Monthly Archives: July 2009

‘Ultimate’ Warrior

July 28, 20095:49 p.m.

There was a football being thrown around by the Wingnuts again today, but the luster of the pigskin has been replaced by ultimate frisbee. I remember playing this in middle school, actually. I was awesome at it, but I was awesome at every athletic pursuit in middle school. My skills have quickly and are quickly fading.

The champion of ultimate frisbee among Wingnuts players is Brenan Herrera, who threw one from the left field foul line to the wall in right center field. Then he threw one back from left center into the top row of stands in the furthest section down the third-base line. Dude can launch it. I’m not so talented at throwing it myself, but I can still run solid routes and catch it, which I did when the intended target was overthrows.

Herrera, by the way, isn’t quite as strong in the football department, which could be why he turned to ultimate frisbee. Herrera was owned in a pass route by Patrick Brooks, who cut in front of Herrera to catch a pass by Dustan Mohr. Also, while I was sitting in the bullpen typing an e-mail on my phone, I was hit with an errant ultimate frisbee throw. That’s where I’m at with that sport now. The guy everybody laughs at.

I should have blogged about this yesterday, but I wanted to get a whole day of having a South team at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium for the first time this season. I absolutely loved it. New names to write down on my score sheet, new colors on the video board for opposing players’ statistics and, most importantly, a new radio guy (!!!!) His name is Jeff, so obviously we’ve hit it off quite well. He recently graduated from UCLA and now is on the opposite coast doing radio for the Pelicans. Good dude. Hasn’t even accused me of homerism yet.

Speaking of the Pelicans, they’ve won eight in a row, not five as I wrote in the newspaper today. I misread one of their scores from before the All-Star break against St. Paul. So my bad on that one.

Weird game last night in that both Wingnuts starter Adam Cowart and Pensacola closer Hunter Davis allowed their first home runs of the season. And Wichita, after doing well in clutch situations the previous two games, left 13 men on base. Wanted to get the reaction of manager Kevin Hooper, but he was in his office with a player until about 10:40 last night. That happens.

Wichita made a roster move today, releasing left-handed pitcher Julio Torres and signing right-hander Diego Soto, who pitched at Emporia State this season. That’s three ex-Hornets now on the roster: Soto, Gabe Medina and Michael Sharp. Bob Fornelli has a pipeline to Wichita. Anyway, Soto was 6-2 with a 2.76 ERA for the NCAA Division II runner-up Hornets this season. He had 48 strikeouts and 21 walks in 42 1/3 innings. The walk rate is a little high, but the strikeouts look good. He could have potential as a starter if there happens to be an injury.

Looks like we’re going to get this game in after the rain earlier, so that’s good. Nobody wanted a doubleheader tomorrow, especially a doubleheader starting at noon. Yuck. So we’ll hope to keep the rain away and we’ll check to see who wins the Arby’s Roast Beef game later tonight. My money is on No. 3.

By Jeff Lutz | Filed under Uncategorized | Comments (1)

The Triple U

July 26, 20093:28 p.m.

Today’s blog post might fall under Jim Rome’s Triple U categories — Unfunny, Uninspired, and Unreadable. I’ve sat here for a good five minutes just trying to think of a title for the blog, so I’m probably in trouble as far as material goes, too. But I haven’t blogged in a while, so I figured I owed my followers some new gems from my brain.

I really enjoyed writing the Stephen Strasburg … note, column, article, piece, whatever you want to call it — that ran in the newspaper today. I was struggling for notes topics and considered that one to be a secondary note at best. But when I began researching it and after I talked to Wingnuts manager Kevin Hooper, I realized I had more than enough for about a 750-word story, which is how long my notes columns are, anyway.

So I scrapped a couple other notes I had and went with the Strasburg angle. I think there’s about a 25 percent chance we see him in the American Association this year. I still say Washington, which absolutely HAS to sign the No. 1 overall draft pick, has about a 60 percent chance to do so. And the other 15 percent is reserved for whatever other alternatives are out there for Strasburg.

Now, will he end up in Wichita? Probably not, but it’s fun to at least examine the possibility. I was told that after I left the clubhouse yesterday afternoon, Hooper called his wife and asked if she still had the number of the wife of Keith Pegg, who works for Strasburg’s agent Scott Boras. Apparently, Hooper’s wife has the number and Hooper will try to work that connection. Anything is possible, I guess.

