Monthly Archives: June 2010

The Pigs were looking good going into the 9th inning on National TV this afternoon but a few pitches by Ryan Vogelsong and J.J. Furmaniak burned his old team with the Pigs losing 2 to 3 to the Durham Bulls. With the loss the Pigs lost the series one game to three.

Andy Tracy extended his hitting streak to 12 games today.

Drew Carpenter pitched well for 6 innings allowing 5 hits and no runs.

Melvin Dorta went 3 for 4 raising his average to .312

Domonic Brown collected his first AAA RBI with a single up the middle.

Watching this game was tough. Nail biting almost. I had a sinking feeling in the first inning when Paul Hoover had a baserunner gunned down at 3rd base and Dobbs dropped the ball. Hoover hit the mitt. Dobbs dropped it. It wasn’t a bad angle. He just dropped it..

Also of note, this is my first post from my new PC! Many thanks to my old computer.. it gave me almost 6 solid years. I bought it from a friend downsizing her office years ago and upgraded it into a mega-computer.. well for its time. I feel like I need a cigarette after booting up the new PC and typing away. It’s like trading in a Le Car for a Corvette.

There’s a lot of guessing when players are traded, released, optioned, designated, etc. and all of that is dictated by rules set by the Collective Bargaining Agreement and also applies to the minor leagues. It’s a lengthy document full of legal terms and phrases and I have to say, it isn’t an easy read.. but the website below provides a pdf copy of it for your reading pleasure. Enjoy!

http://mlbplayers.mlb.com/pa/info/cba.jsp

The radio broadcast on 1320 AM was down for most of the game so I turned to some friends and decided to have a party instead. From the look of the boxscore I missed a pretty good game… Pigs won 4 to 2. Nice!

Dobbs finally got a hit and Domonic Brown was 3 for 4!

Brian Mazone got his 5th win and Scott Mathieson his 13th save.

I missed the game, I took it out on a bottle of rum… if you recall anything of note from the game let us know in the comments.

OINK!

The best part of listening to this game was hearing Sgt Slaughter sing “Take Me out to the Ballgame” during the 7th inning stretch. He sang about as badly as the Ironpigs played tonight.

Savery allowed 4 runs.

Stutes allowed his first 4 runs at the AAA level.

The Pigs did have a short rally in the 8th inning, scoring 3 runs, but when a team is up by 9 runs late in the game they usually pitch to get outs rather than shut the team down. I’m not too excited about this mini-rally.

Domonic Brown doesn’t seem to have settled in yet. He’s mustered only 1 hit in the past two games. Give him some time.. hopefully his energy will rub off on the rest of the team rather than the rest of the team rubbing off on him.

Pigs lose their 5th straight game… 3 to 10 vs Durham.

Tomorrow is another day… oink.

Just a reminder that Monday’s Ironpig’s game against Durham will be broadcast live on MLB Network at 1:00pm. I’ll be watching! Don’t miss this chance to watch the Ironpig’s away game!

Tuesday’s game is noted to start at 7:05 on just about every schedule out there but remember that this will be a doubleheader. Game 1 starts at 6:05pm and will be a continuation of the rain delayed game from earlier in the season. JA Happ is slated to start the first game and if we all look back to the last time JA Happ continued in a rain suspended game he pitched 7 no hit innings against Scranton WB! An odd note about the suspended game is that JC Romero started that game, also as a rehab start.

Got word from Boscov’s Travel that the Ironpig’s Fan Cruise just got a little easier…

“Pass the word there will be a bus available from the stadium for the Iron Pigs fan cruise. There will be an additional charge at the most, $70. approx.”

Honestly, I don’t like to drive in the city and I was squirming about finding someone to drive me to New York where the cruise will be departing from in November. I’ll gladly pay $70 to avoid that traffic!

For more details on the cruise click here!

The smallest and least skilled player on the team begs to pitch. The kid begs and begs and begs and finally the coach relents and in the next game the kid gets his shot. First batter walks. Second batter walks. Third batter walks. His teammates groan. The 4th batter is hit by a pitch. The pitcher looks more hurt than the batter. The 5th batter, feeling empathy, swings at the first pitch thrown and drives the ball down a line for a 3 run double. The next batter walks. The batter after that walks. The pitcher looks in pathetically at the dugout, his eyes screaming “Please take me out!” The coach sees this and yells back, “You wanted to pitch, now pitch!”

Just about everyone who has played little league baseball has had a similiar experience. While it may have been you, been a teammate or a friend… I can’t help but have that awful feeling while watching/listening to Joe Savery pitch.

Last week we got news that he was going to the bullpen to straighten things out. Tonight he started. It doesn’t seem he even missed a start. Yeah yeah, I know.. lots of transactions this week and losing Figueroa doesn’t help.. but putting Savery out there to fail is just going to hurt him more in the long run. Where is Duckworth?

I had to turn the broadcast off for a while. Just more of the same.

“Where have you gone… Rich Thompson.. a lonely Pigfan turns his eyes to you.. oo oo oo”

Batting:

Pitching:

*Not currently on Ironpig’s Roster

So far so good. Let me know what you liked best about the season so far.

The initial shock of Rich Thompson being sent to the Reading Phillies has passed… sorry Jimmy T, we’ll all miss him… but the excitement of having Domonic Brown patrolling the outfield at Coca Cola Park is overwhelming!

Who is Chris Aguila?- Aguila was obtained via a trade from the Toronto organization. He spent most of his minor league career (1997-2006) in the Florida minor league system and the past couple years has found him with the Pirates, Mets, Blue Jays and even in Japan for a little while. With AAA Las Vegas he was hitting .275 in 44 games, 4 HR and 21 RBI. No word on what the compensation to the Blue Jays is, but chances are we got this guy for free.

We also lost Sellers to Reading. Not a huge surprise, as losing Maza was not either.

Rich Thompson, who has been playing with the Ironpigs since 2008 is a shocking, yet not unexpected, loss to the team. Keep in mind that Philadelphia controls our rosters and don’t aim your angst at the staff here in Allentown. Thompson is a great guy and a great player and should return to the Pig’s lineup one day. It’s just a shame it had to be three weeks before the All Star Game. Granted, our votes are only 1/3 of what counts so Rich probably would have been placed in reserve, if anything but it is a serious tip of the hat from the Lehigh Valley to one of our favorites.

So Pig fans.. get ready for Domonic Brown! The tall lanky outfielder is one of those players you just sit back and wait for something great to happen. I really can’t say much more than just.. get ready for this show!

oink