Notes From The Nat

Received an email yesterday that made me a little sad - seems Leanne Cass won’t be with the Vancouver Canadians as Director of Media Relations in 2006.

It was probably bound to happen - most minor league baseballjobs are pretty transient affairs. You do them one season, you get someexperience, and you either move up the ladder or you move on for thenext. Leanne has worked for the media departments of several Vancouverarea sporting organizations, so I’m sure she’s moving on to biggerthings.

At the same time, the Canadians have a bunch of positions they’relooking to fill - everything from Game Day interns to food hawkers andbus drivers and grounds crew and ticket office staff and ushers. Ifyou’re only in it for the money, you should probably keep moving, butif you ever had a notion to spending a summer hanging out at aballpark, earning a little coin, getting some sports career experience,and mingling with thousands of people every other night, take a look atthe Vancouver Canadians job application page and drop them a note.

And Leanne, if you’re reading (as I know you often have in the past), good luck with everything. You’ll be tough to replace.

If you attended Vancouver Canadiansgames last season, you undoubtedly saw your fair share of crappyofficiating. In fact, you probably saw more crappy officiating than yousaw great officiating. At times, it was dire. At times, it was enoughto make you actively angry. But you dealt with it, because you thought,these minor league umps make crap money, and they’re on the first stepof a many-step process towards actually getting good, just like theplayers.

So sure, your starting pitcher finds the strikezone getting squeezed.And yeah, the occasional homerun shot is turned into a pole-curlingfoul by a rookie ump with bad eyesight. And okay, you deal with thefact that your second baseman’s successful sliding double has somehow,miraculously, incredibly, been called as a rally-killing tag-out.Mostly because it goes both ways, and also because it’s really not easycalling plays at second base from a position at first.

That uneasy truce has been rocked this season in ballparks all over theminors, as the umps have gone on strike for better conditions andbetter pay, and rather than be negotiated with in good faith, they wereoffered a paltry one-time pay raise of $100 a month (which the umps sayis offset by a rise in insurance deductibles), and when they asked formore, they were replaced by scab labor.

Yes, that’s right. Oakland’s prized minor league prospects are beingofficiated by high school umpires. LA’s million dollar draftee hittersare having strikes called on them by guys who usually get $35 a game toump 15-year-olds. Seattle’s bonus babies are being buzzed by pitcherswhile the rookie, unqualified umps wonder whether they should issue awarning or just shut up and not rock the boat. And AAA catchers arehaving words in the ears of officials that would be teaching dodgeballin the gym if it weren’t for this strike.

According to the Minor League Report, the managers are noticing a real drop-off in quality:

"Down here, I don’t think you’ll see much of a difference–not atthe lower levels," said one high Class A manager. "But Double-A,Triple-A, where the game is played on a different plane, that’s whereyou’re likely to see the problems. And I don’t think it’s going to getany better any sooner with the guys they have in place."

Let’s be clear - the guys breaking the strike are not doing it to further their careers. In fact, minor league baseballis refusing to release umpires’ names so far this season so they can’tbe put on any blacklist, but you can bet they’ll lend up on exactlythat. The union will never accept scab labor in amongst its members, sothis is the one time these guys will ever see minor league action.

And so it should be. Strike-breaking is some kind of evil business atthe best of times, but strike-breaking for minor league umps - that’sjust cruel and selfish. I mean, the umps generally get paid diddly asis - you really have to get to AAA to make any kind of living in thisbusiness, and that means you have to officiate games in little league,high school ball, college ball, rookie ball, and four levels of minorleague ball just for the chance at making what someone would makeworking the drive-thru at In and Out Burger.

Okay, maybe that’s a slight exaggeration, but according to the minorleague baseball website, the official starting salary for a rookie umpis just $1800 per month, or $11.25 an hour if you’re going by the40-hours a week standard. That’s less than a first-day untrainedtelemarketer makes selling insurance to grannies.

And if that still seems like a good deal to you, remember that part ofthe job entails standing in the way of curveballs, sliders, change-upsand the occasional 98mph fastball, before all squeezing into an economycar rental, driving 12 hours through the night to the next series, andthen staying in a $40 per night highway motel room in glamorous placeslike Spokane, Yakima and Boise. Not sounding so attractive now, huh?

