[Ragin Cajun]

5/31 con't

Looking back at my notes from some of the games this month; Ryan threw a 5 hitter with 11 K's against the Royals in a win. John Doherty, from our Spokane affiliate, won the AAA Player of the Week honors. He hit .435 with 2 RBI and 1 run scored. He's only 22, but I'm not sure he'll amount to much at the big league level. He did have a cup of coffee with the club earlier in the season, getting 1 at bat in 5 games. Don't know if he'll be back up or not without a major injury. I got a call around the middle of the month from my manager in Spokane saying he was having some issues with Chuck Dobson. He's a 30 year old veteran pitcher that can't crack our starting rotation. I've shopped him around some but haven't had any takers. Finally this last week, I traded him away for Mike Easler...remember him? We got him as part of the J.R. Richard deal and lost him on waivers. Somehow, the Twinkies got him into their minor league system. Anyway, we got him back and put him in our AA system the day we got him. I'll be making some moves later today with Ellie, so he may not be there long if he's ready for Spokane. Last week, on the 25th, Ryan was the man again with a four hitter against the A's as we won 5-0. This win gave Ryan a 9-2 mark with a 1.56 ERA. Orlando Ramirez, the shortstop who came up earlier in the year when we had an injury, won the AA player of the week honors for the Manton Chill. He hit .450 with 2 homers and 8 RBI that week. John Doherty would make the news again this month for our farm system when he went 5 for 6 against in a 14-2 win.

When awards were handed out today for the month of May, Nolan Ryan was the big winner being named AL Pitcher of the Month with a 6-1 mark, a 1.45 ERA, 76 K's in 56 innings of work. John Doherty was named the AAA Batter of the Month, hitting .317 with 6 homers and 22 RBI. He also scored 18 times and walked 10 times.

In my afternoon meeting with Ellie Howard, was brought Dick Lange back up while optioning Dave Sells back to Spokane. We promoted Orlando Ramirez from AA-Manton to AAA-Spokane. We also decided Mike Easler was not ready for AA so demoted him to A-Garland.

Taking a look at our cross-town rivals, we are outdrawing them by about 2,000 per game. We also recognize the fact that one half of our major league bullpen are potential free agents. We don't have anyone in the minors even remotely ready to replace them so we decide to offer two of them extensions right now. Skip Lockwood is currently making $44,741 this year and wants a three year deal worth $304,200. He's 27 so he may get better. I make him a two year deal worth an average of $90k per season. We'll see if he takes it. John Cumberland is also 27 and making $44k per season. He wants a 2 year deal at just under $600,000. I don't like the numbers but counter to see if he takes it. He's a lefty, and he's acting like he's Warren Spahn.

I have one other issue to take up this month end. Joe Lahoud is on the warpath about his extension. I told him to bear with me and I'd take care of him if he continued to perform. However, this is getting out of control. He's gone to the press and upped his demands to a 7 year deal at $2.5 million per season. He's not worth being the highest paid player on the team. I put him on the trading block to see what's out there. I can get two or three really good players for that price.