Recap: The Blueclaws went 3-4 on the week and sit at 9-9 on the season one game back in the SAL Northern Division. The highlights of the week were Jarred Cosart’s dominating performance on Monday and Domingo Santana’s tape measure walk-off blast to end a 14-inning marathon on Friday.
Hitting: Jiwan James went 8-32 with 3 2B and 5 RBI on the week. Leandro Castro continued a good start with a 10-33 week, including 5 extra base hits and 6 RBI. He ranks among the SAL leaders in several categories, including hits (7th), doubles (T-8th), triples (T-1st), and total bases (8th). The optimism after Anthony Hewitt’s first ten games took a blow this week as he went 6-32 with no extra base hits and 8K/0BB. He knocked in three runs during the week, keeping him tied with Jiwan James for the team lead. Domingo Santana had the afore-mentioned walk-off homer, although that was his only extra base hit and RBI of the week. He did walk eight times, and his early ability to draw walks is contributing to an OBP that ranks among the Top 15 in the SAL. On the downside, he was 4-20 on the week and struck out in 12 of his 20 ABs. He has struck out in almost half of his at-bats thus far. Jonathan Villar was 5-27 on the week and had 5 errors, although he did manage to knock in 5 runs. Sebastian Valle went 6-21 with one extra base hit and no RBI. Opposing baserunners were 9-12 in SB attempts against him. One off the radar gut who’s had a nice start is Darin Ruf, a 20th-round pick out of Creighton last year. Ruf is at a .328/.446/.475 split after the first few weeks. He will be 24 during season. Adam Buschini and Jeremy Barnes, another pair of 2009 college draftees, are both hitting above .300 with .900+ OPS.
Pitching: The big news of the week (both good and bad) was Jarred Cosart. He was simply dominant on Monday versus Greensboro, going 6 innings, allowing 3 hits, no runs, striking out 10 and walking one. On Saturday, he was shelved after 2 1/3 IP with a blister. Matt Way got two starts on the week as well, going 12 1/3 innings, allowing 11 hits, 5 ER, striking out 14 and walking only 2. Nick Hernandez wasn’t as sharp as in his earlier starts, but still added another 7IP start to his ledger, allowing 10 hits, 5 ER, striking out 4 and walking one. Checking the leader boards, Hernandez is 2nd in the SAL in IP, Cosart is 3rd in K, and Hernandez and Way are tied for 5th in K.
Transactions: A couple roster moves of note this week. Following his abbreviated start, Cosart was placed on the DL with the blister problem. Ebelin Lugo, who had some success in Williamsport’s bullpen last year, joined the team. Also joining the team was Torre Langley, a 3rd Round pick by the Marlins in 2006 who’s struggled to the tune of a .215 average with 10 HRs over the last two seasons.
Schedule: The Blueclaws start the week by finishing up the series with Greensboro, before playing four at Kannapolis.
Phuture Phillies 
Nice to see Ebelin Lugo surface again. He definitely earned a promotion after posting good numbers in Williamsport last season. I wonder if he was hurt, or they just wanted him to to spend a little more time under the sun?
LikeLike
Looks like Colby Shreve was added to the Lakewood roster today.
LikeLike
I cleaned up the comments.
Thanks for the weekly report. The Lakewood box is the first one I check every night. Probably the most talented group of players there in the time I’ve been following the team.
LikeLike
And I’m really excited to see Shreve actually pitch. Its going to be a very special occasion indeed
LikeLike
I’m going to the BlueClaws game in Greensboro tomorrow (10:45 am). Just an hour down the road from Durham–taking advantage of my work-from-home status. I will take notes and provide a full report of my observations. Looks like Pettibone is pitching.
Any requests for things to focus on?
LikeLike
Hmmm. Things you can watch for that we can’t really tell by looking at statistics are how players look defensively, reads off the bat, positioning, throwing arm, etc etc. For pitchers, if you can sneak down to where the scouts sit and get radar gun readings, that would be helpful.
LikeLike
Would love some observations on the IF defense–Buschini and Barnes are playing away from their college positions and Villar has been making some errors.
