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We're back in action, and with some good stuff today too. 

Last year at this time, we were counting down the days until the end of another disappointing season with no playoff finish.  It's exciting to know that the end of the printed schedule is not actually the end of the season this year.  It appears pretty certain that the matchups in the first round will be:

New Jersey vs. Worcester

Brockton vs. Quebec

How awesome is this fact:  Both sets of teams played 20 games against each other this season.  Both split the season series 10-10. 

Chris Carminucci announced his playoff starters yesterday for the first two games.  RHP Wayne Lundgren will start Game One, and LHP Craig Anderson will start Game Two.  The Australian duo at the top of the rotation has been tremendous this summer for the Rox.  In the 35 games started by either pitcher this year, the Rox are 22-13.  That is almost half of the team's total wins for the season.

The pair has continued a tradition of excellent Australian-born players making a name for themselves in Brockton.  Anderson, of course, was here before.  He enjoyed success with the 2005 Rox team before he went on to the Baltimore Orioles double-A and triple-A affiliates.  Another name on that list is former Rox first-baseman Craig Lewis.  Lewis still ranks fifth all-time in the Rox record books with 119 RBI and sixth in total hits with 239 in his career.  His .323 batting average in 2003 is still fourth-best in Rox history and his 111 hits that year will be third all-time until CF Chris Valencia and SS Dominic Ramos pass him this year.

Baseball in Australia is trying to come back with a National League.  The Australians won the silver medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics, and Federal Sports Minister Kate Ellis just approved a $400,000 grant to help set up a National League.

Falu's Quest for Another Batting Title

2B Melvin Falu set a Can-Am League record with 140 hits and a .383 batting average in 2008.  Don't ever forget that he played in 93 of the 94 games on the schedule.  Those numbers are astronomical. 

Here he is in 2009, batting .322 on September 1st with six games remaining in the season.  He is third in the league with that .322 mark.  It's amazing that he is back up with the leaders, but especially considering the kind of start he got this year.  Last season, he was batting .401 on July 5th and cruised to the finish, batting .379 over the month of August to finish at .383.  This season, he was batting just .264 on July 5th, and proceeded to bat .392 in July and .321 in August to get where he is. 

He is legitimately in the running for a second consecutive batting title...and he absolutely deserves.  He is an unbelievable hitter.  Right now, Worcester's 1B Nick Salotti leads the league with a .334 average.  He has played in six fewer games than Falu, and only twice in the last four for Worcester, who as a team, has clinched a playoff spot.

I talked to Melvin about this yesterday, and his response was expected:  "For me, yes it is exciting, but I'm just trying to help this team win a championship," he said.  "What I did last year," he continued, "surprised me a lot.  This year is different.  I've hit everywhere in the lineup, from leadoff to seventh, and the managers know me too well and try to pitch around me.  But I'm really not trying to think about winning a batting championship.  I want to win a championship with this team." 

He couldn't help himself in the end though.  "But if it happens I will take it," he quipped with the usual ear-to-ear grin that has become commonplace over the last two seasons. 

All-Star Ballot
I've wrestled back and forth with the thought of publishing my All-Star ballot over the last 48 hours or so since I submitted it to the league.  I've decided against it for a number of reasons which I will keep to myself.  BUt I do want to say that I think on a larger scale, Hall of Fame ballots should be made public.  It's not a secret society those writers are working with (in Major League Baseball), and I don't understand why we should not get to see who everyone voted for in the end.  My case is different.  Rather than being an objective journalist and impartial, I work for the Brockton Rox and therefor am inherently impartial, no matter how I argue it.

I will say this though: I think Quebec's Pierre-Luc LaForest will be the runaway Player of the Year, and Rox CF Chris Valencia will be the Rookie of the Year.  I didn't exactly jump out on a limb with either of those, but Valencia's recognition will continue a trend that Brockton has seen numerous times in it's short existence.  I think Barry Moss and Van Schley deserve to be applauded for that.

Looking for 51 tonight, a new franchise record.  It's been a season full of them.

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Streak is 12...Here are the updated stats from a dozen consecutive wins.

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Bus just arrived at Holman Stadium.  Really brief post today, but I wanted to make sure to get the updated streak stats up.  Its 11 in-a-row now.  Incredible.

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The New Jersey Jackals officially clinched the first half title with a win today over the Worcester Tornadoes 11-1.

The Rox will have to win the second half, or finish with one of the top four records to make the playoffs.

