Link Report for Games of Sunday, June 12th

[endaround]

5-6 years? Not even close. Branyan will not be here past 2007. Either he wil play well enough to price himself out of the Brewers price range for a 31 year old 3B or he won't play well enough to keep a starting job and will be upgraded. Hall is unlikely to be resigned when he hits FA in 3 years and he has yet to show he can handle third regularly.

[brewmann04]

Anderson going 3 nice to see him getting stretched out a bit

[PrimetimeHater]

I think Branyan will probably be adequate at third when he returns, but he's no long term solution. Of course, I'm hoping that Braun can fly through the system and be a long term solution. Hall I see as more of a Chone Figgins type guy...a super sub.

[Mass Haas]

Link while active, text follows:

 

www.dailymail.com/news/Sports/200506139/

 

Power pitching has team on three-game streak

Jack Bogaczyk

Charleston Daily Mail Sports Editor

 

The West Virginia Power threw that young, 2-1 punch at Lakewood on a scorcher of a Sunday at Appalachian Power Park.

 

The Power completed something it hadn't all season, sweeping a doubleheader from Lakewood. For the second time in a 23-41 season, West Virginia owns a three-game winning streak.

 

In 15 innings, the Power completed the suspension of a June 6 game at Lakewood with a 9-8 triumph on Hasan Rasheed's pinch-hit RBI single. Then, the Milwaukee farm club got more stellar teen-aged pitching from the Brewers' top two picks in the baseball draft of 53 weeks ago, blanking Lakewood 5-0.

 

The victories enabled West Virginia to move two games ahead of the BlueClaws and a half game in front of Hickory in the battle to avoid last place in the first-half race in the Northern Division of the South Atlantic League.

 

Right-handers Yovani Gallardo and Mark Rogers, each 19, combined on the shutout, issuing no walks, and following on the heels of Josh Wahpepah's strong seven-inning effort in Saturday's 10-0 blanking of the Claws.

 

Gallardo (1-3), the No. 2 Brewer pick in the 2004 draft, got his first SAL win, allowing four hits in five innings, throwing an economical 57 pitches. Rogers, the No. 1 pick a year ago, fanned six in four relief innings.

 

He was the only one before a crowd of 2,339 dealing higher numbers than the thermometer. Rogers fanned several Claws in the high 90s, including a 99 mph pellet, as registered on the supposedly "slow" center field-fence radar, that whiffed Doug Gredvig to start the eighth.

 

"I'm just going out and trying to throw strikes," said Gallardo, who a year ago on the calendar was a week out of Trimble Tech High in Fort Worth, Texas. "I'm trying to get ahead of hitters.

 

"The difference between now and earlier in the season is I was a little wild then, and I was falling behind in counts. I just needed to concentrate more on the simple things, like throwing strikes."

 

In 23 innings against Lakewood in this series, West Virginia pitching has allowed only one run -- a 14th-inning, game-tying homer by Gredvig off eventual winner Dave Johnson (3-1) in the opener Sunday.

 

Don't dismiss the BlueClaws as some feeble team with the bat, despite the 21-43 record. They may have the worst record in full-season, low Class A baseball, but they're in the top half of the SAL in team batting average.

 

"I'm reluctant to say they're pitching a lot better because the talent has been here all along," Power pitching coach John Curtis said. "I think the biggest thing is our pitchers have been in a lot of close games. It's taken them some time to learn to deal with that."

 

The Power pitchers had no fluster Sunday, as Gallardo and Rogers nursed a 1-0 edge, on Will Lewis' third-inning single, until West Virginia scored four unearned insurance runs in the eighth off Lakewood reliever Matt Sweeney.

 

The Claws got their own stellar pitching performance in a seven-inning, 11-strikeout, one-walk effort by lefty Derek Griffith (2-5).

 

Gallardo has allowed only two earned runs in 14 2/3 innings of work (1.23 ERA) this month, and the Power has won seven of its last 11 games.

 

Curtis was most impressed Sunday with the work of Rogers, who not only has bounced back from a pitching-hand blister that put him on the disabled list, but has worked through what Curtis called "some pretty significant" changes in his delivery.

 

The Brewers' "piggyback" system of working two starters in the same game, with an exchange of roles from appearance to appearance, may be history soon because the young arms are ready and have a better idea how Milwaukee wants them to pitch.

 

"We may be seeing, at most one, or no piggybacks in the second half," Curtis said. "I think some are strong enough now and ready to carry the load."

 

Curtis said Wahpepah (the No. 3 Brewer draft pick in 2004), Gallardo and lefty Greg Kloosterman are likely to be the first to break from the piggyback plan.

 

POWER PLUGS: The Power and Lakewood meet Monday night in Game 4 of the five-game series. West Virginia sends Brian Montalbo (1-2, 5.30 ERA) to the mound against Maximino De La Cruz (2-7, 4.78) in a matchup of right-handers ... Tuesday's game is the last date at Appalachian Power Park in the South Atlantic League first-half season.

 

The Power finishes a tough first half with four games at Hagerstown, then opens the second half with four at Lexington ... SAL Northern Division All-Star Robert Hinton pitched five innings of scoreless relief for the Power over the suspended finish and restart ... Curtis said Rogers has learned he "doesn't need to try and throw a 150 mph fastball," after he threw 38 strikes in 56 pitches ...By taking the first three in the five-game set, the Power has won only its second series of the season. The other was 2-1 last week at Lakewood. West Virginia is 2-10-5 in series this season ... The Power team ERA has dropped from 4.84 to 4.65 in two days.

[homer]

Quote:

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Rogers fanned several Claws in the high 90s, including a 99 mph pellet, as registered on the supposedly "slow" center field-fence radar, that whiffed Doug Gredvig to start the eighth.

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99? Wow.

[hscoach]

Great to see these two doing so well. How is Yovani's velocity in hs he was low to mid 90's. Is he adding a few more ticks to his fastball?