Sal, the Barber Presents . . .

[Sal, The Barber]

30 July 2010
Cheyenne, WY

Game two of the series with Oakland lived up to expectations. The pitching was shoddy, and the offense ruled the day. Max Makeever hit two home runs. His first tied the score at two; his second, coming in the third inning, gave Cheyenne a 5-2 lead. But the lead quickly disintegrated. Cheyenne pitchers walked 7 Oakland batters on the day. Andy Nelson hit a two-run homer to tie the score in the fifth. And it was tied going into the eighth. But Tom Hall gave up a two-run homer to Nacho Silva, and Cheyenne faced a familiar face in the ninth, Mike Dooley. And Dooley gave it up. Trujillo doubled with two out in the ninth to tie things up again.

Oakland, though, eked out a run off of Gabriel Robles in the tenth and held on for a 9-8 victory. Cheyenne had their chances, they just couldn’t cash them in often enough. The series split leaves the teams right back where they had been before the two-game clash.

Some news:
Gary Miner, Sioux City’s best pitcher, and one of the game’s best, has bone chips in his elbow which will sideline him for the rest of the season. This is a big blow for the Soos who have a big lead in the Cornhusker division. They will be looking at the postseason without an ace unless they can pull off a deadline deal.

Speaking of deadline deals. John O’Flanagan is back in the Western League. Montreal traded Johnny O to Seattle. O’Flanagan had signed a free agent deal with Montreal in 2006 and remains oft-injured.

And, finally, some organizational news. Double A catcher Alonso Aviles had a 3-HR ballgame. Although that’s an impressive feat, Aviles doesn’t appear to be much of a pro prospect. At single A, third baseman Karl Reynolds was Player of the Week.

[Sal, The Barber]

1 September 2010
Cheyenne, WY

All was right with our world for the first half of July. We maintained a 6-game lead in the division and were playing sound baseball. But we went to Oakland on the 15th for a 4-game series. The Oaks crushed us. I mean, they gave us a licking.

Oakland swept the 4-game series, scoring at least a touchdown in each game. In fact, they scored 41 runs in four games. Our offense wasn’t terrible; we averaged 6 runs a game ourselves, but we still lost them all.

It appeared that the Oaks intended to make the division race interesting down the stretch. But once we left Oakland, the stars realigned, and we started winning games again. We went 10-2 the rest of the month. Oakland, on the other hand, lost clean-up hitter Andy Nelson once they left us for six days. He was involved in an on-the-field altercation that led to a suspension. That didn’t help the Oaks who went 6-7 the rest of the month.

So as September begins, we hold on to a comfortable 7-game lead in the division. We have to play Oakland again 3 more times, but I can’t wait to be rid of them. If we make the playoffs, we won’t see the Oaks—because if we make it, they won’t make it—and that’s a big relief.

[Sal, The Barber]

29 September 2010
Cheyenne, WY

We have one game remaining in the 2010 regular season. We clinched a playoff spot a while ago and will meet Sioux City in the League Championship Series. The key to our sewing up the division was a three-game series with Oakland that started Sept. 9th. We won the first two games of the series and essentially nailed the division shut by doing so. The way we beat them was particularly satisfying.

Game one went to extra innings. Oakland scored one run in the top of the 14th when Shumei Toyota hit a solo home run. Oakland scores so many runs via the home run that playing them just wears on you. Gosh, I hate them. So it was a beautiful thing when Manny Davilla hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the inning to end the game.

The second game went equally well. We hit 3 HRs, including one by pitcher Alberto Dominguez and won 10-6. But the game wasn’t close. Oakland scored 5 runs in the top of the ninth off of a rookie we had called up from AAA.

Oakland won game three, but by then we had defeated their spirits. The playoffs shouldn’t be the emotional toll that playing Oakland is. We currently have 113 wins with one game to play. It’s a record-breaking season. Sioux City has won 87 games. Altoona has 90 wins, and they’ll play Montreal in the Eastern League Championship.

