Monday Pebble Report

Colorado Springs: Ubaldo Jimenez and the Sky Sox got beat by a the least known of the Angels undefeated rookie pitchers this season, Shane Moseley. Moseley allowed just three runs and six hits, including two to Jeff Salazar and walked three. Salazar had two of the Sox' three RBI. U-ball allowed six runs in five and two thirds innings to take the loss. He walked three allowed seven hits and struck out four.

Tulsa: Juan Morillo's been more down than up of late, so it's nice to see him come through with a performance like yesterday's six inning three hit, three walk, two run job. He struck out six and allowed one homerun. For those of you who had chosen Joe Gaetti in the "Driller Offensive Display of the Day" pool, you won. Gaetti was the only Driller with two hits, including a double and he also walked. Also hitting doubles were Tulo and Stew, with Ian creeping closer to forty with his thirty-eighth on the season. So on the Driller XBH list, we've got:

1. Seth Smith 57
   
2. Joe Koshansky 54
   
3. Ian Stewart 53
   
4. Troy Tulowitzki 45
   
5. Jordan Czarniecki 40
   
6. Joe Gaetti 37

Chris Iannetta, Christian Colonel, Alvin Colina and Matt Macri all had more than twenty in more limited roles.

Modesto: There are certain things we now about the Modesto lineup in the post Matt Miller era:

1. it's all speed and defense.
   
2. They're pretty good at bunting.

So that's a little bit of an overstatement, but when you see the 2006 Nuts hit seven homeruns in a game, you're probably going to soon also find yourself in a courtroom presided over by a talking deck of playng cards. Jonathan Herrera started it off in the first, and by the time Doc Brooks hit the seventh out in the ninth, you have to think people were probably wondering if the Nuts had received a clubhose visit from Floyd Landis. Duke Sardinha and Justin Nelson each had a pair, with one of Duke's being a grand slam. Samuel Deduno pitched effectively enough to take advantage of the offensive outburst, pitching six innings and giving up five runs on five hits and three walks. He struck out seven to extend his California League lead to 157 on the season.

Asheville: Johnson and Johnston came through again with another nice product, a three to two Asheville victory. Alan pitched eight innings and allowed just four hits and a walk, while K'ing seven for his system high twelfth win of the season and Andrew came on for the ninth to pick up his twenty-first save. Like an English Premier League team, the Tourists scored their three in the first two innings and just let the game become a boring defensive display after that. Chris Cook hit a two run homer in the second.

Tri-City: Michael McKenry and Daniel Mayora each went three for four with two doubles. Mayora also scored three times and McKenry once, but it wasn't enough as Sean Jarret allowed Everett to rally for three runs in the bottom of the eight iin the six to four Dust-Devil loss.

Casper: It would be easy to look at Casper's record and some of these stat lines and write off the team aslacking potential, but that would be at odds with what we know about the players there. This group is certainly raw, for the most part, and it will take a couple of seasons for their talent to start to shine through. So yesterday they took a seven to three loss, another of many this season, but we as fans shouldn't get discouraged or distracted by some of the numbers we traditionally use to measure prospects further up the ladder or in the majors. Ronny Lopez has seven losses and an ERA of 8.75? Okay. David Christensen racks up three more K's (67 so far in 42 games) and is batting just .208 on the season in the Pioneer League? I wouldn't worry about it. With a couple of more polished exceptions (Hector Gomez, Brandon Hynick) this Casper class of 2006 will be an interesting test for our minor league coaching and development people. These guys are loaded with potential, they just have to figure out how to use it.