posted on Sunday, May 06, 2007 12:53 AM by Jim

PFP to perfection

With Kenny Rogers on the shelf for the first half of the season, Jon Garland could have an opening for a Gold Glove run.

Rogers won his third straight Gold Glove last year, but Garland put together an impressive resume of his own, which I detailed in his season preview. 

He's maintained that level into 2007, and provided a few more examples during today's game.  Garland made a beautiful play on a solid Chone Figgins bunt, and showed the rest of the staff how to turn a 1-6-3 double play.  Over the past week or so, we've seen Andy Sisco spike a throw and Jose Contreras throw wide of second in the exact same scenario.

Granted, I'd still put his odds at 20:1 if only because Gold Glove voting is a complete mystery, and half a season is often enough to win them.  In a year where Aaron Rowand put on a one-man show in center night after night during a championship run, Torii Hunter came away with the trophy despite not playing a single game after July 29.

Even though the Sox won the friggin' World Series, that injustice still steams my hams.

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One guy who has benefited from Paul Konerko and Joe Crede's early struggles is Jermaine Dye, who struck out three times and stranded four in today's game.

I've read and heard people wringing their hands over Paul Konerko's strikeouts, but Dye has K'd 27 times in 106 plate appearances; Konerko 26 in 116.  Dye does lead the team in homers, so he has something going for him, but he's still a significant contributor to a flaccid 3-4-5.

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Fortunately, all the Sox' problems could be solved by the end of May.

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Minor league round-up:
  • Norfolk 3, Charlotte 2
    • Brian Anderson and Wiki Gonzalez had two hits apiece (Anderson had a double), as well as the Knights' only two RBI.
    • Carlos Vazquez, just promoted from Birmingham, threw three hitless, scoreless innings of relief, with a walk the only blemish.  Jason Childers (first appearance, he's 32) and Bret Prinz combined for three scoreless innings.
  • Tennessee 1, Birmingham 0
    • Pitching wasn't the problem -- Jack Egbert took the loss with this line: 6 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 3 K.  Better yet, he induced 15 groundouts to zero flyouts.
    • Dewon Day's misfortune on balls in play may be righting itself -- 3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 5 K.  He also didn't allow a flyout.
    • Jason Bourgeois, Ricardo Nanita and Michael Myers had the only hits for the Barons.
  • Winston-Salem 8, Frederick 4
    • Matt Zaleski and John Lujan combined for five scoreless innings in relief of an ineffective Derek Rodriguez.
    • Every starting Warthog had a hit except shortstop C.J. Lang; slumping David Cook went 1-for-3 with two RBI; Tyler Reves homered and added three RBI.
    • Aaron Cunningham went 1-for-4 with a double, a walk and stolen base No. 10.
  • Asheville 6, Kannapolis 4
    • Kanny had a split start thing going on -- Jose Zazueta pitched the first four, and Faustino De Los Santos pitched the last four.  Zazueta struck out eight and allowed two runs in half; De Los Santos struggled, allowing the other four runs and tripling his season total of runs allowed in the process.
    • Francisco Hernandez Jr. had three hits and raised the average to .348, John Shelby Jr. had a pair of doubles and Brandon Allen hit a solo homer.

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