I’ve been watching this year’s Vancouver Canadians in person for three nights so far this season, and if only one thing about them is worth mentioning thus far, it’s that they have an abundance of pitching talent. The hitters are looking weak, the defense is fair, but the pitching… man, I’ve seldom seen a line-up throw so well and get so little love from their offense.
Tonight was no exception, though it was a small step up from the last two nights, where the C’s have averaged just four hits per game. Runs were scored this night, but the story was told once more not in runs scored, but in innings pitched.
The scoring began in the top of the second, when a pair of hits put Dust Devils on first and third with no outs, and though the C’s fought back with a nice 5-4-3 (Baisley-Perez-Pratt) double play, there was little they could do to stop a run from scoring in the meantime.
Down 1-0 in the bottom of the second, Haas Pratt once again took control, drawing a walk and moving along to second on the strength of Jose Garcia’s grounder up the middle.
And then came Ty Bubalo.
The big catcher out of Beaverton, Oregon had been struggling at the plate and looking for a break, but it’s a question as to whether his towering shot into the left field corner was a blessing or a burden, as the ball bounced over the bullpen wall for an RBI-scoring ground rule double, when in reality it deserved to have been a two run-scoring triple.
But hey, when your average is sitting at .053, you’ll take any hit you can get.
Inexperience is one of the major factors in this level of ball, and when Jeff Baisley, playing only his second game in pro baseball, came to the plate, the inexperience seemed to be running thickly among all involved in the inning. Baisley hit a shot more or less at the pitcher, who brought it down and opted to push Bubalo back to second base. As the Tri-City shortstop took his throw, Jose Garcia saw his chance and took off from third for home…
Was there a call from the coach to try for a run, with no outs and two men in scoring position? Unlikely.
Much more likely, Garcia, a native of Santo domingo, Dominican Republic, who doesn’t have the greatest command of the English language, decided he had the gams to get there before the throw and set off on his own volition.
Bad, bad move. With Garcia out at the plate, the C’s now had only one man in scoring position, and one less out to play with. Thankfully, Wilber Perez knows his way around the baseball diamond and did exactly what Baisley should have - hit it deep into left and sac’ed home the runner. The scores were level going into the third, but for the Canadians it was a case of what could have been as a possible go-ahead situation was dampened by youthful excess. Or the language barrier. Or a bad call. You decide.
Vancouver starting pitcher Joe Scott, a New Jersey native who spent his college years at Seton Hall, hasn’t exactly started this season as strongly as he’d like. A non-draft free agent pickup in 2004, Scott started the year at Kane County but got mostly smooshed over four games he took part in, coming back down to Vancouver with an ERA of 9.00. He’d found starting responsibilities a little easier to cope with in his last start against Yakima, where he surrendered only four hits over seven innings, and he was looking fairly comfortable tonight as he took the mound in the third. A pair of hits later and the alarm bells were being dusted off in preparation for a good hard ringing.
A wild pitch put two men in scoring position with two outs, but Scott knuckled down and drew Tri-City third baseman Phillip Cuadrado into an inning ending double play.
Scott is a project, no doubt about it, in fact he didn’t pitch at all in his first year as a professional due to a broken wrist, so though most players in their second year aren’t struggling to impress just yet, preferring to learn and improve, Scott has a little more pressure on him than most. He knows he needs a few big results to take the evil eye off his numbers, and he seems more than capable of them.
Confidence, however, is possibly something he’s lacking at the moment, and getting out of a tough inning like that can only do a kid some good over the long haul.
At the same time, Tri-City fireballer, Zachary Simons, was having a rough time acclimatizing to the C’s ballpark. His third inning opened with a fastball smacking Chalon Tietje in the back, and a few batters later he was again out of control, striking the dangerous Haas Pratt. A deep single to left by Jose Garcia had the C’s fans on their feet as Chas Boyd came in to score, and suddenly the Vancouver team was looking dangerous… or was it that Tri-City were looking shaky?
Whatever it was, it didn’t last long.
Tri-City shortstop Oscar Materano drilled a double into left field, and first baseman Brian Kirby left no mistake about his intentions as he boomed a deep fly ball over the right field wall. Suck it up, C’s fans, your lead has been taken away, but once again, to Scott’s credit, he worked his way out of the inning strongly.
Though, not strongly enough, because the 5th inning saw Scott replaced by 29th round draft pick, Trey Shields.
