Link Report Wed. 8/16 -- Final Update: Huntsville

[Mass Haas]

What they said: "I executed my pitches when I needed to. My defense did a great job for me. I'm an aggressive guy and they're going to put the ball in play against me. We did all the things right today." ? Zach Jackson.

[hsvstarsfan]

David Weiser's

 

www.starsboxscore.com/

 

DOUBLE TIME

Smokies' lead cut to 2½ games

Too little, too late........ Too late for the Stars to come back and win a second-half title. Too little help in the second half...... That's what I was told to believe tonight in the press box, but this is a crazy game, and it's ridiculous to buy that notion....... The Stars are now only 2½ games back with Tennessee's loss to Mississippi tonight....... Both teams are coming around the final turn at full throttle. But as the Smokies have won nine of their last 14, the Stars are the ones who are smokin', winning 17 of their last 22 and seven of their last eight.....

 

The Stars have gone to the playoffs ten times in their history, but never have had a comeback as grand as this one has been........ Of the ten playoffs they have gone to, they've done it by winning the second half title three times...... Of those, they took the title once after finishing last in the first half. That was in 1997 (Oakland organization)........ But that was a very competitive first half race. Mobile won it, in their very first season in the Southern League, by finishing 10 games over .500. The Stars, at .500, finished just five games back and had they not had a 10-20 May, they may have given Mobile more of a battle, perhaps even won it, but the pitching on that team, up until July, was nothing short of horrendous.

 

This time, the Stars are coming back from the second-worst half-season in their history, going from 24-45 to 28-23....... No way in hell are they out of it. Too little, too late? Time will only tell.

 

A great night for Steve Hammond, and it didn't hurt to have a pitcher's ump behind the plate, either....... Hammond was working his pitches in and out at different speeds, confounding hitters, many times swinging early and not working the count. And Hammond was throwing a lot of first-pitch strikes, as coaches and managers ceaselessly emphasize. 15 to 29 hitters faced, 12 in the first five innings ....... He tired out only a bit in his final two innings, throwing 12 of his 22 pitches for strikes, but in the end, he got 66 of his 99 pitches over........ He retired the side in order in four of the eight innings he pitched.

 

Facing pinch-hitter Jon Acevas, former Birmingham catcher, in the 8th, Hammond gave up a home run on a 1-2 pitch to left, like Brett Carroll's the night before, inside the left field pole, only further and not as high....... Hammond then threw five of his next seven pitches for balls, walking Rex Rundgren, but when you're winning, good things happen........ Ryan Bear hit a hard grounder to short, a ball that had surely looked as if it would go through, but Ozzie Chavez, speeding over to the hole on his right, stopped the ball with one knee down, then got up and fired the ball to Callix Crabbe for the force, then to first for a major league double play, ending the inning. It was the one play you'd want to put a star next to.

 

Hammond, like Corey Thurman the night before, helped his own cause tonight in a five-run 2nd inning with a two-run double....... Prior to last night, Tim Dillard was the only pitcher on the club to get a double. Now you have two pitchers to do it in two nights.

 

With one out in the 2nd, Carolina starter Manu Olivera loaded the bases...... Jeff Eure stroked a one-hop single to the opposite field, hit Drew Anderson with a 1-2 pitch, then walked Lou Palmisano on five pitches....... Chavez then drove in the Stars' first two runs, sending a 1-0 pitch high and far to the gap in center field, over the head of centerfielder Carroll....... With Ozzie on 2nd and Palmisano on 3rd, Hammond, 2-for-13 at the plate, then hit a hard grounder on a 1-2 pitch that hugged the left field foul line, staying fair long enough for the umpire's satisfaction to clear the bases for a 4-0 lead.......... Steve Moss grounded out to short for the first out, but it moved Hammond over to third....... It was important, for Crabbe laid down Olivera's first pitch for a perfectly executed bunt to the left side of the infield, close to the line. Olivera made the play, but it wouldn't have mattered who picked up the ball. Crabbe, the team's all-time sac leader, was on with a hit and Hammond was easily able to cross the plate........ Ryan Braun ended the inning by hitting the ball back to the pitcher, but the Stars had a cushy 5-0 lead, and behind Hammond, that was plenty.

