NOTES FROM THE NAT: Vancouver Canadians news

When you look down on the Nat Bailey playing surface from the press box, the areas of turf around the mound and home plate look decidedly odd – a different color, and a different texture to the rest of the infield. The reason for this is that a TV production crew rented out the stadium as a location before the season, and by the time they were done, they’d destroyed a large part of the infield. For most minor league teams, that would be a real pain in the backside, especially with a season looming. But for Vancouver, damaging the infield grass is considered heresy.

Satchel Paige threw from this mound at the age of (approximately) 50, and some twenty years earlier, Babe Ruth swung his bat and spat chewing tobacco on this very infield as part of a barnstorming all-star tour headed to Japan. The story goes that Ruth came to town on the train with his all-stars in tow, and decided they should have a game before they got on the ship for Tokyo. Then the rains came.

But Ruth being Ruth, when he heard that 3000 people had paid for a ticket anyway and were standing in the bleachers getting drenched, he decided they should get their money’s worth, and the all-stars played in torrential rain. Rumor goes that a young Vancouver pitcher was smoking the big guy with fastballs, leading one of the all-star coaches to wander out and announce to the pitcher, “they came to see him swing, not you pitch.”

When that stadium burned to the ground (as they tended to do a lot during the days of wooden stands), the infield grass was moved to a new downtown stadium. When that stadium went up in smoke, the grass was moved to Nat Bailey Stadium, and there it has stayed for sixty years since.

The pragmatists among us point out that grass does not stay alive for 60 years, and that really the infield we see at the C’s today is the great great great grandson of the original holy turf… but pragmatists suck. This infield is HOLY, damn it, and that’s why, on any given day during the season, you’ll find six or seven Winnebago’s parked out front, containing baseball freaks who have ventured long and far just for the chance to grab a handful of the grass that Babe Ruth once spat on.

I guess, over time, people will forget that a bunch of TV people destroyed some of Nat Bailey’s history this year. Over time, the story will simply revert back to “this is where Babe played” once more, and people will still come. Yes, Ray, people will most definitely come.

But for now, it burns the purists. Someone crapped on our history and dug up our field and that much loved tobacky juice is now just a collection of green muck gathered in the wheels of a Peewee Dolly.

Oh well, game time.

Coming in to this series, the Tri-City Dust Devils were hitting for a paltry .156 average as a team. Against the Vancouver Canadians they’ve hit .204, which still blows, but when the Canadians are hitting .203 as a team, it’s not like we have grounds to gloat.

One of the reasons for the slow start of the Vancouver line-up is the utter logjam of players the team has on hand right now. As of yesterday, the Canadians had 38 people on the roster. As of today, that number was reduced by three when Oakland opted to release a few players. Whether they were sent to Arizona, Kane County, or released altogether, I can’t yet say. Nor can I tell you who was sent away. All I know is there’s been some room made, and there’s likely to be more room made in the days to come.

“It’s a challenge,” says coach Juan Navarrete. “I’m having trouble just trying to get all the pitchers good innings, and there’s a lot of infielders to juggle as well. It’s not much fun, but you have to just handle it as best you can. They’re all great players, so I’m just trying to look after them all and get them all playing time.”

On the field, there are a number of players who have made their positions their own, regardless of competition. Haas Pratt, for instance, has a lock on the 1B spot, especially after cranking three dingers in the Yakima series that opened the season. Jose Garcia owns the right field spot, and Wilber Perez has been strong at second base – though he’ll have to be with something in the realm of eight infielders on staff.

Perez, in fact, presented the C’s fans with the first highlight reel moment of this game when he climbed the ladder to bring down a line drive rocket from Travis Becktel in the second inning. Perez wasn’t on hand, however, to prevent a beautiful moment of karmic vengeance on the NOW TV crew as a Tri-City foul tip careened of the NOW truck’s windscreen, leaving a team of production staff running for cover under a shower of broken glass. The Dust Devils bullpen buckled over with laughter as the Vancouver purists passed knowing glances around… it seems the ghost of Babe Ruth has a wicked sense of humor.

On the mound, Michael Madsen (no, not the guy on the right) – who had retired 13 of 14 batters faced in Yakima – was looking ferocious for Vancouver. The 6’0” stringbean from Ohio State, picked up in the 21st round by Oakland in the most recent draft, simply blew through the Dust Devils over the first five innings, racking up six K’s against four hits, and though he managed to let two Devils on base in the 5th after striking out the first two hitters faced, Madsen knuckled down and worked his way out of the jam.

