Daily Recap: 7/7

Well, you know, there were some games played on Monday night. So, even with all the Sabathia trade talk abuzz, the machine must keep rolling. For any that missed some thoughts on the trade, scroll down the page for some things I posted over the last 24-36 hours. I'll also be adding more things in the next 24 hours including comments from LaPorta himself and from Farm Director Ross Atkins.

Anyway....on to the "other" news of the day Monday:

Baseball Prospectus had the following to say about Kinston outfielder Nick Weglarz today:

Nick Weglarz, LF, High-A Kinston (Indians)In a recent conversation with a scouting official, I was told that he believed Weglarz was on the brink of really taking off. He saw an exaggerated trigger in Weglarz' swing early in the year, and that trigger has slowly been reduced of late. Over the weekend, his tremendous raw power made some in-game appearances, when he hit his eighth home run of the year on Saturday, and went into double-digits with two more yesterday. Now at .270/.396/.448 as a 20-year-old in High-A, Weglarz remains well ahead of schedule, with more than enough time to continue making adjustments.

Kinston Indian’s pitcher Hector Rondon was named the Carolina League Pitcher of the Week on Monday. The 20-year-old Rondon earned the award with a fantastic 4th of July start in getting the win by going 6.2 innings, giving up just two hits and no earned runs with eight strikeouts. The Venezuelan native is having a fantastic season with a team leading seven wins and a 3.06 ERA, and is second in the Carolina League with 97 strikeouts and fifth in the CL in ERA.

Akron catcher Wyatt Toregas was named Bank of America Eastern League Player of the Week on Monday. Toregas hit .421 (8-19) with three doubles, five homers, six runs scored, 13 RBI, and a 1.368 slugging percentage in six games. All eight of his hits for the week went for extra-bases.

In Lake County, Dallas Cawiezell was placed on the disabled list with right shoulder inflammation and Ron Rivas was activated from the DL.

In Buffalo, newcomer LHP Zach Jackson was activated, and RHP Jeff Harris has been placed on the disabled list (retroactive to July 3).

K-Tribe Splits Double-Header

The K-Tribe split a double header on Monday night at Winston-Salem, winning game one 14-3 and dropping game two 3-2.

Beau Mills went 4-for-5 with five RBI's as Kinston killed Winston-Salem 14-3 in game one of a double header on Monday night. Kinston racked up a season high 14 runs on 12 hits as every K-Tribe in the lineup reached base safely. Kinston scored seven runs through the first two innings, capped by a Mills three-run home run to chase Winston-Salem starter John Ely. Mills was a triple away from a cycle with two doubles, a single and his team leading 13th home run.

Winston-Salem countered with all three of their runs in the third, but the K-Tribe answered with two runs in the fourth on a pair of two out run-scoring singles by Jared Goedert and Carlos Rivero. A two-out, two-run double by Mills in the fifth gave him his second five RBI game of the season, and gave Kinston an 11-3 lead. Kinston poured it on with back to back six inning home runs by Niuman Romero and Jerad Head.

Jeanmar Gomez (3-7) went five innings for his first win since May 16th, with his last two victories coming against the Warthogs. Tony Sipp pitched the last two scoreless innings from the K-Tribe bullpen.

Game two was a scoreless affair until the fifth inning when Niuman Romero scored from third on a ground out by Brian Juhl. The K-Tribe took added another run in the top of the sixth inning when Beau Mills scored from third on a wild pitch. Winston Salem came back in the bottom of the sixth inning, when Josh Fields doubled to lead off. After Brandon Allen was hit by a pitch, Josh Shelby loaded the bases after his bunt was fielded by Kinston starter Shawn Nottingham and thrown to third, but not in time to get the runner. C.J. Rutherford drove in Fields from third with a sacrifice fly to make the score 2-1. Allen scored from second on an RBI pinch hit by Salvador Sanchez to tie the game. A suicide squeeze off the bat of Greg Paiml, plated Shelby and gave Winston-Salem the lead for good. Nottingham was the tough luck loser going to 0-1 on the season.

