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The Pigs got a little offense this afternoon but not enough in their 72nd game of the season. Can you believe that with the 144 game season we are already halfway through? I am dreading that cold dull offseason.

Anyways..

Andy Tracy had a sacrifice fly and John Mayberry a solo homer.

They did rally in the ninth but Paul Hoover grounded out in a bases loaded pinch hit situation to end the game. Pigs lose 3 to 5.

The best part of this game was Matt Provence calling the game as the Ironpig’s vs. the Laundry Detergents.

Will write more about the halfway mark tomorrow.

OINK!

I’ve been getting a lot of rumors flying at me about the (rumored) trade of Ironpig’s infielder of Luis Maza to the Astro’s organization.

Just a theory myself and Noise Nation member Dean B. have been discussing is that it could be part of a bigger deal that would bring Roy Oswalt to the Phillies.

Look at it this way…

Roy Oswalt has made it no secret he wants out of Houston. He plays hard regardless but Houston’s team has collapsed since its glory days a few years back.

The Phillies are in dire need of an additional high level starter. Trading Cliff Lee is high on the list of regrets of Phillie fans.

Could it happen? Who knows. There is no news out there on the Maza trade and the Phillies are notoriously secretive about trade talks. Just this winter the organization released that they would not pursue Roy Halladay only to announce a trade days later.

It might happen, it might be a heat induced delusion on my part (AC died yesterday) but it would certainly be a plus for the Phillies rotation if it did happen.

Thoughts?

Get your votes out today or you’ll miss out!

The Ironpigs currently hold 8 of the 10 starting positions with fan voting. Keep in mind these results will be skewed with media and manager votes as well as major league call ups.

Current Standings for IL All Star team:

1st Base
1 – Andy Tracy
2 – Chris Richard
3 – Freddie Freeman

2nd Base
1 – Luis Maza (Rumors circulating that he has been traded)
2 – Tug Hulett
3 – Joe Dillon

3rd Base
1 – Cody Ransom
2 – Mike Hessman
3 – Pedro Alvarez

Shortstop
1 – Elliot Johnson (Durham)
2 – Brian Bocock
3 – Angel Sanchez

Outfield
1 – John Mayberry
2 – Rich Thompson (Jimmy T’s campaign must be helping!)
3 – Daniel Nava
4 – Chris Duffy

Catcher
1 – Paul Hoover
2 – Carlos Santana (Currently with Cleveland)
3 – Dusty Brown

DH
1 – Dan Johnson
2 – Angel Sanchez
3 – Barbaro Canizares

Starting Pitcher
1 – Brian Mazone
2 – Drew Carpenter
3 – Jeremy Hellickson
4 – Nate Bump

Relief Pitcher
1 – Scott Mathieson
2 – Mike Zagurski (Currently with Philadelphia)
3 – Casey Fien

Per the Beerleaguer Blog (a good read if you haven’t seen it yet) Nelson Figueroa has been recalled to fill in for injured Chad Durbin. No word on roster moves from the Ironpigs yet but I would imagine Greg Dobbs would be the immediate fill for the vacated spot.

Not too many thoughts on the overcrowded infield right now. I couldn’t imagine Dorta being sent to Reading, possibly Maza… Cody Ransom could see more DH time with Dobbs around.

Also of note is that Dane Sardinha will make his first start for the Phillies today and Wilson Valdez will start in place of last night’s hero Jimmy Rollins.

It was a late decision to attend tonight’s game in Reading but it turned out to be an incredible experience. I got there and immediately ran into my old friend Tommy Viola, who formerly of the Ironpig’s Radioooooo Network, is the current Media guy for the R-Phils. I went into the early entry Happy hour area in the right field food court and stumbled into some people singing kareoke and was astounded what happened next.

