posted on Sunday, April 22, 2007 2:47 AM
by
Jim
Moonlighting
One of the things that struck me odd about
Field of Dreams -- aside from Shoeless Joe Jackson batting righty and possessing no southern accent whatsoever -- is that while Moonlight Graham got a chance to hit, it didn't give him an actual at-bat to his credit. His career began and ended with a sacrifice fly.
But Graham didn't complain -- he was fine trading in the "Moonlight" moniker for "Doc" instead. And after watching Gustavo Molina attempt to hit at the major-league level, I'm wondering if there's a way somebody can force him into med school, too.
Molina's MLB career started with a fairly deep sacrifice fly on
Opening Day. Since then, he is 0-for-8, and Ozzie Guillen has so little faith in his hitting abilities that Molina has yet to finish a game he's started.
Saturday's game marked the third designated off day of the season for A.J. Pierzynski, but he hasn't fully enjoyed any of them. More than that, Pierzynski has multiple plate appearances in two of those three games. A.J.
said after the Toby Hall signing that he didn't want any at-bats taken away from him against lefties, and he's practically getting his wish. So far,
the results haven't been pretty.
Meanwhile,
Hall says he's rehabbing well:
In his rehab, some days go better than others. Hall said he's having no
problems with hitting, but his throwing doesn't always go as well as
he'd like it to. Still, he's ahead of schedule, which is good news for
the 31-year-old Hall and the White Sox.
Better yet, his shoulder doesn't hurt, though he's been told it's supposed to hurt.
Let's hope he keeps making progress, because I don't know if Moonlight Molina's going anywhere otherwise.
***************
Minor league round-up:
- Columbus 4, Charlotte 1
- Jerry Owens, Ernie Young and catcher Ryan Smith had the only three hits for Charlotte. Luis Terrero achieved the hat trick on an 0-for-3 night; Josh Fields went 0-for-2 with two walks. He's batting only .192, but his OBP is .348 thanks to 13 walks in 15 games.
- An ugly day for pitchers all around -- both teams walked seven batters, and Vladimir Nunez walked five in 4+ innings himself. Ehren Wassermann gave up his first earned run fo the season.
- Mississippi 6, Birmingham 5 (11 innings)
- Dewon Day continues his descent into mortality. After the Barons gained the lead in the top of the 11th, Day gave it right back in the bottom of the inning and was tagged with the loss. He gave up two hits and two walks (one intentional) without retiring a batter, though he was hurt by a Chris Kelly error.
- Adam Russell pitched five so-so innings -- seven hits, three runs, two walks, one strikeout.
- Ricardo Nanita and Jeremy West each had two-hit games; Cory Aldridge had a pair of RBI.
- Winston-Salem 6, Wilmington 1
- Justin Cassell pitched eight innings of two-hit ball, allowing one run and walking two while striking out seven. He also induced 14 groundouts to only three flyouts. The outing actually raised his ERA to 0.93.
- Keep an eye on Carlos Torres -- with another perfect innings of relief, Torres has started his season with 11 scoreless inning, where he's allowed five hits. More impressively, he's struck out 13 batters while walking none.
- Aaron Cunningham hit his second homer of the year, and David Cook (4) and Micah Schurnstein (3) also went deep.
- Kannapolis 6, Augusta 2
- Justin Edwards pitched five innings of one-run ball for the victory, allowing five hits and no walks while striking out four.
- Archie Gilbert, Maurice Gatrell, Brandon Allen, John Shelby Jr. and Robert Hudson each had two hits; Hudson had a game-high two RBI.