June 16, 2009 — Fun news to share with you all. I’ve been invited to blog at Seamheads.com. Seamheads is an offshoot of Baseball Daily Digest and Baseball Prospectus, a couple of those hard-throwing baseball sites I rely on to research my various stories. Seamheads started out as a historical site, it even has a fantasy league of olde tyme base-and-ballers, although it currently includes baseball events of the living present.
The topics are an eclectic mix of op-ed, history, stats anlysis, . . .in other words, yours truly will fit right in! Many of the contributors are SABR types, so I’ll hopefully absorb some of their number-crunching savvy, by association if nothing else. (Guess I’d better stop making fun of sabermetrics geeks.) My series is called “Bush League Confidential” and you’ll notice I’ve added a link to Seamheads.com under my Favorite Links menu in the sidebar. Per usual, I’ll cover the minor leagues, with a focus on the PCL and Angels farm system. By way of introducing myself over there, I’m reposting and/or revising some of my fave posts from TSJ.
The new gig has already inspired some ideas I’ll be sharing with you soon. For starters, if you hadn’t noticed yet, I’ve added a new “About Me” page, with lots of fun memories and photos from my minor league journey. Currently, I’m putting together a reader’s review of this season’s minor league player journals. It’s quite a big project, 23 blogs listed, albeit some contain just a few posts total. A bit later, I’ll be going through my personal collection to assemble a “Bush League Bookshelf.” I’m not sure if I’ll go for full-blown reviews, book by book, or an annotated list of faves. If anyone has a preference, please let me know! Please pay a visit to Seamheads, and if it’s not too much trouble, post a comment to let my editor know what you think. Or how about a campaign to get me elected in as 2009 Seamhead Rookie of the Year?
Come to think of it, I really am an oddball; I hope I never have to leave the bushes. Ha, ha, ha! As always, . . .Your friend in baseball.
June 16th, 2009
June 03, 2009 — The banal media interview. Don Carman, pitcher for the Phillies, had a particularly creative solution for it. He created an “at-a-glance” reference list of 37 of the handiest responses, which he posted at his locker. Perusing the list, one wonders if Carman had been inspired by the movie, “Bull Durham.”
Crash Davis: It’s time to work on your interviews.
Ebby Calvin LaLoosh: My interviews? What do I gotta do?
Crash Davis: You’re gonna have to learn your clichés. You’re gonna have to study them, you’re gonna have to know them. They’re your friends. Write this down: “We gotta play it one day at a time.”
Ebby Calvin LaLoosh: Got to play… it’s pretty boring.
Crash Davis: ‘Course it’s boring, that’s the point. Write it down.
Nuke: Jesus.
Crash: Write, write—”I just wanta give It my best shot and, Good Lord willing, things’ll work out.”
Nuke: “…Good Lord willing, things’ll work out.”
You can find “the list” and other interesting facts about Don Carman at Baseball Almanac. Enjoy! . . .Your friend in baseball.
1. I’m just glad to be here. I just want to help the club any way I can.
2. Baseball’s a funny game.
3. I’d rather be lucky than good.
4. We’re going to take the season one game at a time.
5. You’re only as good as your last game (last at-bat).
6. This game has really changed.
7. If we stay healthy we should be right there.
8. It takes 24 (25) players.
9. We need two more players to take us over the top: Babe Ruth & Lou Gehrig.
10. We have a different hero every day.
11. We’ll get ‘em tomorrow.
12. This team seems ready to gel.
13. With a couple breaks, we win that game.
14. That All-Star voting is a joke.
15. The catcher and I were on the same wavelength.
16. I just went right at ‘em.
17. I did my best and that’s all I can do.
18. You just can’t pitch behind.
19. That’s the name of the game.
20. We’ve got to have fun.
21. I didn’t have my good stuff, but I battled ‘em.
22. Give the guy some credit; he hit a good pitch.
23. He (we) were due to catch a break or two.
24. Yes.
25. No.
26. That’s why they pay him _____ million dollars.
27. Even I could have hit that pitch.
28. I know you are but what am I?
29. I was getting my off-speed stuff over so they couldn’t sit on the fastball.
30. I had my at ‘em ball going today.
31. I had some great plays made behind me tonight.
32. I couldn’t have done it without my teammates.
33. You saw it… write it.
34. I just wanted to go as hard as I could as long as I could.
35. I’m seeing the ball real good.
36. I hit that ball good.
37. I don’t get paid to hit.
June 3rd, 2009
June 01, 2009 — Anyone else out there having a tough time keeping up with all the pitching changes and batting lineups? Despite the confusion, it does seem as though this month’s Lady’s Choice has to be a hitter rather than a pitcher. Of course, I have noticed the pretty numbers being accumulated by setup man Francisco Rodriguez and closer Jeremy Hill. Hill, BTW, is tied for second in the league in saves with 10 SV. Nice! That said, however, the Salt Lake hitters are at #1 or #2 on the PCL stats board in a number of batting categories—303 R, 282 RBI, 68 HR, 806 TB and 0.824 OPS.
