NOTES FROM THE NAT: Vancouver Canadians news

After Vancouver split a Monday night double-header, and lost a rain-shortened game in Everett on Tuesday, it’s become obvious this team will go down as the least winning team in short-season C’s history.  With 28 wins with 8 games remaining, Vancouver needs to win 7 of those last 8 in order to tie their 2003 season season, when Dennis Rogers’ Canadians had 35 wins.

But, there are some reasons to come out to the ballpark this upcoming week, for the remaining three home games.  Records.  Here are some records that may or not be broken by September 3rd.

OF David Thomas currently has 17 doubles, good enough for a tie for fourth with three past Canadians.  Dan Hamblin holds the record of 21, with Matt Sulentic following with 19, and Corey Brown with 18.  Teammate Jeremy Barfield has 16, which puts him in a tie for 8th all-time.

Jeremy Barfield needs 7 hits to be put in a three-way tie for 9th for short-season hits.  Barfield has 63, while Dan Johnson and Greg Dowling each had 70.  The record was set by Javier Herrera, who had 84 in 2004.

Barfield is also one RBI away from tying Matt Allegra and two other C’s alum for 8th place on the all-time RBI list.  2007 Canadian Dan Hamblin holds the record of 62.

OF Jareck West is one triple away from tying four former Canadians for the season record, of 4.  Corey Brown is the most recent Canadian to reach 4 triples in a season.  West has 3, through 56 games.

DH Mike Lissman needs a home-run to be tied for 6th all-time.  Lissman has 6 on the year, good enough for a tie of 8th, but another one will put him tied with Casey Myers and Jorge Soto, who both had 7 in 2001.

SS Jason Christian finishes the year with 39 walks, which puts him in a tie for 8th place all-time.  1B Dusty Napoleon has 38, and is currently in a tie for 10th all-time.  JD Pruitt set the record of 50 last season, and has 35 this year. 

Christian will also hold the mark for the 8th most Stolen Bases in a single season, with 13.

Depending on how many more times he comes to the plate this year, JD Pruitt could set a record for On-base percentage.  The current record is .487, set by Jeremy Brown, and Pruitt’s is .500.  I don’t believe he qualifies yet though, with only 93 at-bats.

RHP Ronny Morla has two more starts in him this season, and unfortunately for him, he’s only one loss away from the short-season record, of 7 set by Inoel Deaza (left) and Christian Gonzalez.  Morla has 6 losses on the campaign, which puts him in a tie with Brad Hertzler and Edwin Minaya.  

If Morla surrenders 12 hits in his final two starts, he’ll hold the short-season record.  Currently it’s 90, set in 2001.  Ronny needs to give up only three more earned runs to break the record of ER in a season as well. 

Jose Guzman needs to appear in two more games this year, to break the record of most appearances in a season.  The current number was created when Dan Fyvie made 26 appearances in 2003.  Guzman has 25. 

Guzman needs one more save to tie Brad Kilby’s record of 14, and two more to break it.  I have a good feeling, that he will indeed smash the record.

Manager Rick Magnante has 104 wins as a Canadians manager, tops for a short-season boss, but is still more than a hundred wins from the C’s all-time lead.  Magnante needs 7 more wins to be tied with Tony Muser for 7th place.  Right now, Magnante is in sole position of 8th place.

One day after Nat Notes reported that SS Jason Christian was on his way up to Kane County, we have learned he will have a familiar face with him as he makes the trip to Beloit, Wisconsin this week, for the Cougars road trip.  LHP Ben Hornbeck, a reliable southpaw out of the pen has been taken off the C’s roster, and will immediately head to the Cougars.

Ben was 2-2, in 18 relief appearances for the Canadians.  His ERA was at 4.88, and struck out 40 batters in 31 innings.  The 6′5 intimidated the batters he faced, and will now be a key lefty in the Cougars bullpen, in their push to the championship.