Let it be known, Trey Shields is an absolute monster of a man. 6′7" in height, 230lbs in weight, when he throws a ball, it’s coming down from a much different place to where most pitchers are used to. The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa grad found his way into the Oakland system through the kind of pick that usually goes to after-thought players, but at 6′7", it’s a fair bet that Billy Beane’s tendency to go towards players with important physical characteristics had something to do with his selection. Maybe Shields has good stuff, maybe he doesn’t, but when you’re that tall, you’re worth a late round gamble.
Unfortunately, it took a few innings for Shields to get his arm in, surrendering a triple, two singles and a run in the 5th. The 6th saw him come out blazing and shut the Dev’s down, before handing over to the big lefty from San Jose State, Brad Kilby, who continued the trend through the 7th.
And it was the 7th where Canadians second baseman, Wilber Perez, came into his own. Perez has been on a tear over the first part of the season, averaging .417 and looking strong in the field, despite playing off his beloved first base bag. He might have to get used to that, being as the Canadians list a whopping 8 out of the ten infielders on their roster as being corner players. Lord only knows where they’re going to fit 6 first basemen, 2 third basemen and a meager pair of middle infielders in a full season, but these are the things you deal with when you coach short season ball.
Perez drew a canny walk to lead-off the inning, and moved to second on a Justin Sellers sacrifice bunt. As Chalon Tietje struck out swinging, Perez took off for third, panicking the Tri-City catcher into a throwing error which allowed the runner to score. Almost single-handedly, Perez had small-balled his way from first to home, Rickey Henderson-style, without taking a swing.
Scores level in a topsy turvy affair, and that’s the way it stayed until the 9th, when Kilby weakened and was replaced by Mike Mitchell, a 35th round 2003 draftee who had Tommy John surgery last season and has been eager to show his mettle in pro ball since.
And show that mettle he has, racking up a no-hit save earlier in the season, and coming in tonight in a scores-level, two out, two men on base situation. Mitchell eased out of that jam, coasted through the 10th, dealt handily with the 11th, and watched his team build a great chance for the win with the 12th inning looming.
With one out, Jose Garcia singled, then Ty Bubalo cracked a line drive into left. Garcia was replaced by pinch-runner Michael Massaro as Jeff Baisley took to the plate with a look of grim determination about him.
The C’s fans were on their feet, the noise was incredible for a crowd of only 2600 (even less if you discount those that have to have their kids in bed by 11pm), and the game looked headed to a C’s victory… except…
You know the feeling when you’ve allowed yourself to get carried away with something, and you’re totally sure everything is going to be awesome, and then something stupid happens and it all turns to crap? You know that feeling?
Well, so do 2600 Vancouver Canadians fans who can not believe that 13th round draft pick, Mike Massaro, could allow himself to be picked off at 2nd in the 11th inning with the game on the line. I mean, geez, it’s second base! How hard is it to stay close and rely on your hitters to get you home?
So, once again, Vancouver had imploded, turning a game-breaking situation into a wimpering mess. And to make matters worse - Jeff Baisley drilled the ball into center field for what would have been the winning run… if only.
The bottom of the 12th was no better - Chalon Tietje managed to work his way to second on two outs, and as Wes Long smacked the ball to left, Tietje rounded third and barrelled home… only to be tagged out at the plate after a great throw by Tri-City left fielder Robert Hosgood.
For those counting at home, that’s three plays that could have won the game for the C’s, but didn’t.
And, of course, you know what happens next - Tri-City gets a walk, a sac bunt, and then an easy trot home when third baseman Jeff Baisley pulls a Bill Buckner and misses a groundball completely. Dust Devils lead in the bottom of the 13th.
Baisley’s shame was not yet total, but when he came up to the plate with one out and runners on 1st and 2nd, he had a chance to either be a hero or a zero on the night.
Double play. Game over. Thank christ.
Game notes:
* On a night when Tri-City gave Vancouver every chance to win, the C’s just weren’t up to the mental game. Granted, the kids are still coming to grips with the schedule, pressure and exhaustion of being a pro baseball player, but from a fan’s point of view, this game could not possibly have been more annoying to watch. Errors, poor running, bad decisions, you name it, it was all out there. On the bright side, just a tiny improvement in the thinking game would have seen this game in the win column. But on the reality side… you just can’t play this poorly and expect to move up to Kane County. A lot of guys need to start thinking like professional ballplayers and quit trying to be the hero.
* Ty Bubalo went 2 from 5 on the night, driving in a run, scoring another, and racking up a nice double. Behind the plate, he was peerless. Good to see, though he has a long way to go to get that average up above the Mendoza Line.
