Kitty Litter - The RGV Ocelots Blog

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Re: Kitty Litter - The RGV Ocelots Blog

#151 Post by Matt »

A disappointing 2-5 week for the Ocelots, but on the plus side the April road death march comes to an end and after 20 road games versus just 6 home games, the Ocelots feel pretty good to come out of April at 15-11. The team had hoped to come out of April within spitting distance of .500, so the month on the whole was likely about a 6 game swing for the positive based on those hopes. The Ocelots will begin a stretch now that will see the team play 35 of the next 47 at home.

A Monday rainout brought about a Wednesday doubleheader in Hartford. This borked the Ocelots rotation for the week, and when Yi was brought back to pitch on two days rest, the 14-5 drubbing at the hands of New Jersey was hardly a surprise. The heartbreaking game of the week was the 1-0 loss in 12 innings to New Jersey on Thursday, when Dave Parkinson pitched 9 shutout innings and close Jorge Nunez added two more. Then Joshua Ligonier drills a 3-1 pitch off Marcos Gonzalez deep into the night for the 1-0 New Jersey win.

Pitcher of the Week - Dave Parkinson, 9 innings of shutout ball, allowing 6 hits, 0 walks, and striking out 5. He gets nothing to show for it but this pitcher of week award. Parkinson is 2-2 3.00 on the season in 5 starts.

Honorable mention - Ruben Hernandez, who allowed just 1 unearned run over 7 innings in a 9-1 win over New Jersey. Hernandez is 3-1 3.00 on the season in 5 starts.

Pitching Goat of the week - we'll go with Iwane Sato, whose lone start lasted 4.1 innings with Sato allowing 4 runs in an 8-2 loss to Hartford.


Hitter of the Week - SS Min-u Yi, as the rookie hit .273/.360 for the week with 3 doubles, a HR, 2 Rbi, a team leading 5 runs scored for the week, and a stolen bag. On the season Yi is hitting .237/.330 with 2 HR, 7 rbi, and 2 stolen bags.

Honorable mention - after weeks dominating the 'goat' category, Takahiro Fujihara emerged from his slump to hit .278 with a 3b, HR, 3 rbi, and 2 stolen bags. Skates has his season average up to .164 now.

Hitting Goat of the week - Dean Walden, as the rookie cooled off with a 1 for 19 performance on the week.

Injuries this week to C Darwin Boyer and CF Orlando Reyes. Boyer, the backup to Glenn at C, had hit .400 with 3 HR and 5 rbi in 7 games so far this season. He will be out of action for about two weeks with an oblique strain. Eisuke 'Big House' Koizumi will come up from AAA to take Boyer's spot. Koizumi is hitting .208 with 4 HR and 7 RBI at Texarkana on the season.

The injury to CF Reyes is more problematic, as he will be out at least a month, and then will likely need a rehab assignment. Reyes had been the star of the offense through the first month of the season, batting .342 with 7 Hr and 17 rbi, and his 8 stolen bags in the month were 1 short of matching his total for all of last season when he started 92 games for the Ocelots.

With Reyes hurt, Walden will move in to centerfield and Fujihara will get a lot more starts in LF. Bob Foster was optioned back to AAA, and veteran's Antonio "Trashmaster' Morales and Michael Drew will assume bench/platoon roles in the outfield for now. The 33 year old Morales is a speedy veteran who has hit lefties to the tune of .302/.385 in his career. The 28 year old Drew has never had his minor league success translate at the PEBA level, but if he can ever get things to click he could be deadly against southpaws. He batted .410/.487 in 118 games versus lefty pitching (321 PA) in his career at AA, and .341/.423 in 255 games versus lefties at AAA.

The Ocelots had three major concerns coming into the season.
1. A number of injury prone players in the lineup, especially in the outfield. 5 players, including 3 important bats, are already on the disabled list. The Ocelots were quite fortunate in the injury department last season, so far this season not so much.
2. The middle part of the bullpen. A spring training injury to Miller and an early season injury to Hanson highlighted our issues here. ERA's of our middle guys - Zhang 7.45, Kichida 9.00, Shimizu 6.23. The rest of the bullpen has been really good (Nunez 3.38, Carpenter 2.79, Gaivo 2.13, Gonzalez 3.00). Much of the damage to the ERA's of Zhang and Kichida came in the 14-5 drubbing by New Jersey, so they will get a chance to straighten things out. Shimizu has been more problematic, as he has continued a disturbing trend of walking more batters than he strikes out at the PEBA level. With Miller coming off his rehab assignment, Shimizu will be optioned back to AAA and Miller will return to hopefully help stabilize the middle of the pen.
3. Left handed setup role. So far this one has worked out well for the Ocelots, as Gaivo has a 2.13 ERA and 0.87 whip through 9 appearances, as well as a save. We got an inkling last season that he might work out better in a relief role, and so far that has been the case.