The more likely scenario is that Strasburg goes to Fort Worth, since Boras has some connections with that AA franchise. That could still have some local ramifications, though, because Fort Worth and the Wingnuts won their divisions’ first half titles and could meet in the league championship series. How about a Strasburg-Gabe Medina Game 1 matchup? Ace vs. Ace, but kind of a mismatch. At least on paper.

Signing Strasburg for the stretch run would obviously improve the team. What else could the Wingnuts do to improve? The clear area for a possible upgrade would be the bullpen, but it’s tough to find teams willing to give up relievers and it’s tougher to find good relievers who aren’t already pitching somewhere. So stay tuned on that one.

Wichita’s 7-0 win last night wasn’t as dominant as it appears on paper, but it was a much-needed easy victory. Too many games lately have come down to the performance of the bullpen, and with Wichita’s relievers and offense struggling, the Wingnuts haven’t been able to pull out the close games.

Though the Wingnuts didn’t have a baserunner during the final four innings against Sioux Falls and the Canaries had baserunners all night, Wichita was never really in jeopardy. Now they’re just trying to build momentum before the upcoming long road trip and the playoffs shortly after. They obviously don’t want to be playing poorly when it matters most.

That’s all today. I now have Twitter, and I imagine this advertisement will net me at least one more follower. jdlutz7 is what you’re looking for, so find me! Later, e’erybody.

By Jeff Lutz | Filed under Uncategorized | Comments (0)

Because I’m Loyal, Too

July 14, 200911:38 p.m.

I didn’t really have much to say today — at least not enough to write a blog. But I was guilted into it by one of my many followers, which I can probably count on one hand. But because I appreciate the three of you, and because I promised a blog entry today, here I am. That particular follower owes me a Chris Barnes-esque performance in return.

I just got done writing a quoteless story about Wichita’s 9-7 win over Sioux Falls. It was quoteless because the game ended at 11:17 and my deadline is 11:15. The late ending was due to the 83-minute rain delay. This week’s delay wasn’t nearly as eventful as last Wednesday’s. That’s when a radar blip turned into a massive hail storm that ruined the cars of many Wingnuts patrons, staff members and beat writers. Well, no plural on that last one.

But unlike that storm, this one didn’t cause hundreds of people to escape to the parking lot to survey the damage. And unlike that delay, this one ended, with Wichita hanging on for the win after the game resumed. The Wingnuts need to find a solution to their recent bullpen woes, because there’s hardly a reliable arm among their six relievers. Well, I’ll revise that — Doug Hurn has been pretty strong this season, but the other relievers have mostly been inconsistent.

Will Savage didn’t pitch great tonight, but he got the win, which is fairly rare because he doesn’t get much run support. He came back out after the rain delay for the fifth inning, which qualified him for the victory. So, loyal followers, where do you stand on Savage not being named to the All-Star team? He wasn’t happy about it, and he has a good beef because he has a ERA around 2.60 and a lot of innings.

He probably wanted to dominate Sioux Falls tonight, since the Canaries’ manager, Steve Shirley, selected the pitchers for the AA North All-Star team. Savage didn’t dominate, but he might have been good enough to give Shirley a second thought about his decision. Or maybe not. I was going to explore that topic with Savage and Shirley after the game, because it would have made a good angle for a game story, but I obviously didn’t get the chance. Part of what has made Savage successful this season is pitching with a chip on his shoulder, and he definitely had one for this start.

Another note — former Wingnut Amad Stephens, released late last month, pitched for Sioux Falls Tuesday. He allowed a run and was fairly shaky, but he can’t feel too bad because the pitcher Wichita picked up to replace him was even worse. That would be Julio Torres, who allowed a grand slam to Cory Harris in the ninth.

There’s my blog.

I’m getting pretty tired. I think I’ll go home now. – Who can tell me what movie that’s from? First correct answer wins a press box egg roll, delivered by yours truly.

By Jeff Lutz | Filed under Uncategorized | Comments (4)

Eure A Really Nice Guy

July 13, 20095:02 p.m.

Though he probably has no idea why, St. Paul’s Jeff Eure is my new favorite professional baseball player.

Every night before the last half-inning, I go down to sit on the third base side, so when the game is over I can hope over the wall and wait to talk to players as they’re coming off the field. I went down there Thursday night when the Wingnuts were playing St. Paul, and after catching the last out of the game Eure tossed the ball into the stands. Except that there were no people near where Eure tossed the ball, so it went over a few rows of seats and came right to me. I caught it near my right foot and have been holding onto the precious memento ever since.