* Jose Garcia went 3 from 4 with a walk, but (miraculously) scored not a single run. Smarter running would have changed all that, but hey… we’re all wiser in hindsight.
* On the pitching side of things, Brad Kilby looked dominant, racking up 3 K’s in 2.2 innings of work. Mike Mitchell cruised through a good 2.2 as well, surrendering only one hit, and Brad "Danger" Davis, who had previously thrown 7K’s in four innings of work on the season, continued that fireball-throwing form by tossing 3 more over 1.2 innings to end proceedings. If there’s a positive to be taken from this game, the performance of those three pitchers, with their backs to the wall, would be that positive.
Tomorrow’s game is a nooner, so be sure to listen in if you can’t be at the game!
When you look down on the Nat Bailey playing surface from the press box, the areas of turf around the mound and home plate look decidedly odd ? a different color, and a different texture to the rest of the infield. The reason for this is that a TV production crew rented out the stadium as a location before the season, and by the time they were done, they?d destroyed a large part of the infield. For most minor league teams, that would be a real pain in the backside, especially with a season looming. But for Vancouver, damaging the infield grass is considered heresy.Satchel Paige threw from this mound at the age of (approximately) 50, and some twenty years earlier, Babe Ruth swung his bat and spat chewing tobacco on this very infield as part of a barnstorming all-star tour headed to Japan. The story goes that Ruth came to town on the train with his all-stars in tow, and decided they should have a game before they got on the ship for Tokyo. Then the rains came.But Ruth being Ruth, when he heard that 3000 people had paid for a ticket anyway and were standing in the bleachers getting drenched, he decided they should get their money?s worth, and the all-stars played in torrential rain. Rumor goes that a young Vancouver pitcher was smoking the big guy with fastballs, leading one of the all-star coaches to wander out and announce to the pitcher, ?they came to see him swing, not you pitch.?When that stadium burned to the ground (as they tended to do a lot during the days of wooden stands), the infield grass was moved to a new downtown stadium. When that stadium went up in smoke, the grass was moved to Nat Bailey Stadium, and there it has stayed for sixty years since.The pragmatists among us point out that grass does not stay alive for 60 years, and that really the infield we see at the C?s today is the great great great grandson of the original holy turf? but pragmatists suck. This infield is HOLY, damn it, and that?s why, on any given day during the season, you?ll find six or seven Winnebago?s parked out front, containing baseball freaks who have ventured long and far just for the chance to grab a handful of the grass that Babe Ruth once spat on.I guess, over time, people will forget that a bunch of TV people destroyed some of Nat Bailey?s history this year. Over time, the story will simply revert back to ?this is where Babe played? once more, and people will still come. Yes, Ray, people will most definitely come.But for now, it burns the purists. Someone crapped on our history and dug up our field and that much loved tobacky juice is now just a collection of green muck gathered in the wheels of a Peewee Dolly.Oh well, game time.Coming in to this series, the Tri-City Dust Devils were hitting for a paltry .156 average as a team. Against the Vancouver Canadians they?ve hit .204, which still blows, but when the Canadians are hitting .203 as a team, it?s not like we have grounds to gloat.One of the reasons for the slow start of the Vancouver line-up is the utter logjam of players the team has on hand right now. As of yesterday, the Canadians had 38 people on the roster. As of today, that number was reduced by three when Oakland opted to release a few players. Whether they were sent to Arizona, Kane County, or released altogether, I can?t yet say. Nor can I tell you who was sent away. All I know is there?s been some room made, and there?s likely to be more room made in the days to come.
?It?s a challenge,? says coach Juan Navarrete. ?I?m having trouble just trying to get all the pitchers good innings, and there?s a lot of infielders to juggle as well. It?s not much fun, but you have to just handle it as best you can. They?re all great players, so I?m just trying to look after them all and get them all playing time.?On the field, there are a number of players who have made their positions their own, regardless of competition. Haas Pratt, for instance, has a lock on the 1B spot, especially after cranking three dingers in the Yakima series that opened the season. Jose Garcia owns the right field spot, and Wilber Perez has been strong at second base ? though he?ll have to be with something in the realm of eight infielders on staff.Perez, in fact, presented the C?s fans with the first highlight reel moment of this game when he climbed the ladder to bring down a line drive rocket from Travis Becktel in the second inning. Perez wasn?t on hand, however, to prevent a beautiful moment of karmic vengeance on the NOW TV crew as a Tri-City foul tip careened of the NOW truck?s windscreen, leaving a team of production staff running for cover under a shower of broken glass. The Dust Devils bullpen buckled over with laughter as the Vancouver purists passed knowing glances around… it seems the ghost of Babe Ruth has a wicked sense of humor.
