July 15, 2009 — We’ve officially entered the PCL All-Star break, a much needed rest for our hard-working team. Sunday’s game definitely helped enter the break on a positive note, with the Bees beating division-leading Colorado Sky Sox in a 5-0 shut-out, masterfully pitched by the youngster Trevor Bell.
While most of team is heading off to rest and recreate, a couple of Bees have gone to Portland, OR, to participate in the Triple-A All-Star Game, which pits the Pacific Coast League All-Stars versus the International League All-Stars in a one-game, winner takes all championship. In preparation of tonight’s game, which will be broadcast at 8 p.m. MDT on ESPN2 and MiLB.TV (MiLB.TV viewing requires $6.95 month subscription or $29.95 for a year), let’s take a closer look at our All-Stars, shall we?
Brandon Wood
Although he was selected to participate, Wood won’t be playing in this year’s All-Star game. Wood was called up to the Angels on July 10th, along with Bobby Wilson, and was immediately inserted into the starting lineup at 3B. Facing the Yankees, Wood showed his chops by drawing a walk during his first at-bat, on five pitches from starter Andy Pettitte. Later, he helped chase Pettitte in the 5th inning with a two-run homer. If you’ve been listening to the radio, you would have noticed Wood played 1B for a few games on the road. On Sunday, still against the Yankees, he started at 1B—no hits, but he did sacrifice in a run in the 4th.
Of course, Wood has hardly lacked press coverage from the day he was drafted. Rather than retread the many fine articles already written on Wood’s career, I’d recommend the curious reader simply Google a few keywords and read to your hearts content.
One last thought arises that does seems worth mentioning. Yours truly is of course, well aware of the many seasons of grumbling over how the Angels have held him back at Triple-A. Until last summer, I honestly didn’t think he was quite ready. Now I do. He’s coming to the plate and thinking about “hitting the ball” instead of “hitting the long ball.” He’s using his natural quickness and keen eye to adjust his swing, instead of reacting to whatever shows up. The more he sticks to the plan, . . .the better he’ll be able to close up those holes in his swing, . . .which will force pitchers to start making adjustments to get him out, . . .and will present him with more “fat” pitches down the road. And goodness gracious, he knows very well what to do with those.
I believe in the long run, Wood will become a premiere ballplayer because the Angels kept the long-term goal in mind while developing his athletic skills. It’s hard to remember, particularly in athletes having so much natural talent, the most important and slowest-to-develop performance factor sits between the ears. It’s a simple fact of human biology that the motor skills develop far earlier than the cognitive skills. In short, it takes time and experience to learn how to hit the ball for average and power, under all sorts of conditions. Wood is 24 years old. And I wish for him a long and successful career.
Terry Evans
“When Evans hits in the lead-off position, good things happen, ” said broadcaster Steve Klauke during the last game prior to the All-Star break.
And indeed our 6’4″ lead-off/slugger has been enjoying one heck of a comeback season after missing most of last year due to a shoulder injury. In the aforementioned game, Evans went 2-3, with an RBI-scoring double and a walk, and stole his 19th and 20th bases. Klauke noted that with 17 home runs thus far in the season, Evans could quite possibly join the 20-20 Club (20 home runs and 20 steals within the same season). That would be a Salt Lake franchise first. Evans is already a member of the Minor League 30-30 Club, one of only 13 players to do so. Even more impressive is the fact he achieved this record in 2006, the same year he was traded from the Cardinals to the Angels organization.
In addition to being selected to play outfield for the All-Star Game, Evans was one of the three PCL representatives in the Home Run Derby, held on Monday. He advanced to the second round, and eventually finished fourth among the eight contestants. Look for him in center field, batting 5th during tonight’s game. Last but certainly not least, Evans was this lady’s pick for May.