So, a hitter it is then. And this month’s pick is Terry Evans. A bit of history is in order for the tall right-fielder from Dublin, GA. Evans was originally drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 47th round (No. 1,409 overall) in 2001. Midseason of 2006, the Angels acquired Evans in exchange for Jeff Weaver, who went on to win a World Series ring with the Redbirds that year. Jewelry aside, hindsight omniscience makes the Angels front office look pretty smart. (Love this quote from the former Angels G.M.) Evans was immediately assigned to the Arkansas Travelers, where he proceeded to tear up the Texas League—in the box and on the basepaths—finishing the season by becoming only the 13th ballplayer in minor league history to join the 30-30 club. Post-season, in the Arizona Fall League, Evans slugged and ran his way onto the AFL Rising Stars Showcase team. Certainly he’d made the right impression with the new organization, and was added to the 40-man roster in November.
In 2007, Evans was promoted to Triple-A Salt Lake and proceeded to produce more of the same. It didn’t take long for the front office to notice his steady progress. Michael Terry Evans was called up to the big leagues in early June as a fill-in for the injured Garrett Anderson, providing a rather memorable Father’s Day present for Michael, Sr. During his first MLB start, the younger Evans got his first MLB hit, “a towering two-run homer over the left-field wall.”
Evans stayed long enough to appear in eight MLB games, and was returned to Salt Lake just in time to be selected to the 2007 PCL All-Star Team.
The future looked bright in 2008. Evans started the season with a .316 BA as part of the Amazing April in which the Bees made minor-league history with a win-loss record of 23-2. Then came the fateful game against Fresno, April 26. Late in the game, Evans slid hard into 2B trying to break up a double play and tweaked his shoulder. He tried to keep playing, although it turned out he’d torn his labrum. Evans went on the DL and spent most of the season rehabbing in extended spring training, not to return to Salt Lake until nearly the close of the season.
Evans was still on the 40-man roster in 2009, although his playing time at spring training camp was limited while the Angels’ development staff took a long look at 25-year-old outfield prospect Chris Pettit, who likewise had missed a good part of his 2008 season, due to a broken foot. Assigned to Salt Lake for 2009, Evans struggled at the plate to begin the season. Thankfully, his other tools remained intact. Possessor of one of the best outfield eyes and arms in the PCL, Evans showed no lingering effects from last season’s injury. And he flashed speed, 12 for 13 in stolen bases thus far in the season.
Evans was hardly alone in his inability to solve the round-ball-hit-square puzzle. As the freezing nights of April warmed up into the promise of May, and with the usual leadoff hitters struggling, Manager Bobby Mitchell tried something new for the batting order. On May 14th, he wrote Evans in the #1 spot. It clicked, and Evans produced a phenomenal 25 hits in 57 at-bats, .439 BA during the “leadoff experiment,” which ended on May 26. Moved to 3rd in the batting order, Evans’ bat stayed hot through the rest of the month.
The last 10 days of May were nothing less than sweet, slugging heaven. On May 21st, facing former Bees Giancarlo Alvarado, the third pitch of the game was the charm and Evans launched a solo homer over the left field wall. May 23rd, Evans hit his eighth homerun of the season against rehabbing MLB pitcher Jason Schmidt in Albuquerque. The following evening, May 24th, he got dinger #9 for the season, his third in four days, and extended his hitting streak to 10 games. The next night, May 25th, homerun #10, fourth in five days, streak to 11 games. May 26th, one hit, streak to 12 games. May 27th, no homers, although Evans went 3-4, scored the only Bees runs and extended his streak to 13 games.
Evans went 0-4 on May 28th, ending the hitting streak at 13 games. On May 3oth, during game #1 of a double-header, Evans went 1-3, a triple, and stole a base, bringing his season total to 12 SB, second highest on the Bees and tied for eighth in the PCL. In the second game, Evans went 2-4; both hits were run-scoring, game-tying doubles that helped the Bees stay within striking distance of Reno for the dramatic walk-off grand slam by Adam Pavkovich. Summarizing the month of May: .330 BA, 27 R, 38 H, 11 2B, 2 3B, 7 HR, 20 RBI, 13 BB, 33 SO, 8 SB.
Still, it’s only June. And my fave outfielder gets tantalized a bit too often by those late-breaking, outside pitches. (I’d sure love to see his SO:BB ratio drop to something less than 2.) As the old saying goes, it’s a long season and anything can happen. Nonetheless, yours truly is hoping to for a break-through season for #24, B-R/T-R. Why? Well, per usual, this isn’t a story about mere numbers alone. How about those intangibles, an inner spark that catches my eye? Or my ear, as on a particular Easter Sunday. Need I say more? Didn’t think so …Your friend in baseball.
Terry Evans, Spring Training 2009
June 1st, 2009
