Hibbing

I went to watch Fort Myers take on Lynchberg, although this is a preseason game and a lot of these guys won't be with the Miracle when the season starts.

Ah, but Eli Tintor has been assigned to the Miracle workgroup. I'd seen him last week for pitchers and catchers, but I got to talk to him today. I just adore Eli, I really do.

He comes bounding out on the field for practice, sees me, waves like crazy and is like "Hi, how have you been?"

"Good, Eli. It's good to see you again, buddy."

And it really was.

He comes down to the end of the dugout after drills and sits, so I went over talk to him.

I said "You had a really good year in Tennessee." He LOVED Tennessee. He loved the fans, he loved the stadium, it was so enthused about the whole experience.

I mentioned "his" website and he blushed, but he really loved it too.

I said "I really love this color shirt on you," plucking the sleeve of his blue pullover. "It would be nice if it stayed on your back."

He remains optimistic, but I think he'll start the year in Beloit and tell him so. "That catchers' meeting when Cliburn was telling you guys that there wasn't quite the log jam at catching that there was in the past," I say ryely. "I was wondering what organization's depth chart he'd been looking at."

He laughed and said "Yes, but good things come if you work hard." Ah, so he's bought into the program.

"Work on your batting, that's the key."

"I have that", he says. Feiner doesn't and much as I like Kory, I'd rather Eli behind plate because Feiner just doesn't not swing a stick well.

Strangely enough I ended up sitting with Feiner's parents behind me. But I think they saw me talking to Eli and understood why I was going crazy when he went up to bat.

It was just kind of weird as they're like "Well, of course we want them to all move up..." Do we?

Okay, granted, I'd like to pick my own players, but you've got to take the bad with the good. Not saying that Kory is bad mind you, he just needs to work on his hitting some (.188 at Beloit).

I really need to try to have Tint over for dinner before he gets shipped off to Beloit.

Anyway, Fort Myers defeated Lynchburg 6-4. David Winfree hit a home run to lead off the fourth. David Shinskie surrendered a home run in same inning. It was a bad move putting Shinskie in to pitch after Matt Garza got off the mound. It made Shinskie look really bad. Then again, rookie FranK Mata pitched a better two innings than Shinskie did.

Hibbing had a sac-fly in his first at bat -- on his first swing yet! So while he didn't get on base, he did get a RBI!

The second time around he struck out. (Feiner hit a double that also drove in a run.)

Alexi Casilla, who we picked up from L.A. for J.C. Romero hit two triples(!) and two singles and was very impressing for a little kid (5'9", 160 lbs).