On the hill for the “Dirty Satans” was a guy who left this level long ago and made it all the way to the big show - Aaron Cook, starting pitcher of the Colorado Rockies. Slumming it in the bush leagues while he rehabs from surgery to remove blood clots in his shoulder and lungs. Now throwing with one less rib than he started life with, courtesy of a procedure to remove pressure from his sub-clavian vein, Cook was in fine form, allowing only one hit over four innings. What impressed many in this outing is that his opposite number, Mike Madsen, matched him throw for throw for much of their time on the mound.

When your team is pitching this well, it helps if your hitters get their act together at least once a game, and when Cook reached the end of his pitch count and was replaced by Buzz “The Buzzard” Vargas, the Canadians did just that in the bottom of the 5th, as Jeff Baisley wore a fastball on the shoulder, Ty Bubalo singled, Justin Sellers sac’ed the runners along, and then Mike Massaro drove in a run on a fielder’s choice to short. The fans were elated to see a little small ball after days of watching deep fly balls amounting to nothing. And no sooner had the cheers died down than Chalon Tietje rocketed a fastball from “The Buzzard” off the left field wall, driving in a second run before he was thrown out stretching his single to second.

With the C’s up by two, the Dust Devils needed to respond, and respond they did with a quick single from slugger Brian Kirby. Looking sloppy enough behind the plate to become the subject of intense discussion on the Vancouver radio call, Ty Bubalo lost a wild pitch from Madsen, allowing the runner to scoot along to second, and when Daniel Carte singled to left for only his second hit of the season, the Devils had done exactly what was required of them – manufactured something from nothing.

Bubalo, for mine, has looked decent behind the plate this season, but he’s no superstar when it comes to mobility. The guy has power to burn, and he can sure throw to second, but when you watch him running the bases, it almost looks like he’s got hip or knee issues, as he takes tiny steps and looks most uncomfortable on the move. I could be mistaken, but if he’s backhanding inside pitches, he’s either forgetting his fundamentals or he’s not moving freely behind the plate. Either option will be worrying if it continues.

When the C’s came out in the 6th, Wilber Perez continued where he’d left off earlier this week, by belting a ball down the left field line into the corner and ripping around to second with time to spare. With Pratt on the bases behind him and only one out, Juan Navarrete followed through on his pre-season claim that he would be calling for “running, running, running” by signaling to Perez to steal third. It took a great throw from Tri-City’s non-hitting catcher Ramon Rodriguez to make the tag even a possibility, but the throw was not only great, but Pedro Strop’s tag was money.

The threat was over, and the inning followed.

James Shull came out to handle the sixth inning for Vancouver, causing a murmur from the crowd, anxious to see what a fourth round draft pick was capable of on the mound. Bottom line… he looks good. On 2.2 innings, he did concede 5 hits and an earned run, but he also threw 4 K’s before room was made for Stephen-Ryder Carter.

As the 8th rolled around, Carter was finding his groove. Rob Hosgood, on the other hand, the Tri-City DH, could not have been further from his groove if he caught a plane to Afghanistan while his groove was catching sun in Boca. Coming in to the game, he was hitting a rough .143. Coming out of the 8th, he’d struck out four times in four at bats, earning himself the Golden Sombrero. Carter, at the same time, was blazing, striking out the side swinging in the 8th to protect the Canadians’ one run advantage with style.

With the Vancouver hitters once again failing to bother the scorekeeper, Carter came out in the top of the 9th looking for something special. Carter’s horror story from last season was the sort of thing that kills careers. In 2004, with no US work visas available by the time the draft came around (thanks to some boneheaded post-9/11 legislation that capped the number allowed), Carter was drafted, later than he should have been, by the only team that had a minor league affiliate that could house a Canadian – the Oakland Athletics.

But the devil was in the details – because he had no US visa, Carter could only pitch in home games. He couldn’t train during, travel to, or watch road games because of US immigration rules, so whenever the team was on the road, Carter was at Nat Bailey, throwing a ball against a wall.

And because the A’s pitching rules state that a pitcher must throw off the mound five times before they can pitch in a game, Carter could only qualify for an inning of action at the very end of a long C’s homestand. The result: 2 innings pitched over an entire season for an ERA of 22+. Yikes.

“I took the entire winter off from throwing, to be honest,” Carter told me before today’s game. “After last season I just needed to take a break. At spring training, they were a little late getting my visa confirmed, and I was like, ‘okay, I’m not doing this again’, but it all worked out and now I’m raring to go. I just have to give it a shot and see where it all ends up.” Carter’s winter break meant he came into spring training with a bit of a rusty action and a few less miles per hour of velocity than he was used to. “I was pretty rough coming back, but through extended spring training it came back and I feel like I’m back where I was when I was drafted now.”

