Keeping to the Resolution

6.30.09: It's nearly 1 a.m. in Midland but I'm going to keep trying to do my post-game thoughts.

Positive: Luis Fernandez and Tyler Pastornicky were sensational. I enjoy watching Luis play more and more by the day... he plays wherever you need him to in the infield and he finds his way on base. That works for me. Yes, the error total is high but I wonder if that total will drop if he gets more playing time sort of like how Justin McClanahan started hitting as soon as he got regular playing time.

Negative: Speaking of McClanahan, he's ice cold right now. Missed some pitches today that he doesn't ordinarily miss. I'm not concerned, he'll snap out of it.

Positive: Ryan Koch + Dustin Antolin + Hunter Moody = 4 1/3 scoreless innings. Good to see Ryan looking sharp, good to get Dustin back, good to see Hunter looking unhittable. I liked Keith Meyer, tough to see him go. That's the way of the baseball business. Hope he lands on his feet.

Negative: Forget Justin McClanahan, nobody hit except for Fernandez and Pastornicky. Lack of offense is a continuing theme. When you give up three runs, you're supposed to win.

Craziness: This game in the Minor Leagues and this game in the Major Leagues.

Any disagreements with this map?

Posted by Jesse Goldberg-Strassler

Very Nice

6.28.09: Excellent victory today. If this were hockey, the three stars are:

3 - Closer Matt Daly, locking down the perfect ninth with two strikeouts. Daly's gotten to the point where I knew the game was over as soon as the Lugnuts took the lead in the bottom of the eighth. He's that good. Dayton's broadcaster told me he had the same reaction.

2 - Starter Henderson Alvarez, regaining his awesome All-Star form with six tremendous innings, setting down the final 12 batters he faced (and striking out the last three).

1 - Catcher A.J. Jimenez. Three hits in four at-bats, a huge game-tying RBI single, a HUGE go-ahead RBI double, a stolen base, and fine defense. That's his best game of the year.

Day off tomorrow, back at it on Tuesday against the Loons!

Posted by Jesse Goldberg-Strassler

Eight Stolen Bases Isn't the Problem

6.27.09: Okay, I know: if you were at the game tonight (Lugnuts lose, 5-2, to Dayton), it was an awfully frustrating thing to keep seeing Dayton runners stealing bases without the presence of at least one pitchout... and Chad Beck and Jon Talley especially struggled to stop the blatant burglary.

I would argue, however, that the steals didn't lose this game. The starting pitching didn't either, although I think everyone would like Chad Beck to pitch more than four innings (and that includes Chad Beck).

Do you realize that the Dragons batted 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position? 1-for-11! The one hit was Kevin Coddington's RBI double in the second inning, the run immediately matched by Chris Emanuele's home run.

And then Byron Wiley homered, as did Mike Konstanty, and the game was over.

Meanwhile, the Lugnuts went 1-for-3 with runners in scoring position. That's awful. Not the .333 average, that's fine. The three at-bats with runners in scoring position. You've got to get more than that, I'm sorry.

I think this is the frustrating thing about this Lugnuts team. There are flashes of great optimism, but in the end there is no overlying strength that can hide the other weaknesses. They committed four errors tonight, the pitching wasn't great, and the hitting was close to nonexistent.

But they allowed eight stolen bases, an outlandish number, and so that's the top story even when it's not the real problem.

Posted by Jesse Goldberg-Strassler

One Step Forward, One Step Back

6.26.09: There are New Year's Resolutions and then there are All-Star Break Resolutions.

One of mine was to try to type up rapid blog reactions to each Lugnuts game in the second half. I'm 1-for-2 so far.

(To give you a hint of my post-game life, the game tonight ended at 9:57 and I'm now typing this up at 11:30... and then I shall be back working early tomorrow morning. You should see me run around the stadium during the day, too, or run around the press box during my 90-secod commercial breaks!)

One step forward, one step back.

The first game of the second half was a true victory. Hard-fought and well-earned. Clutch hitting, clutch pitching, solid defense.

Well, the second game of the second half was a true loss. Not much offense whatsoever (12 strikeouts!), especially after the third inning, and a poor starting effort. In the end, this one wasn't in doubt.

I could indict a player here or a player there, but one look at the box score reveals what happened. It was a team loss, like yesterday was a team win. Yes, it all starts with the starting pitcher... and that's why the onus is really on Chad Beck tomorrow. Matt Daly said in the pregame interview today that this team was starting to believe. Lose more games like this one, and they'll be believing that they're no different than they were in the first half.

