Let’s be honest - we got pounded by the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes all year long. They brutalized us. When we led the NWL and they started their big run at us (or we started our collapse, however you want to put it), it seemed that every time we won, they did too, and every time we lost… they won anyway.
It didn’t take long for them to run away with the NWL West, which continues to be the stronger of the two Northwest League divisions by a handy margin, and the proof of that claim is that the Volcanoes utterly dominated the Boise Hawks in the playoffs, taking the NWL Championship in four games.
After dropping the first game to Boise by a score of 5-1, S-K pitcher Adam Cowart (10-1, 1.08 ERA) threw a three-hitter in game two to level the series at 1-1, before Nestor Rojas scored on an 11th inning wild pitch to put the Volcs in front for the series in game three. Kevin Pucetas pitched six shutout innings to help the Volcanoes to their playoff victory in game four, by a score of 6-4, and Salem-Keizer tastes championship pride once again, for the third time in seven years.
NWL West pride, eh? …or something.
Anyway, it’s not all bad news for C’s fans - the Kane County Cougars (you know, the team that got ALL our best players?) won game one of the Midwest League playoffs on an 11th inning Steve Kleen RBI-single. ‘Squeaky’, who has only been hitting .188 on the season, was facing a 2-2 fastball while batting eigth in the order, and deftly poked it to the warning track, winning the game after Ben Jukich threw 8 innings of 2-run, 3-hit ball.
You wanna know how packed with talent the Cougars lineup is? Justin Sellers can’t get a start, and Matt ‘Authentic’ Sulentic is batting NINTH in the order, while DH Raul Padron is hitting for a .423 average. Yikes.
Scott Moore got the blown save registered against him after coming in to try to get Brad ‘Killer’ Kilby out of a jam and allowing a run, but Branden Dewing righted the ship with 0.2 innings of clean ball, before Semerano nailed it shut for the win.
Oh, and 2005 Vancouver third baseman, Jeff ‘Buttah’ Baisley (he’s smooth like buttah - talk amongst yourselves) got the MWL MVP Award. Because he’s good like that.
8 users commented in " Kane County 1-0 in MWL playoffs, as Salem-Keizer win NWL title "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackI don’t think you give jukich the props he deserves. I know that I am a close friend of the jukich family and if you look at his number’s in vancouver I can understand why you may doubt his ability. But his ability shouldn’t be questioned. After fallowing the Cougars through the Midwest League Playoffs, the kid threw like 7.2 innings of 2 hit ball agains the Quad Cities team which had the best batting avg. in the entire MWL (or close to it). His first outing in Kane County was a 15 inning marathon where he threw 5 innings of shut-out ball. He was undoubtably the ace of the staff once the playoffs came around. So go squable about something else rather than harass him for being the number 7 prospect in the organization.
Jukich is more of a JERKOFF than a prospect, anybody who’s spent any time around this kid knows that he has the personality of a bike chain. Giving him his props……… let’s see, he’s a 24yr old first year professional player. Ok, he did well in the playoffs, he’s not better than two-thirds of the guys in front of him so to call him the #7 prospect in the organization is not only NOT-CALLED FOR, it’s STUPID! Ben Jackoffich will falter soon, and for his stuff, he has a good breaking ball, his fastball is average with no movement, change-up sucks and he’s the most un-athletic kid you’ve ever seen try to field a bunt or come-backer. Best of luck with your so-called #7 prospect’s family. Probably his girlfriend writting in anyway.
I almost didn’t let the previous comment through because it seems to be more a case of sour grapes than real opinion. But hey, Jukich is a big boy, and any reader worth his salt can see a personal grudge when it’s this obvious, and I figure it’s best to censor as little as possible, so there it is.
To ‘Not Imported’, seriously, if you don’t like a guy, just suck it up and wait for him to fail. No need to go around posting anonymous insults about them. Life’s too short.
It’s not as much an insult to him as it is to the rest of the A’s farm system pitchers when you see a guy like this posted as the #7 prospect and you’ve been to spring training and seen the talent the A’s have at the pitching position.
On another note, I’m curious how serious you can take 18-yr old Sulentic being a prospect. GIven the A’s took him high and right out of High School, but lets face some facts, he’s little, he’s so afraid of hurting himself that he does not go after fly-balls with any intensity and lets a lot of things drop that are routine for even a sub-par outfielder. His arm is laughable, I watched in the playoff’s as an opposing catcher took third after Sulentic already had the ball and was no more than 100′ feet away from third. The runner beat the ball to third standing up, NO PLAY! How does that go on to rank somebody as high as he has been touted? Maybe they are guessing he’s so bad at some of the things he does now that if he can improve even a little bit, he’ll somehow be great? I don’t know, I’ve never understood the whole “High Cieling” lingo when it comes to guys like this. And one other TURD, Chad Boyd…….. you may call him a gamer, you may call him a guy with a lot of heart, but GOOD GOD, have you watched this kid in the outfield? Have you seen how NOT BIG he is? Have you seen how NOT FAST he is??? Because I am just curious as to wether or not that lack of those tools with affect him? Last time I checked, no big-leaguer got to where they were by being an Averager hitter with no size, no speed, no power and no work-ethic, but that was just the last time I looked it up. I don’t know.
To answer your rather pointed questions:
How can I rate Sulentic a prospect? Simply because, as an 18-year-old, the kid mashed opposition pitching all season for Vancouver. Is he a great outfielder? Hell no, and that’s why there’s talk of putting him in the infield over time, but Daric Barton isn’t a great defensive player either - in fact, he’s decidedly Durazo-esque - but he hits well enough that it doesn’t really matter.