The K-Tribe is now 10-8 in the second half, just one game back of Winston-Salem for first place in the Carolina League Southern Division. Kinston will take Tuesday off, then head to Lynchburg for a three game setwith the Hillcats starting at 7:05 on Wednesday. Josh Tomlin will take the mound for Kinston.

CAPTAINS START HOME STAND WITH 9-2 WIN

(Eastlake, OH) – The Captains scored four runs in the fourth inning and added five more in the sixth inning as they took care of the Hickory Crawdads 9-2 on Monday. The game saw a total of eighteen hits and sixteen were singles. Captains pitching which leads the SAL in walks allowed, did not walk a batter in the game. The Captains evened their second half records at 9-9.

The Captains were stymied by Crawdads starter Brad Lincoln through the first three innings but erupted for four runs on six straight singles. The Captains got RBI’s from Roman Pena, Matt Brown, and Richard Martinez and score the fourth run on a double play grounder by Mark Thompson to take a 4-0 lead. It was Martinez’s first RBI of the season. The Crawdads got on the board against the Captains starter Kelvin De La Cruz in the fifth inning on an RBI single by Danny Cavagnaro to cut the lead to 4-1.

The Captains added five more runs in the sixth inning on RBI’s by Karexon Sanchez and another by Martinez. They scored two of the runs on a two run home run by Mark Thompson, his fourth homer of the year and closed out the inning by scoring a run on a throwing error to up the score to 9-1. The Crawdads added a run off of reliever Jonathan Holt in the eighth inning on an RBI double by Matt Hague to make it 9-2.

De La Cruz went five innings allowing one run on four hits and striking out seven to improve his record to 7-3. At one point, De La Cruz retired eleven batters in a row. John Gaub threw two scoreless innings striking out two and Kyle Landis three a scoreless ninth inning. Brad Lincoln took the loss and his record fell to 4-5.

The Captains and Crawdads play game two of the series on Tuesday at 7:05 PM with the Captains sending RHP Joey Mahalic (6-2, 4.26) to the mound against the Crawdads RHP Matt McSwain (3-3, 2.21). All Captains games can be heard on AM 1330 WELW, WELW.COM or CAPTAINSBASEBALL.COM.

In Other Games...

- Buffalo won 8-7. RHP Randy Newsom earned his first Triple-A save pitching the ninth and not allowing a run or hit in his one inning of work. 1B Jordan Brown was 1-for-5 with 2 Ks, catcher Chris Gimenez was 0-for-3 with a walk, and outfielder Brad Snyder was 1-for-4 with a 2B and 2 RBI.

- Akron won 4-2. RHP Kevin Dixon went 7 innings and allowed just 2 runs on 5 hits and no walks while striking out 7. RHP Luis Perdomo earned his first Double-A save going 1.2 innings and allowing 1 hit and no runs or walks while striking out 3. 3B Wes Hodges went 2-for-4 with a 2B, 1B Matt Whitney went 1-for-3 with a 2B and walk, DH Wyatt Toregas continued his home run tear by going 1-for-3 with a HR and 2 RBI, OF Ryan Goleski went 3-for-4 with a 2B, and catcher Damaso Espino went 4-for-4 with a 2B.

- Mahoning Valley won 8-1. RHP P.J. Zocchi went 5 innings and allowed 1 run on 3 walks and 2 strikeouts. Mahoning Valley scored 8 runs on just 4 hits and just one error (they had 10 walks as a team though). OF Juan Valdes went 2-for-4 with a HR and 3 RBI, and 3B Walter Diaz went 1-for-2 with 2 walks, a 2B and 2 RBI.

- The GCL Indians game was suspended in the 5th inning because of rain with the Indians down 9-5. 3B Abner Abreu was 2-for-3 already with a HR and 2 RBI, and DH Matt McBride was 1-for-2 with a double 2 RBI. Right-hander Danny Salazar had his first rough outing of the season going 2.1 innings and allowing 6 runs on 8 hits, a walk and 3 strikeouts.

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