Coming in to the ninth, the Canadians were protecting a slender one-run lead, and the job of ensuring that turned into a win was entirely Carter’s. Thankfully, it’s one he attacked with relish.

After a fly out down the right field line that was ably gathered in by Jose Garcia, the big Canadian pitcher snared a filthy comebacker to get the second out, before striking out the final hitter swinging to close out the game, leaving him with a line of 2.1 innings pitched with no hits, 4 K’s, no walks and no runs conceded. SOLID.

C’s win 2-1, and take the series 3-2, despite managing just four hits in three of those games.

Game notes:
* 6th rounder Justin Sellers managed his first professional hit tonight, bringing his average to .143 after three games. Nothing to write home about just yet, but have a think back to what YOU did your first year out of high school… did you hit .143 in single-A ball? Huh? Did you? Didn’t think so…

* Only four of tonight’s Vancouver starting line-up ended the game with a batting average over the Mendoza line – Perez (.333), Long (.242), Pratt (.333) and Garcia (.226). Of those only Perez and Pratt look confident at the plate. Thank god the pitching is near unhittable right now… And thank god Tri-City has four starting players hitting .130 or less.

* Tri-City are in trouble at the moment, and they’re not looking like they’re going to get better any time soon. When your opponents can take two games off you in a series while managing just four hits in each game, you’re getting something fundamentally wrong. Tonight they conceded 12 K’s across the board, and the C’s? Just 2.

* Aaron Cook, who must have loved coming from the thin air, pinball machine-like home run factory at Coors Field to the “don’t even think about going long” pitchers park of Nat Bailey, looked solid in his first rehab outing. He told the Vancouver Sun after the game, “I felt good. It’s just a matter of taking ti slow and getting my arm strength back.” He’s not expecting any further complications from his health woes of the last year, and is due to return to the show around July 26, if all goes to plan.

* Joe Scott wore a hard hit liner off his thigh on Tuesday night, but the team has announced that he suffered no more than a deep bruise from the hit. He’ll take a few days to heal and be back in action soon enough.

* Chris Tritle, who was drafted all the way back in 2000, and played 56 games for the C’s two years later, has been enjoying his return to the short-season stuff. He’s managed a decent .300 average over his first 9 games with the club, after a slow start to the year hitting .216 at Kane County. Tritle is 23, which puts him in the ‘old man of the team’ category in Vancouver, but any thoughts he might have had that his career was in doubt must be close to being put to rest about now. Tritle is second in the NWL for RBIs at the moment, with eight runs batted in, and his plate discipline has been much better since he took the drop in level. If the roster logjam isn’t soon abated, expect Tritle (and possibly Haas Pratt) to get another shot at high-A relatively shortly.

The Canadians are boarding a bus for Everett Washington as I write this, to do battle with the 5-5 Aquasox for three games before returning Wednesday for the homestand against the last-placed Yakima Bears. We’ll be keeping an eye on the games from home, and the reports, as always, will continue right here.

Never heard of the Massey Rating system? Well, you’re not alone.

In fact, I’d never heard of it myself until I just stumbled across this page, where the system is used to calculate who is likely to perform strongest in the Northwest League this season.

Whether there’s much to it or not is a question I’m not equipped to answer, but as a piece of trivia that keeps us talking until the season begins, it’ll do just fine, thank you very much.

So who does Mr Massey think will kick mucho tail this season?

Last update : 06/30/2005

NWL Team	Rank	Power	Offense	Defense	HA	Sched
Salem-Keizer Volcanoes	1	1	5	2	5	7
Vancouver Canadians	2	5	3	5	8	8
Spokane Indians	3	4	1	7	4	4
Tri-City Dust Devils	4	2	8	1	7	1
Everett AquaSox	5	3	2	6	2	6
Boise Hawks	6	6	7	3	1	3
Eugene Emeralds	7	7	6	4	3	5
Yakima Bears	8	8	4	8	6	2

Legend

Rank: overall team ranking based on merit (record relative to schedule faced)
Power: ranking based on predicted future performance
Offense: offensive ranking
Defense: defensive ranking
HA: ranking of team’s home advantage
Sched: ranking of team’s schedule difficulty (played so far this season)

So what does it all mean?

Well, it means that, just like the official standings say… we’re pretty close to first place. Which doesn’t suck.