Today's main post is below including an interview with Wayne Lundgren (added late) win streak stats, a comment from Manager Chris Carminucci and some MLB notes as well.
 

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Ok everyone, the streak is now ten games long.  The Rox have effectively won ten percent of its entire 2009 schedule in consecutive games, and the team just keeps getting better and better.

RHP Wayne Lundgren's complete game shutout over New Hampshire on Wednesday night was his first professional shutout.  We'll get some thoughts from him to post today at some point (maybe tomorrow).

Caught up with him before Thursday's game.  Here's the audio of the interview.
Brockton has won ten consecutive games and has done so with varying methods.  Last night, the most powerful offense in the league blasted two home runs in the first inning to make sure Lundgren never pitched with less than a five-run lead. 

Consider though, that the Rox have come from behind five times during the streak to get a win.  That's five comebacks in ten games.  The Rox had five total comebacks in 33 games before the streak started!

Here are the updated streak stats:



Look at the number of runs the Rox have scored over the last ten games and compare it to the number of hits the opposition has!

The pitching staff has been out-of-this-world good.  What is really exciting is that the numbers are not too far off from what the staff has delivered all season.  The difference over the last ten games: eight errors and only six unearned runs.  Ok, and two complete game shutouts, we'll concede that was pretty important too.

I posed the following hypothetical situation to Chris Carminucci:

The date is May 20th, 2009.  I (Matt) get John Kelly, Stevie Delabar, Jeff Long, and Bryan Morse.  You (Carminucci) can effectively not have them for the first half of the season.  Ok, you can have four great starts from Long and a couple from Delabar, but that's it.  What's your response?

Carminucci:

"If it had not been my track record in he past I would have told you that we would be in huge trouble. Every season i start off terribly, I always think it is going to change the next season and things will be easy. But it never is and that is ok. I believe the struggles that we go through early makes us better later in the year. We suffered some devastating losses that would have put most teams on there knees but we are fighting through it and getting better every day. You need guys to step up, guys like Robinson and Flores and they have. I still think our team has room for improvement and we are going to work hard every day to get better. Yes we have had a lot of injuries and we still have some that have not healed yet. Good teams fight through adversity and make the best out of what they have while bad teams sit back and blame those injuries and feel sorry for them selves. These guys are out to prove something they take losing personally especially at home. ALL of us were embarrassed by our poor play at home and we are so thankful for all the loyal fans we have that supported us even though we were failing. We still have a long way to go but things are going in the right direction."

The players and coaches vote on a position player and pitcher MVP for each series if the team wins the series.  Last series it was 2B Melvin Falu who was 8-13, with a home run, four doubles, four RBI, four runs, and three walks.  Only five times in 16 plate appearances did Falu not reach base.  This is a game when three hits in ten at-bats is a success!

MLB Stuff Today

16 teams are back in action tonight in Major League Baseball.  That is great news.  There are going to be some really fun division races to watch down the stretch.

Three of four teams are within four games of first place in the AL West.  The Angels are in first place, but Seattle was the best team in baseball at one point during the first half of the season.  Seattle needs to get great pitching from its top three trio of Felix Hernandez, Eric Bedard and Jarrod Washburn.

Mariner's Manager Don Wakamatsu was tossing around cliches about his team's chances, but got serious with some comparisons to the Red Sox.

This is great.  Ichiro Suzuki paid respects to George Sisler by placing flowers at his gravesite in St. Louis while he was in town for the All-Star Game.  On a completely un-related note, now he wants to wear jeans on the Mariner's flights.

Of course the real surprise team in the AL West is the Texas Rangers, who get Josh Hamilton back for the second half of the season.  The Texas pitching staff has lowered it's AL-worst ERA from 5.37 in 2008, to 4.34 in 2009.

The Red Sox three-game lead in the East means just about nothing right now, although being 22-9 against the division is going to be nice down the stretch.

Scott Rolen might be the next member of the Boston Red Sox.




 

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I really enjoyed the All-Star Game last night in St. Louis.  As far as drama goes, it certainly provided us with a good show. 

Here's a really cool 360 degree look at the scene during the National Anthem.

There are some musings on the St. Louis Post-Dispatch website about how the President disrespected Stan Musial and the City of St. Louis by wearing a Chicago White Sox jacket to throw out the first pitch (not linking, you'll have to find it yourself).

Why do people have to be so negative? 

The President shook hands with Stan The Man and they chatted briefly on the field.  Who do you think got the bigger thrill out of that?   The President meeting a Hall of Fame baseball player, or a baseball player meeting the President? 

