JPN366

The IBB on Beckham was probably conceding the game. Loading the bases with no outs in a tie game...there was a steady, moderately heavy rain throughout the second half of the game. A win's a win though. To be fair, Beckham's error wasn't all his fault. Allen fielded the grounder, made a high throw to second, Beckham had to leap and catch it and throw it back to Allen. He couldn't get much on the throw, so it bounced and got passed Allen. Not much else to say, it would be nice if the starters would not spot the opposition runs and hope the bullpen holds. But, the point is the bullpen is solid. Although I wouldn't hold out much hope for Jhonny Nunez. He hasn't been very impressive. Good to see Shelby III starting to get comfortable.

First of all, Flowers has scary power. Scary. His homerun was a laser shot to dead center. A 407 foot line drive. I betting on him winning the All Star homerun derby out at Rickwood. 3 of Brandon Allen's 4 hits were opposite field hits, good to see out of him. Beckham's range is great and his arm is serviceable. Viciedo has a long way to go defensively. C.J. Retherford can really put a charge into the ball. The bullpen is solid for B'ham, Kyle Aselton pitched three good innings to hold the deficit. The offense didn't get the job done with runners on.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 11, 2009 -> 09:52 PM) Supposedly Poreda has been throwing a lot of offspeed stuff. They probably have him working on it so his results may not be as good as hoped or expected. Yep, didn't light up the gun too much tonight.

Sorry guys for not posting last night. My week's gotten busier on top of my attendance at the Barons games. Patrick covered most of the important details. Flowers' stolen base was a straight steal and not a busted hit and run. The infield was at double play depth even though there was two outs, so he took advantage of that. You guys are going to love Beckham. He plays hard, not taking it easy at all. He dived for a ball in short left and tumbled over, but didn't catch it. Hell of an effort though. He was on the ground for a minute before he got up. I dare say he may have a touch of Aaron Rowand in him. He seems like a guy who will crash through a wall, so it's probably best he stays in the infield. McCulloch was shaky in the first inning, giving up the only two runs that Chattanooga scored. I thought he was the same old Kyle McCulloch, but he settled down. Fernando Hernandez is back to his old role as setup man, and Derek Rodriguez is B'ham's closer, not Jhonny Nunez. Funny side note, B'ham's new manager, Ever Magallanes, is serving a suspension that's carried over from his old gig. He's not managing the first 6 games of the season, White Sox minor league field coordinator Nick Capra is filling in.

Two days in, he hasn't been in the starting lineup. I think that speaks volumes. David Cook was sent back to B'ham because Owens was sent back to Charlotte.

A few tidbits I forgot...Apparently during batting practice, Tyler Flowers hit 6 450 foot bombs to center field, over the large speaker above the back wall. In the Barons souvenir program, For Gordon Beckham's profile, it says "David Beckham" instead. And, I'm sure you're all dying to know what his walk up music is. It's the song "I don't want to lose your love tonight," not sure what the actual title is or who the artist is, but you'd recognize it if you heard it.

I don't need to tell you what happened with Beckham. He hit the ball hard and with authority, he was selective at the plate, which accounts for his two K's. He toughed it out too, he fouled a ball off his leg and was knocked down (see picture below courtesy of Mark Almond of the B'ham News) on a takeout slide to break up a double play. Viciedo needs A LOT of work on his defense. Plus, he is definitely still raw as a hitter. He hits the ball hard, but he needs a whole year in the minors. C.J. Retherford is still working on his D at second, but his homer was a bomb and clutch. A hell of a 9 hole hitter. Brandon Allen got robbed of a homer to center. It hit above the "yellow line," but he was only given a double. Although he can do the splits all the way stretching to catch a throw at first. Flowers attempted to run over the Lookouts catcher trying to score the winning run, but Lucas May held on and took it like a man. Shelby III has a cannon for an arm. The overall infield defense is a work in progress. At first glance, if they don't hit, they're in trouble. More tomorrow...

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Apr 9, 2009 -> 12:09 PM) I'll send an email to Charlotte and Bham tonight if I remember. Don't bother with Charlotte, you can e-mail them until you're blue in the face and they won't respond. They seem to go out of their way to provide inaccurate information. Especially in regard to jersey numbers. Their announcer will come unhinged if you e-mail him asking about a player's jersey number. They purposely leave off numbers for some players and provide the wrong ones for others.

Justin Cassel is on Charlotte's Reserve list. I guess this means a personal issue has come up for him. Clevelan Santeliz is on B'ham's DL.

He seems to have disappeared from the organization. He was with the Barons and pitched Monday in the exhibition game. But now he's not on any of the rosters. Anybody know anything? Baseball America won't post minor league transactions for the week until Monday.