It also seems to indicate something most C’s fans already know - that the annoyance of having to bus across the border multiple times per season, along with having extremely long bus trips to places like Boise and Eugene, seriously puts a ding in our hometown advantage.. or rather, it exacerbates our ‘away disadvantage’.

Massey doesn’t seem to like the Vancouver schedule either, which last year gave the C’s a nasty, long distance, multiple city road trip that ended as the playoffs began. This year will prove just as arduous, with the C’s scheduled to head down to Eugene for three games on the 9th of July, then back home for three games, then down to Tri-City for five games on the 16th of July, then three days playing at home, then back down to Oregon for three games against Salem-Kaizer, then a ten hour bus ride to Boise Iowa for five games there.

According to Mapquest, that’s an eighteen hour bus journey to and from Eugene, a twenty hour round trip to Tri-City, then eight hours to Salem-Kaizer, seven hours to Boise, and twelve hours to get home again… That’s a whopping 65 hours crammed in the back of a bus over 23 days!

And to think they say baseball is fun…

About Massey Ratings
The Massey Ratings are compiled by Kenneth Massey with the assistance of OurSports Central. The Massey Ratings are a scientific and full-featured system for analyzing the performance of members of competitive leagues.

It’s always nice to see the C’s get a little space in the pages of the hometown newspapers, mostly because it doesn’t happen very often. Both the big papers in town are early morning dailies, and their deadlines are too tight for anything but the scorelines to make the paper, more often than not.

But yesterday’s game was a matinee special, which gave The Vancouver Sun’s Lyndon Little a little room to talk about Jeff Gray’s big start to the year.

Sadly, the Sun’s parent company restricts online content to subscribers of the paper only, and because I don’t want to be sued for copyright infringement, I can’t copy the whole thing for you here.

I can, however, under the laws of fair use, give you the choice pieces of the article:

Jeff Gray hails from the "Show Me State" and that’s exactly what he’s doing for the Oakland A’s brass.

When you’re a 32nd round draft choice you need to show something fairly quickly to prove you deserve to stay around in pro baseball. Gray, a 23-year-old right-hander from Chesterfield, Mo., did that last year when he went 3-0 with a fancy 1.89 ERA in the Arizona Rookie League.

This season, after making the step up to the Single-A level, he seems to be picking up where he left off in 2004. Wednesday, Gray’s strong mound effort enabled the C’s to snap a mini two-game slide with a 3-1 victory over the Tri-City Dust Devils before a crowd of 2,407 in the first mid-week afternoon matinee of the Northwest League season at Nat Bailey Stadium.

[...]

With Oakland’s director of player personnel Keith Lieppman watching from the stands, the second-year pro from Southwest Missouri State limited the Dust Devils to just three hits and one run over seven innings. Gray struck out four and didn’t allow a walk.

[...]

"I felt great," grinned Gray. "I was getting my outs with a fast ball away and then a changeup to the same spot. The biggest thing was no walks. I gave up three on the road and wasn’t happy with that."

[...] Canadians’ manager Juan Navarrete liked the way Gray attacked the Tri-City hitters. "Jeff had good command of all his pitches today," he said. "He was spotting them well. What I liked most, though, was the way he stayed aggressive the whole [way] through."

Nothing groundbreaking, but props to Gray for getting noticed, and even more props to Lyndon Little for giving some love to the homeboys in a town that, for the most part, ignores baseball for being ‘not hockey-like enough’.

Friend and photojournalist Chris Hall spent a little time taking snaps around the ground yesterday. I think he captures the fun and atmosphere of the game pretty darn well. Hopefully there’ll be more pics to follow these.

6th round draftee Justin Sellers (right) chats it up with SS Frank Martinez during the pre-game warm-up.

Manager and Mexican League Hall of Famer, Juan Navarrete, takes in the scene as his troops open the game.

Slugger Haas Pratt takes a few warm-up swings with a reminder of his future looming in the background.

The view from the press box as Chris Tritle readies himself to go yard.

Third baseman Jeff Baisley (I think) takes a long lead at first.

Left fielder Chalon Tietje and center fielder Chris Tritle ready themselves with the C’s NWL Western Division Championship banner in the background.

The C’s bullpen awaits the ball. As best we can tell, that’s (from front to back) Steven-Ryder Carter, Mike Mitchell, someone we can’t see, Shawn Martinez, Clay Tichota, and someone else we can’t see.

A typical Yankees fan in a typical Yankees fan pose. All together now - “Yankees suck.”

Chris Tritle, deciding to slide for home jussst a little late, manages to just catch the plate with his pinky toe to score a run.