Personally, I thought it was just about as perfect as those rare meetings and moments can get.  The President in jeans and a White Sox jacket throwing out the first pitch.  Can a guy get more "real" than that? 

Remember 2007 when the game was held in San Francisco, and Willie Mays was celebrated in centerfield.  The big ugly shadow of Barry Bonds was all over that moment.  But people want to say that the President of the United States disrespected Stan Musial by wearing a White Sox jacket.

Enough of that.

Carl Crawford had about the most unassuming night ever for an All-Star Game MVP.  Crawford was the first non-pitcher to win the award without an RBI since Willie Mays in 1968.  He made a tremendous catch, on what would have been a home run by Colorado's OF Brad Hawpe off of Jonathan Papelbon.  Papelbon did not have his best stuff, clearly, but got the job done.

Of course one of the main points of contention surrounding the All-Star Game is the fact that the outcome determines home-field advantage for the World Series.  This change was made after the game in Milwaukee in 2002 ended in a tie.  This was the absolute low-point for any All-Star Game.  It had proven that the game was not played at a competitive level, but rather each side was just emptying its bench so that everyone could play. 

The only appropriate place that is T-ball.  This is Major League Baseball.  Arguably the greatest baseball players in the world coming together to go head-to-head for one night.  We should see Albert Pujols face Roy Halladay.  We should witness Florida's SS Hanley Ramirez and Philadelphia's 2B Chase Utley turning double plays.  How about the great late inning matchups we got to see?  Minnesota's closer Joe Nathan against Philadelphia's Ryan Howard.  We may never see that again. 

And the only way we're going to get those matchups and have Nathan throwing gas, and Howard pinch-hitting in that situation is if the game means something.  Do you think Charlie Manuel (Howard's Manager in Philly and the Nat'l League Manager) would have waited until there were two outs in the eighth inning to put his star in the game if he wasn't saving him for a situation that actually mattered?  Philly won the World Series last year and did so without home-field advantage.  You bet Manuel was keeping his ace in his sleeve until the right time to play it in an attempt to play more at home this season if the Phillies get that far.  

And yes, the American League has won the game for the last seven years.  So each of the last seven World Series has been played with an AL home field advantage.  And the National League has won three times out of seven.

YOUR Brockton Rox have won a franchise record nine consecutive games.  Here are some updated stats from the streak:



The Rox remain in second place with four games to play in the first half.  The likelihood of a first-half title is very slim.  The Rox need New Jersey to get swept in a four-game series at Worcester over the next four days, while sweeping four at New Hampshire.  Possible, yes.  Probable, no.

Regardless, The Rox are undoubtedly the best team in the league right now.  Brockton has come from behind to win five of the nine games during the streak, have the league's best team ERA (3.60) and the second best batting average (.290). 

Injury Updates

RHP Jeff Long is scheduled to start on Sunday at home.  It will be his first start since June 16th.  He has been out with inflammation in his elbow. 

3B Phillip Cuadrado is out today and is day-to-day after suffering a bruise on his ankle/shin when he fouled a pitch off of his leg on Monday night.  X-rays were negative Tuesday.

RHP Stevie Delabar just finished throwing a bullpen session.  I will catch up with him today and post an update at some point.  Keep an eye on the game notes as well.

LHP Bryan Morse is taking anti-inflammatories as the Rox hope he is dealing with just tendonitis in his forearm.

Off to New Hampshire. 
 

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Eight in-a-row for the Rox ties a franchise record.  Here are some streak stats:




Pitchers' batting practice today, and that usually means a home run derby.  I'm going to go figure out what the teams are.  Ok, here are the teams (starters vs. relievers):

Team 1
John Kelly
Wayne Lundgren
Fraser Robinson
Freddy Flores
Stevie Delabar

Team 2
Brad Hertzler
James Baker
Matt Zachary
Keith Noe
Jerry Dunn

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The saying goes, "Winning solves everything."  Sometimes though, changes are necessary to solve the losing.  For the Rox, changes have brought about a season-high seve-game winning streak and put the team in control of second place in the Can-Am League.  The Rox have committed more errors than any other team in the Can-Am League this season (52 in the first 40 games). 

To make matters worse, the Rox were letting those extra outs translate into runs for the opposition.  Brockton has surrendered 35 unearned runs in the first 40 games.  However in the last 12 games, despite committing 11 errors in the past 12 games, Brockton has allowed just five unearned runs.  Coincidentally or not, the team is 10-2 in that stretch of games.