AAA Texarkana was 3-3 for the week to go to 12-14 on the season, 5 games back in the Far East division. Luis Reyes is 2-2 2.78 on the season in 5 starts, and continues to make progress towards an eventual role in the Ocelots rotation. 1b Jorge Mojica continues to rip the cover off the ball, batting .351 with 5 HR and 17 rbi in 18 games. We would love to get Mojica's power into the lineup at RGV, but with Norman at 1b and Tessier at DH, there just isn't a spot right now.

AA Medicine Hat was 5-1 on the week to move to 13-13 on the season, 6.5 games back of Ranma in the Asian Division. Akio Miyazaki, claimed off waivers from Shin Seki back in November, pitched a complete game shutout to close out the week. On the season Miyazaki is 1-1 2.15 in 4 starts. 1b Shigenobu Kawakami continues his reign of terror against AA pitching, batting .315/.469 with 8 HR and 23 RBI in 25 games on the season. More importantly, we are finally seeing some signs of life from CF Okitsugu Shimizu. Despite the fact that our scout hates him, and that his stats to this point over the last couple of years in our system do nothing to merit it, we have continued to hold onto Shimizu. We were intrigued by the OSA scouting report, he was once a highly touted prospect in the SJWL, he is solid defensively, has speed, a pretty clean injury history, and leadership ability. Finally we are seeing some life in the bat, and just in time, as he is in his final option year. On the season he is batting .333/392 with 6 doubles, 2 triples, a HR, 6 rbi, and 3 stolen bags. The Drillers did lose SP Naoki Hayashi for 7 weeks with a hamstring injury.

A Nogales was 2-5 on the week to fall to 6-8 on the young season. Last years 2nd round pick Mito Nomura is 1-2 2.81 in 3 starts so far on the season. Andres Gomez is batting .391 with 2 HR and 7 rbi on the season. He is also working on learning to play 3b. An outfielder by trade, he has the skillset to play the corner infield positions and improving his versatility could be his pathway to the PEBA level.
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Re: Kitty Litter - The RGV Ocelots Blog

#152 Post by Matt »

A 4-2 week for the Ocelots, winning both series in the division against Kentucky and San Antonio. That puts RGV back on top of the division at 19-13 on the season. The offense found it's groove again, scoring 41 runs on the week while hitting .300 as a team. The two losses were both tough, however, as both came late. We had rallied to tie the Tuesday game with Kentucky, scoring two in the bottom of the 9th, but eventually lost 5-4 in 11 innings. And we gave up 3 in the bottom of the 9th in our 4-3 loss to San Antonio. Marcos Gonzalez took both losses. He'll be properly rewarded a little further down the page.

Our two callups this past week, Antonio Trashmaster Morales and Michael Drew both had big weeks with the bat to help us out. In two games Morales was 4 for 8, walked 3 times, scored 3 times, had a HR and 6 RBI. Drew hit .364 with a stolen base and 4 runs scored in 4 games, 2 of those starts.

The major league roster made it through a week without an injury.

Pitcher of the Week - Dave Parkinson, with 7 innings of shutout ball, allowing 3 hits, 0 walks, and punching out 8 in a 2-0 win over Kentucky. Parkinson is 3-2 2.51 in 6 starts on the season.

Honorable mention - Jun'ichi Yoshino, who allowed just 1 run in 8 innings in a 15-1 drubbing of San Antonio. After having 3 rough outings after tweaking his back, Yoshino has bounced back nicely in his last two starts, allowing 3 runs in 15 innings. He is now 2-3 5.09 on the season.

Pitching Goat of the Week - Marcos Gonzalez. He was the losing pitcher in both losses this week. Gonzalez is 1-3 3.65 with 1 save in 15 appearances on the season.