So the umps want a little pay raise, and some better conditions. So beit. The least that the minor leagues could do is talk to them about it,but no, the minors think it so outrageous that someone on $1800 permonth who has left their wife and kids at home so they could ump rookieball in Arizona would dare pull an Oiver Twist and ask for more, thatthey’ve decided to run scabs until the regular umps get back in theircage and shut up already.

That is nothing short of reprehensible. At a time when the minors aredoing great, when franchises are selling for record numbers (theVancouver Canadians owners are in talks to sell 50% of the team fornumbers approaching $5-10m), you’d think there’d be a little scratchfor the folks who are so important in making sure the games areentertaining.

But no. Instead we have scabs officiating in AAA, AA, High A and Low-Aball, and you can bet if the umps don’t give in, we’ll be gettingumpiring in the NWL that sets the bar at a new low this season.

How the Major League umpires aren’t standing with their minor leaguebrothers on strike is beyond me. How other unions aren’t joining thefray makes no sense to me at all.

To make matters worse, yesterday, Delmon Young (right), who was the Baseball America’s 2005 minor league player of the year, threw a bat into the chest of the scab umpire who called him on strikes,and you have to think that kind of behavior comes from some REALLY badcalling (combined with some really non-existant anger management), andindicates that perhaps this isn’t just a financial issue anymore. Nowit’s a safety issue.

Minor League Baseball should be ashamed. And we, the people, should let them know we’re aware of it.

Mike Fitzpatrick is the Executive Director of the Professional BaseballUmpire Corp, a subsidiary of Minor League Baseball which handles alldealings with the umps. If you, like me, think the minor league umpsare getting screwed, drop him a note telling him so.

Trust me, 1000 emails from the people who come to see minor leagueballgames, threatening not to do so this season until the strike issolved, will be a difference-maker in this whole sad, sorry episode.

Note: For a first hand account of Delmon Young’s bat fling, Rays Talk on MVN has a detailed account.

I’ve received several inquiries from people who have come here for the first time because of the scoop on Jimmy Shull’s injury, and the general thrust of their questions is "Are you sure?"

Let me say, yes, I am. I received the information from a player, I had it confirmed by another. I’m prepared to say it’s genuine.

And it sucks. Shull’s one of those kids that is so unpretentious, you just want it all to work out for him, and quickly. This will throw a kink in his career path, but I’ve little doubt that if it’s possible for him to come back as good, he’ll come back as good - or better.

What was shaping up as an outstanding early season for two of last year’s best Vancouver Canadiansalumni has quickly turned to crap. Though no official announcement hasbeen made as of yet (not that I can find, anyway), I’m told that 4thround 2005 draftee Jimmy Shull will sit out the season after blowingout his elbow, and Mike Massaro will take a month or more off afterbreaking a thumb knuckle while sliding into second.

‘The Shullacker’ will undergo Tommy John surgery shortly to repair hisailing elbow, which will take the wind out of the sails of many anOakland fan still smiling after he struck out 11 batters in 6.1 inningsin his Stockton Ports High-A ball debut last week. Shull was dominantin Vancouver last year, striking out 81 in 73 innings while notching a4-3, 2.47 record.

Massaro meanwhile had been in fine form in Low-A Kane County, carryingan average of .326 and an on base percentage of .415 before getting histhumb tangled in a slide. Massaro hit his first home run of the seasonlast week (which is something considering the guy weighs 160lbs soakingwet), and is expected to sit out something between 4-6 weeks, thoughI’m told he believes he could play tomorrow if Oakland would let him,but the big club doesn’t like to take risks with injury, especiallywith players that look to have a long term future.

But not all the news is bad on the injury sheet - Scout.com reports that last year’s NWL ERA leading pitcher, Mike ‘Mr Blonde’ Madsen, will come off the DL to pitch for Stockton tomorrow.

Ty Bubalo has a face that people were really getting used to inVancouver. The high school draftee had been in the system for fouryears, three of which included time in the Great White North, andthough he struggled in the early part of 2005 while hitting through aninjury, the Oakland Athletics decided that the Bubalo’s late season homerun explosion was not enough to warrant another year in the system.

For many ex-minor league players, their career is considered over whenthey get that call telling them they’re on the 4pm flight home. Butmany have decided to take one more roll of the dice, trying out forindie leagues in hope that they’ll catch on, get noticed, and bebrought back into the system by another major league team.

Fans of Ty Bubalo will be happy to hear he’s rolling the dice. In fact,the Oregon native whose father coached in the NWL at one time has founda new home in the Frontier League, with the Evansville Otters.