So we’ll be favored to win another World Series. After the year we’ve had it would be a shame if we didn’t come through.

[Orcin]

Great season! Good luck in the playoffs.

[Sal, The Barber]

8 October 2010
Sioux City, IA

In the best book about sports ever written, The Game, Ken Dryden notes how his coach, the great Scotty Bowman, used to whine and moan at the great Canadien teams when they played a weak opponent. Bowman was on his players to remind their opponent right from the start that the Canadiens were the better team, that there was no chance of the opponent’s winning, that there was no doubt as to the outcome of the game. Never for a moment let the other team think they have a chance.

That, too, was Boo Bentley’s message before this LCS. “It’s a matter of concentration,” Bentley urged. “Bear down. And never let them up.” Message received.

4 games. 4 wins. The Cowboys move on to the World Series.

Game one: 10-4; Game two: 5-1; Game three: 11-2. Game four: 3-1. Game four was the only close one. But once the Soos had to go to their bullpen, it was over. The discrepancy between the two bullpens was dramatized in this series. The Soos pen was full of pitchers who lacked control, walked batters, got behind in counts, and got hit and hit hard. The Cheyenne pen, which was only needed in game four got perfect innings from Perkins, Takano, Hall, and Robles. Zipped up the game and zipped up the series.

WS opponent remains unknown as Montreal and Altoona are still slugging it out.

[Sal, The Barber]

Originally Posted by Orcin

Great season! Good luck in the playoffs.

Luck? Who needs luck? We're rolling!

[Orcin]

Originally Posted by Sal, The Barber

Game one: 10-4; Game two: 5-1; Game three: 11-2. Game four: 3-1. Game four was the only close one.

Good teams don't win close games; good teams win blowouts. You have a good team.

[Sal, The Barber]

14 October 2010
Cheyenne, WY

The WS begins today. Cheyenne vs. Altoona. The Mountain Citys won 93 games this season and do pose a formidable test. Altoona’s greatest asset is their starting pitching. Brad Wood, Jonah Taylor, Jeff Reynolds, and Hoshi Ono make up a great starting four. And then they have a little plunk. Deron Haynes, their third baseman, hit 43 HRs this season. The series will also feature two players who were traded for each other: Luis Lopez, now Altoona’s centerfielder and lead-off hitter, and Michael Edwards of Cheyenne.

Game One
Curt Clark against Brad Wood. We were expecting a pretty intense pitcher’s duel, but the game quickly took an odd turn in the bottom of the first. Luis Lopez led off the game with a bunt single, but Clark set the next three hitters down in order.

Kelham singled to begin the bottom half of the inning, and Lopez fumbled the ball and let it scoot past him. Altoona, like Cheyenne, was the best defensive club in their league, but the error cost them another base. So Kelham stood on second with no one out.

Robbins then batted and stung a line drive through the left side. Kelham had to stop at third. Michael Edwards tapped a weak ground ball just off of home plate, but Ben Franklin, the great patriot and Altoona catcher, lost the ball. The two errors cost Brad Wood a run, at which point he decided he wouldn’t wait for his team to begin the Series; he took it over himself. At least, he took over the first inning.

He got two strike outs, then walked Makeever to load them up, but got Trujillo to ground out.

Perhaps Altoona showed a bit of nerves there in the inning. If so, that’s all the while they lasted. The game settled down. Neither pitcher was unhittable, but no runners crossed home plate until the fifth.

In the top of the fifth, Franklin doubled, and Clark threw two wild pitches that brought the man who dared to fly a kite in the lightening home. It was an uneventful inning other than the wild pitches.