Hitter of the Week - A lot of candidates here, but let's go with Takahiro 'Skates' Fujihara. With Reyes down and Fujihara pressed into full time duty, he didn't disappoint. Fujihara hit .318/.483 on the week with 2 doubles, a HR, 2 RBI, 7 walks, and a team leading 7 runs scored. Skates is now batting .208/.315 with 2 HR and 6 RBI on the season.

Honorable mention(s) - Shigekazu Shimizu, who started the season hot, then got moved from 7th to leadoff and flamed out. We moved him back to 7th and he caught fire again, batting .421/.455 for the week with a double, triple, HR, 7 rbi, and 4 stolen bags. Shimizu is batting .245/.323 on the season with 5 doubles, 4 triples, 3 HR, 14 rbi, and 8 stolen bags. Our second honorable mention goes to Mario Tessier, who his .421/.450 on the week with 4 doubles, 2 HR, and 2 RBI. Tessier is batting .295/.327 on the season with 9 doubles, 1 triple, 5 HR, and 15 rbi.

Hitting Goat of the Week - C Dan Glenn, who hit a really empty .143 on the week with a 2 for 14 performance. Yet, the 30 year old catcher, who had never before attempted to steal a base at the PEBA level, managed to steal his first ever base in the 2-0 win over Kentucky. The RGV grounds crew preserved the base and presented it to Glenn after the game.

The Ocelots offense leads the league in runs scored as well as stolen bases, and is in the top 4 of most of the other offensive categories.

AAA Texarkana was 6-1 on the week to improve to 18-15 on the season, moving to within a 1/2 game of Namuko in the Far East Division. Luis Reyes notched another win while striking out 10 batters over 7 innings without allowing a walk. Reyes is 3-2 2.97 in 6 starts on the season. 3b prospect Bob Vollmer hit .308/.387 on the week with a HR and 10 RBI as well as stealing a bag. Vollmer is batting .233/.318 on the season with 3 HR and 21 RBI as well as 5 stolen bags.

AA Medicine Hat was 4-2 on the week, to move to 17-15 on the season, 5 games back. Chuck Irwin continues to impress, as he had another solid outing this week. He is 2-0 2.13 in 4 starts at AA, though his lack of strikeouts remains a concern.

A Nogales was 2-3 on the week to fall to 8-11 on the season. RF Clyde Johnson is having a fine early season, batting .333/.476 with 6 HR and 15 RBI.

One roster move this week, as we will waive RF Michael Drew and call up pitcher Makoto Shimizu. With no off days and with our starters looking a little worn from the innings they have thrown recently, we will go with a 6 man rotation this week, possibly next week as well. Parkinson is scheduled to start today and he is coming off working 16 innings his last two starts, so we want to get him an extra day of rest especially. A few of the other starters look like they could use the break as well.

We begin a 14 game home stand with Hartford and Amsterdam coming to town this week, followed by Florida and Marseille next week.
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Re: Kitty Litter - The RGV Ocelots Blog

#153 Post by Bill »

Trashmaster sighting! His play isn't that memorable, the name certainly is memorable. Though after looking at his player page, I guess he hasn't really been gone...it just seems like it.
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Re: Kitty Litter - The RGV Ocelots Blog

#154 Post by Matt »

Last week was a 3-4 week. All 4 losses by exactly 1 run. The teams last 7 losses, and 8 of last 9 losses, all by 1 run.

Pitcher of the week - Makoto Shimizu, who came up to make 2 starts as we briefly went with a 6 man rotation. Shimizu was 1-0 2.31 in the two starts, and finally seemed to get the k/w ratio in order.

Honorable mention - lefty setup Atilio Gaivo, 4 appearances, 5.1 innings, 1 hit, 1 walk, 9 k's, 0 runs. Gaivo has done a great job in the role for us this season and helped solidify the back end of the bullpen.

Pitching Goat of the Week - Jon Miller, 0-2 7.36 for the middle reliever just back from the DL. He maybe could have used another week at rehab judging by the results.

Hitter of the Week - Cheol-chung 0, .421, 3 doubles, 1 HR, 8 rbi, 1 sb.

Honorable mention - Mario Tessier, .375 with 4 doubles and 5 runs scored.

Hitting Goat of the Week - Takahiro Fujihara, ..150 for the week
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Re: Kitty Litter - The RGV Ocelots Blog

#155 Post by Matt »

Another 3-4 week as the Ocelots seem to be a little complacent at home so far.