Jeremy Hill
Our 2009 PCL All-Star closer was acquired by the Angels via free agency this winter from Acereros de Monclova in the Mexican Leagues. Originally drafted as a catcher by Kansas City in 1996, he converted to pitching in 2000. He had some early success, including a short stay with the Royals during 2002. Otherwise, as noted in a Salt Lake Tribune article, his career has taken him to the far corners of baseball world, including Taiwan, Independent Leagues and Mexico before landing a spring training invite with the Angels.
Hill earned a Double-A roster spot, and made just two appearances before getting the promotion to Salt Lake on April 16. While the promotion was largely in response to an epidemic of pitcher injuries at the parent club, Hill promptly started building his case for it to stick. He was lights out through May, with a stingy 1.46 ERA, and earned the closer spot with 13 saves by mid-June. He struggled in the latter half of June, racking up an 11.56 ERA over four particularly rough outings that included a blown save. Ouch, and then some. Still, he fought back, earning four more saves through that rough stretch, and as we know, an spot on the PCL All-Star Team. Not bad for a man who was wondering last winter whether his 14-year baseball career might be over at last.
Hill is not a power thrower, although his fastball can touch the low 90s. His most effective pitching weapon is his ability to fool hitters and get them to swing at the wrong pitches. He’s got a short delivery, hiding the ball well behind his body until he swings around to face the plate. As a closer, his job is to get three outs as quickly as possible, and that includes keeping runners off the bases. His SO:BB for Marvelous May was 10:4 (2.5:1). Comparing the first half of June to the second half, his SO:BB ratio was 11:4 (not quite 3:1) and 4:4 (1:1) respectively. No one knows the ups-and-downs of a long season better than this well-traveled veteran, and he came fighting back during the first half of July, producing a 4.16 ERA over four appearances and bringing his season ERA down to 4.13.
Hill will be pitching out of the bullpen tonight, although it’s hard to say when manager Randy Ready will bring him in. All-Star teammate Jess Todd from Memphis is leading the PCL in saves with 21. My guess? Hill will come in for short relief in the 8th, to set up Todd.
If you tune into watch the game on TV or internet, you’re in for a special treat. Rich Burk, Portland Beavers broadcaster, will be handling the play-by-play, along with color commentator, Eric Young, Sr. Burk knows our Bees players very well, having covered games between the Beavers and Bees since 2001, and seen the two teams square off for two series already this season.
Hey, I just realized that Evans and Hill won’t have to leave after the game, cause the Bees will be visiting Portland for a four-game series immediately following. Sweet!…Your friend in baseball.
July 01, 2009 — Note: Many thanks to Jason for pointing out the obvious pick for this month’s Lady’s Choice. Usually, mid-point of the season I’m faced with the decision of choosing one standout athlete over another, or several others. It is most certainly not typical to find myself casting about for inspiration. If you’ve been following the team, though, you know this been an unusual season for our Triple-A ballclub.
Thinking aloud then. . .Jeremy Hill, of late, is having some trouble holding leads. I love Francisco Rodriguez. Too bad he wasn’t around for half the month. Matt Brown and Bobby Wilson have been struggling at the plate. Reggie Willits spent two weeks nursing a sore hamstring. Freddy Sandoval and Chris Pettit are out with injuries until late July at the earliest. Oh have I mentioned, the weather’s been lousy too? Sigh!
It’s true, Brandon Wood has been his consistently awesome self. And I’ve noticed significant improvement in plate discipline, particularly his 23:47 BB:SO (a ratio of 1:2). In all honesty, though, it’s not like yours truly is going to add anything revelatory to thewell-deserved praise for this kid’s ongoing development. And yes, I had noticed Brad Coon is steadily upping his offensive production after a slow start. Not to mention, just like last year, he’s an excellent guardian of our 420-foot-deep center field. Trevor Bell? Tempting. His awesome debut is slowly turning, start-by-start, into a Triple-A stay of real merit.
And then I was reminded of having overlooked the bright ray of sunshine in our uncharacteristically cold and dreary June. . .
