Link Report for Games of Saturday, August 16th

[MassBrew]

David Weiser's www.starsboxscore.com Huntsville Update:

 

3-0 and a 5-INNING NO-NO

Saturday night was Faith Night at Hank Aaron Stadium. A concert after the ball game featured the Christian group, 4HIM........ For Mobile's sake, they're going to need some of that ol' time religion. They're now five games in back of the Stars, they haven't been playing good defense lately, and they were just outscored in their last three games by Birmingham, 36-14.......The Stars, enjoying a hot month, tonight took advantage of the bumbling Bay Bears and won their fourth straight and ninth of their last twelve games.

 

It was Shelley's show tonight........ Jason Shelley, the Stars' pitching engine with a reputation for pitching deep into ballgames (he threw 117 pitches tonight), threw five no-hit innings at the Bay Bears, before giving up a leadoff home run to Freddy Guzman........ At the plate, he produced the Stars' second run with a sacrifice fly, which turned out to be the go-ahead run, and struck out nine batters...... This refugee from the Frontier League does nothing but mesmerize Southern League hitters with his split-finger that just drops, inducing a lot of ground balls and frustrated attempts to meet the ball. After six starting appearances, he has major league numbers --- three wins (2 NDs that the Stars won), 45 strikeouts in 40 innings, nine walks and a 1.80 ERA...... On the other hand, there's also seven wild pitches and four hit batters, so I don't think he'll be mistaken for Curt Schilling, but for someone to jump from one of the lowest rungs of independent league baseball to Double-A, well, it's awesome.

 

Chris Barnwell, on Chris Oxspring's first pitch, singled to right on a hit-and-run play in the 2nd that set up Shelley's sac fly........ Barney was named this year's Rocky award winner at the Booster Club's Farewell Banquet following Friday's game........ The Rocky award is named after a former Stars utility player, Rocky Coyle (Stars '85-'86), who was one of the most popular Stars ever to wear a uniform. Outside of wearing his Christian principles (he was active in speaking at local churches and that always plays well here), he always played well even though he wasn't an everyday player, and was a dangerous clutch hitter. He was the hero, as if it were scripted, in Game 5 of the 1985 Southern League Championship Series, with a 9th inning, two-run HR off Charlotte's Mark Leiter (yep, Al's brother and a futre Brewer) that gave the Stars a 5-3 victory........

 

Barnwell is a Rocky prototype and the Boosters got to know him well. He doesn't display any piety, but he plays in the spirit of this award --- described as one of the hardest on the club in taking defeat, he takes pride in a dirty uniform, is hard-nosed, 110%, always ready to come into a ballgame, and dangerous in the clutch (he's 4-for-9 w/3 RBI as a pinch-hitter), and has played three infield positions capably and even a couple of uneventful innings in left field..... Saturday night, he started at first base for the first time in his professional career. That's sacrifice. I'm told that he once came to Frank Kremblas saying that he would accept a demotion to High Desert during the time the Stars had Alejandro Machado and Richard Paz, a better on-base pct. player, to get the Stars through a July swoon. This wasn't a symbol of bitterness, but a symbol of sacrifice, for Barney truly wanted to see his teammates win........ The Boosters are in agreement that this award was well-deserved.

 

Noochie Varner, who kicked off the Stars' first run, singled to start off the 4th. He was forced out at second by Barnwell, but Barney advanced to second on a single to right by Mike Kremblas....... Oxspring tried to pick him off as he advanced toward third. J.J. Furmaniak tried to get him in a rundown, but the fairly accurate throw got away from third baseman Bobby Scales. Barnwell scored the go-ahead run for the Stars, standing up......... The Stars picked up an insurance run they wouldn't need in the 7th on a two-out RBI single by Corey Hart. Dave Krynzel scored the run after drawing a walk....... Corey is now 7-for-12 with 3 doubles and 4 RBIs in his last three games, following a mini 1-for-14 slump.

 

Krynzel's mystifying problems at the plate, however, go on, and his strikeouts are becoming prolific...... That shouldn't be a big surprise to the closest of observers. In 2001, he struck out 150 times, split between Beloit and High Desert and a year later, 130 times between High Desert and Huntsville. This year, he has 103....... After wearing the golden sombrero to put him over that milestone Friday night, he struck out again Saturday night, continuing a dubious streak of ten consecutive games in which he's struck out, the longest by anyone this season....... Since 1996, which is as far back as I can go for game-by-game strikeout records, 13 other players have had such a streak, some repeating......... T.R. Marcinczyk (A's organization) has the longest with 14 during the 1998 season........ Billy Hall, though he did not have a 10-game streak, struck out 11 times in 17 at-bats, shortly after he was promoted to Huntsville during the 2001 season (.647), the worst I could find in a series of games.