The Frontier League has only been around for a little over 13 years,but it covers a lot of ground, with teams in cities from Illinois toMissouri, and Indiana to Pennsylvania. Players who have graduated fromthe Frontier League to the majors include Brian Tollberg, MorganBurkhart, Brendan Donnelly, Matt Duff, George Sherrill, Terry Pearson,JJ Trujillo, and Jason Simontacchi.

The official press release quotes the Evansville manager saying of Bubalo, "Iheard good things about Bubalo’s work ethic behind the plate; it willbe good to have an experienced catcher with four years of affiliatedball under his belt."

As a player in the Athletics’ system, Bubalo hit for a .214 averagewith 9 home runs and 51 RBIs in 106 games, which kind of sucks, butdoesn’t do the guy’s talent anything close to justice. Bubalo cancrank, and if he gets a chance to play a full season without injuryniggles, I suspect Bubalo has every chance of finding his way back intothe minors.

And if he doesn’t, well, at least he gets to play some more ball. That doesn’t suck much, does it?

Last year, Frank Martinez hit .167 for Vancouver, got dropped to theArizona Rookie League, and hit .205 down there. In short, he stank upthe joint.

Of course, that didn’t stop Oakland from bringing him backto Vancouver for the playoffs, and it didn’t stop C’s manager JuanNavarette from starting him, leading Vancouver to a miserable playoffexit.

Fast forward six months and, somehow, Frank Martinez is exploding,earning the Midwest League’s Offensive Player of the Week title in theprocess. Freaky Frank drove in 14 runs and hit three dingers whilenotching nine runs by himself, which makes him Kane County’s primaryoffensive source to date.

And yes, that blows my mind.

You know the apocalypse is coming when not only does Mike ‘Michiro’Massaro (pictured left), all 98lbs of him, hits a homerun, and thenFrank Martinez hits one in the same game. But that’s exactly whathappened at the newly renovated Alliant Energy Field in Clinton Iowalast night as the Kane County Cougars went crazygonuts on theLumberkings.

Only two of the starting Kane County hitters didn’t play for Vancouverlast season, and one of those (Nick Blasi) played in V-Town in 2004, soit was a particularly relevant affair to those of us who hung out atNat Bailey Stadium last season.

Jose Pineda singled Nick Blasi home in the top of the 1st inning to getthe wheels turning, and singles from Steve ‘Squeaky’ Kleen, WilberPerez and Anthony Recker loaded the bases in the top of the 2nd beforeMassaro drew a run-scoring walk, Blasi singled to left to scoreanother, and then Perez drew another bases loaded walk to move thescore to 4-1 to the Cougars.

Top of the 4th, and though Clinton has come back to within a run ofKane County, Mike Massaro would unload a 3-run shot over the (cough,gasp) center field wall to push the Cougs out to 6-3.

A new pitcher didn’t help the Lumberkings much, as on the first at batwith new man Juan Carlos Garcia on the mound, Jeff Baisley went yardwith a solo shot, before Justin Sellers drove home Steve Kleen, Blasiscored Recker and Sellers, and then Frank freakin’ Martinez went long,knocking a three-run homerun over the right field wall.

Man, when Frank Martinez is taking you long, you’re really beingsmoked. Or could it be that Martinez has actually turned around andshown his potential after his awful-awful-awful season in 2005?Remember, Martinez had a similar sort of start to last season beforefalling in a hole that seemed to have no bottom… what will the nextmonth hold?

Anyhoo, Steve Kleen knocked hom Jeff Baisley to end the 8-run 5thinning, while Jeff Baisley hit another solo bomb a few innings later,and in a moment of karmic glory, Wes Long came on for Wilber Perez andhit a single in his first at bat of the game, giving him a team leadingBA of .455 after nearly being knocked out of the game altogether lastseason after taking a foul ball off the eye socket.

On the mound, Craig Italiano gave up 3 earned runs in 4 innings beforeDangerous Bradley Davis righted the shipp for two scoreless innings andthe win.

Meanwhile, according to Scout.com, Jimmy Shull went berserk in California:

"Jimmy Shull took a no-hitter into the fifth inning and finishedwith 11 strikeouts in 6.1 innings of work on Friday night in theStockton Ports’ 2-1 win over Bakersfield. Shull didn’t walk a batterand didn’t allow a run until the seventh inning."