LikeLike
Claws are facing a decent prospect (Olmos) tonight…getting fooled by his changeup (5 Ks in 2 innings), although Villar did knock in a run with a double. Colvin got through a scoreless first after giving up two hits but throwing a double-play grounder and getting a comebacker.
LikeLike
Domingo Santana
curious as to what everyone thinks will happen with him this year. His numbers aren’t great, but they are not awful either. Assuming he continues at his current pace, do they keep him in Lakewood all year, or does he get moved to Williamsport? I’d think if his BA stays in the 220s, he could be moved down. Personally, I’d like to see him in Lakewood all year with a good possibility of a repeat year next year to start.
LikeLike
Colvin just picked up his third strike out of the game on a high 90 mph fastball for the second out in the 5th. Gets the third out on a ground out. Has a chance to pick up his first win if the pen can hold a 7-5 lead. Fastball topped out at 93 according to Greg in the booth.
LikeLike
Shreve allows a HR on his first batter in pro ball…ouch.
LikeLike
Shreve in relief and his first pitch is a 90 mph fastball to make his pro debut and then on a subsequent pitch gives up a home run to the first batter he faces.
LikeLike
90-92 on the fastballs with nice separation on his change.
LikeLike
Will look at the things PP and davput suggested at the Claws game. Off to bed before Phils start and I get wound up.
Nice for Shreve just to get started. If he is throwing with decent velocity, all you can ask in first outing is to get through it.
LikeLike
Hewitt with a solo homer.
LikeLike
DiamondDerby Says:
April 26, 2010 at 7:19 PM
I’m going to the BlueClaws game in Greensboro tomorrow (10:45 am). Just an hour down the road from Durham–taking advantage of my work-from-home status. I will take notes and provide a full report of my observations. Looks like Pettibone is pitching.
Any requests for things to focus on?
Yeah, look for some good bar b cue, I lived in Greensboro for 6 years (saw Derek Jeter play several times) and I miss the Carolina cue. There’s a place accross from the Coliseum, forget the name, try that one.
Oh yeah, and see if Santana is really controlling the strike zone or not.
LikeLike
Lakewood can score some runs…see Buschini hit a slam…Castro and Hewitt continue to produce…the team is really aggressive on the bases..I think 3 more caught stealing.
I see Santana probably going down to Williamsport when their season starts.
LikeLike
Jarred Cosart was injured with a hand blister and will be put on 7 day DL to make room for Shreve
LikeLike
Originally expected that Santana would be sent down to Williamsport but have changed my opinion and think he will stick at Lakewood for the entire season unless of course there is some major crash in his numbers between now and June.
He’s struggling a bit with the K’s but is holding his own with everything else.
LikeLike
At this rate Santana will probably stick with Lakewood and Castro will go up when Collier is ready to play. Don’t forget that W’port already has Dugan, Altherr, and Hudson to get their at bats too. Three more caught stealing last night. I’ve never seen so many outs on the base paths at any level. To the guy going to the game today, see if these guys actually know how to run the bases or if they just run everytime they’re on.
A rude welcome for Shreve but its great that he’s up and I hope he stays when Cosart comes back.
LikeLike
I can’t wait to see Williamsport play in July…I’ll be at all 3 games for their VT series.
I’ll try to take a bunch of photos, do some pitch counts and get seats near the scouts if possible. Two years ago, I got to see D’Arnaud and you could just tell he was the real deal.
LikeLike
“I’ll try to take a bunch of photos, do some pitch counts and get seats near the scouts if possible. Two years ago, I got to see D’Arnaud and you could just tell he was the real deal.”
My son saw D’Arnaud last year at Lakewood and came away with the same conclusion – he appeared to be a man among boys and had great poise. Sometimes, you just have to see a player to get a full taste of what is to come – best example was Chase Utely, as soon as you watched him play a little while (and not long, I might add), you just knew he was very special. It the same is true going the other way – you didn’t need to watch Bobby Abreu play for long before you knew that Abreu the player was less than the sum of his statistics – unwillingness to sacrifice his body, refusal to take game situations into account, general laissez faire (i.e., “don’t care”) attitude.
LikeLike
I had a similar experience watching Adam Lind in AA. You could just see he was a professional hitter. His fielding in LF was so-so but he was ridiculous at the plate.
LikeLike