Whatever it is I did to piss off the Word Press staff, please tell me.  4 drafts, all with no writing in them anymore.  Two were from Arizona, the other two on UBC and the A’s Minor Leagues respectively.  I don’t know what is up, so I’ll dish out some time now to get it all out there.  Sorry for the major delay, with just over two months until Opening Day, all the news can be found here.

First the minor leagues.

AAA Sacramento:

The Sacramento River Cats have such ex-C’s stars as Jeff Baisley, Sean ‘Doc’ Doolittle (left), Jeff Gray, Brad Kilby, Gregorio Petit and my personal favourite, Anthony ‘Bobble Butt’ Recker.  Add those guys with the likes of James Simmons, Cliff Pennington, Vince Mazzaro, Gio Gonzalez and Daric Barton, and you have yourself a ballclub.

The 3-4 Cats are lead offensively by the C from ‘07 Doolittle, hitting .357 in all 7 games.  Doolittle has one of two triples on the team, and leads in TB.  Eric Patterson is hitting .391 while Jeff Baisley, who was recently designated for assignment, is 5-15.  Jack Hannahan is struggling, per usual, hitting .048 in 6 games.  He has just one hit, and I can’t wait to see him on Baseball America’s relased list (although he has a home-run which is his lone hit).

On the hill, Vin Mazzaro who almost made the A’s has a 2.25 ERA after a pair of starts, and recently acquired Dan Giese has given up a run in four innings.  Jeff Gray, ‘05 Vancouverite, is 0-1.

Midland is 4-2 in the Texas League, lead by Corey Brown, a consensus future MLBer (also from 2007, and my first interview), who is hitting .389 in 5 games.  Adrian Cardenas, Archie Gilbert and Yung Chi Chen are also having good starts to the season.

Josh Horton (’07) is hitting .269, Tommy Everidge .226 and Javier Herrera is 0-2 and on the DL.  Danny Putnam is struggling with two hits in 24 AB’s, and Chris Carter who never played for Vancouver but was 2nd in HR for the entire Minor Leagues last year, has 6 hits, none of which have gone yard.

Jason Fernandez and Travis Banwart lead the staff, while James Heuser (right) has given up a run in 4 innings.  The side-arm fan favourite is three years removed from Vancouver.  Arnold Leon is perfect through 6 relief innings.

Stockton sucks.  There is no better way to put it.  The 0-7 Ports are right now losing to San Jose, who feature ex-First Rounder Buster Posey.  Stockton has no one hitting above .280, and those who are above .277 are Matt Smith, Shane Keough and Todd Johnson.  7 players have yet to hit the mendoza line, including Mike Affronti, Dante Love, Greg Dowling, Mike Richard and Larry Cobb.

From the mound, Scott Mitchinson is the only starter with an ERA below 2.00 at 1.80, and Carlos Hernandez (3.27), Pat Currin and Derrick Gordon (both perfect), and Daniel Thomas (as well perfect) lead the ‘ace’ pitchers.  With the likes of Scott Hodsdon, Craig Italiano (this may be his swan song), Tyson Ross and Chad Kerfoot all struggling, the Ports are in deep trouble.

Kane County is at a respectable 4-3, but have failed to find control on the mound for the most-part.  They have walked 28 batters, and given up 22 hits.  Yes, more walks than hits.  Steve ‘Squeaky’ Kleen, removed from a year off due to injury, leads the pack hitting .400 with a 7 game hitting streak heading into Thursday, while Juan Nunez and Dusty Coleman are both hitting the crap out of the ball.

David Thomas is at .250, Mitch Levier .10 back, and Matt Ray and Jason Christian both hover around .210.

Dusty Napoleon, new winner of Moniker Madness for best name in the minors, has yet to collect a hit.  The staff of Fitts-Haviland-Capra-Figueroa-Hunter/Hornbeck have been near perfect with the exception of a few.  Fitts is 0-2 with a 6.00 ERA (the same as Figgy and Hunter), but has a low WHIP through 9 innings. 

Haviland has given up a pair in 5 innings, Capra threw 5 no-hit innings K-ing 7, while Hornbeck had a no-hitter through 5, before Scott Deal gave up the lone hit of the game in relief.  In relief, Mike Hart, Deal, Jamie Richmond, Jose Guzman and Leonardo Espinal have not yielded an earned run.

UBC:

Off to potentially the best start in club history at 28-8, UBC is 22-6 in Conference play, and need to take just three of four from Corban College this upcoming weekend to clinch the inagural Cascadia Conference North.  College of Idaho is riding on their doorstep, 1.5 back.

The only remaining home games will be the first three at Nat Bailey this year (weather permitting), on the 26th and 27th hosting NAIA Champion Lewis-Clark State.  This is not a Conference Series, but is a good test for the Region I Tournament on May 4th.  All prior home games have been at Thunderbird Park, due to inclement weather at the Nat, which is why I haven’t been keeping up as much.

It’s just too far of a drive to head out to UBC, personally, but the Boys are sure doing well.  Ryan Pilgrim is hitting .368 with 14 doubles, and just 8 strikeouts, while Scott Webster who is now a full-time hitter, is dishing out numbers like .346 with 2 triples and 2 dingers.

Jon Syrnyk, Sammie Starr and Ben Torrie are all hitting above .315, with Syrnyk leading the pack in HR’s with 7.  The Senior is my pick for one of the T-Birds draftees this year, while I believe Pilgrim and Starr will also get consideration from the offensive point of view.

On the hill, Mark Hardy is a perfect 9-0 with a 1.95 ERA as he is the ace of the staff, with 58 K’s in 60 innings.  He has yet to give up more than 10 extra base hits.  Jeff Hall is 1-0 in relief, with an ERA that leads the club (1.10), and Eric Brown is 3-1 with an ERA of 2.19.  Taylor King is 5-1 in 22 innings, while Ashton Florko may wished he had signed with the Cubs after getting drafted last year.  He is 0-1 with an ERA of 14.85 through just 6 innings.  He has given up 11 earned runs.

Meanwhile, down south in Oakland, the A’s have some ex-C’s coming up in the clutch, specifically Kurt Suzuki and Travis Buck.  Buck is hitting .211 but looking better than last year, while Suzuki is batting .265 with just one strikeout (the least on the team).  Landon Powell, his backup, has 2 hits in 7 at-bats.

Surprise reliever Andrew Bailey continues to prove critics wrong of last year’s AA pitcher, who is perfect after 5 big league appearances with just one hit allowed, and 7 strikeouts.  Santiago Casilla is 0-1, with a 3.38 ERA.