Vancouver now only has a pair of left-handed relievers, in Fabian ‘Pick Me’ Gomez and Brad ‘Perfect’ Hertzler.

Hornbeck will be the third southpaw in the Cougars ‘pen, joining 2007 Canadians Lance Sewell and Nick Walters.  LHP Anthony Capra and 2008 ex-Canadian Carlos Hernandez are the two lefties in the starting rotation. 

The C’s return to the field tonight, without Hornbeck and Christian, for a double-header, against the Everett Aquasox.  RHP Ronny Morla takes the hill for Game 1, and Pedro Figueroa gets the ball for game 2.
 

After being swept by the Eugene Emeralds, the Vancouver Canadians were virtually eliminated from NWL Post-season contention.  Even after a series opening victory against the Everett Aquasox, the C’s fate is still gloomy.  Heading into Sunday’s NWL action, the C’s are tied with the Aquasox for last place in the West Division, 8 games back of both the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes and Eugene Emeralds, who are both tied for first in the division.  The two are currently playing each other down in the Pacific Northwest.

Last night, a 3-run bomb from Juan Nunez, plus a solo shot by JD Pruitt (who has now hit dingers in back-to-back games), gave the C’s an 8-3 victory in front of 4200 fans.  Nunez also caught a high throw from JD Pruitt to rob a runner at home plate, with Nunez leaping in the air, and swooping down on the runner to get him out at the dish.  It was an excellent defensive snag, to say the least.

David Thomas was 3-4, and Jeremy Barfield was 2-4.  Dusty Napoleon was walked three times, and Jason Christian was 1-4 with a double in his last game as a Vancouver Canadian.

Christian, last game? What?  The C’s SS has been moved up to the Kane County Cougars today, as the Cougars desperately need a middle infielder for their playoffs, which begin next week.  Congrats to Jason, who will look to help lead the Cougars into the league championship.  

Thanks to the Jason Christian Facebook Fan Club for the ‘inside scoop’.

Christian will join the Cougars in Beloit tomorrow, and hopefully for him, he can draw into the lineup as soon as possible.  The Cougars hold the Midwest League wild-card playoff spot from the First Half and their regular season ends on September 1st.

Today’s scheduled, ‘Nooner’ between the C’s and Aquasox has been postponed due to heavy rain in the area.  There will now be a double-header on Monday, starting with Game 1 at 5:00 PM.  Both games will be 7 innings long.  Ronny Morla takes the ball for Game 1, and Pedro ‘Figgy’ Figueroa will mend the ship for Game 2.

Suzanna Ahearne of the Vancouver Sun profiled C’s pitching coach Jimmy Escalante in yesterday’s ‘Westcoast’ section of the Vancouver Sun.  You can read the full article, here.  

Young pitchers working with Escalante don’t just get the opportunity for intensive coaching in their mother tongue, a great leg-up in itself, but also have in Escalante a cultural interpreter, guide and big brother.

"I do everything with these kids," says 31-year-old Escalante following a coaching session before an evening game.

The players on the field at Nat Bailey are loud and boisterous. English and Spanish are spoken in clusters. Escalante slips in and out of his two languages with ease.

"They definitely need a shoulder to lean on. They’re away from home. Many have never done this before. … They can come up to me in any situation. I’m basically their voice."

Escalante’s primary goal is to help the young people develop their play but in order to move up the ranks, they have to improve their English skills with mandatory lessons. He knows that the young Latinos’ year with him is vital. "If someone isn’t there teaching them in Spanish, they don’t get the information….I tell these guys a lot of what they have to do [to get to the majors] happens here."

This is Escalante’s second year here, after being scheduled both times to coach the Arizona A’s, where most latino prospects start their careers.

A week ago, the Canadians were closer to 10 games back of the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes, but now, they’re just six away from the first-place powerhouse.  Would it take a miracle for Vancouver to get into the playoffs?  Yes, but they’re still not out of the picture entirely.  