 

Outside of three solo home runs, Hammond never allowed a runner to reach 2nd base........ Barcelona-born outfielder J.C. Muniz was the only hitter in the lineup to find Hammond to his liking...... In the 3rd, he powered a 1-0 pitch over the top wall in right-center field. In the 5th, he took ball one, then hit a pitch long and deep --- but foul to the deserted aluminum bleachers in left........ He got it right the third time, blasting the ball off the scoreboard in left, making it 5-2....... Acevas in the 8th narrowed Huntsville's lead to 5-3.

 

The Stars missed a chance to score in the 3rd when Ron Acuna led off with a double to center, but Olivera struck out Eure, Anderson, and Palmisano on off-speed stuff........ Olivera doesn't have great speed, but he does seem to have good control, evidenced by the number of times he moved the ball around, a reliable breaking ball, and as I mentioned before, both sides had a pitcher's ump, Jason Millsap...... Carlos Lee added an insurance run pinch-hitting for Hammond in the 8th with a single that seemed for an instant like a routine out, but his grounder to short took a bad hop over Rex Rundgren's glove and squirted into left, scoring Drew Anderson who got on with a one-out bunt hit, then stole second....... Travis Phelps picked up his 4th save, his 3rd this month, by striking out Jason Hill on a 94 mph fast ball and Josh Pressley on an 84 change. Kevin Randel, the team's home run leader, walked to lead off the inning, but was picked off by Phelps with a 1-1 count on Hill........ Phelps has been unscored upon in relief in six appearances this month, covering 8 2/3 innings

 

Hammond is now 2-1 this month with a 3.72 ERA....... The three HRs he gave up are the most since Dennis Sarfate on May 10 of last year at Mobile.

 

Steve Moss is in an 0-for-12 cold snap....... He's had a few of these 0-fers this year. An 0-for-14 in April, an 0-for-15 in May, another 0-for-15 in June, and an 0-for-16 slide in July. Personally, I think Drew Anderson would make a better leadoff hitter, even though you're putting a left-hander there. He has 16 stolen bases to Moss's 7 in 18 attempts, and it seems his .285 batting average is empty and he doesn't seem to drive in runs in key situations. For the record, he has 43 RBIs, but only three this month........

 

Sabermetrician Bill James, who you know well if you've browsed the baseball section of your favorite book store all your life, introduced the concept of secondary averages in the '80s........ As built by James, the secondary average, which reads like a batting average, measures how beneficial a player's batting average is. Does a .280 hitter contribute with a full share of walks, extra-base hits, and stolen bases, or is he just a singles hitter? The difference is spelled out in a player's total contribution in run production. It's computed by dividing a player's at-bats into the sum of his walks, stolen bases, and a weighted formula of extra-base hits....... By his formula, Anderson has a secondary average of .262, 23 points below his average, better suited to a leadoff hitter than someone in the middle of the order. Moss has a secondary average of .268 (he's walked 62 times to Anderson's 39), 13 points above his average. I can understand now manager Don Money's preference, but I like Anderson's stolen base percentage better.

 

Ryan Braun is 3-for-14 in his last four games, dropping his average from .313 to .305........ Ozzie Chavez is 10-for-40 since his four-hit day on August 1 that boosted his average 11 points. It's since dropped two, but where would the Stars be without his defense?......... Callix Crabbe is 11-for-17 (.647) with four RBIs vs. Carolina in the seven games he's played against them....... Lou Palmisano is hitting .156 this month and .184 while the Stars have won 17 of their last 22 ballgames.

 

Everett Stull, who pitched for the Stars during the tail end of the 2001 season, and beat Birmingham in Game 3 of the Western Division Series, 13-2, was traded across independent leagues, going from the Golden League's Reno Silver Sox to the United League's Laredo Broncos. Reno also added former Stars outfielder Demond Smith (1997-98) to their roster.

 

EDIT: Added link...