In the bottom of the fifth, with the score tied, Cheyenne responded. And this was where the game was won. Leading off the inning was Eric Kelham. Kelham is the most spirit-crushing player any team can have; he has a killer instinct, and he delivers in clutch situations time after time. And then with Robbins batting right after him, our offense just goes. And sure enough, Kelham leads off the inning with a shot to center that he turns into a triple. Robbins smokes the first pitch he sees back through the middle, and we’ve re-taken the lead just like that. But that’s not it. The Cowboys put on a hit and run with Edwards up. He swings and misses, but Robbins doesn’t miss second. Edwards then launches a deep fly to right that moves Robbins to third. Davilla singles, and Robbins scores. Hicks grounds out, but Davilla moves up, and Makeever singles to score Davilla. 4-1 going to the sixth.

In the top of the inning, Altoona shows some pluck and comes right back against Clark. A one-out double by Haynes, a walk, and then a single to right. Haynes heads for home, and he is OUT! The next Altoona hitter strikes out.

After the sixth, we took out Clark. Clark had given up 3 doubles and thrown about 100 pitches. We were trusting our bullpen for this one. Tsou got four outs. Augusto Gonzalez, who was in AAA most of the season, got three outs. Robles came on after Gonzalez had given up a single in the ninth to get the last 2 outs. The final score was 4-1. Altoona had 10 hits, so I don’t expect every game to be low-scoring or even close. Our offense will be continually challenged by their pitching, but our defense proved to make a difference in Game One.

[Sal, The Barber]

15 October 2010
Cheyenne, WY

The Altoona starter for Game Two, Jeff Reynolds, is rated by our scout, Jody Mack, to have below average control and stamina. That’s usually a bad combination. We’re patient. We’ll wait and wait to get to the bullpen. And the Altoona bullpen doesn’t scare us. Jose Vincent pitches for us. Vincent isn’t thought of very highly by Mack either; Mack thinks he can be a useful fifth starter. But he’s had a great year and pushed past Jeff Racine to be our number two. We don’t care if he’s pitching above his head as long as he does it a few more times.

And Vincent is good in Game Two, which goes exactly as the script said it would. Vincent pitches seven innings. Vincent is a fly ball pitcher, and two of them drift over the wall for HRs. The Patriot, Ben Franklin, hits the first, but both it and the next one are solo shots.

In between the two Altoona HRs, Reynolds is throwing behind in the count and racking up a pitch count. We get him in the fourth. A single, double, and three-run homer by Hicks gives us the lead. We run Reynolds out of the game after he gets one out in the fifth. And we add two runs in the fifth and three more in the sixth.

We win 8-2. Makeever and Davilla both drive in two with singles. Davilla had 3 hits on the game. On to Altoona for Game Three.

[Sal, The Barber]

17 October 2010
Altoona, PA

Altoona jumped Jeff Racine early, and our hope to put the Mountain Citys in a hole they couldn’t climb out of went unrealized. The Mounties got two in the first on a Haynes’ HR and another run in the fourth after we had finally gotten one run of our own.

Racine wasn’t bad, but he was outpitched by “Doofus” Taylor, the Mounties’ number three starter. We got to within a run when we added one in the eighth, but we couldn’t do anything in the ninth against Altoona closer Francisco Rangel. Our offense has to do better tomorrow.

[Sal, The Barber]

18 October 2010
Altoona, PA

Frankly, I was a bit concerned headed into this ballgame. We had Jose Gomez going on the mound. Gomez was a borderline starter who stepped into the rotation when Albert Dominguez went down with arm trouble at the beginning of the season. Gomez pitched brilliantly, keeping a sub 2.00 ERA for the first half of the season. He wasn’t perfect; his biggest flaw is his control and stamina. He simply doesn’t give you innings. 5-6 inning starts is what we get from Gomez. But when he’s on, he’s really lights out.

But about the middle of the season, he started to really struggle. He had about 10 up-and-down starts in a row and then he finished strong. His ERA finished at about 3.50. So I was hoping to get the good Gomez and then counting on the bullpen for 3 or 4 innings. That’s a tall order.

And I got more nervous when Altoona decided to go with Game One starter Brad Wood instead of Hoshi Ono.