On the mound, Michael Madsen (no, not the guy on the right) ? who had retired 13 of 14 batters faced in Yakima ? was looking ferocious for Vancouver. The 6?0? stringbean from Ohio State, picked up in the 21st round by Oakland in the most recent draft, simply blew through the Dust Devils over the first five innings, racking up six K?s against four hits, and though he managed to let two Devils on base in the 5th after striking out the first two hitters faced, Madsen knuckled down and worked his way out of the jam.On the hill for the “Dirty Satans” was a guy who left this level long ago and made it all the way to the big show - Aaron Cook, starting pitcher of the Colorado Rockies. Slumming it in the bush leagues while he rehabs from surgery to remove blood clots in his shoulder and lungs. Now throwing with one less rib than he started life with, courtesy of a procedure to remove pressure from his sub-clavian vein, Cook was in fine form, allowing only one hit over four innings. What impressed many in this outing is that his opposite number, Mike Madsen, matched him throw for throw for much of their time on the mound.When your team is pitching this well, it helps if your hitters get their act together at least once a game, and when Cook reached the end of his pitch count and was replaced by Buzz “The Buzzard” Vargas, the Canadians did just that in the bottom of the 5th, as Jeff Baisley wore a fastball on the shoulder, Ty Bubalo singled, Justin Sellers sac?ed the runners along, and then Mike Massaro drove in a run on a fielder?s choice to short. The fans were elated to see a little small ball after days of watching deep fly balls amounting to nothing. And no sooner had the cheers died down than Chalon Tietje rocketed a fastball from ?The Buzzard? off the left field wall, driving in a second run before he was thrown out stretching his single to second.With the C?s up by two, the Dust Devils needed to respond, and respond they did with a quick single from slugger Brian Kirby. Looking sloppy enough behind the plate to become the subject of intense discussion on the Vancouver radio call, Ty Bubalo lost a wild pitch from Madsen, allowing the runner to scoot along to second, and when Daniel Carte singled to left for only his second hit of the season, the Devils had done exactly what was required of them ? manufactured something from nothing.
With the Vancouver hitters once again failing to bother the scorekeeper, Carter came out in the top of the 9th looking for something special. Carter?s horror story from last season was the sort of thing that kills careers. In 2004, with no US work visas available by the time the draft came around (thanks to some boneheaded post-9/11 legislation that capped the number allowed), Carter was drafted, later than he should have been, by the only team that had a minor league affiliate that could house a Canadian ? the Oakland Athletics.But the devil was in the details ? because he had no US visa, Carter could only pitch in home games. He couldn?t train during, travel to, or watch road games because of US immigration rules, so whenever the team was on the road, Carter was at Nat Bailey, throwing a ball against a wall.And because the A?s pitching rules state that a pitcher must throw off the mound five times before they can pitch in a game, Carter could only qualify for an inning of action at the very end of a long C?s homestand. The result: 2 innings pitched over an entire season for an ERA of 22 . Yikes.?I took the entire winter off from throwing, to be honest,? Carter told me before today?s game. ?After last season I just needed to take a break. At spring training, they were a little late getting my visa confirmed, and I was like, ?okay, I?m not doing this again?, but it all worked out and now I?m raring to go. I just have to give it a shot and see where it all ends up.? Carter?s winter break meant he came into spring training with a bit of a rusty action and a few less miles per hour of velocity than he was used to. ?I was pretty rough coming back, but through extended spring training it came back and I feel like I?m back where I was when I was drafted now.?Coming in to the ninth, the Canadians were protecting a slender one-run lead, and the job of ensuring that turned into a win was entirely Carter?s. Thankfully, it?s one he attacked with relish.After a fly out down the right field line that was ably gathered in by Jose Garcia, the big Canadian pitcher snared a filthy comebacker to get the second out, before striking out the final hitter swinging to close out the game, leaving him with a line of 2.1 innings pitched with no hits, 4 K?s, no walks and no runs conceded. SOLID.C?s win 2-1, and take the series 3-2, despite managing just four hits in three of those games.Game notes:* 6th rounder Justin Sellers managed his first professional hit tonight, bringing his average to .143 after three games. Nothing to write home about just yet, but have a think back to what YOU did your first year out of high school? did you hit .143 in single-A ball? Huh? Did you? Didn’t think so…* Only four of tonight?s Vancouver starting line-up ended the game with a batting average over the Mendoza line ? Perez (.333), Long (.242), Pratt (.333) and Garcia (.226). Of those only Perez and Pratt look confident at the plate. Thank god the pitching is near unhittable right now? And thank god Tri-City has four starting players hitting .130 or less.