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Apr 9, 2009 -> 09:39 AM) Do you know if Logan Johnson is being converted to a catcher full-time or is it like a versatility thing like BearSox mentioned? And wasn't there talk at one point about converting Jorge Castillo to catcher as well? Or was that someone else? Because I see he's listed as a DH for Kanny. Seems like it's full time. Only him and Adam Ricks are on the roster.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Apr 8, 2009 -> 11:11 AM) I hate saying it, but Ken Williams looked like quite the athlete when I saw him play a week or two ago. Still has a ways to go, but he had a couple nice hits. Maybe he'll retire after this year like Oney.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Apr 8, 2009 -> 07:38 AM) Kanny has both Escobar and Kuhn? Along with Persichina and Morel? Who loses playing time, since those 4 play 3 positions? Also, seems odd to me that Innouye is repeating Kanny as a catcher, and Dubler is apparently going to be asked to repeat Rookie ball. Joe Persichina can play all four infield spots, right field and left field. I was hoping he'd be in B'ham, that guy gives his all 100% of the time.

Featuring some interesting names... Kanny roster

From last night, I was sitting next to the photographer. Barons pics

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Apr 7, 2009 -> 06:04 PM) That can't be right. That means the rotation would be Egbert-Marquez-JVB-Whisler-Broadway, and NOT Cassel? Seriously??? That makes zero sense. Put Whisler in the pen, same with Broadway for that matter. How do you send the Southern League ERA champ with nothing left to prove BACK to B-Ham? Not sure, but that is 24 active players on Charlotte's roster and that is the limit. I didn't see Justin last night, so I don't know what his status is. Although, he may have just not been there.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Apr 7, 2009 -> 05:59 PM) Who is going to play shortstop? Also, its a real shame that guys like Owens and Restovich are keeping David Cook in B-Ham. I guess Torres or Dawkins. Also, it seems Justin Cassel is coming back to B'ham.

Although it doesn't list the catchers (Adam Ricks and surprisingly Logan Johnson), this preliminary press release lists most of the players. I'm not sure about Matt Long though, he was in the Barons dugout last night. Not sure about Nate Jones, Ricky Brooks or Joe Persichina either. Dash roster press release

Looks like NRI pitchers Brad Salmon and Ryan Z. Braun got cut. Doesn't appear that Ryan O'Malley was retained either. Knights roster

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Apr 7, 2009 -> 03:00 PM) irony Actually, it would be ironic if he started raking.

Never trust MLB.com, never.

You beat me to it, I check that website all the time.

Okay, I braved 40 degree weather and windy conditions tonight, you're welcome... Montevallo 0 Runs 1 Hit 0 Errors Barons 8 Runs 8 Hits 0 Errors CF #12 John Shelby III FO, FO, DP, 1B, K SS #5 Gordon Beckham BB, FO, 2B, FO, G4 C #21 Tyler Flowers DP, FO, BB, Solo HR, FO 1 RBI 1B #22 Brandon Allen G3, Solo HR, BB, BB, FO 1 RBI LF #24 David Cook FO, BB, BB, BB 3B #52 Dayan Viciedo 2B, 1B, 2B, K 2 RBI RF #44 Stefan Gartrell G6, G5, G4, BB DH #33 Javier Colina BB, FO, K, 1B 1 RBI 2B #10 C.J. Retherford G4, HBP, FO, FO #34 Lucas Harrell 3 IP #2 Carlos Torres 1 IP (Gave up only hit for Montevallo) #50 Jhonny Nunez 1 IP #37 Mike Johnston 1 IP (Former Pirates pitcher, has Tourette's Syndrome, no s**t) #29 Fernando Hernandez 1 IP #27 Johnny Lujan 1 IP #35 Derek Rodriguez 1 IP Observations: Viciedo looked okay at 3B. His throws were a little low. Got good, hard hits. Beckham looked fine at SS. His double almost was a HR. Retherford looked comfortable at 2B. Got robbed on a web gem his last at bat. Flowers looked okay behind the plate, handled all 7 pitchers well enough. His HR was high and majestic. Shelby III got robbed on his double play on a liner to third that was caught and the runner on 1st was doubled up. Allen hit a no doubter at the crack of the bat bomb to right, must have been 450 feet. Other players who might be on the roster, not sure if some of the guys will go up to Charlotte, but I got confirmation Cook is starting in B'ham; Lee Cruz, Robbie Hudson, Aaron Poreda, Brian Omogrosso, Kyle McCulloch, Jared Price, Eric Hollis, John Ely, Matt Long, could be more guys, but that's all I saw tonight.

Looks like I'll be headed out to the game without knowing the Barons roster. I'll take notes and try to give you guys a rudimentary box score when I get home. Watch this space...

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 6, 2009 -> 03:22 PM) Based on that report, in some sense yes. What would have happened was people like Wilder were falsifying their ages so that they'd appear to have developed at a younger age than they actually were. Thus, you see a kid who's raking, he's actually 21 years old, you write down that he's 17 and everyone's jaw drops because of how big he is at such a young age. Entering this country with falsified documents would be an immigration violation and yes, if that were the case, they'd be here illegally. Gotcha. I figured the players were to some extent the victims, but if they were culpable, then they should have legal trouble.