Pitcher of the week - Iwane Sato, who allowed 2 runs over 7 innings in a 9-2 win over Marseille. It was Sato's 4th straight quality start and 6th in his last 7 outings. He is 3-1 3.99 on the season.

Honorable mention - Jon Miller bounced back after a tough week last week to pitch 4.2 scoreless innings over 4 appearances. Miller is now 0-2 2.89 on the season.

Pitching Goat of the Week - Ruben Hernandez didn't have much in either of his starts, though he muddled through 5 innings against Florida with in a game won by RGV 4-3. On the week Hernandez was 0-1 with 6 ER in 8.2 innings over 2 starts. On the season Hernandez is 4-2 3.59.


Hitter of the Week - Richie Norman, .389 with 3 HR and 6 rbi. Norman is batting .276 with 7 HR and 30 rbi on the season.

Honorable mention - Takahiro 'Skates' Fujihara - .375/.423 with a HR, 3 rbi, 5 stolen bases, and a team high 6 runs scored. The slow starting Fujihara is now hitting .231/.316 with 3 HR, 11 rbi, and 9 stolen bags.

Hitting Goat of the Week- Shigekazu Shimizu, who was 3 for 25 on the week. Shimizu is batting .219/.296 on the season with 3 HR and 17 rbi.

The team will make one roster move this week, sending rookie Dean Walden down to AAA and calling up Bob Foster. With a slate of left handed pitching coming at us this week, we need the extra right handed bat. Foster will play CF this week. Foster was tearing up AAA, .325/.391 with 7 HR and 14 RBI.

The Ocelots continue to lead the IL in runs scored. The Ocelots 230 runs scored is tied for Duluth for tops in PEBA. The Ocelots lead PEBA with 56 stolen bags so far on the season. The team is 5th in the IL in runs allowed, and 4th in team ERA. The bullpen appears to be rounding into form, though it isn't translating into wins in close games. The Ocelots are tied with Canton for most 1 run losses with 10 so far this season, and the 5-10 record in 1 run games has led to a -4 pytho. Despite solid team statistics, you won't see a lot of Ocelots on the stat leaderboards, as it's a very balanced team effort. A great example of this is that despite leading PEBA by a wide margin in stolen bases, we don't even have a player in double digits yet. Skates Fujihara has 9, Dickson has 9, Shimizu has 9, Reyes has 8, Yi has 5.

We are a couple of weeks from getting Orlando Reyes back. He should be able to start a rehab assignment by next week. Darwin Boyer continues his rehab assignment at AAA, where he is playing some 1b to increase his versatility. With 4 lefties slated to go against us this week, and the rotations shaping up for to see 3 lefties next week, Boyer will likely continue his rehab assignment at least two more weeks while Koizumi and his right handed power remain at RGV.


AAA Texarkana was 3-4 on the week, and at 26-20 hold a 3 game lead in the Far East. Luis Reyes is now 4-3 2.98 in 9 starts on the season. CF Juan Ayala is making the most of his recent promotion to AAA, batting .295 in 14 games. Already an excellent defensive centerfielder, Ayala just needs to show he can be competent with the bat before an eventual promotion to RGV.

AA Medicine Hat was 4-3 on the week, and at 25-20 sit 3 games back in the Asian division. SP Akio Miyazaki is opening some eyes, as he is 3-1 2.09 on the season in 9 starts. A soft tosser with a flyball tendency is not generally our cup of tea, but maybe removing a pitch from that arsenal and having him concentrate on turning that knuckle-curve into an out pitch might help his development. It's certainly something we could look at come time for winter ball in a season or two. CF Shigenobu Matsunaga has been demoted to A Nogales as of this week as we try to light a fire under him. He is batting .146 through 44 games.

A Nogales was 2-4 on the week to fall to 14-18, 10 games back in the Mexican. David Vargas is impressing us with his relief work, 3-0 1.44 in 14 appearances. Though he doesn't scout all that well and is likely a career minor leaguer, he has always put up healthy stats for whatever level he has been at. CF Teruo Nagai is making strides in his first season at A ball, batting .294/.338 with 3 HR, 12 RBI, and 6 stolen bags. Clyde Johnson keeps our attention as he is batting .324/.468 with 12 HR, 25 RBI, and 6 stolen bags. We're not sure he will ever be a PEBA level player, but he is putting up some fun stats. 3b Andres Gomez is on our watch list, we think he has an outside chance to make the PEBA level someday. He is batting .313/.375 with 5 HR and 14 rbi. Already a solid outfielder who can play center adequately and is a plus corner outfielder, Gomez is learning 3b this season to increase his versatility. He'll also eventually work at 1b. He has the potential to be a versatile 5th outfielder someday.