Gomez was good, though. He gave up just two runs in the fourth. And he pitched 5.1 innings.

We came right back, after falling behind 2-0, for three. Michael Edwards hit a 2-run HR to cap the three-run inning.

We got one more in the sixth, but Altoona came back and tied it in the seventh. In the eighth, Francis Trujillo walked, and Ernie Richards knocked a pinch hit double to score him. That turned out to be the winning run. Augusto Gonzalez closed it. I don’t know why we went with Gonzalez in the ninth instead of Robles. We got Gonzalez warming up first and kept the reliever ahead of Gonzalez in the game longer than originally planned, and we just ended up sticking with Gonzalez. And he came through. But if this goes to a Game Nine, and we need a last inning close, it will be Robles. You can count on it.

[Sal, The Barber]

20 October 2010
Cheyenne, WY

Felt good about this one because Curt Clark was on the mound for us. Jeff Reynolds was throwing for them, and we got to him pretty good in Game Two. But our offense never got going, like in Game Three. The Mountains eeked out three runs off of Clark, one at a time, but we could only get one ourselves. We lose, 3-1.

The Series is now 3 games to 2. We have Jose Vincent going tomorrow, and he’s been solid for us. Jeff Racine is next, and he has not been consistent; the same with Gomez. I think we really need to take the next game and then take our chances. If worse comes to worst, we have Curt Clark going in Game Nine.

[Sal, The Barber]

21 October 2010
Cheyenne, WY

The folks running the Altoona ballclub threw us a curveball again today: they started Hoshi Ono. Their move to a three-man rotation at the start caught me off guard, and then their going to Ono here was a surprise. Ono is a lefty, but that only means one lineup change for us: Pelletier at catcher instead of Hankins. While a bit of a surprise, the move didn’t unnerve us. They were the ones trying to set off an explosion; we were sitting back and leading the Series.

But we found Ono difficult. He threw strikes and never seemed to get behind in the count. We weren’t able to run up his pitch count. Jose Vincent was fine too until the fourth. He gave up a solo HR, and that seemed to unnerve him. He then gave up a single to Haynes, their clean-up hitter and walked the next batter. He got the next couple of outs, but another run scored. We were down 2-0.

Vincent had a shaky fifth, too, but escaped without any runs scoring. He was strong in the sixth, but that was going to be his last inning. He was scheduled to lead off, and we wanted to pinch hit there to try to get something started. It didn’t work.

Lee Perkins came on and pitched a clean top of the seventh, but we still trailed 2-0.

The bottom of the seventh started with a Michael Edwards strike out. Davilla then singled. Davilla’s hit was just our second. Our first hit was from Kelham in the first at-bat of the ballgame. Andrew Hicks showed a little more patience and doubled to score Davilla. Makeever ran the count full but was called out on strikes. Trujillo came through with a two-out single, though, and Hicks beat the throw home to tie the game.

Takano came on to pitch the seventh. His first hitter would be Harris who had homered earlier in the game. Harris is a lefty, so we wanted Takano there. Haynes follows Harris, and he’s a switch hitter. I wanted to turn him around. So I had Takano ready; this was the spot I wanted him to pitch.

Harris hit the first pitch on a line back up the middle for a single. And then the Altoonas surprised us again. They pinch hit for Haynes? I put the question mark there because Haynes is their best hitter; he led the EL in HRs. Takano was delighted. He got the PH on a K, got a pop up, gave up a walk, but came back with an inning-ending K.

To the bottom of the eighth. With Ono still in the game and the pitcher’s spot up, we pinch hit with Ernie Richards. He struck out. And then Ono lost it. He beaned both Kelham and Robbins. He was removed for a lefty, John Kelley. We had no more right-handed pinch hitters, and we might have gone to one with Michael Edwards up. But Edwards worked a walked. That brought up the righty Davilla. He lined a single to right that scored two, and we had taken over the ballgame. We got another run on a Hicks ground out, and we brought Robles in to close.

