Monday Pebble Report

Colorado Springs: W 10-7

Maybe the Rockies should just swap their offense with that of the Sky Sox. Cory Sullivan finished a triple short of the cycle, Joe Koshansky homered and doubled, Jonathan Herrera had four hits and even Seth Smith -although going hitless- had three walks for Colorado Springs. In all, the Sky Sox had twenty-three baserunners Sunday, but still managed to make the game look close thanks to some shaky pitching from Jose Capellan, Alberto Arias and Juan Morillo. Morillo was so wild he just retired one batter before being replaced by Steven Register who stopped Tuscon's comeback cold.

Tulsa: W 7-2

Forget having a .400 batting average as something to shoot for, try .800. Corey Wimberly extended a hit streak to nine straight PA's before being denied in his fifth plate appearance and finished with a four for five day, but Wimberly's remarkable season has seen him get nine hits in eleven AB's for an astonishing .818 average thus far. Corey also stole two bases and scored twice. Dexter Fowler followed Wimberly in the batting order, and didn't pass up on the opportunity to use Corey's success to pad his RBI totals, he went three for five with two triples and three runs batted in. Eric Young Jr also had a three for five with two triples day. According to Tulsa's official site, Fowler and Young were the first Drillers to have a pair of triples in a game since Ryan Spilborghs did it three years ago. Chris Nelson contributed another pair of singles, thus far he hasn't shown any of the power that he had last season in Modesto, but it should come soon enough. It's not a coincidence that the Drillers first win of the season came on the day they had their best performance from a starting pitcher, Xavier Cedeno scattered seven hits and a walk in five innings, allowing two runs. He generated a nine to four GB/FB ratio and induced two GIDP's, which was big help given the traffic he was working with. Ryan Mattheus may finally be adjusting to bullpen work, he struck out three in an inning and a third while he, Casey Weathers and Matt Daley combined to shut down the Missions for four innings in relief of Cedeno.

Modesto: L 4-0

The Nuts really got a bad opening weekend draw to have to go up against the likes of Henry Rodriguez, Brett Anderson and Trevor Cahill, so it might be too early to bemoan the sorry state of their offense in the same we we're bemoaning the Rockies right now. Still, part of what I try to look at in evaluating prospects is how they do against the elite of other teams, and this opening test didn't resolve well for much of Modesto's lineup. For a bright spot, the bullpen's got a lot of 0.00 ERA's, though. Tommy Baumgardner, James Burok and David Patton all contributed scoreless appearances last night in relief of the struggling Keith Wieser. Modesto's pen went 15 1/3 innings giving up just one earned run and four runs in all over the four game series.

Asheville: W 6-5

Helder Velazquez and Darin Holcomb each hit their second doubles of the year, and Brian Rike and Warren Schaeffer also added a pair of hits do help drive the offense. Check out what the three middle infielders have done for the Tourists thus far. Schaeffer, Velazquez and Everth Cabrera have combined for eight hits (three doubles, five singles) and ten walks in 35 ABs for a .320/.514/.440 line. There's not a lot of power there, but they aren't contributing outs, either. Craig Baker has struck out four in two innings pitched now. Bruce Billings picked up the win but allowed four runs off eight hits and a walk in five innings pitched. Jason McGill notes that reliever Matt Reynolds got some vindication for giving up a grand slam on Thursday by pitching two scoreless innings yesterday.