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The Clearwater Threshers have been rolling lately, and the train just kept on going in Thursday night’s effort versus the Jupiter Hammerheads. The team picked up their fourth consecutive win, and their fifth in the last six games. Coming into the game the team had just eight home runs in the first 33 games of the year, however the club picked up four home runs on the night with Jake Blalock, Welinson Baez, Tuffy Gosewisch and Clay Harris each crushing a long ball all for the first time as a Thresher this season.

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Despite having given up just four runs in four games while striking out a league high 34 batters Clearwater Threshers’ starter Antonio Bastardo had earned just one win in his first four tries this year. On Sunday afternoon he would be given his fifth chance to earn a win, and he certainly made the most of his outing. Antonio had his best outing of the year going 8.0 innings and striking out 13 Yankees in the process both season highs for him. Read the rest of this entry »

The Clearwater Threshers continue to struggle with a record of 4-8 on the season.  The pitching has by far been the team’s strength as they have the 4th best ERA in the league at 3.32 and the 3rd most strikeouts with 94.  Unfortunately their hitting has kept them from winning very many as they are dead last in the league in hits, and slugging percentage with only 20 extra base hits on the year. 

Antonio Bastardo and Joe Savery have lead the way for the starting pitchers each posting impressive 0.90 ERAs on the year while Adrian Cardenas (.347), Matt Spencer (.302) and John Urick (.300) are the only Threshers hitters batting .300 or better with five players languishing at .200 or below.

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The Lakewood Blue Claws got off to 1 win 3 loss start to the 2008 season

this week versus Lake County.

They lost the opener 4-0 behind a decent outing from Drew Naylor. He gave up three runs in a tough inning that featured  a bunt single, a walk  and two misplayed fly balls for hits. Naylor took the loss with 5ip, 5h, 3er, 6k & 1bb The Blue Claws could not come up with the big hit, twice loading the bases with just one out.

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Before I get into the weekend wrapup, just a brief note on what things will look like going forward. Basically from here on out, Tuesday through Friday we will have a report on each affiliate, starting with Lakewood and ending with Lehigh Valley. There might be a few exceptions if we have to shuffle things around time wise, but this will be the general plan. The reports will give you a good idea what is going on with each affiliate and keep everyone in the loop, and hopefully we’ll come up with some other cool stuff to do. Because of the help of the generous folks who have volunteered, it will give me more time to add more features to the site, something I’ve been slacking on. I’m going to do a weekend wrap up every Monday, and I’ll also write new things periodically, and also post news items as they happen. But as I mentioned over the winter, this site is turning into more and more of a group effort, and I couldn’t be happier about that. So, all of that said, lets wrap up the first weekend in the minors…

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Just a quick recap of last night’s action.

Lakewood drops their opener 4-0. Bob covered this one, so I’ll just say it was nice to see Dominic Brown off to a good start. We won’t know lineup positioning for a while, as I’m sure some guys will drift around, but its interesting that Dominic Brown would be leading off, as he has some power potential. Then again, getting your best prospects the most AB’s is the goal, and batting leadoff is the best way to do that.

Clearwater dropped a squeaker 2-1. Adrian Cardenas stole the show with 2 doubles in his debut. Joe Savery came on after Brad Lidge’s rehab assignment and had mixed results. He allowed only 3 hits in 5 innings while striking out 7, but he walked 5 guys. Matt Spencer, who I assumed the Phillies would conservatively start in Lakewood, went 1/4 with a run.

Reading thumped Altoona 8-3, the lone Phillies affiliate win on Thursday. Jason Donald was 2/5 with a double and 2 RBI. Jeremy Slayden 1 upped him going 3/5 with a triple. Andrew Carpenter didn’t have his best stuff but pitched well enough to win, going 5 innings, allowing 8 hits and 2 earned runs, with 2 strikeouts and no walks.

Lehigh Valley went down without a fight 4-0. Yankees expensive mistake Kei Igawa was perfect through 6 innings, with the Iron Pigs lone hit coming from 4A OF Brandon Watson. JA Happ lasted only 4 innings, allowing 3 ER on 5 hits with 1 BB and 4 K.

Also, for those of you who like quick access to the box scores, here’s what I do. In Firefox, I have a folder on my bookmarks toolbar that has links to the scoreboards for the 4 main leagues. Those links are

Low A
High A
Double A
Triple A

Just bookmark those links and you’ll have easy access.