The week ahead starts with an off day, then a short 3 game trip to Chucktown followed by 3 at home versus London.
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Re: Kitty Litter - The RGV Ocelots Blog

#156 Post by Matt »

A 4-2 week for the Ocelots as RGV takes 2 of 3 from both Charleston and London. But the big news out of RGV was on the injury front, as starting pitcher Seon-keun Yi was lost for the season with a torn rotator cuff. Yi was 3-3 3.32 in 10 starts and his loss puts a huge dent in the Ocelots rotation.

Hitter of the Week - Takahiro 'Skates' Fujihara, .333/.385 with a HR and 6 rbi on the week, as well as a stolen bag. Fujihara is now batting .248/.327 with 4 HR and 17 RBI on the season, with 10 stolen bases.

Honorable mention - Min-u Yi batted .467/.556 on the week with 2 rbi and 2 runs scored. Yi is now batting .260/.347 with 3 HR, 17 Rbi, and 5 SB.

Hitting Goat of the Week - Josh Shaffer, .167 and 0 rbi. On the season Shaffer is batting .268/.314 with 1 Hr and 16 rbi.


Pitcher of the Week - Jun'ichi Yoshino, who gave us two solid outings, allowing 3 runs over 7 innings in both starts. The first resulted in a 4-3 win over Charleston, the second in a tough 4-3 loss to London. Yoshino has bounced back after a bit of a rough start and has given us quality starts in 5 of his last 6 trips to the mound. Yoshino is 3-5 4.52 on the season.

Honorable mention - Dave Parkinson, another quality outing allowing 3 runs over 7.2 innings in a 5-3 win over London. That's 6 straight quality starts and 8 qs in 10 starts this season. Parkinson is 5-4 2.56 on the season.

Pitching Goat of the Week - Jon Miller, who gave up an insurance run to London in the 9th of a 4-3 loss. That run kept the game from going extra innings, as RGV scored once in the bottom of the 9th but couldn't get that 2nd run. Miller also left with a sore wrist, and in a week in which we lost SP Yi, it creates a further issue as Miller will move to the DL as well.

With Yi gone for the season, it means Luis Reyes makes his PEBA debut this week. That wasn't really the plan, but we need a starter for Monday, and it's Reyes day to pitch at AAA so he became the default fit. We actually hoped to go with Makoto Shimizu, but he's a little tired from recent bullpen work at AAA, so he couldn't start the Monday game. Reyes is 4-3 3.17 in 10 starts at AAA Texarkana this season.

Makoto Shimizu does also get a callup since we are going to play it safe with Miller's sore wrist and DL him for a couple of weeks. Shimizu will move into middle relief. We'll see how Reyes does in the rotation as he gets two starts this week, and we will evaluate who will get the starting nod next week. In an ideal world, Shimizu moves into the rotation next week and we find a temporary solution for the bullpen, and send Reyes back to AAA for more seasoning.

Offensively, we lost Antonio 'Trashmaster' Morales for a couple of weeks. Morales was doing a decent job for us as a platoon/4th outfielder. We call Dean Walden back up from AAA and he'll return to a regular spot in the lineup.

Orlando Reyes begins a rehab assignment at AAA Texarkana this week. Hopefully we can get him back to RGV after just a week of rehab. Last year we skipped a rehab assignment when we brought him back from injury and he had a dreadful first month back. Hopefully we can get him back in gear a little sooner with a rehab assignment this time. C Darwin Boyer is in the final week of a rehab assignment at AAA, and next week we'll have a decision to make at the backup catcher spot. Koizumi is making the decision easy at this point, as he is batting .171 with 1 HR and 4 rbi. We keep him up this week only because we are slated to face 3 southpaws and we like his power in the lineup against lefties, at least for now.


AAA Texarkana was 4-2 on the week, moving the record on the season to 30-22, 5 games up on Namuko. 3b Bob Vollmer continues to make progress, he is now batting .278/.361 with 5 HR, 26 rbi, and 9 stolen bags on the season. Our only issue next season is where to put him if he makes the PEBA roster, as the infield is a bit crowded.

AA Medicine Hat was 4-2 on the week, bringing the record to 29-22 on the season, 3 games behind Ranma. Akio Miyazaki is 3-1 1.91 in 8 starts on the season.