 

With a 3-1 lead, Shelley got into a minor jam in the 8th inning. He walked the leadoff man, Freddy Guzman. Guzman then stole second, his 31st steal of the season........ Guzman is challenging Krynzel all of a sudden for the league leadership because Krinkles, who has 39, simply hasn't gotten on base often enough, but he'll have to get by Carolina's Billy Hall, who has 36.......... Guzman then reached third on a ground ball to first by Jake Gautreau....... Shelley struck out Mobile's goat, Bobby Scales, but he had to face the dangerous Jon Knott, 2nd among HR leaders in the league, but Knott popped up a 1-2 pitch to the right side of the infield. All that was left was for Mike Adams to finish it up. Adams fell behind 3-and-0, but got the last out on J.J. Furmaniak's fly out to Varner.

 

The Stars are now seven games above .500 for the first time in the second half, and will look for their first five-game win streak of the season....... Jeff Housman (3-0, 1.14) will be the pitcher the Stars go to, against Mobile right-hander Duncan McAdoo (4-7, 4.53)........ A win will also make them 72-52 for the season. Their best record during the Stars' Milwaukee era is 75-63 in 2001. The all-time record finish of 82-61 was accomplished during the 1989 season.

 

Daryl Clark is 1-for-7 since his return from High Desert and 2-for-23 going back to July 17......... Alejandro Machado, after a six-game .407 surge, is 2-for his last-18........ Noochie Varner is hitting .360 in his last six games. Since Richard Paz's departure, he's taken over as the club's leading contact hitter. In his last 58 ABs, he's struck out only six times and has just 40 Ks in 241 at-bats. That's a .166 percentage, almost as good as the .158 Paz left with........ Chris Barnwell is having his best month at the plate, hitting .323....... Mike Adams picked up his 13th save, the Stars best since Brian Mallette saved 17 during the 2001 season........ Corey Hart has moved into 5th place among the Southern League's top 10 batting leaders. Corey also leads the league in hits with 133 and RBIs with 87, ten up on Mobile's Jon Knott.

 

Mobile 3rd baseman Rico Washington was promoted to Class AAA Portland Friday, and it looks like he won't be coming back. Portland lost Bernie Castro to a season-ending knee injury........ The club says Washington, who was leading Southern League 3rd basemen in fielding, won't be replaced.

 

The Booster Club got better attendance from the players for Friday night's Farewell Banquet than Boosters themselves........ Among the attendees --- Frank Kremblas, Stan Kyles, Dave Krynzel, J.J. Hardy, Corey Hart, Noochie Varner, Brandon Gemoll --- hell, nearly everybody........ Chris Barnwell was there to accept his award and Matt Parker was present to accept this year's "Eagle" award.......... The Eagle is a role model award that is given to some lucky pitcher for sportsmanship, civic interest, inspiration, team spirit, and just being an overall good guy. It's named after former pitcher Bob Bennett, a full-blooded Lakota Sioux whose Indian name was One Eagle. Bennett spent many off hours at schools promoting and educating kids on his American Indian heritage and was a 10-game winner for the Stars in their 1995 season.

 

Where are they now?........ Mike Coolbaugh, who holds the Stars' season records for at-bats, total bases, and shares the RBI record with Terry Steinbach, is hitting .248 at Class AA-Round Rock (Tex.), the Astros' AA farm club....... Bobby Darula was released by the Reds, after hitting .300 in 13 games at Class AAA-Louisville (Int.)...... Jack Krawczyk (Stars '00-'02) is pitching for Class AA-El Paso (Tex.), the Diamondbacks' farm club.......Mike Nicolas, who went from the Bay Bears to the Stars for a day during a road series at Mobile, has signed with the Expos after being released by the Red Sox. The Brewers traded Nicolas to the Red Sox for Brian Adams, before he ever got a chance to pitch an inning for Huntsville........ Matt Hammons, released by the Stars on May 29, is with the Cardinals organization now, and pitching for a 45-80 Palm Beach club in the Class A-Florida State League, where he is 2-1 with 2 saves and a 1.26 ERA........ Paul Stewart has failed to get past the second inning in his last two starts, and is 6-8 with a 4.35 ERA at Class AAA-Pawtucket (Int'l.) and losing favor in the PawSox rotation........ Brian Moon is hitting .273 with 5 HRs and 33 RBIs in 78 games for the independent Fort Worth Cats of the Central League....... Creighton Gubanich, released by the Chattanooga Lookouts, June 16, has joined the Atlantic City Surf of the independent Atlantic League, where he is hitting .242 in 28 games with 3 HRs and 11 RBIs.