Win, 5-2. We have 4 wins and need one more to clinch. We have three games to do it.

[Sal, The Barber]

23 October 2010
Altoona, PA

We were pretty optimistic that Jeff Racine would throw one of his best games this season and power us to the title. When we got one run in the second inning on Makeever and Trujillo doubles, I wondered if that there was enough.

It wasn’t. 3 hits and an error gave Altoona a run in the third and tied the game. But Altoona starter, Brad Wood, wasn’t sharp. And while we didn’t sting him early—and we had chances—it looked like we’d get to him eventually.

In the sixth, Andrew Hicks walked, and we decided to pinch run for him. I thought one more run might just be enough, so I brought in Tim Nicholson who has great speed. Trujillo, Hankins, Kelham, and Robbins singled, and we had scored 3 times not just once. We were getting pretty excited on the bench.

In the seventh, Makeever added a solo HR to give us a 5-1 lead. Wan-ling Tsou came on an pitched a perfect half inning. In the eighth, we added two more runs. It was 7-1.

Lee Perkins came on to pitch the bottom of the eighth. He gave up one run and loaded the bases, so we went to Robles to get us out of the jam. He hit a batter, forcing in another run, then got out of it.

We kept Robles in for the ninth up 7-3, although we had Tom Hall throwing in the pen because we had gotten him up last inning. I was going to go with Hall in the ninth if we were still up 6 runs.

Robles gave up a lead off single. Then a home run to pinch hitter Mauro Perez. We decided to turn to Hall. With now only a two-run lead, Hall was in position to save the game, not throw a mop-up inning. It wouldn’t have been my first choice to finish with Hall on the mound. But Takano was tired. And I thought it was better to use Robles with the bases loaded in the eighth to prevent a big inning and worry about the ninth later. I figured Robles might just blow through it, and that would be that. The problem was that Robles got popped by the first two batters he faced in the ninth. So Hall it would be. And Hall did just fine. He set the Mountains down in order, and we captured another World Series! That’s five in eight tries.

[Orcin]

Originally Posted by Sal, The Barber

...and we captured another World Series! That’s five in eight tries.

Congratulations! You have built a dynasty here.

[Sal, The Barber]

26 October 2010
Cheyenne, WY

We signed Gabrielle Robles to a contract extension about 2 months ago. We’re just making that public now. It’s a 4-year deal for 11.5 million.

As soon as the World Series ended, our hitting coach, Daniel Rubio, let us know that he was going to retire. So we’re on the market for a new hitting coach, but all other personnel are staying put. At least we think so at the moment. We’ll do a more thorough review in the coming months, but no contracts are up, and there are no other openings.

As expected Curt Clark is exercising his option and will pitch for us next year and make $18 million. He’s far and away our most expensive player; this past year, he was worth it.

We never could come to a deal with Michael Edwards, so he’ll test free agency. He was making $17 million. This was a contract I took on when I traded for him. I like Edwards a lot. He’s a very highly rated defensive outfielder, and he has the best batting eye on the team. I love that he walks so much. But he bats around .225, and his power has tailed off. Still, we don’t have anyone who is going to be better than him to play left field next season. Tim Nicholson can do it, but he’s not the same player. Edwards is worth $8 mil or so to me, but he won’t settle for that. He also wants a lot of years, and we’ve just not been able to work something out. We may try again, and I’ll keep an eye on him to see what his offers look like. There may be an opportunity if he’s not as sought after as he hopes he’ll be.

Pinch hitter Ernie Richards declined an option (also as expected) and will go to free agency. I may try again with this guy because he’s a real clubhouse asset. He’s also a valuable pinch hitter. He’s got a good eye and is a switch hitter. Versatile. Still, I can’t—or I don’t want to—pay these marginal guys much. I think that’s what happens to championship teams. They pay everyone because everyone is valuable. But you can’t do it. You have to let new guys come in and fill these marginal roles. You have to give them opportunities, instead of clogging those spots up with guys you’re paying too much for.