Great night for former C’s - can’t wait until we have another crop to unleash upon the baseball world.

The Athletics Nation DailyLink Dump is a veritable treasure trove of baseball information. Eachday, the AN folk gather in every interesting link they’ve found and putthem in one central spot. For A’s fans, it’s awesome, but every now andthen you also find a nugget for the general baseball lover.

Like this - the 1904 patent of a contraption designed to help catchers actually catch the ball without, you know, wearing a glove.

The device required the catcher to open a pair of gates on his chest,then catch the ball with the box, and release the gates at the momentof impact to trap the ball inside. The baseball would then drop out thehole on the bottom, to be caught and thrown by the catcher at hisleisure.

Of course, if the ball was a foot outside the plate, you’d be in a bitof trouble, and it looks like it’d cost a lot more than a leatherglove, but hey, maybe it would help Mike Piazza catch a ball once in awhile.

NEIFI PEREZ: SUPERSUCK
Another interesting stop on the AN DLD is this piece at the Hardball Times, which outlines how Neifi Perez is the worst hitter in baseball right now, and closing in on the worst of all time.

Of course, that only applies if you’re using the Runs Created AboveAverage (RCAA stat) that measures each player?s Runs Created, and thencompares it to the league average, given that player?s number of plateappearances. On the other hand, if you used the UPCHWD stat (UselessPlayer, Can’t Hit Worth a Damn), then Perez is a headline superstar.

POWELL SPEAKS OUT
2004 Oakland 1st round draftee and Vancouver Canadianscatcher Landon Powell didn’t have a great 2005. After succumbing towhat he calls a training injury and doing his knee in, Powell hasclawed back into the system and is finding his feet in Stockton. Scout.com has the interview:

OC: Thinking back to 2004, what was the adjustment like from college ball to the pros?

LP: It was a tough adjustment, especially for a guy like me. My collegeteam went all the way to the end of the season, so going straight fromcollege ball and a week later to pro ball is tough. You are tired, it?sbeen a long college season and you have to get adjusted to the woodenbat. The speed of the game is a little different. In college, you see alot more fastballs. In the pros, you really have to square it up on thebat to make it go. With the aluminum bat, you can kind of get away withnot hitting it that well. There are a lot of adjustments. Vancouver wasa good city to play in, a lot of fun, but I was definitely excited forthat second year of pro ball because I felt like I was going to beready to go.

OC: What are you most looking forward to this season?

LP: Well, just getting out there and playing. There is nothing elsethat is a better feeling then just getting out there and playing andbeing out there with my teammates.

I?m just looking forward to being healthy, having a good year andearning my paycheck. You know, that is something that is important. Ifeel like the A?s drafted me to play for them and I let them down lastseason [by being hurt], so I?m going to go out there and be sure thatI?m out there everyday for them.

Now that’s better. After my inside scoop that Powell had been snippycoming into the 2006 season, this is the kind of talk that makes mesuspect young Landon has finally figured out what’s important.

Was just doing some Googling of various bits and pieces and came acrosssome news around the world that might be of interest to C’s fans -especially to fans of the ‘Flyin’ Hawaiian’ Isaac Omura, and Stephen‘Bad News’ Bryant.

The Honolulu Star-Bulletin says Isaac Omura and Stephen Bryantare coming back to Vancouver in 2006. Of course, the A’s say no suchthing in public (would it be so hard to send out a press release when aguy gets cut?), but I’m prepared to take the Star-Bulletin’s word forit:

Former Rainbows right-hander Steve Bryant and second baseman IsaacOmura are in Oakland’s extended spring training camp. They have beenassigned to the Vancouver Canadians of the short-season Northwest League that does not start play until June 19.

Scout.compublished a photobook of opening day at Stockton this week, includingthe picture seen above of Mike Madsen on the mound, opening the seasonfor the Ports in High-A ball. Madsen jumped a level during theoff-season, then cruised the first three innings of the game beforegetting tagged for four runs by the sixth.

The Northern Illinois University’s Northern Star newspaper did a puffy piece on Joe Piekarz this week, which contains about as little information as an article can contain. Bottom line, he got promoted to Kane County:
"It will be a lot of fun playing at home and being able to havefamily and friends see me pitch professionally," said Piekarz. […] "Iwouldn’t be where I am today without having played at NIU and for CoachMathey and his assistant coaches," Piekarz said.