Vancouver is on the bus heading to Eugene at the moment, before coming home to face the third-place Everett Aquasox.  They’ll then finish the home-and-home with the Flipper Kids before the Emeralds come to visit to close out the home portion of the schedule.  Vancouver finishes the year on the road in Salem-Keizer.  

That’s 15 games left, and the most important three are the last trio of games.  Even if Vancouver makes up three games on the Volcanoes in their next 12 games, they’ll only be three back heading into the series with the Volcanoes.  That means a sweep would tie the teams.  Not impossible.

Salem is coming off a series when the Spokane Indians absolutely demolished them, with the Injuns taking four out of the five games.  Spokane out-scored Salem-Keizer 38-15.  Yikes.  Now the Volcanoes are heading to Everett, where they play a three-game series with the Aquasox.  After that, they have six games in a row against the Emeralds, another three-game series with Everett, before hosting the C’s to end the year.  

Salem is 2-4 vs Everett this season, and 3-3 against the Emeralds.  They play six of their last fifteen at home, and the other nine on the road.  Unfortunately, they’re much better as visitors, going 18-11 compared to the 14-18 record at home.  Vancouver’s in the same boat, with three less losses on the road, they have, however, also played three less games on the road.

Everett is absolutely pitiful on the road, with an 11-21 record, good news for C’s fans who want Everett to beat Salem, because the Flippers are 16-13 at home.

The standings look like this:
Salem is up one game on Eugene.  Everett is four back of Eugene, and five back of Keizer.  And the C’s are one back of Everett, five back of Eugene and half-a-dozen games behind Salem.

It will sure be an interesting next two weeks.

Back to baseball now, Vancouver lost two of three to the Volcanoes to open this last homestand, but took three out of five from the Boise Hawks.  The first game of the series saw Pedro Figueroa pick up his first win of the season, with his only blunder happening when he gave up a solo blast to Andrew Rundle.  Figgy two-hit the Hawks through six, striking out 7.  The three relievers, Mathieu Leblanc Poirier, Ken Smalley and Jose Guzman all pitched hit-less innings on the mound.  It was Guzman’s 12th save of the campaign.

Offensively, Julio Rivera was 2-4 with a double and a run scored, while Mitch LeVier was 1-3 with an RBI and a run.  Dave Thomas led the offence, going 2-4 with a pair of doubles and an RBI, to go along with his 5th stolen base of the season.

Vancouver took the game 3-1.

The next night was a hitters battle, with Boise leading 7-3 going into the bottom of the ninth.  Jeremy Barfield hit a game-tying Grand Slam, but the Hawks pulled away in the 10th, scoring twice to win it, 9-7.  Boise doubled the Canadians in hits, 20-9.

On the hill, Mike Hart surrendered two runs, one earned, through four innings, while Matt Fitts gave up a pair of hits and walks while striking out five in his two innings.  Dan Thomas gave up two runs in the 7th and 8th, and Ben Hornbeck allowed three runs in the 9th.

Jose Guzman took the loss as the winning two runs scored in the 10th on his account.  Brad Hertzler pitched a perfect inning of relief, after Jose gave up the runs.

As I said, Barfield hit a grand slam in the 9th, his third home-run of the season, and Mitch LeVier was 2-5 with a double.  JD Pruitt picked up his first hit since being injured in July, he was 1-5 with two runs scored.  Dusty Coleman’s NWL debut wasn’t so hot, 0-5 with three strikeouts.

Sunday afternoon’s game featured a C’s comeback after leading the game through the 7th.  Boise scored three times in the 8th and 9th to tie the game, but a Dusty Coleman walk-off hit brought in the winning run.

Dave Thomas had a double, RBI and run, while Marcos Luis was 2-3 with a triple and an RBI.  Jeremy Barfield was 0-3 with a trio of strikeouts, but was the winning run after getting on base via a hit-by-pitch.  It extended his on-base streak to 24 games, which is what it ended up being, after failing to get on base Monday night.

Dusty Coleman had the wakoff knock, for his first hit in the NWL.