A Nogales has a 2-4 week to fall to 17-21, 12 games off the pace in the Mexican Division. Clyde Johnson continues to make life miserable for A ball pitchers, batting .346/.476 with 13 HR and 30 RBI. He has also stolen 8 bases and is on a pace for a 9.5 WAR.

Coming up, 3 @ KY, then home for 3 with Dayton.
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Re: Kitty Litter - The RGV Ocelots Blog

#157 Post by Matt »

A 5-1 week for the Ocelots, taking the season mark to 34-24, good for a 3.5 game lead over a tightly bunched pack for 2nd in the Dixie. The week started by taking 2 of 3 from Kentucky on the road, then coming home to sweep Dayton in a series highlighted by a final game 3 run rally in the 9th to complete the sweep.

Pitcher of the Week - Luis Reyes, who goes 1-0 3.86 in his first two PEBA starts. Starting in the Monday game against Kentucky, Reyes went 8 solid innings, allowing 6 hits and 3 ER while walking 1 and striking out 2 in a 6-3 victory over the Thoroughbreds. He had to battle a bit more in his next start on Sunday, going 6 innings allowing 4 hits, 4 runs, 3 earned, walking 3 and striking out 8. The Ocelots would rally to win that game in the 9th, 7-6. Despite giving up almost half of the 15 runs allowed by Ocelots pitching this week, Reyes gets the nod as the pitcher of the week for coming in and filling in admirably in the rotation at a time when it was really needed.

Honorable mention - most of the rest of the rotation. Yoshino, Sato, and Hernandez combined to give up 2 runs in 20.2 innings of work in their 3 starts combined.

Pitching Goat of the Week - tough to hang this on anyone this week, but Parkinson allowed 3 runs in 6 innings to take the teams only loss this week. When the team pitches to a 2.38 ERA on the week, someone gets schlonged. This week it's Parkinson despite a quality start in a 3-0 loss to Kentucky.

Hitter of the Week - Takahiro 'Skates' Fujihara, .261/.346 with 2 rbi, 5 stolen bags, and team high 5 runs scored. Skates is now batting .250/.330 with 4 HR, 19 RbI, and 15 stolen bags on the season.

Honorable mention - Dean Walden, .500 (13 for 26) for the week with 2 doubles, 2 rbi, and a stolen bag. Walden is hitting .295/.319 with 2 HR and 22 rbi on the season, as well as 8 stolen bags.

Hitting Goat of the Week - Mario Tessier, 0 for 16 on the week. Tessier is batting .274/.310 with 5 HR and 17 RBI on the season.


Luis Reyes had a nice first week in RGV, but returns to AAA this week. With a few off days over the next two weeks, the Ocelots will go with a 4 man rotation this week, and then look to use spot starters on the 13th and 24th before possibly returning to a 5 man rotation in the final week of June. In the meantime Reyes will get some more work in at AAA. Our latest scouting report says he can probably handle PEBA at this point, but we would like to work him cautiously for now.

Orlando Reyes tore up AAA in his weeklong rehab assignment (.308, 3 HR, 10 RBI in 7 games) and will return to the Ocelots lineup this week. Bob Foster was optioned to AAA to make room. With the Ocelots going with a 4 man rotation this week, and Reyes going back to AAA for now, the Ocelots have brought up an extra bat for at least this week. But the team bypassed more obvious choices like Jorge Mojica or Vapor Lock Martinez, and opted to bring up 26 yr first basemen Jon Lange. Lange was claimed off waivers from Charleston back in February and had been impressing at AA. A lack of room prevented him from being at AAA. But the team like's Lange's bat and think he could be a hitter similar to Richie Norman, who should hit for a solid average with a reasonable amount of power. Like Norman, he won't walk a lot, but will take his hacks and be a run producer. Lange will fill in at DH this week mostly, and Tessier will see a couple of games at 3b as we try to stack the lineups with as many lefthanded bats as we can against the Arlington and Florida pitching staffs this week. Left handed hitting catcher Boyer also returns this week from a rehab assignment, and Koizumi returns to AAA.