And maybe they are no different. Here's the old saw, and it still holds true:

Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right.

Posted by Jesse Goldberg-Strassler

Halfway Home

6.22.09: Funny that I typed that June 15 entry wondering what would happen next and then the Lugnuts explode for a phenomenal 11-2 victory, split a hard-fought series with Dayton, get swamped in three games by Great Lakes and then break the hearts of the Loons in the first half finale. Ah, baseball. So hard to figure.

Lansing finishes the first half of the season with a record of 26-43, definitely a half to forget.

What to do during the break? Luis Fernandez is flying to Puerto Rico, Dan McIntosh is flying to Florida, and Brian Van Kirk and Henderson Alvarez are going to Clinton, Iowa.

As for me, here's a Lugnut hint.

Beyond that, it's about getting an oil change, going shopping, relaxing, working out... basically getting away from baseball and recharging my battery. I've been thinking about driving in to see Detroit, too, since I've never been before if you can believe it.

I've finished uploading nearly all of my pre-game interviews, if you're interested (with the exception of Ryan Koch). The 2009 game archives page is slowly coming around, too. In the second half I'm going to focus on the highlights page.

I caution you not to judge the second half of the season by whatever happens in the first weeks coming up. Pennant races are decided more by your August roster than anything else. That said, it sure would be nice to get off to a good start at home against a division rival in Dayton.

Hey, remember Moises Sierra? Check out how he did in the 2009 Florida State League All-Star Game!

Posted by Jesse Goldberg-Strassler

One Game at a Time

6.15.09: I have gone nearly a week without a blog entry. If I were to write an immediate blog entry after each game, and I've thought about doing this, imagine what it would have looked like for the past six days:

June 10, following a doubleheader split with West Michigan, winning 8-2 on Chase Lirette's complete game before losing 5-3 in 11 innings... I'm exhausted. So is everyone. 18 innings in one day, man, and six hours of baseball. It's like we were in the majors. The extra-innings loss was tough, but Lirette's first career complete game, thrown on his 24th birthday, more than made up for it.

June 11, coming back to beat Great Lakes, 9-8, with five runs in the bottom of the seventh inning... best win of the year so far. Justin McClanahan's the hero, with the three-run go-ahead homer.

June 12, losing 3-2 to the Loons in 10 innings... tough defeat, especially with the winning run coming in on Yorman Mayora's bases-loaded walk. Still, John Anderson pitched well, his best outing of the season.

June 13, losing 4-1 to Great Lakes in two hours and three minutes... okay, it was a loss and a quick one at that, but win tomorrow and you split the series!

June 13, losing 11-7 to the Loons... bad loss. Jonas Cuotto pitched poorly in the spot start, Ryan Koch was hurt by poor defense, Frank Gailey gave up a huge home run, and the offense provided too little, too late. Series lost to Great Lakes. The kind of loss that leaves you with a bad feeling at the end of the night.

June 14, routed 13-0 at Dayton... and now we come to yesterday. Worst loss of the year. Beaten in every sort of way, out-defended, out-pitched, out-hit, etcetera, the outcome so little in doubt that Chris House pitched the eighth.

I compile all of this to illustrate just how quickly the momentum can turn over the course of a long season. One great series (i.e., winning three of four games at Fort Wayne) and you're riding high. One poor series (losing three of four games to Great Lakes after the stirring win in the opener) and you're back down low.

Players and coaches talk about taking it one day at a time. Yes, it's become a cliche since far too many guys rely on the phrase rather than giving real thought to what they truly think. Look at each game's results with time's perspective, however, and you'll see the importance of taking it one game at a time. After all, if the best win of the year can be followed by a four-game losing streak, what will follow the worst loss of the year?

We'll find out in a couple of hours.

Posted by Jesse Goldberg-Strassler

Two Games Today

6.9.09: Well, we have another doubleheader ahead of us, the eighth doubleheader of the season, the third doubleheader against West Michigan this year.

An interesting thing about rain is everyone's reaction to it. A lot of folks, particularly baseball players, root for the rainout. With me, I was racing about everywhere yesterday, getting more and more stressed. West Michigan had supplied a late starting lineup, I was behind on my game notes, and I wanted to fit in a pre-game interview. At one point I decided that it would be so much better if we were just rained out, and then I could simply relax.

