Category Archives: 02. Org Reports

The Ottawa Lynx Month of May, (Overview and Hitting)

Ottawa finished up the month of May with a 3-5 eight game road trip, a one game winning streak , and five games back of the Buffalo Bisons. Each team in the Northern Division finished May slightly above .500 at home with the exception of Pawtucket. It is the road record thus far in the season which has been the difference for everyone else in the division with Buffalo six games over .500 on the road and the Lynx six games under .500. Out final road trip of the month was a very up and down inconsistent affair When Ottawa lost, they lost big and ugly, (12-8, 8-0, 11-3), but still finished this road trip just one game shy of .500. The team lost RBI leader and third base man Brennan King, and J.A. Happ to the DL on this road trip and veteran Lou Collier announced his retirement, (May 30). Although the pitching and offense were inconsistent for the month and the home run drought continued, the Lynx are still very much in the race. Personnel changes affected the pitching staff and the loss to injury of Matt Childers early in the month along with King and Happ in the last week of May were especially tough forcing the team to scramble for replacements. Brian Mazone leaving to pitch in South Korea didn’t help the Lynx pitching situation much either.

Continue reading The Ottawa Lynx Month of May, (Overview and Hitting)

Ottawa Lynx Report Week Eight

After a promising start to their eight game road trip, (a 9-7 win on Thursday night), the wheels came off and Ottawa lost the three remaining games in Charlotte by scores of 12-8. 6-2 and 2-1, dropping their record to 22-24. The three loses meant that Ottawa gained only a split in the season series between the Lynx and the last place Southern Division Knights and fell to 9-15 on the road this year.

Continue reading Ottawa Lynx Report Week Eight

VSL Update – First Two Weeks

After a fast start, the Phillies VSL squad has fallen back to a 6-7 record.  With a younger roster the Phillies will probably have less success than last year championships squad, but may still have some prospects.  Several 16 and 17 year olds are getting lots of playing time.  A 16-year-old hitting .230 in this league may end up being a better prospect than a 20-year-old hitting .330.  Unlike last year the Phillies also do not appear to have a dominant starter like Moises Melendez last year.  The two best starters are 20-year-olds Juan Colmenarez and Freddy Ballesta.  Both are having good years, though not as effective as Melendez or Mauricio Romero from last year’s team.  As usual, the team is offensively challenged, though a couple of new signees (Winder Torres and Luis Martinez) are potential solid prospects.

Brief notes on the better prospects and performers are as follows:

Continue reading VSL Update – First Two Weeks

Reading–Week 8

The Phils went 2-5 since we last spoke and are now 25-26, in 4th place and 5 games behind leading Akron in the Southern division.  Reading still has numerous players among the league leaders in categories both good and bad.  Landon Jacobsen is 4th in the league with 5 wins and 2nd in the league with 64.2 innings pitched.  Kyle Kendrick is the league leader with 66 innings pitched.  Matt Maloney is 10th in the league with 44 strikeouts, however has yielded 7 homers which ranks 3rd in the league, behind Tim McClaskey who is the league leader in homers allowed with 8.  In the hitting categories, Javon Moran, despite his injury still ranks among the leaders in runs (2nd, 36), hits (3rd, 53), and stolen bases (2nd, 16).  Greg Jacobs has been climbing the ranks and now ranks 8th in hits (50) and 3rd in RBI’s (32).  The Phils have two league leaders in hitting categories.  Jesus Merchan in  average (.371) and Jason Hill with 18 doubles.  Mike Costanzo ranks 2nd in homers with 10, and continues to lead the league in strikeouts with 67.

Continue reading Reading–Week 8

Ottawa Lynx Week Seven

One of the genuine nice guys in baseball called it quits this week and a familiar former Lynx was brought in to replace him. Thirty year old Ron Calloway called it a day May 18th after eleven seasons in professional baseball and his third season with Ottawa, (2001-2002, 2007). Ron had one stint in the majors, with the Montreal Expos in 2003, and finished with a career .278 average. Good luck to you Ron Calloway in whatever you decide to do next. You will be missed.

The following day, Ottawa recalled thirty six year old outfield veteran Pedro Swann from Reading to replace him on the roster. Swann, earlier in the season, hit .333, (3-9), with three RBI. This is the seventeenth season in pro baseball for Swann.