So, this month’s pick is Adam Pavkovich. Pavkovich was selected in 2003 from the University of Alabama by the Angels in the 11th round, 330th overall pick. He came straight to Provo for his professional debut, where the Crimson Tide alumnus figured out wood bats rather quickly, well enough to earn a mid-season promotion to Single-A Cedar Rapids.* He continued to move up the farm system without a hitch; a full season with Advanced-A Rancho in 2004, and just the briefest of time with Double-A Arkansas before arriving at Triple-A for good in 2005.
*Apparently he suited up for one game as a Salt Lake Stinger that year, although I don’t remember it personally.
Yours truly readily admits having wanted an excuse to showcase Pavkovich for a couple seasons now. He stands out for me not only as a good ballplayer, but one who makes an extra effort to bond with his fans, particularly the young ones.
A BeesGal memory. . .One afternoon in 2007, after a long wait for players to come out onto the field, one young fan literally wilted in his spot. He put his head down, cradled in his arms atop of the concrete wall, and closed his eyes. And there he rested, oblivious to the now-arrived ballplayers talking with and signing for fans along the wall.
Pavkovich stopped and bent down, lowering his head to peer upward into the downturned face.
“Hey,” he said gently. Getting no response, he asked again, “Hey there. Are you OK?”
The small head popped straight up, a startled look upon the youngster’s face. Pavkovich laughed warmly, and spent a few extra minutes chatting before moving on.
Another from 2007. . .Pavkovich appeared a full 30 minutes prior to gametime. He walked along the wall, scanning the rows as if he was expecting to meet someone. Halfway between the dugout and bullpen he stopped. He called up to a boy who looked eight or nine years old, standing with his father about 10 rows up in the stands. The boy and father looked around, and then behind them. They looked back at Pavkovich, who was now holding up what looked to be a brand-new bat, its gleaming walnut finish unblemished by pine tar or ball marks.
“Hi! Do you want this?” he called out, energetically gesturing for them to come over.
The boy remained frozen until finally his father half-pushed them both down the stairs and to the wall. The precious gift signed and delivered, Pavkovich returned to the clubhouse to get ready for that evening’s work.
In 2008, Pavkovich had a break-through year on the diamond. He flashed some power—25 doubles, 4 triples, 22 HR, 80 RBI and 225 TB—while maintaining a nice .280 AVE. That sort of production earned Pavkovich his first invite to the Dominican Leagues this winter and big-league training camp this spring.
Fast forward to Opening Day 2009, and Pavkovich begins his fourth season with the Bees. There have been, of course, a few changes over the seasons. Harper and Nagy are gone. Mitchell and Bennett are in their second seasons as manager and pitching coach.
On April 15th, Pavkovich played his 425th game in a Salt Lake uniform, passing former Buzz outfielder Chris Latham to become the franchise leader in games played. As noted by longtime Salt Lake broadcaster and “voice of the Bees” Steve Klauke, this is a bittersweet achievement, one that underscores a long tenure in the bush leagues. Pavkovich also has taken over the lead in career two-base hits (98), and tied in sacrifice flies (20) with Buzz/Twins infielder Todd Walker. His 19 sacrifice bunts leaves him just three short of Buzz infielder Mike Moriarty (22) and two short of Stinger/Bees infielder Casey Smith (21). Thanks to last year’s bomber run, he also holds sixth place in career homeruns (45).
On the other hand, some things haven’t changed at all. #25 still arrives early to meet his fans at the wall, every day, win or lose, play or sit. He talks, he smiles, he jokes, he inspires.
He’s still the young man who makes the Knothole Club something special. According to local lore, the 23-year-old infielder voluntarily assumed the role of Knothole Club “camp director” soon after his arrival in 2005. This spring, Camp Director Pavkovich once-again led kids and parents on a guided tour of a day in the life of a professional ballplayer.