So Jeff, Eure a really nice guy.

What’s wrong with the Wingnuts lately? Apparently a lot. They’ve started the second half of the American Association season losing six of their first seven games and have lost 9 of 12 overall. The slide began after the Wingnuts clinched the first-half title with a win over St. Paul 15 days ago. Since, Wichita has played 13 games and its numbers in just about every aspect of the game have fallen off:

Runs scored
Season: 283 (5.1 per game)
First 42 games: 240 (5.7 per game)
Last 13 games: 40 (3.1 per game)

Runs allowed
Season: 223 (4.1 per game)
First 42 games: 166 (3.9 per game)
Last 13 games: 57 (4.4 per game)

Home runs
Season: 48 (.88 per game)
First 42 games: 42 (1 per game)
Last 13 games: 6 (.47 per game)

Wichita is still hitting the ball fairly well, leading the league with a .294 overall average. But they’re not scoring because they’re leaving too many men on base — because they’re not hitting many home runs. The pitching hasn’t been as solid, either. That’s mostly due to a shaky bullpen, but the starters haven’t been as sharp as usual, either. Then again, it would be difficult to keep up the pace they established during the first half.

The Wingnuts are also 1-8 against teams from the South Division, though all those games have been played on the road.

I don’t think a team managed by Kevin Hooper could NOT get this figured out, so I’d look for the Wingnuts to turn it around soon. Even if they don’t, they’re still in the playoffs. I know they’re not looking at it that way, though, and I doubt they’ll want to have to flip the switch when the postseason begins in September. They’ll want to be playing well going into the playoffs, obviously.

Nothing more for today, but I’ll write more tomorrow.

By Jeff Lutz | Filed under Uncategorized | Comments Off

All Hail!

July 9, 20095:30 p.m.

The Wingnuts game was delayed at around 9 p.m. last night due to “lightning in the area”. Shortly after, I called The Eagle and let assistant sports editor Tom Seals know that the storm appeared to be a blip on the radar and that I anticipated the game resuming in under an hour.

Boy, was I wrong. Then again, so was every meteorologist in the city. Just an awful performance by them last night, I must say. But from now on, I’m going to start looking at meteorologists like I look at hitters in baseball. If you bat .300, you’re pretty darn good. So that’s my new standard for weathermen — just be right 30 percent of the time and I’ll call you an All-Star. Because for whatever reason, it seems difficult to do any better than 70 percent failure in either field. So Merrill and the gang, you’re off the hook. Just be right occasionally, and you’ll get props from me.

That was a little mean, and I’m sorry. But a little warning would have been nice. Now I have a messed up car (with no full coverage — full coverage would have gotten me a $9,000 check and a new car, but who needs that?) and a soon-to-be damaged bank account. Still, I definitely enjoyed the storm last night. I always enjoy seeing things I’ve never seen before, and I obviously have never seen hail like that. I likened it to…well, I probably can’t say that. But it was definitely a surreal experience.

The thing I can’t figure out, though — and it’s kind of a “speaking the obvious” thing. But why is hail cold? I get that it’s ice. But it was 85 degrees last night. What’s going on up in the sky to not only turn water to ice in midair, but also make it cold? I’m sure it has something to do with atmospheric pressure or something like that, but it’s one of those things that seems obvious yet no layperson really has an answer for.

All in all, I rate the hailstorm experience a solid B. There were some enjoyable moments in the press box and obviously the storm itself will find its way into my long-term memory eventually. But I’m bummed about not getting a new car today and by the fact that I’ll be driving around a golf ball for a while. It looks like my car has cellulite. I could have had it worse, though. A lot of people (with full coverage) had their front and/or back windshields knocked out. I wasn’t that unlucky, so I guess that’s a positive.

There was also baseball last night, with St. Paul beating the Wingnuts 2-1. If Wichita doesn’t win the second half, my pick is St. Paul. They have decent enough pitching and their lineup, while still featuring a few relatively easy outs, is solid. Brent Krause really has nothing left to prove at this level, so I’d like to see him get re-picked up by a major league organization at some point.  

Also yesterday, before he was ejected, Wingnut Dustan Mohr was swingning a bat he got from Garrett Atkins, who plays for the Colorado Rockies. During batting practice, the bat broke at the handle, causing the barrel to fly into the side of the batting screen. Josh Horn, who has lost hold of at least five bats (and probably more) this season, was pretty excited because he thought he was off the hook as far as bat throwing goes. But alas, Josh is still the king of nearly killing people with his bat.

