First the good news – The Lehigh Valley is still on top of the Triple A Baseball attendance per game average. (Again, I say Lehigh Valley as this is our ‘stat’)
The bad news – The Ironpig’s record is a Triple A Baseball worst at 16 wins and 27 losses.
The ugly news – Cody Ransom had his 12th error of the season. Not only that, this error put his “My error led to runs that would have given us the win” streak at 3 consecutive games. This guy is getting eaten alive out there. I can tell you who will probably be in the DH slot when the next American League affiliate comes to town.
The Ironpigs also played their second game without filling the slot vacated when the Phillies recalled Wilson Valdez. This leads me to believe that Andy Tracy, who is eligible to return from the DL tomorrow, will be activated and available for tomorrow night’s game, if not in the starting lineup. Perhaps this is the boost the Pig’s offense needs?
Also, after today’s game the first round of the high school players competition for the 2 spots in the AAA All Star game Home Run derby was held. For those who missed it the first time, below is a video of the competition from 2009.
Former Ironpig Mike Cervenak went 1 for 5 in his return to active play. Val Pascucci got into today’s game too following the ejection of Mike Jacobs for arguing balls and strikes.
The lone Ironpig batting above .300 is Rich Thompson at 318. The next highest is John Mayberry at .279. Brian Bocock has done well lately.. raising his average to .167.
These guys are all great players. What I’ve been noticing lately is that they do the great things well. They hit the ball hard. They run fast. They make diving catches. What they don’t do is the basics. They don’t field routine ground balls well. They don’t put their body in front of the ball. They don’t hustle when they don’t feel it will impact the game. (A triple will look good on my stats – I hustle… a routine fly ball – I jog). Don’t believe me? Try watching the game closely. Those little things like yelling when a runner breaks to steal a base or every player relaying how many outs there are. Chris Duffy bunting a 3rd strike foul for an out and making it blatantly clear by his reaction that he didn’t realize he already had 2 strikes on him. Someone needs to let the Boss Hog and his happy helpers know what’s going on.
Granted, I am not a baseball expert. I am not an athlete by far but I know what I learned in little league and in life. If you’re going to do something, do it right and to do it right you have to do the basic stuff right every time.
noisenation.mlblogs.com 
Bunting with two strikes in the ninth inning is unforgiveable.
To understand the game situation is a basic fundamental that even eight-year-olds CAN and DO master.
I complete expect more from paid professionals one step away from the Major Leagues.
I had a coach who used to go on about commission and omission errors.
Mental and physical.
Coach always said he could live with physical mistakes, because he could give us drills to practice and improve.
Mental mistakes, he said, were different.
If a player refuses to LEARN what needs to be done WHEN — there was NOT MUCH he could do to help that player.
I wonder what Coach Nagle would say about the IronPigs these days?
The 1-for-5 for Cervenak hardly tells his story; he hits the ball hard every time. They made him the “Applebee’s strikeout” batter of the game, but I guess he doesn’t like wings…
🙂
I hear he prefers Italian Wedding Soup from Wegmans. 🙂
There is no question the IronPigs coaches share responsibility for the Duffy Fiasco.
There is a reason a shortstop sticks up two fingers each and every time there is two outs. It is called keeping everyone’s head in the game.
As we see, it can be critical to maintain focus.
One takes it for granted Duffy was given the sign to bunt — he should have been reminded there were two strikes by the coach who gave him the sign…
…if he should have been given the bunt sign in the first place!
This one episode and the complete mental breakdown for both player and coach is very indicative of the 2010 IronPigs season thus far.
My opinion only, of course.