Monday Pebble Report

Colorado Springs: L 11-7, W 6-1

The Sky Sox split a double header with Tacoma. Greg Reynolds took the loss in the first game, Jose Capellan won game two, coming within three outs of the first no-hitter (these were seven inning, abbreviated games) in Colorado Springs history. The organization's decision to have Capellan start this season seems to be paying dividends. It's thrown me for a loop, but with Reynolds still needing maturity and Towers looking like he might not be adequate, it's nice to have somebody who does. Jonathan Herrera, Humberto Cota, and Chris Frey all had a multiple hit game, and Joe Koshansky hit his third homerun of the season in going one for one with two walks.

Okay, Omar Quintanilla continues to tempt me into moving from my "It's too early to consider switching our second baseman" stance with his beguiling OBP that's hovering just under .600 right now. There's no way that continues at the MLB level, but the temptation remains. He went two for two with two walks in game one, Sean Barker, Seth Smith and Chris Frey (five for seven in all on the day) all had multiple hit games in the early contest. Reynolds gave up two homeruns to Brian LaHair and nine other hits (five earned, seven total runs) in five and a third innings to raise his ERA to a robust 8.49 here in the early season. He did have a 12-3 GB/FB ratio on his outs if you want to take one positive from this.

Tulsa: W 8-6

Eric Young has taken off. Sunday he was given the chance to bat leadoff (for the first time? I didn't actually check Saturday) and he rewarded the Drillers with his first three SB game of the season, and scored three times as well on a double, two walks and an HBP. Daniel Carte went three for three with a double and another HBP, while Casey Weathers earned his first professional victory with another scoreless inning of relief.

Modesto: L 4-3

Esmil Rogers had his worst start of the season thus far, but as far as bad days go, a four to three loss isn't the worst of it. Anthony Jackson and Geoff Strickland each had three hits, and Nick Haley had two for the Nuts in the losing effort.

Asheville: L 12-2

Sheng An Kuo took the brunt of the damage -seven runs- in an inning and two thirds, but this Joey Williamson keeps on popping up unexpectedly, four days after pitching a fantastic four innings in a spot start, he comes back on short rest and pitches another great four (two hits, one run, one K, no BB's) in mop-up duty yesterday. For his professional career, he now has 36 IP, 29 hits allowed, 9 walks, and 51 strikeouts. I'm definitely watching him a bit closer now.

Lars Davis was supposed to have the best bat of our 2007 draft -well at least an extremely close call with Brian Rike's- but thus far Davis' bat has been kept muted in Tri-City and Asheville. That said, his bat makes a big sound on those rare occasions when it does speak: including his solo shot yesterday, two of his three hits for the year have been over the fence. Helder Velzquez hit his third double of the year, and Rike kept an eight game hit streak alive with a one for five day in the loss.