The theme song from the 90’s TV series “Saved by the Bell” started playing and out came Dennis Haskins, also known to most as “Mr. Belding” who starred as the show’s high school principal. Haskins came out and started off by singing Brown Eyed Girl, encouraging fans to come on to stage with him to help sing the song. (He has a great voice too) He moved on to sing Louie Armstrong’s What a Wonderful World and then broke into a chorus of Sweet Caroline that got the whole crowd singing as fans swarmed around him on stage to his delight. He definatley had the crowd involved and participating and it was a great time. Such a great time that the courtyard was visited by several of the Reading Phillies themselves! I noticed Domonic Brown smiling as Haskins noticed a young lady in the audience wearing a TV show related “Bayside” tshirt and infielder Matt Rizzotti pushing to the front of the pack to take a few pictures. I looked to my left and saw Tyson Gillies enjoying a mini-helmet of dip’n’dots bopping along to the music. Yes, it was a strange night. Haskins stayed around for the whole game and was overly friendly and outgoing. He signed autographs and took pictures with anyone who came near. What a great guy!

The whole Reading Phillies experience is incredible. I also noticed prospect David Schwimer walking around chatting with fans before the game and Matt German was signing pregame autographs in a Kids only booth. Imagine that! Great idea! The kids are what it’s all about. Way to go Reading!

Just prior to the game was also an on field play catch session for anyone who wanted to go out and toss the ball a little and a photo shoot with Phillie Kevin Mahar. Good stuff!

So, there was a baseball game too. The R-Phils broke it open early scoring 4 runs in the first and enjoyed a relatively easy 8 to 3 victory over Bowie. JA Happ made another rehab start and lasted 5 innings allowing 7 hits and 3 runs. He looked sharp tonight. I would imagine he’s back in Philly in a couple weeks.

I spent the night in Reading at the R-Phils game so my notes will be pretty limited today… More to come on the Reading experience.

Well, the Pigs lost 4 to 5 to the Tide tonight.

Andy Tracy was 4 for 4 with two doubles and a triple.

Cody Ransom had 2 hits including a 2 run Homerun.

Melvin Dorta went 0 for 5 ending his streak at 13..

One note of interest while listening to the post-game show is that home plate umpire Travis Brown awarded Drew Carpenter a 1 pitch strikeout. From what I could understand from the call is that the Tide’s Robert Andino took too long in his at bat and was penalized with a strike being added to his count. With some protest he again took too long getting into the box and was rung up with a 3rd strike after only one pitch was thrown. He went berzerk and was instantly ejected. True call, but not seen too often.

Seeing tweets of Chad Durbin heading to the DL with an injured hamstring so the Pig’s bullpen could get hit again soon. We will add Dobbs this week so whoever goes up might give up the spot when Dobbs adds an Ironpig jersey to his wardrobe.

Stay tuned for my notes on the Reading game from tonight!

My 11 year old Weimaraner Wally jumped up in excitement as I typed that but it isn’t that kind of dog day this time!

The Ironpigs will be holding their 3rd annual Hot Dog eating competition on Tuesday, July 6th! Last year’s competition ended in a tie, if I remember correctly and it was painful to watch as the contestants tried to stomach one more hot dog in the “eat off” to determine the winner. I think the guy who won eventually ate 16 or 17 hot dogs. About 14 more than I can handle at one time…

Details per the Ironpig’s website:

Registration is now underway for the Lehigh Valley IronPigs 3rd annual Hot Dog Eating Competition that will take place prior to an IronPigs game on Tuesday, July 6. The contestant that eats the most hot dogs in five minutes will be crowned champion and receive great prizes, including:
■Celebratory first pitch on July 6.
■IronPigs Team Autographed Baseball.
■Official IronPigs Game Cap.
■Four complimentary tickets to a future 2010 IronPigs home game (with preferred parking) and more!

Each participant chosen to participate will receive two tickets to the July 6 game (for the contestant’s entry and one guest), on-field recognition and an IronPigs prize pack.
To register, please download the registration form by CLICKING HERE and return to the Coordinated Health Fan Services Center, submit via fax to (610) 841-1509 or mail to: ATTN: Hot Dog Eating Competition, 1050 IronPigs Way, Allentown, PA 18109.
The objective of the competition is to eat the most hot dogs in five minutes. In order for the hog dog to be counted as eaten, both the bun and the hot dog must be completely consumed. Please see attached form for complete contest rules and details.

Deadline to register is July 1st! You can register at the park or print out an entry form from their website and drop it off at your conveniance. Be prepared to write why you feel you deserve to be included in the competition!

