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The sweeps are over as Syracuse and New Hampshire win.  Another pitcher gets injured, Ismael Ramirez pulled a groin muscle.  Curtis Thigpen had four hits, David Smith had three.  Mike Green is away today so the regular prospect watch will wait until next week.

Indianapolis 2  Syracuse 4

The Chiefs bullpen came to the rescue after Ismael Ramirez left with a groin strain after pitching 2.1 innings.  Andrew Good gave up two runs in the fourth but the next four relievers shut down Indianapolis.  The Chiefs scored a single run in each of the first four innings.  In the first Rey Olmedo led off with a triple and scored on a single by Howie Clark.  In the second Eric Kratz was hit by a pitch with two out.  Wayne Lydon struck out but reached on a wild pitch.  Olmedo and Thigpen followed with infield singles to make it 2-0.  In the third John-Ford Griffin singled and Chad Mottola doubled him home, 3-0.  Indy scored two in the top of the fourth but the Chiefs got one back, Thigpen singled, Clark and Barker walked and Griffin hit a sac fly.  That completed the scoring as the Chiefs bullpen went to work.  Thigpen went 4-5 to push his average to .297, Olmedo had two hits and is hitting .305.

New Hampshire 3  Reading 2

Russell Savickas started for New Hampshire and ran into trouble in the second inning.  He walked the first two hitters of the inning, followed by a ground out and a sac fly as Reading went up 1-0.  New Hampshire tied the game in the third on Robinzon Diaz's first home run of the year.  In the fourth David Smith doubled and Juan Peralta singled him home.  In the fifth Dustin Majewski led off with a double, moved to third on a deep fly ball and scored on an infield ground ball where he beat the throw to the plate, 3-1 Fisher Cats.  Savickas gave up a solo home run in the sixth to make it a one run game and followed that by giving up a single and a walk.  The bullpen took over retiring the last ten hitters in a row.  Savickas pitched 5.2 innings and dodged trouble as he allowed 8 hits and 4 walks but just two runs.  The Fishers had seven hits, David Smith went 3-4 with 3 doubles.

Dunedin 4 Lakeland 7

AJ Wideman started for Dunedin and was staked to a 1-0 lead in the second on singles by Kreuzer and Philips.  But Wideman gave up a single and a home run to the first two hitters in the bottom of the second to put Dunedin down 2-1.  Dunedin regained the lead in the fifth, Philips singled, Jacob Butler singled and Brian Jeroloman walked to load the bases.  With one out a wild pitch scored one run and a groundout scored another to make it 3-2.  But in the bottom of the fifth Wideman loaded the bases then gave up a bases clearing double and another double, 6-3 Lakeland.  Lakeland added a run off Adam Rogers in the seventh and the Jays left the bases loaded in the eighth.

Butler was 3-4, Philips and Kreuzer had two hits each, and Jeroloman was 1-2 with 2 walks.

Lansing 3  Wisconsin 4

Chase Lirette started and gave up a run in the first on a single and double, and a run in the third on a walk, a single and a ground ball.  Scott Campbell started the fifth with a double, followed by walks to the Jonathan's, Jaspe and Diaz.  Sean Shoffit singled to drive in a run, Chris Emanuele hit into a double play which scored the tying run and Travis Snider doubled to put Lansing ahead.  In the bottom of the sixth Wisconsin tied the game on three singles and went ahead on a wild pitch from Lirette.  Lansing didn't have a hit in the last four innings but they did have some chances to score thanks to six walks.  Lansing had only four hits in the game, plus ten walks.  Lirette gave up seven hits, one walk and four runs in his six innings.

3 star selection

3rd star - Rey Olmedo
2nd star - David Smith
1st star - Curtis Thigpen

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The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
Flex - Friday, May 18 2007 @ 09:42 AM EDT (#168295) #
So I like what I'm seeing from Ray Olmedo (seems to be "Ray" because if you Google with "Rey" nothin' comes up). He's done nothing in the big leagues with the chances he's gotten, but it seems as if Cincinnati may have rushed him, bringing him up at 21. What's the chance that at 25 he's figured something out and that he's our full-time shortstop next year, or even later this year?
Maldoff - Friday, May 18 2007 @ 09:52 AM EDT (#168296) #
My one word of caution on Olmedo is that right now he has an obscene BABIP of .348. One would have to expect that to come back down to earth a little bit, which would drop his average down a bunch.  Also, he ISO power is a .047, which would indicate that he likely has no power at all.  Why that is an upgrade over Royce Clayton, I'm not exactly sure.
PeterG - Friday, May 18 2007 @ 09:59 AM EDT (#168297) #
Olmedo has more speed and a better glove than Clayton. I would expect to see him in the show later in the season after one of the incumbents is traded.
Pistol - Friday, May 18 2007 @ 10:23 AM EDT (#168301) #
What's the chance that at 25 he's figured something out and that he's our full-time shortstop next year, or even later this year?

I would hope the Jays aim higher than that.  It's possible he could fill the McDonald role, but I wouldn't want to see him do anything beyond that.