The Hooters girls on the prowl for marriage prospects.

With the win in the bag, the C’s players congratulate themselves on a job well done. From left to right: James Shull (RHP - 4th round draftee), Isaac Omura (2B - 17th round draftee), Mike Massaro (OF - 13th round draftee), Frank Martinez (SS - NDFA 2003).

6′7″ Trey Shields (RHP - 9th round draftee) and Chalon Tietje (LF - 21st round 2004) share a moment, as Bradley Davis (RHP - 14th round draftee) passes behind.

Big Haas Pratt (1B - 30th round 2004) greets closer Brad Kilby (LHP - 29th round draftee) with a high one.

Stephen Bryant (RHP - 20th round draftee) takes his props, as Shawn Callhahan (C - 22nd round draftee) goes the knuckle.

Shortstop Frank Martinez, up close and personal.

Pitcher Steven-Ryder Carter, likewise.

Gals love the ballplayers. Especially Wes Long (4). Watch that hand, sister!

Vancouver closes out their first homestand tonight with a game against the Tri-City Dust Devils. Tickets start at $8, which is criminally inexpensive for a night of good clean fun.

Recently, word came down the pipe that Nat Bailey Stadium, the historic home to Vancouver baseball, would be saved from the wrecker’s ball and kept as is for the forseeable future. This is a good thing, in my opinion, but it’s also a mixed blessing.

I did my bit to save the Nat, by allowing an excerpt from a book I’ve been writing on the Vancouver Canadians to be used on the Friends of Nat Bailey website.

I certainly didn’t want to just sit back and watch a glorious piece of Vancouver’s history bite the dust, so I did what I could to help, and the efforts of myself and many others combined to save the stadium, but the fact of the matter is, Nat Bailey is a-hurtin’.

A large part of the right field side of the stadium was demolished a while back because it was rotting away, and before that, the bleachers down the right and left field lines were demolished due to wood rot. Those stadium changes make the visitors dressing room far smaller than the home dressing room, and players last season had no problem complaining that the facilities were of high school standard.

To quote Nick Blasi, last year’s Vancouver right fielder, "Whenever anyone flushes the toilet, everyone in the shower gets scalded." Said Danny Putnam, "My college facilities were better than this. My high school facilities were better than this. I’ve seen little league parks better than this."

Of course, the lads always said these words through a smile, and none were demanding major changes. The lack of polish on Nat Bailey has always been part of its appeal - the old scoreboard is terrible, an absolute deathtrap, but it also happens to be the original scoreboard from Sicks Stadium, home to the former major league team, the Seattle Pilots. The press box is a sweatbox, and whenever the mini-donut stand cookers blows a fuse, the press box computers die along with them. The corporate barbeque area is a great spot, but when you’re down there, you can’t see the game unless you stand at the fence.

So why do I say the saving of Nat Bailey is a good thing? Because history MUST be treasured, and to knock down the Nat would be like knocking down the Vancouver Art Gallery. You might not go often, but be damned if you want someone to take it away from you.

Nat Bailey must be saved from the wrecking ball, but it also needs to saved from itself. It needs new electrics, a new press box, a raised barbeque area, expanded bleacher seating, a lower wall (hey, people wanna see home runs now and then, and a 400 ft long, 20-foot high center wall ain’t allowing much of that), and work done on the scoreboard so that it doesn’t kill someone.

Other things that would be nice include a speed gun so fans can watch how fast the pitcher is throwing, a refitted concourse that doesn’t feel like a farmer’s market, and lights that actually light up the field when it’s a cloudy afternoon.

All in all, Nat needs a big refit, and it won’t come cheap.

But think about it… baseball towns across America have spent tens of millions refitting their ballparks so that they look historic, but work with the efficiency of a modern stadium, drawing in tens of thousands of visitors in the process. A few tonnes of landfill on the BBQ area, a lower outfield wall (or a closer wall, whatever works), a new roof on the stadium with a shiny new press box… these things are not multi-million dollar propositions, and they will pay themselves off by enticing more people to come to the ballpark.

To not make the changes means consigning The Nat to a temporary reprieve, because sooner or later, someone is going to condemn the joint if something isn’t done to bring it up to standard. And then where will we be?

