Three guys who need to pick it up:
1) Joe Crede. Can we break one of his fingers again? I mean that in the nicest way possible. He's looking like the guy that had people hoping for a trade during the 2005 season -- a long swing -- accompanied with the back-knee bend -- that generates pop-up after pop-up and leaves him vulnerable to low and outside breaking balls. Thankfully, he's still got the glove, because the Mendoza Line batting average isn't doing much.
2) A.J. Pierzynski. He'd be No. 1 if I had higher expectations for him. Normally I like 3/26, since that's my birthday, but it doesn't make for a good batting average. Worse yet, A.J. is 0-for-11 with men on. He does have two walks, which surprises me since I think everybody would like to pitch to him at this moment. With Gustavo Molina still searching for his first major-league hit, Pierzynski is pretty much on his own.
3) Tadahito Iguchi. The Emperor is 3-for-17 this year, his first hitting lower in the order. As much as people wrung their hands over Iguchi hitting in the two hole, it never affected his starts. In 2005, he hit .333 in April; in 2006, he hit .322. Two points of silver lining: Two of his three hits have been for extra bases, and he's yet to strike out. He took a couple games off with a bruised index finger, so hopefully that might reset his season.
(Why does the title of that sound like something Rob Dibble would "write" for foxsports.com?)
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Like Jermaine Dye and Harold Baines for the Sox, Frank Thomas
will sport No. 42 for the Blue Jays along with Vernon Wells and Royce Clayton in honor of Jackie Robinson April 15. That's not novel or surprising or anything, but it did remind me of one of many episodes where Frank had problems with words and talking.
Ten years ago, during an ESPN special marking the 50th anniversary of Robinson's debut,
Thomas said,
"I have to be honest. I guess I'm more from the new age. I didn't know
much about the history and that part of things," which people took to mean that he didn't think much of Robinson's impact. Thomas would later tell Ebony Magazine that
his quotes were taken out of context, and said, "I have a lot of respect for him and recognize that we are where we are
because of him. You have to do more than just tip your
hat to him; he deserves everything that's going on in his honor."
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Minor league round-up (it's a lengthy one):
- Charlotte 5, Syracuse 4 (Game 1, 9 innings)
- Charlie Haeger cruised through the first six innings without a run, then gave up back-to-back-to-back homers after an error by Pedro Lopez in the seventh before he was pulled. That's what we call a Buehrlesque meltdown.
- Luis Terrero's fourth homer of the year, a three-run job, gave the Knights an early lead.
- Casey Rogowski scored the winning run in the ninth by walking, stealing second, advancing to third on Sal Fasano's throwing error, and coming home on a wild pitch. Now that's a grinder.
- Syracuse 7, Charlotte 2 (Game 2, 7 innings)
- Lance Broadway was engaged in a duel of shutouts until giving up a two-run homer to Ryan Roberts in the sixth.
- Corwin Malone had a disastrous outing. He put two runners on via a walk and a hit-by-pitch, yet he managed to retire the next two hitters. Then he gave up a homer, a single, and a homer, and Syracuse had a 7-0 lead. Malone also squeezed an errant pickoff throw in there, too.
- Ryan Sweeney drove in Josh Fields from first with a double.
- Birmingham 5, Mobile 2
- Jack Egbert didn't strike out 12 hitters again, but he pitched six solid innings, giving up four hits and two runs while striking out five.
- Ricardo Nanita had a two-run double and Sean Smith had a two-run single.
- Myrtle Beach 5, Winston-Salem 3 (Game 1, 7 innings)
- 2006 first-round draft pick Kyle McCulloch gave up seven hits and four runs in five innings, walking two and striking out three. He had pitched five shutout innings in his first start. He only gave up one extra-base hit (a double), but he was pulled in the sixth inning with two runners on, and they both came around to score.
- Cole Armstrong went 2-for-3 and is now 6-for-13 over his last four games.
- Kannapolis 3, Rome 2
- Faustino De Los Santos gave up only one hit through 4 2/3 innings, but walked four in his first start of the year.
- Chris Carter went 2-for-4 with two strikeouts.
- Kanekoa Teixeira pitched a perfect ninth with two strikeouts for the save. He's only given up one hit in four innings (three games) so far.