That he might be better than Clayton or McDonald just shows how weak the Jays are at SS.
PeterG - Friday, May 18 2007 @ 10:29 AM EDT (#168302) #

Eric Kratz is turning out to be an interesting prospect. Catchers do tend to bloom late so at age 27 he still may become useful- likely never more than a major league backup but by next year he might be better than the backups we have now.

I also believe that Olmedo has more promise than Pistol believes. It is quite possible that he is finally maturing into the player he was projected to be when he was highly regarded(and rushed) at age 21. If he can be a slick fielding SS who adds some offence with a decent bat, leadoff and baserunning skills, he would be a significant upgrade to what we have at present. BTW, the club really liked him in ST - they just wanted to see better hitting.

Maldoff - Friday, May 18 2007 @ 10:52 AM EDT (#168304) #
Anyone have access to any old scouting reports on Olmedo from his days in the Reds organization? Would love to see what it said about him when they rushed him up.
tstaddon - Friday, May 18 2007 @ 11:00 AM EDT (#168305) #
I've championed the idea of bringing Olmedo up, too, but there are plenty of red flags in his numbers besides the BABIP. The man's slugging, for instance, is .352. Of his 39 hits, he has 34 singles, 4 doubles and 1 triple. Yikes. And despite his reputation as a speedy middle infielder, he's only stolen 2 bases in 5 tries. I hope we'll see him at some point this year, but he's probably not the answer.

Elsewhere: any news about if/when Brandon League begins a rehab assignment? I read the other day that JP said League had "turned a corner" and wouldn't need surgery. If anyone's been following it, is there any chance we get him back up here for the 2nd half?
Shak - Friday, May 18 2007 @ 11:42 AM EDT (#168309) #
Don't count on League playing this year for the Jays.

I like Olmedo, he plays solid D and good speed, and a decent bat (must be better than McDonald/Clayton) than he should get a chance.  We don't really need power from our SS and were not getting any right now anyways.  There is plenty of power in the lineup as is.

I'd like to see Thigpen and Santos in September also.

Noah - Friday, May 18 2007 @ 12:05 PM EDT (#168311) #
JP's comments about League last week seemed promising.  As mentioned above he said that Brandon had turned a corner in his rehab and that he was now over 90mph with his pitching velocity.  He even went as far as saying that we could see him sometime in June.

Hopefully that's not just optimism speaking.

Maldoff - Friday, May 18 2007 @ 12:44 PM EDT (#168313) #
Maldoff - Friday, May 18 2007 @ 01:50 PM EDT (#168316) #

Raul Barron is making his debut today for the Lansing Lugnuts at 3B (he's listed as a shortstop).  He's 21 years old, and hit .296 with an OPS of .716 at Pulaski (rookie ball) last season.

Also, Joey Metropolous hasn't played in the last few games. Do anyone know if he has reinjured himself?

Mike Forbes - Friday, May 18 2007 @ 02:03 PM EDT (#168317) #
Raul Barrpn has such an incredibly badass name.
PeterG - Friday, May 18 2007 @ 02:05 PM EDT (#168318) #
Wasn't  Barron drafted as a pitcher - at least that's what it says on the draft list I am looking at. I guess he was a multi position player. Do fill us in, if you have further knowledge of his development at extended.
Mike Forbes - Friday, May 18 2007 @ 02:08 PM EDT (#168319) #

Too bad I can't spell it right.... Barron*

Mike Forbes - Friday, May 18 2007 @ 02:15 PM EDT (#168320) #

Here's an interesting little article on Raul Barron, turns out he didn't even finish his final two years of high school.

http://blogs.roanoke.com/pressbox/baseball/baron_barron.html

actionjackson - Friday, May 18 2007 @ 02:28 PM EDT (#168321) #
"Curse you Red Bar(r)on."  ;)
Maldoff - Friday, May 18 2007 @ 02:58 PM EDT (#168322) #

Anyone have any thoughts on Nathan Starner? He seems to be striking out A LOT of hitters and not walking many, but still has a high ERA and batting average against. Does this make sense to people? One would think that if hitters are striking out a lot, then they shouldn't be able to produce a high batting average at the same time.

Marc Hulet - Friday, May 18 2007 @ 07:15 PM EDT (#168334) #
Starner had one really, really bad outing where he allowed 11 runs in less than three innings, which creates some misleading numbers.
lexomatic - Saturday, May 19 2007 @ 10:55 AM EDT (#168353) #
One would think that if hitters are striking out a lot, then they shouldn't be able to produce a high batting average at the same time the scenario you described happens a lot in the minors. usually it's with control command guys who flame out higher up because they just get hit too hard but lower down they abuse less advanced hitters.
Twilight - Sunday, May 20 2007 @ 07:58 PM EDT (#168381) #
That happens with power pitchers as well. In the lower levels, if you've got a 96 mph fastball you can just keep chucking it by everyone. But once they get up to AAA or even AA, they run into better hitters who can catch up with the fastball and that's when you have to quit chucking and start pitching to be successful.
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