AAA Texarkana was 4-3 on the week, and at 34-25 are 3 games up on Namuko. Veteran starter David Gutierrez, who last pitched in PEBA in 2021, is 5-0 2.61 in 7 starts as well as 3 relief appearances. Some thought is being given to having Gutierrez make a couple spot starts for RGV in the near future. Centerfielder Juan Ayala is making progress towards being part of the RGV outfield in the not too distant future. He is now batting .308/.370 on the season with 1 Hr and 8 rbi in 91 at bats. We already know he can be a top notch defensive centerfielder, if he shows he can handle the bat (by handle, all we are looking for is a competent 8th place hitter) he'll be in RGV by September.

AA Medicine Hat was 4-3 on the week and at 33-25 trail Ranma by 3 games. 1b Kawakami continues to be a force at AA, batting .265/.424 with 14 hr, 45 rbi, and 50 BB. He is on pace for a 6.7 WAR.

A Nogales was 4-3 on the week and at 21-24 trail in the division by 11 games. Andres Gomez is a solid defensive corner outfielder who could play centerfield in a pinch, but this year at A ball we are having him play 3b to make him more versatile. We think he could both corner infield positions, and he could have a future in PEBA as a utility player playing both corner outfield and corner infield. He is batting .302/.364 on the season with 6 HR and 21 rbi, but his 9 errors at 3b show he has a lot of work left to do there. He is the starting 3b the remainder of the year, so we'll see how much progress he has made by September.

We have 3 at Arlington this week, followed by 3 at home with Florida.
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Re: Kitty Litter - The RGV Ocelots Blog

#158 Post by Matt »

Mostly thinking out loud....

The pitching has really stabilized for RGV after some April bumps. Since a 14-5 loss to NJ back in the last week of April, over the last 33 games the pitching staff has allowed more than 5 runs in a game just twice, and both times the total allowed was just 6. Even the total of 5 runs has been hard to achieve against our staff, just 4 times has that total been reached in the last 33 games. We're in the top 4 in most pitching categories at the moment, including 4th in runs allowed.

It begins with the starters. Hernandez (5-2 3.37) has allowed 3 or less in 8 of his last 9 starts. Parkinson (5-5 2.71) has 7 straight quality starts. Sato (4-2 3.79) has 6 straight quality starts and 8 of his last 9 are quality. Yoshino (4-5 4.04), who took some lumps in April after a slight injury seemed to hinder him for about 3 weeks, has rebounded with quality starts in 6 of his last 7 trips to the mound, including 7.1 shutout innings against Dayton in a 2-0 win this past week. Losing Seon-keun Yi (3-3 3.32) last week was tough, but as long as those 4 continue to be solid we should be okay. Luis Reyes should become a permanent part of this group soon, but we're looking to ease him into the role. With Jon Miller coming off the DL next week, and the team using a 4 man rotation for now, we'll likely give Shimizu a couple of spot starts when we need a 5th starter, at least until after the all-star break. Barring any more injuries, we could be looking at early August before we are ready to insert Reyes into the rotation full time. Ideally we would like Reyes to notch about another 40 innings or so at AAA.

The relief corps has been mostly solid, after some bumps in the middle innings early in the season. Gaivo has performed far batter in the lefty setup role than we could have imagined, and combined with Gonzalez and Nunez gives us a very solid back end of the bullpen. The real surprise of the season has been Bill Carpenter, a guy we brought in because we needed another lefty in the middle innings. 1-0 2.25 in 26 appearances, Carpenter was mostly used as a lefty specialist until recently, when his numbers dictated that we give him a shot at a larger role in the middle innings. Shinji 'Gimmick' Kichida has taken over the lefty specialist role, and been very good. Overlook that 5 Er in a third of an inning as a sacrificial lamb in a blowout loss to NJ in late April, and Kichida is responsible for just 1 run in the other 8.2 innings he has worked for us.