And then the game was in fact rained out and it was another evening without a baseball game... and that leaves me with an empty feeling in the midst of baseball season.

Great win in Game 2 of Sunday's twinbill, the first shutout of the season and the first time that the Lugnuts have won a game this year with five or fewer base hits.

Chris House was behind the plate for that game... and I seem to recall that House has been the catcher for a number of utterly terrific pitching performances this year. It's something like that that makes me go, "Hmmm," and wonder if I've been imagining things or if House really has made a difference.

I looked it up:

In House's first start, the Lugnuts were dominate by Fort Wayne in a 9-0 rout. Yeesh. All nine runs were earned.

In House's second start, the Lugnuts led South Bend 4-1 going to the top of the seventh in Game 2 of a doubleheader, but the Silver Hawks scored four runs in the seventh to win it, 5-4.

In House's third start, the Lugnuts and Tincaps were scoreless all the way to the eighth inning. There Fort Wayne scored three runs and won it, 3-0.

In House's fourth start, Chad Beck gave up two runs in the third inning but that was it. Lansing beat Fort Wayne, 4-2.

In House's most recent start, the Lugnuts shut out West Michigan 2-0.

Added up, Lugnuts pitchers have allowed 19 earned runs in 40 innings with Chris House as the catcher, an earned run average of 4.28. That's slightly better than the team's ERA of 4.57, but I don't think it's a big enough change in a large enough sample size to make anything of it yet.

Then again, each game the Lugnuts have improved with House behind the plate: nine runs allowed, five runs allowed, three runs allowed, two runs allowed, no runs allowed. That's all we're looking for, right? That the players improve over the course of the season?

How on earth, then, does Chris House improve from catching a shutout?

Posted by Jesse Goldberg-Strassler

Umpires Beware

6.4.09: Today's Game Notes.

Larry Dumeney, Team Coach Chauffeur Extraordinaire and Broadcast Booth Companion, has found the Fort Wayne stadium video feed online.

This means: we may very well have the opportunity to watch television instant replays of tonight's game while it's in progress! (If you hear me disagree more than usual with the umpires, now you'll know why.)

Chad Beck goes to the mound for the Lugnuts tonight, another fireballing veteran. He's got more steam than Chase Lirette does... but the big key against this Fort Wayne club is throwing strikes. You do that and you'll pitch from ahead in the count all day. They have very few first-pitch swingers outside of Ali Solis.

Currently at Parkview Field the TinCaps are working on their pick-off plays and bunting defense. I enjoy watching a team working on the littler things (which turn out to be oh so big when it counts).

Hey, Lansing no longer has the worst record in the Midwest League. That now belongs to the 18-33 Beloit Snappers, losers of four in a row.

And while I'm on the subject of streaks, the Cedar Rapids Kernels have won 12 games in a row. Not too shabby! They're now within a game of first place Kane County.

Posted by Jesse Goldberg-Strassler

Welcome to June

6.4.09: I'm going to start setting aside each month as a different section in the blog. That way the entries don't pile up on you. You can go back to the archives via the links on the right side.

First things first: Parkview Field is as beautiful as everyone has raved. Simply gorgeous.

I just wish it had consistent internet and phone lines.

I've been wanting to catch up on my blogging and uploading but it's very much a thing of trying to catch the internet here at the right time. During games, it's especially hot-and-cold. I've given up trying to update the website immediately after games, preferring to head back to the place where we're staying in order to do it.

Thankfully we weren't knocked off the air last night for any longer than 60 seconds and not a single dramatic moment was missed... though in the end, the drama belonged to the fellows wearing the red and green, not the red and black.

These have been two terrific games so far in the series. Yorman Mayora notwithstanding, the pitching's been phenomenal. Chase Lirette particularly last night was magnificent, hitting all of his spots. It's been very fun to listen to the Fort Wayne folks complain about how their bats have fallen asleep... No credit to the pitchers who've put those bats to sleep, guys? That's just fine.

I also should spotlight Chris House, who called the game behind the plate, threw out Jaff Decker trying to steal, and engaged in a tremendous 13-pitch at-bat with Fort Wayne starter Anthony Bass in the fifth inning. An excellent first game back for Chris.

Justin McClanahan and Johermyn Chavez each collected a pair of hits yesterday, giving Chavez four hits in the two games here. That's all well and good, but they're going to need some help from their teammates if the Lugnuts wish to take another victory or two from the TinCaps.

Posted by Jesse Goldberg-Strassler