During the tour he was asked how many bats players receive from Anaheim.
He replied, “Two dozen, which for a good hitter will last all season.”
There was a pregnant pause, and his next sentence was accompanied by that warm smile, “If you’re a not-so-good hitter, you’ll need more.”
What more can I say? Save perhaps, it’s been a delight having this young man in a Salt Lake uniform for all these seasons. I believe Pavkovich is eligible for free agency after the end of this year, his seventh since being drafted by the Angels. In that case, I certainly wish him all the best, with just the tiniest selfish hope of getting to meet again for Knothole Club, 2010…Your friend in baseball.
June 28, 2009 — In my previous post I offered a high-altitude survey of the who, what and where of minor league player blogs. In this post, I’ll start drilling down into the individual stats, namely, number of posts per author, word count per post and number of comments per post. The analysis here will begin to tease out what sort impact each of our ballplayer-bloggers is making in the MiLB.com blogosphere.
Results
A few notes about these numbers. When looking at the total posts, remember not everyone started blogging at the same time. Nonetheless, most started blogging during spring training, around February/March. Word count is an approximate average calculated for a randomly sampled handful of posts, roughly five or six, when possible. Comments/Post was calculated via a similar method—grab a handful of posts, count the total number of comments, divide by number of sampled posts. Hopefully this makes sense.
Not sure if the charts do much to clarify the stats. They sure look pretty though, don’t you think?
Analyzing these numbers is hardly an exact science due the high number of variables contributing to the final results. Suffice to say these results alone probably won’t reveal any useful, magical formulas for success. They will, however, provide an important starting-off point for when we start assessing the content of each blog. Thus I want to at least discuss some of the general principles/assumptions/wild speculations before moving on.
At first blush, the American League (127 posts) seems to be leaving the National League (79 posts) in some serious dust. After removing blogs by Chris Hayes, who’s posted a staggering 41 entries since mid-February, the adjusted totals are a bit of a mixed bag. Post frequency and comments/posts are roughly equal. The big difference, not shown in the charts, is total word output. Even without Hayes’ contributions, American League bloggers produced roughly 4,421 total words, about double the National League’s 2,149. On final analysis this researcher concludes American League minor leaguers are a more cyber-sociable group than those hailing from the National League.
Total Posts
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Click on image to enlarge
Total posts is an indicator of post frequency. And why is this important? Although there’s no clearcut consensus or magic formula for blogging success, most blog readers seem prefer the following combination: high post frequency + medium word counts + a photo/video gew-gaw or two. Of the three, post frequency seems to make or break the spell for most readers. While we’re on the topic, about those, “Sorry, I know it’s been a while” excuses, use them sparingly. After awhile, it won’t matter why, readers will stop clicking over.
Post Length
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Click on image to enlarge
While easy to quantify, this stat is a bit tricky to qualify. On the one hand, longer posts mean more news. On the other, a long, winding story that takes too long to get to the point will quickly lose your reader. 300-400 words is a perfectly acceptable length. The less-is-more writing technique takes some practice to pull off, nonetheless, it’s a worthwhile skill to cultivate, particularly since your audience is used to having information delivered via 2:35 minute YouTube videos and/or 140-word Tweets. One website declared the average page visit lasting only 96 seconds. Woof.
This post, in fact, teeters dangerously close to marathon-like. Nonetheless, there are times when popular appeal must be sacrificed in the name of scientific truth-seeking.
For longer posts, think about including in a photo, widget or video clip to help break up blocks of boring print. (Now do you see why I included the charts? Ssssh! That’ll be our little secret.) One handy trick if you find yourself with a novella of 1,000-plus words is to chop it in half, or even three, and offer them as a matched set. Best of all, by stringing them out like this, you’ve given yourself a deadline extension of at least another week before having to come up with something new, witty and charming.