Speaking of deserving… the Noise Nation throws its full support behind potential competitor Steve Richter. Steve attends many Ironpigs games along with his little brother. He knows food well and I have personally seen him eat at tailgates and ballgames and he will make a good showing if selected. As a show of support, I ask that you show support of Steve’s candidacy on the Ironpig’s Facebook page and let them know that he is a top notch hot dog eater and will represent us proudly!

“Steve Richter should be in the 2010 Hot Dog Eating Contest!”
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=635650459&ref=hpbday&pub=2386512837#!/LHVIronPigs?ref=ts

OINK!

Wanted to start off tonight’s post by mentioning the Silver Pig’s fan club bingo night at Coca Cola Park this evening. From what I’m being told, close to 200 people showed up.. much more than the club level could comfortably hold and the event was held on the concourse with food and prizes. Wish I was older than I am.. might invest in a gray wig next time.. Good Stuff Ironpigs! You keep outdoing yourselves!

It was bound to happen soon, in fact I just asked about this a couple posts ago, and Joe Savery has been pushed to the bullpen to work his problems out. Brandon Duckworth will replace him in the rotation. Savery has really struggled this season, especially in the early innings. Hopefully this will prove beneficial to him and his career.

The one good thing I can say about tonight’s game against the Norfolk Tide is at least we didn’t pay to see this game. It got ugly. It got real ugly. Andy Tracy had 2 errors counted towards his season total of 5 in one play. Listening to the broadcast it didn’t seem he completely deserved the second but it went down that way. Brain farts all around today as Dorta also added two errors to the total. Dorta did extend his hitting streak to a season high 13th game!

Altogether the pitching staff allowed 12 hits, 9 runs (6 of them earned) walked 5 and struck out 7.

The Pigs did load the bases in the 9th with no outs..

Bocock struck out on a questionable pitch.
Thompson popped out.
Tavares singled scoring 2 runs.
John Mayberry flied out.

Hopefully tomorrow brings a better day… Pigs lose to Norfolk 4 to 9.

Big moves today by the Phillies organization.

Scott Mathieson back to Lehigh Valley

Mike Zagurski to Philadelphia

Greg Dobbs designated for assignment

Jimmy Rollins activated from DL

Carlos Ruiz assigned to DL

Big day Pig Fans! Big day!

Voting for the AAA All Star game ends in just 3 days…

I remember last summer when the ticker counting down to the number of days, hours, minutes and seconds until the 2010 AAA All Star game appeared in the concourse of Coca Cola Park. It had something like 400 + days to go when I first looked at it and now it is down to just a couple weeks!

With that, I do encourage you to vote. In this electronic age it is fairly easy to vote. You log in, it asks for a name and email address and you are allowed to vote a maximum of 25 votes. It makes it a whole lot easier to vote and I imagine to tally votes doing it this way. Imagine having to tally thousands of paper ballots? I’m surprised we haven’t seen more about fan voting in the local media. Maybe the papers are still stunned by the 1957 MLB All Star game fiasco?

In 1957 the All Star game was held in St. Louis and featured the American League vs. most of the Cincinatti Reds. Well that would have been the case if commisioner Ford Frick hadn’t stepped in and added Willie Mays and Hank Aaron to the roster.

When fan voting began that year, Cincinatti fans started voting. They voted, and voted and voted… then voted some more. To make things easier the local newspaper printed out ballots that were prefilled to vote for all of the Red’s team. To vote, a fan just had to sign their name and turn in the card. Fans were found to have collected hundreds of these ballots and even bars would refuse to serve anyone without casting a vote for the Reds. When tally day came around, 7 of the 9 starting positions were Cincinatti Reds. As a result, Frick took the vote away from fans and gave it to managers and players until the fan vote was restored in 1970. I wonder how many Cincinatti fans yelled out his name in anger following that decision…

Today’s system of combining fan votes, team votes and media votes seems to work pretty good. You get the prospects and the home team usually gets a few players on the roster who might not have made it otherwise.

So don’t forget to vote for your favorite players and before you know it it will be All Star weekend here in the Lehigh Valley!