* Tri-City are in trouble at the moment, and they?re not looking like they?re going to get better any time soon. When your opponents can take two games off you in a series while managing just four hits in each game, you?re getting something fundamentally wrong. Tonight they conceded 12 K?s across the board, and the C?s? Just 2.* Aaron Cook, who must have loved coming from the thin air, pinball machine-like home run factory at Coors Field to the “don’t even think about going long” pitchers park of Nat Bailey, looked solid in his first rehab outing. He told the Vancouver Sun after the game, “I felt good. It’s just a matter of taking ti slow and getting my arm strength back.” He’s not expecting any further complications from his health woes of the last year, and is due to return to the show around July 26, if all goes to plan.* Joe Scott wore a hard hit liner off his thigh on Tuesday night, but the team has announced that he suffered no more than a deep bruise from the hit. He’ll take a few days to heal and be back in action soon enough.* Chris Tritle, who was drafted all the way back in 2000, and played 56 games for the C’s two years later, has been enjoying his return to the short-season stuff. He’s managed a decent .300 average over his first 9 games with the club, after a slow start to the year hitting .216 at Kane County. Tritle is 23, which puts him in the ‘old man of the team’ category in Vancouver, but any thoughts he might have had that his career was in doubt must be close to being put to rest about now. Tritle is second in the NWL for RBIs at the moment, with eight runs batted in, and his plate discipline has been much better since he took the drop in level. If the roster logjam isn’t soon abated, expect Tritle (and possibly Haas Pratt) to get another shot at high-A relatively shortly.The Canadians are boarding a bus for Everett Washington as I write this, to do battle with the 5-5 Aquasox for three games before returning Wednesday for the homestand against the last-placed Yakima Bears. We?ll be keeping an eye on the games from home, and the reports, as always, will continue right here. 
Never heard of the Massey Rating system? Well, you’re not alone. 
It’s always nice to see the C’s get a little space in the pages of the hometown newspapers, mostly because it doesn’t happen very often. Both the big papers in town are early morning dailies, and their deadlines are too tight for anything but the scorelines to make the paper, more often than not.
Recently, word came down the pipe that Nat Bailey Stadium, the historic home to Vancouver baseball, would be saved from the wrecker’s ball and kept as is for the forseeable future. This is a good thing, in my opinion, but it’s also a mixed blessing.
A large part of the right field side of the stadium was demolished a while back because it was rotting away, and before that, the bleachers down the right and left field lines were demolished due to wood rot. Those stadium changes make the visitors dressing room far smaller than the home dressing room, and players last season had no problem complaining that the facilities were of high school standard. 
Let me assure the reader, the C’s are more than content to stay a part of the short season Northwest League, now and for a long time to come. 
When you’re a college pitcher entering the baseball draft, the last team you want to hear say your name is the Colorado Rockies. And if you do get drafted by the Rockies, you really want to play well in the minors so that another team will trade for you. 
Bottom of the fifth, and the C’s were still pumped and looking for the lead. Tietje singled to right, looking more and more comfortable in the lead-off role, and Frank Martinez did likewise, before Chris Tritle (pictured right) chipped one into shallow center and loaded the bases. Coach Juan Navarrete’s decision not to send Tietje home drew boos from the bleacher bums, but credit where it’s due - Navarrete made the perfect call, especially with only one out. 
Out came University of Hawaii grad Stephen Bryant (left) to replace Jeff Gray (7 innings, 3 hits, 1 run, 4 K’s, no walks) in the 8th inning, and though Bryant had looked nervous as he warmed up in the bullpen, once on the mound he was all business. 
Oakland fans are beginning to talk of a new weapon in Vancouver, one that is likely to hurt opponents in a big way and serve the franchise well for generations. 
Fans of Oakland baseball who care enough to pay attention to the minors, and the drafted players who fill the system, will probably be aware of the name Justin Smoak. After all, in a sea of signed college draft players, Smoak stands out like a sore thumb as an unsigned anomaly. 