See you tonight, hopefully after another appearance by my new favorite pitcher, Joe D’Alessandro. Afterward, I’m going to my new favorite restaurant, D’Alessandro’s, for some chicken alfredo.

By Jeff Lutz | Filed under Uncategorized | Comments Off

Get Your Game On, Go Play

July 8, 20095:38 p.m.

Before we get to my All-Star ballot, I must address the Joe D’Alessandro situation. He pitched last night, and the only thing I can say is — WOW! I’ve never seen an inning like that in my year-and-a-half of covering independent baseball. Wichita’s new closer (I can only assume) retired the first batter he faced on a weak grounder to third then struck out the final two. He got a generous call on the final strike, but the umpire must have been caught up in the situation — fans on their feet, a guy out there throwing gas. This guy should immediately become a fan favorite. I know he’s put up just OK numbers in the past, but after one appearance he has all the makings of a dominant closer. We’ll see. But one thing is for sure — he gets it up there at every bit of 96 mph. OK, so maybe not 96. But the word today is that he was up to 94 while working 90-92.

Now, for my All-Star ballot. Quite simply, it’s Wingnut-heavy. When there was a slight question and a Wingnut player was involved in deciding between two players, I usually went with the Wichita player — except for one circumstance, which I’m still not totally comfortable with. But here we go:

Catcher
My pick: Joe Muich, Wingnuts — .285 AVG, 10 extra-base hits, .774 on-base-plus-slugging (OPS)
Second best: Shawn McGill, Lincoln — .280, 9 XBH, .785 OPS
Others: Scott Knazek, St. Paul; Ken Lup, Sioux Falls

An easy pick. Even though McGill has comprable offensive numbers, Muich has dominated defensively, throwing out more than 40 percent of would-be base stealers. His production with the bat, not totally unexpected but still nice, has been a bonus to the way he’s played behind the plate and his handling of Wichita’s league-best starting pitching staff.

First Base
My pick: Phil Hawke, Lincoln — .324, 22 XBH, .986 OPS
Next best: Steve Pearson, Wingnuts — .346, 14 XBH, .848 OPS
Others: Jason Cooper, St. Paul; Derek Schermerhorn, Sioux City; Patrick Reilly, Sioux Falls

A tough pick, though looking at Hawke’s numbers against Pearson’s I feel a little bit better. Still, Pearson has been kind of the glue guy for the Wingnuts’ offense this season, getting a ton of big hits — he’s batting close to .500 with men in scoring position in two outs. That’s just ridiculous. But Hawke, who was MVP of the Northern League last season, gets the nod here. Hard to ignore his numbers, which again are MVP-worthy.

Second Base
My pick: Brenan Herrera, Wingnuts — .288, 16 XBH, .767 OPS
Next best: Joe Anthonsen, Sioux Falls — .292, 4 XBH, .740 OPS
Others: Shea McFeely, Lincoln; Tony Mansolino, St. Paul; Alex Llanos, Sioux City

If Herrera walked as much as Anthonsen does his numbers would look even more impressive and this wouldn’t have even been a contest. As it was, I wrote down Anthonsen initially before examining the numbers, which made Herrera a much easier selection. The only glaring drawback to Herrera’s game this season has been his defense — he has 14 errors playing shortstop and second base. But Anthonsen does nothing so well that it would outweigh Herrera’s shaky defense, so the Wingnut is again the pick here.

Third Base
My pick: Trevor “Foghorn” Lawhorn, Sioux Falls — .288, 17 XBH, .758 OPS
Second best: Brandon Jones, Lincoln — .288, 11 XBH, .703 OPS
Others: Jeff Eure, St. Paul; Landon Camp, Sioux City; Michael Thompson, Wingnuts

This might be the weakest overall position in the American Association, and Lawhorn might not be an All-Star if he played any other position. But he gets the easy nod at third because, well, he’s having easily the best season. Jones is performing quite well since being picked up by Lincoln a few weeks ago, but he loses points for being released by Sioux City early in the season.

Shortstop
My pick: Josh Horn, Wingnuts — .341, 8 XBH, .839 OPS
Second best: Tim Hutting, Sioux Falls — .307, 15 XBH, .790 OPS
Others: Albenis Machado, Lincoln; Steve Butler, St. Paul; Nick McCoola, Sioux City

Hutting’s 12 doubles, twice more than Horn’s total, give him the edge in extra-base hits. But Horn has the edge in every other facet offensively, and he earns bonus points for switching to shortstop, a position he has never played, a month into this season. Horn is a career .300 hitter in 2 1/2 professional seasons. Though the Wingnuts tried to pry Anthonsen from the Frontier League to play second base, it’s clear they got the better of the two players.