The team's winning streak is now seven games, as documented by Enterprise writer Mark Ducharme.

1B Clyde Williams had his contract purchased by the Rox from New Hampshire at the end of June.  He has been in the lineup every day since June 22nd.  Brockton is 12-6 since then.  Williams, who was batting .195 at the time of the trade and had just one hit in his last 44 at-bats with 20 strikeouts is 22 for 665 (.338) since with three home runs and 15 RBI in 18 games. 

As Rox Manager Chris Carminucci noted, "Clyde is not a typical number three hitter [in the lineup], but he allows us to put other guys in the right position in our lineup and can definitely hit in the three-spot."

The entire Rox lineup is contributing from all parts.  2B Melvin Falu may have rediscovered his plate presence with a four-RBI night on Saturday at Campanelli Stadium.  LF Keith Brachold has scored 11 runs in the past seven games from the sixth spot in the lineup.  Falu has driven in nine RBI in the last five games from the seventh spot.  Williams, and Brachold each have a seven-game hitting streak.

The ultimate tip of the cap for the overwhelmingly good play as of late has to go to the pitching staff.  Rox pitchers have posted a 2.20 ERA in the last 12 games with 23 walks and 59 strikeouts. 

I know you're curious:
Longest win streaks in Rox history
June 15th - June 22nd 2004: 8 games
2007 and 2009: 7 games
2003 and 2006: 6 game
2007: 5 games
2002: 4 games
 

 

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Eric Gagne and the Quebec Capitales arrived at Campanelli Stadium to start a three-game series on Tuesday, June 16th.  Because of traffic in New Hampshire and Boston on the trip to Brockton from Quebec City, the team had arrived about one hour before the scheduled first pitch, hastily unpacking its team bus and dressing frantically to get loose for the pending game.

Gagne was returning to the Boston area as an active member of a baseball team just a couple of short seasons after winning a World Series Championship with the Red Sox in 2007.  His previous work included a Major League record 84 consecutive saves as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the first half of the decade, three All-Star Game appearances, and the recognition as the National League's best pitcher with a Cy Young Award in 2003.

However Gagne's Major League golden Major League experiences had tarnished a little over the last four seasons with injuries, and a link to former Senator George Mitchell's report on performance enhancing drugs in Major League baseball.

Now a member of the Quebec Capitales, he sat in the visitor's clubhouse at Campanelli Stadium pulling up his socks with the few minutes before the game ticking away quickly, his unmistakable goatee the only feature distinguishing him from the room of independent minor leaguers.

Reporters had arrived several hours before game time, looking for an opportunity to speak with the former Red Sox pitcher about his years following the 2007 title.

I cautiously approached the former big leaguer, knowing full well he was preparing to throw a bullpen session in preparation for a start later that week.  As I introduced myself, Gagne invited me to sit down on the chair next to him.  I explained the situation: there were several reporters including Nick Cafardo from the Boston Globe and Jim Fenton of The Enterprise who wished to speak with him.

Without even thinking twice, he told me that he'd be happy to do the interviews, even considering the time constraints.  After dressing, he took a valuable chunk of his time and spoke with the reporters. 

Today, he will pitch for the Capitales against the Rox at Stade Municipal in Quebec City in the second game of a double header.  The stands will be full, and the Quebec native who played junior hockey with Jose Theodore and Francis Bouillon will be pitching in front of his home crowd.

Bill Shaikin of the LA Times met Gagne yesterday at a small cafe in Old Quebec.  He tells the story of a man who came back home this year.

Quebec's starter in Game One today is RHP Karl Gelinas.  Gelinas was a former propect in the Los Angleles Angels system.  Gelinas served a 50-game suspension in 2006 for violating baseball's substance abuse program; the link was to performance enhancing drugs.  Last summer, Stephanie Myles of the Montreal Gazette interviewed Gelinas as well as Capitales' Manager Michel Laplante and broadcaster Jacques Doucet about the young pitchers' past, present, and potential future.

As a prospect in the Angels' minor league system,  Gelinas and his teammate RHP Michel Simard (who won Friday night's series opener for Quebec) both pitched with late Angels' pitcher Nick Adenhart who was killed by a drunk driver in the opening weeks of the 2009 MLB season this year.