Sulentic, as I have said many times this past year, is a major league bat with a little league head. I recall seeing Keith Lieppman phone down to the bench and telling them to take Sulentic out of a game when he failed to steal second as a brawl ensued at home plate - but that’s not because Sulentic is lazy or untalented, it’s because he just doesn’t know any better. Yet.
Is he a dick? Maybe. Is he in love with himself? Maybe. Is he content to get by on his batting alone? Maybe.
But his batting is the shit, and will take him a long way. If Oakland can just get some baseball know-how into his head, and teach him some good habits, he’ll be something special, and that’s just the way it is.
Regarding Chad Boyd, sure, he’s not fast. And yeah, he’s not big. But I can only quote Lieppman again, who said of 5 foot nothing Ryan Ruiz, "There’s no rule in baseball that you have to give the pitcher a big strikezone to aim at. If he’s good, he’ll make it, size or no size."
Have you watched Barry Bonds playing in the outfield lately? Have you seen how not fast he is? Have you seen how few flyballs he’ll chase down? Have you seen his comical arm?
Single-A ball is for learnin’, and Boyd and Sulentic are either going to learn and be great, or they won’t and they’ll get used to working at Wendy’s. But seeing as both are young, and are getting good results on the board, I’d lean towards them staying fast-food-free for a few seasons yet.
Great post Oz, that’s what I like to see. But the comparison to Barry Bonds isn’t justified. At the beginning of Bond’s career he was a good/great outfielder BUT, it does him no favors now to be out in the outfield because it is a joke. It’s takes more to get to the majors and stay than either Boyd or Sulentic have in terms of tools, but once you’re established as “A GUY” you’re there to let your skills deteriorate and then you pick one tool to be your weapon instead of all of them. In Bond’s case he obviously chose his bat.
As far as the fast-food-free……. you’ve spent enough time around minor-leaguers to know that no player on any team is fast-food free, that’s all there is after a game. But as far as working at one, I see Boyd as more of a greater at Wal-Mart than I do a Micky D’s drive-thru employee. But only after baseball has come and gone, but I do wish them both the best of luck, I think at their next stop they are going to need it.
One other question though, without Mike Massaro going down, and Toddric Johnson breaking his finger, and Nick Blasi moving up, would Boyd or Sulentic have made it out of Vancouver last year??? And what’s the word on who’s going where because nobody hold’s down the outfield like that Massaro kid, he FLY’S! Will Chad and Matt be back in Low A? Will Massaro have to repeat to start in Low A because of missing 1/2 the season last year? (although he was pretty good while he was there.) What’s the word?
Hard to say where folks will end up (who would have picked Haas Pratt for a catcher in Stockton in 2006?) until they get there, but if pressed, I’d say Sulentic stays in Kane County to open 2007. You’re right in that he only went up in 2006 because of injuries and promotions up the ladder, which is why I don’t see him getting the boot up to Stockton that his offensive abilities honestly deserve. He’ll mash in low-A, learn a few things about baserunning and fielding, then get the boot upstairs around draft time.
Boyd will start in high-A. He was hitting in 2006 well enough, and if he’s going to have a shot at moving up the system, he’ll want to do it sooner rather than later. Age is on his side right now, but in a year or so, he loses any shot he has at prospect status if he hasn’t made it to AA ball.
I’m a huge fan of Massaro’s, but if you wanna talk about a little guy in the outfield - Massaro is about 125lbs drenched in wet concrete. But he’s smart, he’s fast, he can field, he can drop a bunt - if he ever packed some pounds on and started discovering a power stroke, you’d be looking at Javier Herrera in that kid all over again.
Here’s a question - who do YOU see as the guys who are deserving of respect but aren’t getting any?
The guys I see that aren’t getting some of the respect are the guys that go balls-to-the-wall all the time, they want to be the best and they give it everything they have. I give a lot of respect to the following guys for just showing up and playing and letting the chips fall where they may, no excuses, just hard-nosed competition and if they fail, they won’t blame anybody, they just go work harder, and harder until they succeed…….. Steven Sharpe-This guys focus is amazing and he’s pretty darn good too only he’s not a prospect because he was 25 and in High-A, Anthony Recker-this guy is HUGE and has a ton of power if he’d just lay off the sliders away, Mike Massaro-ICHIRO enough said, Brad Kilby-Did you see his numbers last year? WOW!, Jason Ray-THROWS 97mph, Jeff Gray had a great past season aside from his last outting of the year in Stockton. I’d also like to point out a couple things and hear what you think…….. Jared Lansford had a great year last year in Low-A but once he got the nod to High-A he was LIT UP, was this because his stuff was not as good there, or he was nervous, or some other reason, but most pitchers I see that got moved up there did not have the same problems. Brad Davis did pretty good after a shaky start in Stockton, Jason Ray just had some control issues but still was himself, Jeff Gray made the move seem effortless. Steve Sharpe dominated at both High and Low A but will now be 26 in Double A, does this make him a non-prospect?
As far as other guys that deserve more respect though, I missed a couple, Joe Piekarz-he’s a soft-tossing lefty that has always been over-looked and thought to not making it at one level and he always does better than anybody expected. Joe Newby- improves every year, but only moves one level/year, nobody can call him a prospect because he didn’t sign for any money. Ron Madej- Has electric stuff from the left side and he’s a big kid that the A’s must like a little bit because they worked with him at the past two Instructional leagues non-stop. Oh, and Haas Pratt- the kid is twice the first-baseman that Steve Kleen is and has a bat that’s pretty damn good and now they throw him in at bullpen catcher??? What was that move? Haas deserves more credit and I look for him to make a huge splash at spring training.
That’s my piece,
Not Imported
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