Outfield
My picks:
Josh Burrus, Lincoln — .314, 25 XBH, .942 OPS
Greg Porter, Wingnuts — .378, 22 XBH, 1.057 OPS
Dustan Mohr, Wingnuts — .314, 15 XBH, .838 OPS
Second bests:
Cory Harris, Sioux Falls — .335, 16 XBH, .900 OPS
Jacob Butler, St. Paul — .276, 20 XBH, .920 OPS
Brent Krause, St. Paul — .319, 18 XBH, .917 OPS
Others: Pichi Balet and Deacon Burns, Lincoln; Andrew Schmiesing, St. Paul; Dustin Jones, Justin Nelson and Anthony Webster, Sioux City; Jared Lemieux and JD Reininger, Sioux Falls; Nick Blasi, Wingnuts

I told myself that Burrus and Porter were no-brainers. And they are. Except that you could swap them for any two players in the “Next bests” category and not lose a ton of production. Mohr’s numbers aren’t quite as good as the players in the next three, but I gave him the nod because he’s been a middle-of-the-order hitter on the league’s best team all season. And he leads the entire group in RBIs — a statistic I think is fairly overrated, but when you score as many runs as the Wingnuts do, the RBI leader should be an All-Star.

Designated Hitter:
My pick: Kelly Hunt, Wingnuts — .264, 27 XBH, .841 OPS
Second best: Steve Alexander, Lincoln — .257, 17 XBH, .769 OPS
Other: Kyle Eveland, Sioux Falls — .333, 1 XBH, .745 OPS (6 games)

Easy choice here, though Hunt could have made it much easier without his recent slump. Since hitting his last home run on June 21, Hunt has batted .240 (12 for 50) with two extra-base hits. He tied Michael Thompson’s team record in homs runs 16 days ago but has yet to pass it, something that seemed like a first-half inevitability. Still, Hunt’s numbers are far better than those of Alexander and Eveland.

That’s all, folks. See you tomorrow for more blogging fun.

By Jeff Lutz | Filed under Uncategorized | Comments Off

We Talkin’ About Practice

July 7, 20095:39 p.m.

How silly is that?

I love going down to the field for batting practice, just to listen to some of the conversations that take place. Obviously, I’m not cool enough to be a part of many of them, but today I got into a discussion with Dustan Mohr about the Eagles.

After the 104.5 DJ announced that the Eagles would be played after the commercial break I said, “The Eagles — now we’re talking.” To which Mohr asked me a question I can’t really repeat on a family-friendly blog. That launched a discussion about what the Eagles did at their famous “third encore” parties back in the day, where drugs and women were always present. He asked if “What’s that guy’s name?” (Don Henley) was still alive, and I mentioned that the Eagles were, in fact, touring in Europe as we speak.

Good times.

And pitching coach Luke Robertson is always down behind the screen talking baseball. He’s a name dropper, which I love because I’m the same way. Once you’ve had exposure to guys who have played, will play, or are playing in the majors, you want to tell everybody about it. Today’s lesson from Luke: “I owned Nick Swisher.” Both were in the Oakland system earlier this decade, playing for Class A teams in the same league. The book on Swisher — you can get him out with outside changeups. Now you know.

Speaking of name dropping, here’s a quick story about LaTroy Hawkins. He was pitching for the Rockies in 2007, and I was assigned to cover the series against the Braves in Atlanta because the Colorado beat reporter didn’t make the trip. He was making small talk with one of the beat reporters and I was waiting to talk to him about something I needed for a story. The Michael Vick story was front-page news then, and LaTroy was defending him, basically saying Vick’s crime wasn’t all that significant. Then he noticed me standing a few feet away and said, “You’re not recording this, are you?” I can’t imagine what he would have done if I would have said yes. But actually, LaTroy (we’re friends) was a really nice guy and a good interview, too.

I talked to Wingnuts manager Kevin Hooper today about the baseball/golf game he was playing with Luke and Josh Robertson and hitting coach Chris Mileham yesterday. They were basically just picking spots on the field as “holes” and trying to get there in as few “strokes” as possible. You know, like golf. The winner of one hole would pick where the next hole was. One was the front-left wheel on the batting screen. One was where the pitching screen made a triangle. Luke Robertson won, which shouldn’t surprise anyone, because he’s the King of Meaningless games. Like knocking out headlights.