It was for sure a pitchers duel, with Boise’s Aaron Shafer one-hitting the C’s through 5 when his day was done, he struck out six.  Trey Barham was much of the same for Vancouver, 5 hits, six strikeouts, 6 innings.  Mathieu LeBlanc Poirier pitched a scoreless 7th, before Edgar Tejeda gave up two unearned runs in the 8th.  Ken Smalley took the Blown Save and the Win, as he surrendered a run.

Monday night was a good comeback, with all but two C’s starters pick up a hit.  JD Pruitt was 2-3 with a double and the winning run scored, and both Jason Christian and Dusty Coleman were 2-4, Coleman with a double as well.  Dusty Napoleon was 1-2 with a two-run home-run in the 6th.

Shawn Haviland was spectacular on the mound, 4 innings, 10 strikeouts.  Yes, all but two of his outs were K’s.  He gave up three runs, before Ben Hornbeck and Brad Hertzler each gave up one as well.  Jose Guzman picked up his 13th save of the year, and is now one back of Brad Kilby for the single-season record of 14 set in 2005.  Vancouver won 6-5 after a comeback.

Tuesday was a nightmare, with three Boise Hawks picking up four hits, and another pair each getting three.  All Boise batters had at least one hit, even the guy who had one at-bat.  For Vancouver, Rodney Rutherford was 4-5 with a double, 2 RBI and two runs scored.  Dave Thomas was much of the same, 3-5, 2 doubles and 4 RBI.  JD Pruitt was hit for the first time since being injured, and he was beaned twice, but seemed to be OK.

Starter Ronny Morla surrendered 7 runs in 3.2 innings, before Ryne Tacker, Fabian Gomez, Edgar Tejeda and Julio Rivera all gave up 9 more runs.  To Julio’s defence, only one run was earned and he hasn’t looked that bad on the hill in both of his outings.

Two new players have flown into Vancouver, and were in uniform for game time last night.  The one player, is a 2008 returnee.  He started the year with the C’s, got promoted to Kane County, hit .333 and then got injured on July 14th.  He’s back now, in Vancouver, and is a catcher named Juan Nunez.  He should split time with Julio Rivera behind the dish, but I don’t know if he’s (Nunez) still injured or not.

An update on Dante Love, per the Canadians, is that he’s out day-to-day.  He isn’t probable to return for this series.

INF Dusty Coleman, a 28th round pick out of Wichita State who signed for 675k a few weeks ago has finally joined the Canadians.  Coleman was rumoured to be heading north when he first signed, according to his agent, but batted just above the mendoza line in Arizona and has found himself wearing the Red and White colours of the C’s.  He was the team’s first-base coach last night for the first few innings.

Coleman is primarily a shortstop, but with Jason Christian eating up most of the time at the 6 hole, he might find himself DH’ing and Pinch-Hitting for the first little while.

Coleman was a teammate of 2007 Canadian Travis Banwart, and was drafted by Oakland, as a sophomore.

None-the-less both of the newcomers will be welcomed additions to the C’s as they make their push to the playoffs.  With both OF’s JD Pruitt and Mitch LeVier completely healthy, once Dante Love is back the whole roster will be active.   

When you’re 8 games back going into the final 5-game series of the season, you might ask yourself, "Why am I doing this,"?  Well, the 2008 Canadians didn’t and picked up a 3-1 victory over the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes.  Thanks to the stellar pitching of Pedro Figueroa, and the amazing bat David Thomas had on the night, as well as Julio Rivera, the C’s pulled off the victory.

JD Pruitt made his return from a concussion he suffered in July against Tri-City, starting in LF.  Mitch LeVier anchored Center, and Jeremy Barfield patrolled right.  Leo Gil was at third, Jason Christian at short, Luis at 2nd and David Thomas at first, taking over for Dusty Napoleon, just for the night.  Rivera was the other half of the battery with Figgy and Jareck West was the Designated Hitter.