There’s more after the fold:

The Northern League announced that Stubby Clapp, Canada’s unlikely World Baseball Classichero, has signed on as a player-coach with the embarassingly badlynamed Edmonton Cracker-Cats (honestly, what were they thinking withthat name?), but the bigger news for C’s fans should be that former Vancouver Canadians coach Gord Gerlach has popped up as Edmonton’s bullpen coach.

Professionally Gerlach has scouted for the Angels, Astros, and Blue Jays. He has coached for the Oakland Athletics with their Northwest League affiliate Vancouver Canadians. This September he will take over the national baseball program in France.

The National Postdid a piece on 2006 Vancouver Canadians head coach Rick Magnante(pronounced Man-Yan-Tee) last month, mostly because he was chosen tocoach the South African WBC squad. Magnante did a great job with theteam, nearly beating the Canadians with a group of high schoolers andunknown college kids.

You want to talk about not having a chance? The South African teamincludes four 17-year-old high school kids, 10 teenagers in total, andfive other players who are 22 or younger. They have one player in theprofessional system — pitcher Barry Armitage, 26, who has not risenabove Double-A in six years of toiling in the Kansas City system — andfive others who have spent some time in the minors. The rest are acobbling of kids that play in local amateur leagues around the country.Oh, and there are few grass fields in the country. And most of theparks don’t have fences.

"The adage I use is of Jack and the Beanstalk, Gulliver and theLilliputians and David and Goliath," South Africa manager RickMagnante, the longtime scout for the Oakland A’s who was just named themanager of the Class-A Vancouver Canadians, told reporters on Monday."All of them apply, there’s no doubt about that. But if we can find themagic beans, or if we can zero the stone, then you never know what canhappen."

Finally, the Portland Beavers have released their promotional schedule for the year. Why does that matter to us?

Among the more unusual giveaway items this season, the Beavers arefeaturing Rodney McCray "Bobblefence" Night on Aug. 12, with the first2,000 fans in attendance receiving the one-of-a-kind item. McCray, whoplayed 67 games in the majors, is best known for his infamous crashthrough the outfield fence at PGE Park (then known as Civic Stadium) ina game between the Beavers and McCray’s Vancouver Canadians on May 27,1991. McCray literally barreled through one of the wooden panels in thefence while chasing a fly ball, earning him blooper immortality as thestar of the video clip that is still shown at sporting arenas and onnews clips around the world.

Last I heard, McCray was a batting coach for the Cincinniati Redsorganization. This one’s for you, Rod. Way to keep your eye on the ball.

Of all the Vancouver Canadians players I met during the 2004 season, one of the most affable was a 13th round draft pick from Miami Florida by the name of Scot Drucker.

Druck was throwing in relief that year, and did a fine enough job, andthe following season he pitched more relief in Kane County, beforegetting a shove up to High-A Stockton and starting a few games late inthe season.

That’s all decent progress, but yesterday he took a mighty leap forward,allowing just four hits and one unearned run in six shutout innings ofball. Mike Mitchell and Marcus McBeth kept the opposition scorelessover the following three innings, and McBeth notched his second save ofthe year in doing so, but the big story was Drucker.

All too often, young guys that had great results in college, but notgreat enough to get picked in the first 5 rounds of the draft, getshoved into the bullpen and are never given their shot at being a bonafide starter. And when they do, a shaky start or two basically meansthey get shoved back into the pen, and rarely re-emerge.

Drucker, a sports psychology major who was named on the SEC academichonor roll, and whose grandfather played minor league ball in thePhillies organization, has instead gone the other way, taking all ofhis chances thus far and taking them well. If he can continue his formof the last few days into the remainder of the season, his name will bespoken often in the echelons of Oakland power.

And it couldn’t happen to a nicer kid.

Note: InterestingScot Drucker trivia: In what has to be a first for a guy who has yet toeven get to AA ball, when it was announced last year that Drucker wasbeing promoted to High-A ball by Oakland, the pitcher’s old NorthwoodsLeague summer team, the Thunder Bay Border Cats, decided to hold a Scot Drucker Bobblehead Giveaway Night.

Hold on to those bobbleheads, northwoods folk, they might just be worth something one day.

I’d gone out for some brunch on Main Street with the family on Saturdaymorning (I highly recommend the French Toast at The Whip on 8th), andafter an enjoyable few hours I looked at my watch and realizedsomething important - there was a double header starting at The Natbetween the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds and theAlbertson College Coyotes, currently positioned in second place rightbehind UBC in the standings.