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Au revoir, Adios, and Good Riddance June

The Rox will put the month of June in the rear view mirror tonight after the first game of a six-game road trip.  It has been a strange month for Brockton, who will start July three games below .500 at best.  However, there's a chance the Rox begin July out of the Can-Am cellar.  Brockton is only a half game behind Quebec (5th place), and a game behind Sussex (4th place).

The Rox started very strong, winning six of the first seven games of the month, and that has helped to keep the team close to the pack despite just six wins in the last 19 games. 

Here's how the month broke down for all teams (alphabetical order).  Notice that with the exception of New Jersey, every team's numbers are fairly similar:

First Half Title
New Jersey's magic number to win the first half title is nine.  Any combination of New Jersey wins, and losses by the second place team (that's Worcester today) totaling nine in the next 13 games will give the Jackals the first half title. 

Great Stories at Campanelli Stadium from the past week:

Did you read Glen Farley's piece in The Enterprise featuring Rox 3B Morgan Brown?  It's an unbelievable story. 

This one is a little older, but it's Jim Fenton's notebook from the beginning of the series.  Jim chatted with Rox Pitching Coach John Kelly about needing to take some time to get his arm back to 100% healthy.  It's been a long recovery for the franchise's career leader in wins and strikeouts.

Another veteran, 1B Clyde Williams collected his 1,000th professional hit on Sunday.  Williams is in his 12th professional season, and needed three hits to get to 1,000 entering the game on Sunday.  Everything about the game, and the situation leading up to his milestone hit is better than Hollywood could craft it.

The Rox purchased Williams' contract from the American Defenders of New Hampshire on June 22nd.  He was struggling through one of the worst slumps of his career.  He had just one hit in his previos 32 at-bats, a slide that continued to 2 for 48 as he familiarized himself with a new organization, lineup and set of teammates. 

On Sunday afternoon, the Rox were finishing a series against New Hampshire.  It was the first series in which Williams had faced his former team, and it appeared as though he was already back on track with five hits in the first four games.  But Williams still needed three hits to get to 1,000 and with a six-game road trip looming, certainly needed them all on Sunday to do it at home.  Williams homered in a first-inning at-bat.  He did not come up again until the fourth inning, and he drew a walk.  Brockton lead 3-0, and it appeared he would get two more at-bats on the day and would need a hit in each.

There was a little confusion down on the field however.  Some thought that Williams' first-inning homer was his 999th, so when he singled to start the sixth inning, the ball was taken out of play.  Players and coaches at the time thought the milestone had been reached, but there was no recognition or stoppage of play. 

Still one hit shy of the mark, but not completely sure of that, Williams came to the plate with one out and two runners on in the bottom of the seventh inning.  It was surely his last at-bat of the game with Brockton leading 7-2.  He fell behind 0-2 against New Hampshire RHP Lucas Ledbetter.  Williams battled back to even the count at 2-2, and then launched a towering drive into the right field Beer Garden.  It was truly his 1,000th career hit, and it was about as dramatic as it gets. 

For any milestone, the player usually keeps the baseball as a memento.  However Williams had hit the ball out of the park.  And when Rox public address announcer Mike Riley notified fans that the home run had been Williams' 1,000th of his career, someone took the ball that had been sitting on the bench (his 999th hit) and tossed it in with the batting practice balls.  At this point he had nothing to remember his career achievement by. 

But Williams' wife, Amanda went out to right field, found the ball and gave it to her husband after the game.  Williams was euphoric after the game; and deservedly so.

Another Home Run Milestone
Rox DH Palmer Karr was hitting some memorable home runs of his own this past week.  How about five home runs in five consecutive games?  On June 23rd, he hit a solo home run off of Worcester starter RHP Zach Zuercher.  He then homered in each of the Rox next four games, including - remarkably - each game of a double header on the 25th.  Here is a breakdown of the streak:

The Can-Am League has not kept the record for home runs in consecutive games, and neither has the Rox as an organization.  But I have to imagine this is either the record.  Quebec's 1B Eddie Lantigua blasted a league-record 31 home runs in 2005, and he topped out at four consecutive games (to end the season). 

I tracked down Palmer after the streak was over and he told me that he was pretty sure he'd never homered in five straight games before, but had once hit five in a week.

Rox Manager Chris Carminucci had this to say:  "Palmer is a different kind of player; unique," he said.  "He's a confidence hitter, and when he gets rolling, there's no one that can stop him.  [The streak] was one of the greatest things I've seen in this game."

Ed Nottle chimed in from across the office, "I'm just disappointed that he choked in the sixth game."  Those who know Ed, know that he was only half-joking...if that.
 

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