The Tyee, a most excellent online BC newspaper, said this of the Nat while the fight to save the stadium was still in full swing:

Beating the drum loudly[...] is NPA Park Board Commissioner Suzanne Anton, elected to the Vancouver Park Board two and a half years ago. Anton’s preliminary investigations [for a new Vancouver sports stadium] included looking at the edges of the Downtown East Side, most specifically on land located on the fringes of Chinatown, adjacent to the old CN Train Station. The area is ripe for development and would fit into the city’s long-term master plan to revitalize the downtown core. Building a new stadium there, however, appears far down the list of civic priorities. A factor is that Anton lacks political juice in her new role on the Park Board, which prefers to focus on developing green spaces and community-based facilities.

What about Nat Bailey?

One big facility commanding the Park Board attention is the curling venue for the 2010 Games. It’s slated to be located at Vancouver’s Riley and Hillcrest Parks, next to Nat Bailey Stadium, home of the Northwest League Vancouver Canadians. As part of the legacy program associated with Vancouver 2010, the Park Board will inherit the new $28 million curling facility along with a new community centre, library, swimming pool and skating rink, plus assorted other local area park improvements and amenities.

Will any of that glitter rub off on old Nat? Not much, it seems. The Park Board is landlord to the old ball park, built in the early 50’s within the boundaries of Queen Elizabeth Park. Today, the team that plays there, the single-A level Vancouver Canadians, occupies a low rung in minor league baseball. Vancouver used to have a triple-A team, but they outgrew Nat Bailey and departed for Sacramento in 1999.

The current thinking by the Park Board centers on keeping the baseball facility as is and upgrading the infrastructure of the 55 year old stadium as funds and time allow. That’s fine with owners of the Canadians. As the territorial rights holder to minor league baseball, and assuming the C’s are content to remain a part of the single-A short season Northwest League, Nat Bailey is more than adequate.

Let me assure the reader, the C’s are more than content to stay a part of the short season Northwest League, now and for a long time to come.

Team owner, Fred Hermann, told me last year, "the simple fact of it is, in the months around Summer, it just isn’t condusive to baseball up here. It gets wet most days, you call off games, you can’t practice… Really, short season ball is perfect for Vancouver because it allows us to play every day, while full season ball would stretch into months where there’s still the risk of snow on the mountains."

In addition, even if the C’s wanted to leave the Northwest League, where would they go? The high-A league around these parts is the Midwestern League, of which Vancouver could never be a part by virtue of geography. Ditto the Advanced-A California League, and the AA Texas League. So really, the only options are either Triple-A (which we’ve already lost once) and exactly where we are - short season single-A.

The Canadians are going to be a short season ball team until someone either in the halls of power, or in the vaults of the financial world, decide to invest enough to bring the team up to Triple-A standard. Part of that investment would, I’m sorry to say, mean taking the team away from The Nat and sending it to a new stadium, likely in the part of town mentioned in the Tyee - near the railway station on Main Street.

Which leaves us with the quandry… do we take the new stadium and grow with the world, or do we stick with the Nat and make do?

Sadly, it seems the latter option is the only real option. As much as I’d love to see the C’s play a few games on the new FieldTurf in BC Place Stadium (come on, guys, thinkof the promotional possibilities in having baseball downtown, even on a one-off basis!), there just isn’t anyone in town prepared to give baseball the chance it deserves.

That said, if the best we can hope for is another ten years at The Nat, well that’s a pretty decent fallback option. It’s not shiny, it doesn’t work well, it’s a pain in the ass for players and fans… But it’s still The Nat.

People still drive from across North America to touch the infield grass here. And really, if that’s the worst we can hope for, I’m cool with that.

When you’re a college pitcher entering the baseball draft, the last team you want to hear say your name is the Colorado Rockies. And if you do get drafted by the Rockies, you really want to play well in the minors so that another team will trade for you.

So when Tri-City Dust Devils pitcher James Freeman (seen left) came into today’s game with an ERA of 11.57, chances were good that his nerves would be a little on edge.

Thankfully, for Freeman anyway, the Vancouver Canadians seemed to be sharing those nerves, as management switch about the line-up before every game, add players to the roster every morning, and try to cope with a crop of kids who have never played pro ball before, let alone pro ball with wooden bats.

And that was the story of the first two innings of this game between the Canadians and the Dust Devils - nerves, panic, mistakes and defense. A prime example of this came when C’s lead-off man Chalon Tietje drew a walk to open the game, and was then given the signal to steal second. Granted, one could suggest that the C’s coach, Juan Navarrete, was looking to go with the unexpected, but when Tietje was thrown out, and the next two hitters drew walks, the decision looked like a bad one in the cold harsh light of day.

Instead of taking the lead, the C’s failed to bother the scoreboard attendant for the next two innings… And then came the third.

