Daily Archives: August 8, 2008

Michael Taylor Q/A at Baseball America

Check it. Its pretty standard, but he does give some thoughtful replies. I liked this answer though;

BA: What kind of approach do you like to take to the plate for every at-bat?

MT: I try to have a plan for every single at-bat for every single pitch. I’m not saying it always works out, but I feel like the less at-bats I give away over the course of a 500 AB season, if I give away 50, I may not scrape out 15, 20 more hits, and that’s the difference between hitting .275 and .300. For me, I try to go up there, take every pitch, have my plan—and I know we’re not supposed to be stepping out—but just to clear my head, take what happened and just get my new plan for that next pitch. If I do that, I feel that I have a chance to be successful with my approach.

Iron Pigs Report

A difficult week for Lehigh Valley as they went 1-6, falling to 49-71 on the year, 24 games behind division leading Scranton in the Northern Division of the International league.  The ‘Pigs are struggling with a makeshift lineup and pitching staff as they have recently lost several key players to various consequences including call ups (Cervenak, Walrond, Happ), Olympics (Green, Swindle), Japan (Ennis), and the DL(King).  Between all of those variables Lehigh Valley has lost 25% of their team over the passed two weeks or so.  League leaders still include several ‘Pigs not on the current roster.  Hitting leaders include Mike Cervenak who is leading the league in average (.320), and 6th in the league in hits (124). Brandon Watson is 7th in the league in hits (124).  Rich THompson is 10th in the league in stolen bases (24).  Andy Tracy is 8th in OBP (.380), 5th in walks (57), 4th in RBI’s (74), and 3rd in doubles (28). Les Walrond leads the league in ERA (2.61, is second in complete games (2), and tied for the league lead in shutouts(2). JA Happ is 7th in ERA (3.30), second in strikeouts (127), and 4th in WHIP (1.18).  Brian Mazone is 6th in homers allowed (17), 3rd in innings (141), and 2nd in starts (23).  Matt Childers is 3rd in the league with 19 saves. Continue reading Iron Pigs Report