SIDEBAR: The Amazin’ Hayes
Speaking of post length, now would be a good time to make special mention Chris Hayes. The side-arming relief pitcher with the yoga-instructor wife has produced roughly 51,660 words as of early June, when I sampled his blogs. In real-world terms, he’s well on his way to putting the finishing touches on a mass-market mystery or romance paperback.
To put this into context with his professional peers, below is a bar graph representing Hayes’ total word count compared to the other 22 ballplayer-bloggers. It is really, really tiny because Hayes’ total word count exceeds that of his peers by orders of magnitude, in other words, multiples of 10!
Click on image to enlarge
OK, goggle-eyed amazement aside and back to the original concern stated in Part 1, does this sort of quantity mean a better blogging experience? And if not, what is the magic formula to a well-written, well-visited, well-spoken of blog? Stay tuned, and these mysteries will be revealed. . .
Comments
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Click on image to enlarge
You’ll notice no data was collected on star-ratings. Although quite easy to tally up, these little popularity polls offer no contextual information as to why a certain post is popular, or not. Also, the quick-and-easy, one-click process means you can never be quite sure if the rater even bothered to read the blog before boosting up (or dragging down) someone’s work with a quick click. Kind of like choosing players for the All-Star Team; pick your favorite and start voting away, up to 25 clicks/day. (BTW, if you’re wondering, no, I don’t participate in All-Star Team voting, minor league or otherwise.)
A better litmus test of who is actually reading is provided by comments. Feedback via reader comments are a very important indicator of whether your blog is actually “doing anything” besides just taking up space on the server hard drive. For example, a loyal commenter following usually indicates the blogger is providing useful/entertaining information for his targeted audience. Comments can also give a reading on how friendly/interactive a blogger is with his readers. A couple of our ballplayer-bloggers have taken interactivity a step further, asking for comments and feedback, which is a great way to generate repeat visits. One caveat, blogs showing only a few comments doesn’t necessarily mean they’re not popular. For every comment posted, there’s likely to be a whole mess of lurkers. Also, it’s important to note blogs with the most comments are not necessarily the ones with the most frequent entries or longest posts.
Coming up in the next section, we move on to the blog-by-blog, qualitative analysis. Unlike baseball, this portion of the competition will be a judged event, which means I’m open to bribes, . . .er, oops! I mean suggestions. In this most critical section of the whole shebang, I’ll do my durndest to point out what seems to work, as well as what doesn’t. . .Your friend in baseball.
“When Evans hits in the lead-off position, good things happen, ” said broadcaster Steve Klauke during the last game prior to the All-Star break.
Our 2009 PCL All-Star closer was acquired by the Angels via free agency this winter from Acereros de Monclova in the Mexican Leagues. Originally drafted as a catcher by Kansas City in 1996, he converted to pitching in 2000. He had some early success, including a short stay with the Royals during 2002. Otherwise, as noted in a Salt Lake Tribune article, his career has taken him to the far corners of baseball world, including Taiwan, Independent Leagues and Mexico before landing a spring training invite with the Angels.
Hill is not a power thrower, although his fastball can touch the low 90s. His most effective pitching weapon is his ability to fool hitters and get them to swing at the wrong pitches. He’s got a short delivery, hiding the ball well behind his body until he swings around to face the plate. As a closer, his job is to get three outs as quickly as possible, and that includes keeping runners off the bases. His SO:BB for Marvelous May was 10:4 (2.5:1). Comparing the first half of June to the second half, his SO:BB ratio was 11:4 (not quite 3:1) and 4:4 (1:1) respectively. No one knows the ups-and-downs of a long season better than this well-traveled veteran, and he came fighting back during the first half of July, producing a 4.16 ERA over four appearances and bringing his season ERA down to 4.13.
So, this month’s pick is 
“Hi! Do you want this?” he called out, energetically gesturing for them to come over.
He’s still the young man who makes the 
He is a 
Nonetheless, there are times when popular appeal must be sacrificed in the name of scientific truth-seeking.