Vancouver starter Jeff Gray had a great start to the year, conceding just 3 hits over six innings in a start against Yakima, and though he was picked up in the 32nd round of last year’s post-college draft (which means he probably got enough of a sign-on bonus to take his girlfriend to Red Lobster), Gray opened today’s game looking strong, composed, smooth and every inch the prospect. Not as fast as Joe Newby, but showing a ton more control, Gray’s only hiccup came in the top of the 3rd, where two singles, a sacrifice bunt, and a groundball to second saw a run score for Tri-City. To his credit, Gray struck out Dev’s SS Pedro Strop to retire the side and get out of a rough situation.

In response, the C’s grew a set, with a linedrive to center from 17th round draft pick Isaac Omura opening out the inning. Omura is a real nugget of a player - your typical squat second baseman, with a very much untypical ability to locate the ball and send it back past the pitcher’s head. He barely looks old enough to be out of pyjamas, but Omura continues the tradition of Oakland pilfering the best players Hawaii has to offer (such as Kurt Suzuki).

With Omura on base, Chalon Tietje drew a very patient walk, working his way back from 1-2, and suddenly the C’s were looking dangerous. That is, until big shortstop Frank Martinez clanked an attempted bunt straight to the pitcher, allowing him to throw out the lead runner with ease. Chris Tritle won few friends when he popped out for the second out, and the Nat Bailey faithful began to get that uneasy feeling they’d experienced so many ties in the last few days - that their team was about to invent a brand new way to blow a scoring chance.

But that would be the expected, and anyone who has called themselves a baseball fan for a year or more knows that the unexpected is an integral part of the game. Just ask Haas Pratt, the leggy slugger who took a pitch in the back, loading the bases so that an ensuing wild pitch would see Vancouver score the equalizing run, irrespective of their own mistakes.

For Freeman, it could have been so much worse - the next pitch was drilled by right fielder Jose Garcia down the third base line, forcing Tri-City third baseman Phillip Cuadrado to pull a great catch out of his backside to end the inning and save what would have been at least two runs - maybe more.

So going into the fourth, the scores were level at one a piece, and they’d stay that way as C’s pitcher Jeff Gray gave new meaning to the word ‘consistency’. Ground out, ground out, pop out, fly out, fly out, fly out… and not a walk to speak of.

Bottom of the fifth, and the C’s were still pumped and looking for the lead. Tietje singled to right, looking more and more comfortable in the lead-off role, and Frank Martinez did likewise, before Chris Tritle (pictured right) chipped one into shallow center and loaded the bases. Coach Juan Navarrete’s decision not to send Tietje home drew boos from the bleacher bums, but credit where it’s due - Navarrete made the perfect call, especially with only one out.

Unfortunately, the fates conspired to turn that decision sour, when a weak grounder by Haas Pratt saw Tietje thrown out at home, and a second weak grounder from Jose Garcia saw the umpire erroneously call out the sliding Tritle as he barreled head first into third to end the inning.

From my angle, Tritle had beaten the third baseman to the bag by a comfortable margin as Martinez slid home, but in short season Single-A ball, you’re only given two umpires, so a close call at third is called by an ump standing at second. Hardly the ideal sightline for such an important play.

Irrespective, the Dust Devils were already on their second pitcher, and rapidly moving towards their third. Freeman, the starter, has an odd throwing action that seems to not allow his pitching arm to straighten at all before he goes into his motion. It’s a quick action, and one that no doubt has some hitters guessing, but you have to wonder how he manages to generate enough power when his throwing motion starts right beside his head.

His replacement, Stephen Edsall, kept things together through the sixth, but in the seventh, with Jeff Gray throwing down K’s and groundball outs, the pressure finally wilted the visitors.

With a new pitcher on the mound in Patrick Stanley, the Dev’s watched Chalon Tietje again open things with a walk, and though Martinez and Tritle grounded into force-outs to get the inning to two outs, the inning was far from over. Tritle stole second, and then Haas Pratt singled him to third, before Jose Garcia singled up the middle to score a run, and Jeff Baisley pushed Tri-City into making a fundamental fielding error at third, which allowed another run to score.

I must say, I really like Vancouver’s ability to make runs happen with two outs down - a trait they’ve demonstrated several times this homestand. It seems to be a trend that they get someone on base, somehow screw up the next couple of outs, and when the chips are down they finally concentrate on the task at hand and make things happen. It plays hell with the fans, who never know whether to cheer or cry, but when you can make as many mistakes as the C’s have been making in offense and still come out in the lead, you’re in a better position than most.