We'll shed a lot of big contracts after this season. Yoshino (17.5 mil) Tessier (14 mil) O (team option at 18 mil, nyet) and Padilla (13.7 team option) all slated to go. Yoshino should be replaced adequately by Luis Reyes in the rotation. The big concern is losing 3 left handed bats in Tessier, O, and Padilla. We should have around 50 million to play with in free agency, and will have little need in the pitching department, so we could use it to play in the market and see what we could land in the way of a left handed bat. The problem becomes where to put any lefty bats we might acquire, other than an opening at DH. The infield seems set for next season, we can't even find a spot for 3b Bob Vollmer in order to promote him from AAA. The outfield looks set, with Walden and Fujihara slated to platoon in LF, Orlando Reyes moving over to RF, and Juan Ayala and Okitsugu Shimizu likely to come up from AAA to take over as a platoon in centerfield. That probably leaves Michael Drew out in the cold next year, and he has done a nice job for us so far this season, batting .349/.429 with 2 HR and 8 rbi in 16 games. That could leave us in a position where we need to deal Drew or Fujihara next off season. Fujihara seems more capable of being a full time player for someone, while Drew is definitely a guy based on his history who needs to be platooned, and as the short side of a platoon he probably has less trade value. The problem with trading Fujihara is that he is our last real link to the Kawaguchi club that I inherited (though I do have the draft picks from that draft like Hayashi and Makoto Shimizu and 1b Kawakami and CF Nagai all waiting in the minors). For sentimental reasons, I sort of want to keep 'Skates' around for awhile. Padilla might be a value to bring back at just 13.7 mil, if we are not going to pay anyone else, but his recent injuries have me concerned. I am starting to think Jon Lange could take over that spot next season as the full time DH and be similar to Richie Norman, hit for a decent average, have some power, and a knack for driving in runs. We're going to give him some looks over the remainder of the season to see if he can maybe be the guy next year. If so, maybe we pocket all the projected savings and move some into scouting and player development. Plus getting switch hitting Rivera back solves part of the left handed bat equation as well. Another possibility is trying to bring back O on a cheaper contract once he tests free agency. It's something we'll think about, but we're definitely not doing the 18 million option.

The infield next year projects to be much the same. Norman at 1b, Jose Rivera returning from injury and playing 2b, Yi at SS, Shiggy Shimizu moving over to 3b (after a crash course next spring) and John Dickson as the utility guy. Or maybe Dickson and Shimizu swap roles, with Dickson starting at 3b and Shimizu doing the utility role. Yi has fared far better than we thought he would this season, batting .261/.355 with 3 HR, 21 RBI, and 5 stolen bases. Yi is easily the 2nd best defensive shortstop in the IL at the moment, though Phil Anderson is having a phenomenal year with the glove so far and is easily the front runner for the All Leather. Yi has held his own though, ranking 2nd in both ZR and Def Eff for shortstops in the IL. That all probably leaves Bob Vollmer sitting at AAA at least one more season, unless injuries arise. We like Vollmer's bat, he makes solid contact, won't strike out much, has middling power, and good speed. Defensively he should be adequate at third base. He may need to wait for an injury in order to get his turn.

A big question will come at catcher, where defensive whiz Dan Glenn will be owed 3.7 million next year in likely arbitration. If we are not paying anyone else, it's pretty easy to keep Glenn around at that price. Boyer bats from the left handed side and is almost as good defensively and will be making the minimum again. That leaves Koizumi, who will be out of options, as the odd man out, and we may need to see if we can find a trade. Capable bat, solid glove, and has given us good depth this season, but can't crack our lineup because we like the defensive catchers. 23 yr old Yong-kook Ch'oe will also be out of options next season and not likely to get a real shot with RGV. Over the long term, we have to look at the catcher position in future drafts, squeezing more than 3 or 4 more seasons out of a Glenn/Boyer tandem seems unlikely.

An honest assessment of our minor leagues has us feeling like we gave up too many young players (and draft picks) this past offseason and we are looking a little depleted in the minors in the long run. Fortunately the team will be fairly young for the next few years, giving us a chance to restock the system. The plus side of things is we have a few more pitchers on the way. Luis Reyes is almost there. Dan Field and Otis Pearson should join the bullpen in RGV next season, displacing Zhang and Kichida most likely. Kobayashi, Hayashi, and Irwin at AA all need third pitches to become starters, but 2 of the 3 should get them next winter ball and move into line at AAA next season. Beyond that it gets a little thin, with hopes resting on a couple of guys like Elvis Carter and Mito Nomura at A ball to develop. The position players are even thinner. Once Ayala, Okitsugu Shimizu, and Bob Vollmer make to RGV, our future hopes rest on guys like 1b Kawakami at AA and Cf Teruo Nagai at A ball.

Not that the farm system being a little on the depleted side causes us to lose too much sleep at night. Over the years we have utilized waiver wire claims (Dave Parkinson), Rule V pickups (Atilio Gaivo), minor league free agents, and trades pretty effectively to fill our needs. We've also gotten healthy financially and can utilize the free agent market as well over the next 4-5 seasons as needs develop.
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