Coming back from the All-Star break and already assured of a playoff spot, the Lakewood BlueClaws set off on the second half of their season. They also came back without Tyler Cloyd – one of their two first-half aces – a seven game winner, and the SAL innings leader, who was promoted to the Clearwater Threshers. In their first week back, the Claws posted a record of 3-3, putting them in the middle of the pack in the young second half of the SAL North season.

Note: This will be an abbreviated report this week

Continue reading Lakewood BlueClaws Report (6/25 – 6/30) →

With tonight’s 8-3 victory over the Hagerstown Suns, the Lakewood BlueClaws are your SAL Northern Division First-Half Champions!

This gives them an automatic berth in the playoffs and home-field advantage for at least the first round.

Congratulations to the Lakewood BlueClaws players and staff!

Near the end of the first half of the season in the SAL, the BlueClaws find themselves exactly where they want to be: in first place in the SAL North, controlling their own destiny. With a three-game series against second place Delmarva, who, at the beginning of the series was only back by four games, the current condensed series taking place may play a big part in determining the first-half champions.

Having split the first two games of said series, the BlueClaws lead in the division remains at four games, and their magic number is now five with eight games left to play.  A win Tuesday in the final game of the series against Delmarva would go a long way in helping to sew up the first half championship, potentially decreasing the magic number to three.

Continue reading Lakewood BlueClaws Report (6/9 – 6/15) →

Almost two months into the 2009 SAL season, and the Lakewood BlueClaws find themselves right where they want to be – first place in the SAL North, one game ahead of the Delmarva Shorebirds.

This week the BlueClaws put up a 4-3 record against the 2008 SAL runners-up, the West Virginia Power, and the Greensboro Grasshoppers. Again, they lived and died by their pitching, as the BlueClaws offense averaged less than four runs a game (excluding one notable outlier).

Continue reading Lakewood BlueClaws Weekly Report (5/19 – 5/25) →

The BlueClaws were not able to put much together this week, as they went 2-4 in their six games. Their pitching, which had been the key to the team’s success faltered a bit as a whole, giving up thirty runs for the week.

Lakewood, at 13-10, currently sits tied with Delmarva, a half game back for the SAL Northern Division lead, behind Greensboro and Kannapolis.

Continue reading Lakewood BlueClaws Weekly Report (4/28 – 5/3) →

And your current 2009 SAL North Division Leaders…the Lakewood BlueClaws.

Wow, what a week. The BlueClaws won five and only lost one on the backs of tremendous starting pitching performances from promising prospects Jason Knapp, Tyler Cloyd and Jon Velasquez. After swapping games with the Lake County Captains in a rain-shortened two-game series, the ‘Claws swept the Hagerstown Suns in a home series and won the first game of a series at Delmarva.

Continue reading Lakewood BlueClaws Weekly Report (4/21-4/27) →

A week after being shown up by Delmarva at home in their opening series, the Lakewood BlueClaws took their show on the road with something to prove. And prove it they did, winning both their series against Lake County Captains and the Hagerstown Suns, going 4-2 on the week, and 5-2 on the roadtrip. The ‘Claws now sit at 6-5, third overall in the SAL Northern division, and two games back of the first-place Kannapolis Intimidators.

Monday was scheduled to have been the first game of their second series at home, facing the Captains again, however, Mother Nature decided to take pity on the BlueClaws and give them an unscheduled day off rather than making them play the full seventeen straight days their schedule had previously planned for them.

Continue reading Lakewood BlueClaws Weekly Report (4/14 – 4/19) →

This season should be an especially interesting one for the Phillies low-A affiliate, the Lakewood BlueClaws, as the team has a good number of interesting prospects to keep an eye on. They also have one of the youngest teams in the SAL, fielding three 18-year-0lds – 2008 draft picks OFs Anthony Gose and Zach Collier, and C Sebastian Valle, a 2006 international free-agent signing – and featuring a fourth 18-year old, Jason Knapp, as the second pitcher in the BlueClaws rotation.

After a four-game series at home against the Delmarva Shorebirds in which the BlueClaws’ offense seemed to be asleep, they suddenly awakened in Monday’s game – the first of a three-game series at the Lake County Captains. Right now, their record stands at 2-3, good for 6th overall in the SAL Northern division, but only two games back of Delmarva.

Continue reading Lakewood BlueClaws Weekly Report (4/9-4/13) →

After allowing a combined twenty runs in losing the first three games of the week, the BlueClaws needed to step it up a notch and get strong performances from their starting pitchers if they wanted to keep up with the West Virginia Power in the second-half SAL standings. Behind two extremely strong debuts from rookie pitchers Michael Stutes and Michael Cisco, Lakewood evened the week’s record out to 3-3 and stayed in the hunt for the SAL Northern lead, at 24-13 two games behind the Power.

Continue reading Lakewood BlueClaws Report (6/22-6/28) →

After a somewhat disappointing first half of the season for the BlueClaws, they have bounced back in the second half of the season so far. After a strong week, where they went 5-2, the BlueClaws are only three games back of the West Virginia Power for the Northen Division lead in the SAL.

Continue reading Lakewood BlueClaws Report (7/8-7/14) →