The wife rolled her eyes and waved me off, and a 5-minute bus ridelater saw me walking through the gates of the stadium for the firsttime in months.

Baseball was back. Sure, it wasn’t Vancouver Canadiansbaseball, but it was baseball, and of the local variety. And not fornothing, but the UBC T’Birds are filth right now, hitting nicely onoffense and absolutely burning through opponents from the mound.

In divisional region I standings, they’re 18-0. In NORPAC standings,they’re 8-1. Across their entire season (including exhibitions againstbad ass nationally-ranked teams), they’re 28-7. Streakwise, theyhaven’t lost a game in the last ten. And as I took my seat behind thehome dugout with a crowd of about 120 (seriously people, where wereyou?) in attendance, the T’Birds put on a clinic in how to keep aone-star school at bay over 16 innings.

In the first game, there was almost no game to speak of. UBC starterShawn Schaefer was simply too good for Albertson’s line-up, even as hisopposite number, Coyotes starting pitcher Charlie Strandlund swung thebat with authority in offense and threw some nice stuff off the hill.In the end, defensive errors killed the #19 ranked Desert Dogs, andRBIs by Adam Campbell, Johnny Yiu and Steve Bell-Irving kept thescoreboard ticking to a 3-0 home victory.

Half an hour later and it was on again, with the Albertson side againoff to a slow start. After a big (and long) fourth inning, which sawUBC jump to a 6-0 lead, T’Bird starter Doug Grant came out of thedugout with a seemingly cold arm, and surrendered four runs over thefollowing two innings. When he was finally given the hook, Albertsontrailed by just two, but a big bottom of the 6th for UBC saw the hometeam stretch their lead to 5 runs (big nod to Adam Campbell who went4-5 on the day with 2 RBIs, and another in the bottom of the 8th sealedthe win, despite some REAL shaky relief pitching and a 4-5 performancefrom Albertson’s lead off man, Jake McGrady.

So how shaky was that relief pitching? Well, by the time Albertson hadnotched 6 runs on the scoreboard, 4 of those had been walked in. Yikes.
(more…)

While we wait for short season ball to start once again, we at NotesFrom The Nat figure it might be worth doing to keep an eye on what theCanadians of the past few years are getting up to in the upper levelsof the minors, and tonight’s games brought a big outing from 2004Vancouver outfielder Danny ‘The Grape’ Putnam.

IN AA MIDLAND: Putnam, a high round draftee who last season had to takea few weeks off late in the season after tearing his esophagus on agrape, went 3-4 with 2 doubles and a homerun, scoring twice and drivingin 5 in a 14-5 beating over Frisco. 2004 C’s catcher Kurt Suzuki alsohomered (2-5), as did 2003 Vancouver player Brant Colamarino (4-6).Jason Perry went 3-5.

IN LOW-A KANE COUNTY: Justin Sellers continues to shine, going 3-4 tobring his early season batting average to .625, while Jeff Bieker sitson .429 (2-4 tonight) and Nick Blasi sits on .375 (2-4). But it waspitching that won tonight’s Kane County Cougars game against the Swingof Quad Cities (Worst. Name. Ever.), with Vince Mazzaro finally makinghis pro debut and notching a win while doing so. Mazzaro, a contacthold-out last season, threw 5 innings of 2-run ball, conceding 4 hits,and notching a single walk with 2K’s.

Joe Piekarz and Long John Herrera cruised in middle relief, and whenBrad ‘Killer’ Kilby got in trouble shutting the game down (2ER in0.2IP), newly converted closer Steve Sharpe came in to rack up hissecond save in two games.

IN AAA SACRAMENTO: The Portland Beavers withstood a double homerunouting by Scott McClain (who is really pushing for a major leaguespot), while ‘Two Buck’ Chuck Thomas went 2-5, Matt Waston went 2-4,and Jeremy Brown each went 2-3, the latter two each notching up homers.

On the mound it was brutal, with recent acquisition Juan Dominguezgetting creamed for 6 earned runs in 2.2 innings pitched, Porno Tadanogiving up 2 ER in 1.1 IP, and Roney giving up 3 earned in 2 IP at theend. Only Victor Moreno looked good in the pen, throwing 3K’s in 2scoreless innings.

Stockton did not play tonight.