Continue reading Ottawa Lynx Week Seven

Reading–Week Seven

The Phils end Week Seven having won 2 consecutive games againt New Hampshire, leaving Reading at 23-21 on the year, in 4th place in the Southern division, 2.5 games behind front running Trenton.  After one more game against New Hampshire, Reading travels to Portland for a four game series before returning home to face Bowie. In the batting leaders category, Javon Moran continues to lead the league in runs (36), hits (52), is second in the league with 16 Stolen bases, and eighth in league in average at .310. Jesus Merchan is 6th in the league with 44 hits,  and continues to lead the league with a .383 batting average. Mike Costanzo is third in the league with 8 homers and leads the league with 60 strikeouts.  The Phils have 2 players in the top 10 in RBI’s as Greg Jacobs is 3rd with 27 and Juan Tejada is 7th with 25. In the pitching categories, Landon Jacobsen is tied for second in the league with five wins, Kyle Kendrick continues to lead the league in innings pitched with 60 and Matt Maloney ranks 10th with 40 strikeouts.

Continue reading Reading–Week Seven

Clearwater Report: A Week to Forget

This past week was not a good one for the Clearwater Threshers. On May 14th the team was just one game out of first place and the pitching staff owned the lowest overall ERA in the entire Florida State League. After the next seven games where the team lost all but one, including two games where they gave up 13 runs and 16 runs back-to-back to the first-place Sarasota Reds they are now five games behind the Reds, and the team’s ERA has fallen to sixth in the league.

The week began on an ominous note with the Threshers losing in 10 innings to the last place Ft. Myers Miracle (Twins). Going into the tenth inning tied at 1-1 the Threshers picked up two runs to take a 3-1 lead into the bottom of the inning. Brett Harker came in out of the bullpen to close the game since the Threshers ace closer Mike Zagurski had been promoted to Reading two days prior. Though Harker had four saves on the year, the situation seemed alien to him on this night. He walked the first batter, gave up a single, then walked another to load the bases. He then gave up back-to-back singles as the Miracle scored 3 runs to down the Threshers 4-3.

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Ottawa Lynx Report Week Six

Ottawa Lynx Week Six

The Ottawa Lynx continued their ten day eleven game road trip in Indianapolis Friday May 11-Monday May 14 hoping to gain some ground on division rivals Buffalo and Pawtucket before opening up an eight game home stand against the two teams. Once again they were scheduled to face one of the leagues best pitching staffs as they attempted to climb further over the .500 mark and closer to Buffalo and Rochester in the standings. When a team is having trouble offensively, the Indianapolis starting staff is not what the doctor ordered. Game one saw Ottawa put some runs on the board on a rare night when the pitching wasn’t there but the bats carried the day. The Lynx put seven runs across the plate winning 7-6, Brennan King driving in the go aheads run with two out in the top of the ninth and Brian Sanches picked up the save, (his sixth), pitching a scoreless ninth. Lynx starter Zach Segovia put Ottawa in an early hole, down 5-0 after three innings but the offense came alive tying the game with a five run sixth inning. Both starters were gone by then and it came down to a battle between the bullpens with Ottawa winning out. King ended the day with three RBI for Ottawa.

Continue reading Ottawa Lynx Report Week Six

Reading—Week 6

The Phils ended the week far better than they began, on a 5 game winning streak, bringing their record to 20-17, 1.5 games behind front running Akron in the Southern division. Javon Moran is 2nd in the league in runs (31), leading the league in hits (44) and stolen bases (16), and 6th in the league in average (.319). Jesus Merchan continues to lead the league in average at .381, is second in on base percentage (.440) and 10th in the league in hits (27). Mike Costanzo is second in the league in homers (8) and leads in the league in strikeouts (49). Kyle Kendrick leads the league with 53 innings pitched and Landon Jacobsen is 5th in the league with 4 wins.

Continue reading Reading—Week 6

VSL Opening Day

May 14th is day one for the Venezuelan Summer League where the Phillies are defending champs.  The initial roster for the season has been posted at the minor league baseball web site:

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?t=t_ros&cid=661

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