -- Po-Hsuan Keng now has 13.2 scoreless innings on the season, with three last night, and Julian Cordero struck out five in four innings, allowing just one hit and facing two batters over the minimum.

The pitching coach, Tom Signore, was ejected in the seventh, ran out to argue, and promptly "threw three baseballs into shallow center field when he returned to the dugout."

Three Star Selection:
3. Adam Lind
2. Rob Cosby
1. Ty Taubenheim
Double-T with the W | 13 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
Pistol - Thursday, April 20 2006 @ 09:27 AM EDT (#145495) #
I would think by this point in the year Bradley would have stretched his arm out enough to throw the balls further than shallow center.  Arnsberger would have put them to the track.
Brian B. - Thursday, April 20 2006 @ 10:11 AM EDT (#145497) #

Kind of a left field question, but does anyone know the nature and status of Ricky Romero's injury at present?

MatO - Thursday, April 20 2006 @ 10:32 AM EDT (#145499) #
According to BA, Romero experienced some elbow stiffness in spring training, threw on the side recently and was OK and was expected to make a start any day now.
Mike Green - Thursday, April 20 2006 @ 11:45 AM EDT (#145504) #

Davis Romero's G/F yesterday was 8/4 for the outs, and 9/7 total. That's very good.  A lefty who gets the ground ball, has good control and strikes out his share (throughout his minor league career, Romero has struck out over a batter per inning). His G/F last year was, according to BA, 1.88, although I think that they count outs only.  It's very early, but so far he has a leg up on the double A test.  The major issue with him as a starter will be whether his arm can stand up to 200 innings.  He's a good bet to go 150 this year, and we will see how he does down the stretch. 

He was left off the 40 man and no team picked him, but I remain a believer. 

Mike Green - Thursday, April 20 2006 @ 11:48 AM EDT (#145505) #

A lefty who gets the ground ball, has good control and strikes out his share (throughout his minor league career, Romero has struck out over a batter per inning)...

has a future. 

But, a writer, who doesn't check to make sure that he/she writes in complete sentences, may not.

Mike Green - Thursday, April 20 2006 @ 12:00 PM EDT (#145508) #
Here's a shot of Romero from yesterday's game.  He sure doesn't look to me like a pitcher likely to be blown off the mound by a stiff wind.  His lower body, at least from that angle, looks solid. 
R Billie - Thursday, April 20 2006 @ 01:19 PM EDT (#145511) #

I like Romero as well and as long as he keeps producing results there's no reason not to believe in him.  If he can get through AAA in the same manner he's getting through AA then I will be a true believer as they say.  If the scouts don't believe in his stuff or size then he must have something going for him.  A deceptive delivery perhaps.

Maybe long term he doesn't have the endurance to be a consistent 7 inning starter but even as a long or middle reliever he could do a lot of good as a 2nd or 3rd lefty in the pen.

Lugnut Fan - Thursday, April 20 2006 @ 01:21 PM EDT (#145512) #
One thing to watch that is getting pretty interesting is Metropoulos in Lansing.  He has a hit in every game that he has played in so far (I believe the streak is at 12).  Just something interesting to throw out there.
Gerry - Thursday, April 20 2006 @ 07:39 PM EDT (#145533) #
Billy Carnline gets the start for Lansing tonight.  In the first inning the first three batters reached base on two singles and an error scoring a run.  Carnline then bore down and struck out the side.
FisherCatsScribe - Thursday, April 20 2006 @ 11:57 PM EDT (#145547) #
I heard from farm director Dick Scott that Ricky Romero aggravated his triceps muscle in his throwing arm and will continue working at extended S.T. He expects see live game action soon, though.
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