Out came University of Hawaii grad Stephen Bryant (left) to replace Jeff Gray (7 innings, 3 hits, 1 run, 4 K’s, no walks) in the 8th inning, and though Bryant had looked nervous as he warmed up in the bullpen, once on the mound he was all business.

A 20th round draft pick, Bryant looks like he hits somewhere around the mid to high 80’s in speed, throwing in a curveball to mix things up when his fastball is getting noticed. Over two innings to close out the game, he struck out one and surrendered just one hit. Solid outing.

All in all, a weird game. The crowd seemed subdued and so, for the most part, did the players. But pitcher Stephen-Ryder Carter said it best after the game when he told me, "We’ve got a great team here… the hitting is good, but the pitching is ungodly."

Sho’ nuff.

Game notes:

* Chalon Tietje looks very comfortable now in the lead-off role, and seems to be taking on a real ‘heart of the team’ attitude on the bags. He worked hard all game, both on the basepaths and in the field, and showed great patience at the plate to end up with a line of 1 from 2 with 3 walks. Very, very nice stuff. After the game, Tietje told me "I was hitting great in Kane County for a while there, and then I just went pffft. So hopefully the step back to Vancouver will give me a chance to get back in the swing. That’s baseball - one day you’re on fire, the next you’re on a bus."

* Oakland head of player development, Keith Lieppman, was in attendance, yammering into his cellphone as Jeff Gray threw a great game. I talked often with Lieppman last season, so if he sticks around I’ll see if I can get some face time with him and find out anything I can about this year’s batch.

* Jose Garcia is starting to become a C’s fan favorite. He always seems dangerous when he’s at the plate, and seems to have a real habit of getting clutch hits. As a right fielder, to date he has showed good speed, good hands, and great discipline at the plate.

* Isaac Omura may be off a lot of people’s radars, and he has one of the weirdest batting stances around (his back leg is bent and turned way inside, while his front foot extends straight out), but the little second-bagger is a dynamo with the bat in hand. Though he only managed 1 from 4 today (no C’s hitter managed more than one hit on the day), he was unlucky a few times, seemingly getting good wood on a lot of pitches, but falling victim to bad luck and good fielding. One to watch.

* Speaking to the Canadians media liaison, it seems there’s been so much interest in this new crop of recruits, that the press office is actually telling some media outlets they can’t help them with interviews. For a team at this level, this is a real first, because last year the C’s media personnel couldn’t get coverage if they paid for it. What gives with this sudden enthusiasm for interviews with Vancouver players? C’s media honcho Leanne Cass can’t really explain it; "It’s strange, we’re actually getting requests from all over the US to speak with anyone we can get. Not just the new guys, not just the stars, but anyone at all. We have TV cameras all over the ground today… I don’t know what the added interest is, to be honest, but I’m exhausted! Take it from me, I’m never doing Breakfast Television again, especially after the game the night before went 13 innings!"

* Clay Tichota, who had pitched below his best in Kane County earlier this season, tells me he "experienced some twinging" which led to his shift down to Vancouver. Tichota says "We’ve pretty much worked through it, so I’m good now. Havent lost any speed on it, I’m still in the late 80’s/early 90’s." When I suggested that the twinge may have been picked up during some late night elbow bending activity at The Roxy nightclub, Tichota just smiled and said, "So you coming out tonight?" "No bloody way," I said, "The last time I went out drinking with you, I got a wife out of the deal."

Vancouver wraps up this home stand tomorrow night for the final game of the Dust Devils home series. As always, listen to the call (which I can confirm is very entertaining - the C’s have turned one of their funnier beer-sellers into a color man) at the link on the right.

Oakland fans are beginning to talk of a new weapon in Vancouver, one that is likely to hurt opponents in a big way and serve the franchise well for generations.

They’re calling it "The Six Headed Monster."

The Six Headed Monster consists of:

* James Shull (4th round Cal Poly - seen left)
* Trey Shields (9th round U Alabama)
* Brad Davis (14th Rd Lewis and Clark)
* Steve Bryant (20th RD HI)
* Michael Madsen (21st round OSU)
* Brad Kilby (29th RD SJSU)

These draftees are showing outrageous stuff early, and their combined stats (thanks to Athletics Nation for pointing it out) are: 19.2 IP, 12 H, 25 K’s, 3 BB’s, 2-1 win/loss record, and 2 saves - so far.

For mine, the most impressive to date has been the guy least expected to make an impact - 29th rounder Brad Kilby. The big closer has looked rock solid thus far, and his compadres aren’t too shabby either.

Now, if only the offense could start working…