[Sal, The Barber]

9 November 2010
Cheyenne, WY

Accolades for our 2010 season have come in. We have 2 Gold Glove winners, both outfielders: Michael Edwards and Francis Trujillo.

1B Andrew Hicks wins Rookie of the Year.

Curt Clark wins the Lefty Grove Award for best pitcher in the WL.

Raul Romo is WL Manager of the Year.

I’ve made a couple of difficult personnel decisions. I’m not going to offer arbitration to Dave Burton or Roger Mekville. Burton is good enough to be a starting shortstop, but we still have Joe Robbins. Burton’s talent is really wasted as a utility guy, and so I’m going to let him go see if he can find himself a starting job.

Mekville wasn’t very good this past season; he’s just too inconsistent, and we have Albert Dominguez ready to step into our rotation. So we’re going to save money and let Mekville walk.

I’d still like another starter, and I have one move to make. I’ve decided to trade Roberto Garza. Garza is a very good first baseman, but I have Hicks, and so Garza just wouldn’t play. My plan is to swap Garza for a starting pitcher. That still leaves me weak in left field given the loss of Michael Edwards, but I like the looks of a potential free agent there rather than at pitcher. So the trade has to be for a pitcher.

The starter I like and target is Seattle pitcher Jack Lee. Lee is a 23 year old lefty. Jody Mack gives him just 3 stars (Garza gets 4.5), but Mack clearly likes this guy. Other scouts have Lee rated higher than Mack, and so there’s a good deal of potential here with Lee.

Well, Garza isn’t enough to get Lee, but when I offer to throw in Dave Burton, Seattle is ready. Maybe this is cheating since I’m not planning on re-signing Burton, but at least Seattle can now negotiate a contract with him or elect to go to arbitration. And, to be honest, I feel like I’m giving up a bit much for Lee, although I don’t really mind. I’m getting someone I want and putting two players who should have starting roles in position to get them.

I also sign Arthur Askew to be our new hitting coach. Askew has been around the block; he’s done this job for 4 other clubs. He was only one year in his last two cities, but it looks like he can teach players to hit. We’ll see.

[Sal, The Barber]

13 December 2010
Cheyenne WY

Youngstown let 5-time All-Star Antonio Maldonado go. Well, Maldonado is 35 years old. Maldonado is an outfielder who has played 5 years with Montreal and 6 years with the Steelmen. Maldonado signs as a free agent with Kansas City, so we’ll see the guy in the WL. The deal is 2 years at $31 million, but the second year is a good deal more than the first.

Youngstown doesn’t wait long to fill the hole created by Maldonado’s departure. At least the hole in the batting order. They sign former Oakland Oak 1B Andy Nelson. We’re pleased as punch to see Nelson leave our biggest rival and head to the EL. Oakland, in fact, has been the biggest loser this off-season so far, subtracting 13.7 WAR.

While I said I might wait and take another run at both Michael Edwards and Ernie Richards, I was apparently lying. I didn’t mean to lie. I do like both players, but I find that I need to make plans and move on. So I made plans to replace them. Maybe there’s a player at AAA who could take one outfield spot, but I’m doubtful of it at the moment. Paul Long is our best prospect there, but he’s not ready yet. Maybe after spring training of this year maybe not. Either way, I’ve got a fourth outfielder spot open, and Long should probably play every day if he’s going to play, so I see him spending one more year at AAA. I want to start Tim Nicholson in left anyway. And I’m thinking I might lead Nicholson off and move Kelham to the number three spot in the order. Against righties at least.

And this is the plan. I could use another right handed bat, and I like Joe Martin who is a free agent. Martin is a right handed hitting left fielder who spent a couple of good years with Wichita. He’s old, 36, but he’s still a good left fielder. He played the last two years sparingly in Manchester, but he still has above average offensive skills—contact, power, and eye. So I sign Martin to platoon with Nicholson. One year, $925,000.