In the top of the first, a single opened the game for Boise.  Then, a very questionable walk call to Andrew Rundle put a runner in scoring position with none out.  Former First-Rounder Josh Vitters popped up, before Figgy ended the inning with a strikeout to the cleanup hitter, and a pop up from Sean Hoorelbeke.

The bottom half saw Vancouver get a few runners on base, and one was one heck of a hit.  Lead-off man JD Pruitt, in his first at-bat since July, was called out on strikes.  Not just any strike, a very low strike.  David Thomas cranked a pitch to left field, bouncing off the top of the left field wall.  It literally could’ve gone either way, over the fence, or back into the park, which it did, good enough for a double.

Jeremy Barfield walked before two strikeouts ended the threat.

In the bottom of the 2nd, a pair of walks opened the inning, before a flyout advanced the runners.  Marcos Luis singled-in Mitch LeVier, before JD Pruitt was caught swinging.  Luis, at first, looked like he was trying to score the runner before being tagged out himself, and while the runner was running home, Luis was tagged out halfway between first and second.  Mind-boggling to say the least.  1-0 C’s.

Boise answered in the top of 5 with a run of their own, over the right-field fence.  It was Andrew Rundle’s 6th home-run of the season.

Vancouver re-gained the lead in the bottom half as Mitch Levier singled home Jason Christian.

The bottom of the 6th featured the other run of the game, and it came on David Thomas’ second double of the game, which scored Julio Rivera.  With the bases loaded and two out, after an intentional walk, pinch-hitter Dusty Napoleon struck out swinging.  3-1 for the C’s.

Mathieu Leblanc Poirier came into pitch for the C’s in the 7th, making his Canadians debut.  He walked his first hitter, before striking out the next.  A ground out picked up the second out of the inning, before Julio Rivera gunned down runner David Macias.  Not a bad half-inning for his NWL debut.

Kenny Smalley pitched a hit-less 8th, before Jose Guzman closed the game with three outs in 4 batters.

Game Notes:

The Boise Hawks had 5 hits on the night, and walked 6 times as well.  Josh Vitters was 2-4 with a double in his Nat Bailey debut, and teammate Andrew Rundle was 1-3 with a home-run.  The team leader in Average was 1-2 with a pair of walks.

JD Pruitt was 0-4 in his return from injury, but walked once.  David Thomas was 2-4 with two doubles and an RBI, raising his average to .262.

Jeremy Barfield was 1-4 with a walk, extending his on-base streak to 22 games.  Yes, 22 games straight he’s made it on base.

Mitch LeVier was 1-3 with an RBI, run and a walk. 

Julio Rivera was excellent, going 2-4 with a ground rule double and a run.

Pedro ‘Figgy’ Figueroa went six strong innings, giving up just 5 hits, and only an earned run.  He struck out 7, and I may add the run came on a home-run.  His ERA now stands at 4.21, and he is 1-4 on the season, picking up his first win of the year.

Jose Guzman picked up his 12th save, and is now two saves away from tying the Canadians record of 14, set by Brad Kilby in 2005. 

And this next congratulations is much overdue, as Rick Magnante, with the C’s win, now has 100 wins as a NWL manager.  ‘Skip’ has worked tirelessly for this team, and since the club switch to short-season baseball, Magnante has held the job for the longest.  Never given a superstar like Travis Buck in 2005 or Javier Herrera in 2004, Magnante has done wonders for the Canadians, and in the last three seasons I have never heard one player say anything bad about him.  So to you, Rick, congrats!

Rick is the 8th most winning manager in C’s history, and if Vancouver can win 11 more games this season, he’ll be 7th.  Some names he is ahead of, are 1999 Manager Mike Quade, Salem-Keizer manager Tom Trebelhorn, Jack McKeon, former manager of the World Series champion Florida Marlins, Bob Lemon and Lefty O’Doul. 

The C’s get back at it Saturday night, with RHP Mike Hart taking the hill.