The mystery of Joe D’Alessandro is growing. We didn’t see him pitch yesterday, so we wait to see if he can actually throw 96 MPH. Hopefully he’ll make an appearance tonight and we’ll see if Josh Robertson’s forecast comes true. Jose Amado only fell 20 short of the 20 home runs Robertson projected when the Wingnuts signed him last year, so J-Rob has an outstanding track record.

Tomorrow, I’ll divulge my All-Star ballot, which I have temporarily misplaced. Look for it to be Wingnut-heavy. See you then, kids.

By Jeff Lutz | Filed under Uncategorized | Comments Off

What Would You Say?

July 6, 20095:15 p.m.

Today’s blog title is the first in a series of Dave Matthews Band songs. I expect the series to stop at one, although the way the Wingnuts players follow manager Kevin Hooper is similar to Ants Marching. That was a lame joke. I apologize, but I really wasn’t too motivated to come up with another DMB song off the top of my head.

Now that it’s the second half, I’m going to do my best to blog more often. Today’s blog title comes from the challenge that has arisen during the last couple weeks or so — what can you say about this team that hasn’t already been said? They’re good. They can pitch. They can hit. Pretty much every position player and starting pitcher is putting up good numbers. We get it.

So I guess I’ll just have to be more creative from now on. And I’ve tried to be in my game stories — like the one last week in which I broke down the game against Sioux City into the three at-bats by Wingnuts slugger Greg Porter against pitcher Trevor Fox. I don’t think that idea completely materialized into what I had in my head, but the execution was still decent.

I just have to start watching games differently, looking for that one situation or trend that changes the game that a fan might not immediately notice or think of. Baseball game stories are harder to write in the sense that in football and basketball, those trends establish themselves all the time. In baseball, they may take longer than one game to develop and it’s easy, for one game story at least, to get caught up in writing a lot of play-by-play.

So since the Wingnuts have clinched a playoff spot and have their fate sealed until September, they can do things they might normally not do. I’m going to try to take similar chances in my writing, though I know it won’t always happen that way. Wish me luck.

The coaching staff _ consisting of Kevin Hooper, Chris Mileham, Luke Robertson _ and GM Josh Robertson were out on the field at around 4:15 today playing some sort of baseball/golf hybrid game. I wasn’t sure exactly where the “holes” were, but they seemed to know and that was good enough to me. They’d start from a long distance and try to get a baseball in the “hole” by hitting it with a bat. I didn’t completely understand it, but they seemed to be having fun. I’ll ask J-Rob what it was when he comes to the press box later.

St. Paul is in town today, and why wouldn’t it be? Wichita hasn’t seen enough of the Saints already, and it’s completely acceptable for professional baseball teams to play 15 times during the first 48 games of the season. I get that there’s only 10 teams in the American Association, but this is getting a bit ridiculous. Thankfully, I don’t think St. Paul returns for the rest of the season.

This St. Paul stop is a little better, though. The Saints now employ Jason Cooper, once a third-round draft pick of my Cleveland Indians. Cooper seemed to once be on the verge of cracking the major league roster as a potential fourth outfielder, but he was passed in prospect status by fellow former Pac 10 player Ben Francisco (Cooper – Stanford; Francisco – UCLA), and now it’s Francisco putting up horrendously awful numbers for the Tribe, not Cooper.

Anyway, I’ve worn a Cleveland Indians polo shirt to the game in honor of Cooper, who actually began this season  in the Mets organization. Wingnuts radio guy and Mets fanatic Steve Schuster is toeing the company line, wearing his Wingnuts gear instead of a Mets shirt. Apparently his love for Cooper isn’t quite as strong.

Finally, today the Wingnuts purchased the contract of right-handed reliever Joe D’Alessandro from the Frontier League. D’Allesandro supposedly runs it up there at 95 MPH, which I’ll believe when I see since that information came from Josh Robertson. No offense to the GM, but Jose Amado and Leivi Ventura were supposed to hit 20 homers for the Wingnuts last season, too. Both were awful. We’ll see if D’Allesando, who has mediocre numbers as a pro, can change my level of trust for J-Rob when it comes to his evaluation of players.

Talk to you soon. Tomorrow, maybe???

By Jeff Lutz | Filed under Uncategorized | Comments Off