And then I take a gamble on a sixth outfielder. I want a switch hitter, with excellent defensive skills and speed. That shouldn’t be too hard to find, right? Daniel Jackson is an elite fielder; he can play every OF position. He’s fast, and he’s not quite an average hitter. He also has a bad injury history; he’s “wrecked.” But he’s cheap. One year, half a million bucks. He’s a pinch runner, a defensive sub, and a second or third pinch hitter. Doesn’t seem like that big of a gamble.

One more signing to report. We claim a left handed reliever off the waiver wire. He’s Jon Miller, and he has a minor league contract, which is why he was attractive. Jody Mack really likes him. He’s already got great control and just needs to develop his stuff. We’ll put him at AAA and see.

We got a lot of trade offers at the Winter Meetings, but most were insulting. Most teams want our prospects, although we don’t have very many highly rated ones. Our pitching prospects are far more valuable, and those are the ones these GMs are trolling for. They offer me beat-down utility infielders for them. I just reject, reject, reject. A dozen times a day.

[Sal, The Barber]

31 March 2011
Cheyenne, WY

Omaha signed two former Cowboys. Pitchers Pedro Romero (he was a Cowboy for only one year) and Roger Mekville. 7.5 million for Romero; 5.5 million for Mekville. Those are reasonable signings for middle of the rotation guys. At best middle of the rotation guys, but they should be solid and help Omaha. The Robin Hoods finished 4 games above .500, in second place in the Cornhusker Division. Sioux City has won that division 3 of the last 4 years.

Youngstown made us an interesting offer. They offered us 25 year old shortstop Jose Herrera; he can probably be an utility infielder and maybe more. We worked out a deal and sent two minor leaguers of no consequence. We’ll plan to start Herrera at AAA.


After a spring training, a few of our plans change. We send Jeff Racine to AAA because he’s had an awful spring. ERA around 12.00. The problem is that Albert Dominguez, our fifth starter, has had a pretty bad spring himself. So our rotation all the sudden is something we’ll have to watch. Jack Lee our newly acquired lefty will slot into the number 3 spot in the rotation. Clark and Vincent are 1-2. Gomez is 4.

Max Makeever is injured and will start the season on the DL. That means we’ll start Danny Jackson in center and hope he doesn’t get injured. Against lefties, we’ll move Trujillo to center and get both Nicholson and Martin in the lineup. Nicholson is young and can handle the extra work, although he probably won’t hit great against lefties, but we can give Jackson a break this way. Makeever won’t be out too long—about a month, so he’ll miss about 2 weeks of the season.

[Sal, The Barber]

7 April 2011
Cheyenne, WY

Of course we open with a quick two-game series against Oakland. The Oaks are a changed ball club, and they aren’t quite as scary. But they start the year with a lead off home run. It’s Shumei Toyota in the leadoff spot for the Oaks. But that’s the only hit Curt Clark gives up for quite a while, and it’s the only run Oakland scores. Clark goes 8 innings and looks fabulous.

Oakland’s ace, Jorge Garcia, is shaky. Perhaps it’s the cold weather. Anyway, he throws a lot of pitches and is behind in the count frequently. He keeps us off the board for a while, but we figure we’ll eventually get to the Oakland bullpen and blow this game open.

Danny Jackson gets the big hit, a solo home run in the fifth, that gives us a 2-1 lead. We do get two runs in the eighth on a hit by Hicks, and we win, 4-1.


The second game against Oakland simply plays out in reverse. Jose Vincent struggles for us, and Oakland appears in control of the game. In fact, when I look up at the scoreboard midgame, I notice that we have more errors (2) than hits (1).

We don’t score until the ninth inning when we get two runs. Unfortunately, in the top of the ninth inning, Augusto Gonzalez gives up a two-run homer that gives Oakland four. We lose, 4-2.