by Wilbur Wox

8/7/2009: DULUTH, MN – With the injuries to Howell Diamond and Manuel Rivera, the Duluth Warriors were forced to bring up two of their best minor league performers.  "This wasn't a move we had anticipated making right now," said Duluth GM Joel Dobney, "but injuries kind of forced our hand.  Ideally, these two fellows would have waited until rosters expanded to get their major league cup of joe.”  The two players Dobney is talking about, of course, are starting pitcher Minoru Kudo and outfielder John Kelley.

Kudo was the prize of an offseason trade with the Arlington Bureaucrats that saw All-Star caliber  outfielder Andrés López head the other way.  "We really had Kudo targeted at the Winter Meetings," explained Dobney.  "We see him as a guy who can change the nature of a rotation during the regular season and then give us a leg up in the postseason, should we ever qualify.”  Jim Mora, Sr. was on hand and had several less than encouraging things to say about that proposition.  "Bottom line is, Kudo is a proven AAA-ball performer both out of the pen and in the rotation, and he's going to have a chance to prove himself at this level," he (Dobney, not Mora) said.

The other player coming up was not nearly as well-heralded as Kudo.  "To be truthful, we  didn't have Kelley listed as one of the guys we thought would be a big part of our organization.”  said Dobney.  "He really broke out and proved us wrong this season.”  The 22-year-old Los Angeleno had posted OPS numbers of .683 and .707 in AAA his last two years – not bad numbers for his age 20 and 21 seasons at that high level, but not enough to catch the eyes of Duluth's scouts.  This year, however, John posted a .335/.408/.495 line, practically forcing his way into the bigs.  "As John continued to assert himself, we were just looking for an opportunity to move him up," quoth Dobney.  "We wanted to showcase our veterans before the trade deadline to try to make a deal, but now we really have both eyes on the future."

Warriors fans can catch Kelley's first game tonight against the Canton Longshoremen in Duluth, while Kudo is slated to start versus the Omaha Cyclones this coming Monday.