Injuries Keep Piling Up for Snappers

A Beloit Snappers Press Release

The roster for the Beloit Snappers keeps turning over as the Western Division leaders lost three players to injury and add two more from the Elizabethton Twins.

Outfielder Chris Parmelee (left hand), outfielder Joe Benson (lower back) and catcher Jair Fernandez (right wrist) have all been placed on the disabled list. To help fill the void left by those three, the Minnesota Twins have promoted outfielder Andrew Schmiesing and infielder Rene Leveret from Elizabethton to the Snappers.

Parmelee is batting .239 with 14 home runs and 49 RBIs so far this year. Chris is just one home run shy his season total from a year ago and has played in roughly half as many games (69 to 128). The outfielder from California was the Twins’ first round pick (20th overall) in 2006.

Benson is currently hitting .248 with 16 doubles, 39 runs and 17 stolen bases in 69 games. Last season, Joe had 18 doubles and 18 stolen bases in 122 games played. Benson was the Twins’ second round pick in the 2006 draft.

Fernandez is batting .283 with eight doubles and 20 RBIs in 36 games. Jair was also named to the Midwest League All-Star Team that took place earlier this month in Midland, Michigan. Fernandez was acquired by the Twins from the Seattle Mariners this past offseason.

Andrew Schmiesing comes to Beloit after spending just seven games in E-town. The 6-4 outfielder was hitting .379 with 11 hits and five RBIs while slugging .517 for the Elizabethton Twins.

Schmiesing was the Twins’ 11th round pick in the 2007 draft out of St. Olaf College. Last season he was with the GCL Twins where he led the team in on-base percentage (.421) and tied for the team lead in walks (18).

Rene Leveret joins the Snappers after playing in nine games for the Elizabethton Twins. While he was there, Leveret hit .306 with three doubles, two homers and six RBIs.

Rene was signed as a non-drafted free agent by the Twins on August 28, 2003. Last year at E-town, Leveret led the league in RBIs (65), tied for third in walks, tied for fourth in hits and tied for sixth in home runs.

Both Parmelee and Fernandez’s injuries are retroactive to June 26th with Benson’s retroactive to June 27th.

The moves leave Beloit’s active roster at 23, two below the Midwest League maximum.

In a related move, the Elizabethton Twins added David Martin to the roster. Martin, a left handed pitcher as the Twins 17th round draft pick, 516th overall from Louisiana State University. Martin did not pitch in LSU's 2007 season following hip surgery. He pitched in the summer of 2007 in the Northwoods League, recording a 2.72 ERA in 39.2 innings while posting 38 strikeouts. The 6'2" 193 pound native of Boaz, Alabama, was named the No. 9 prospect in the Northwoods League by Baseball America magazine – the magazine cited his plus-90s fastball and his loose arm action.

Martin was 5-3 with a 5.08 ERA in 88.2 innings pitched for LSU last season. He walked 37 and struck out 81.

Rain washes out Fort Myers; Parmelee storms Clinton

Fort Myers at Palm Beach - Postponed

Rain has been the story around Southwest Florida of late, and going over to the East coast didn't seem to help.

Heavy showers and thunderstorms soaked Roger Dean Stadium and the Fort Myers Miracle and Palm Beach Cardinals will make up the lost contest with a doubleheader on Tuesday evening.

The Monday night match up of Fort Myers' Deolis Guerra (7-3, 483) and Palm Beach lefty Brad Furnish (6-3, 4.23) will start the first game which is slated to begin at 5:05 p.m.

The second game will follow 30 minutes after game one, with Miracle right hander Alex Burnett (6-2, 3.40) facing off against Cardinal southpaw Tyler Norrick (0-0, 0.00), who is making his first start of the 2008 season.

Both games will be 7-innings in length.

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Beloit 8 at Clinton 5

W: L. Van Mil (2-0, 2.31); L: J. Quintero (4-4, 6.39); SV: C. Anderson (1)
HR: BEL: C. Parmelee (14). CLI: M. Lawson (2).

The Beloit Snappers used a 5-run eighth inning to rally past the Clinton Lumber Kings on the road. Snappers start Mike Tarsi got jumped by the L-Kings early.

Matthew Lawson, Engel Beltre and Renny Osuna all singled for Clinton to load the bags. Timothy Smith ground into a double play that saw Lawson taken out at home, leaving runners on second and third. Mitchell Moreland walked to load the bags before Ian Gac singled to score two. Jonathan Green doubled in Moreland but would be left stranded when Jose Felix flew out to end the inning.

Lawson hit a single run homer in the bottom of the 2nd over the left field wall. In the bottom of the 3rd, Smith would single and come home on Moreland's double to make the score 5-0 Lumber Kings.

The Snappers decided they should do something about it at that point. Deibinson Romero and Chris Parmalee both singled. Joe Benson's 15th double of the season knocked in Romero, while Ozzie Lewis' sac fly brought in Parms. Mark Dolenc followed suit, sacrificing in Benson to make the score 5-3 Lumber Kings.

Tarsi would go on to work six innings allowing all 5 runs, earned, on 10 hits a and walk while fanning 4. He'd be replaced by Loek Van Mil for the next 2.2. The tall Dutchman allowed only 1 hit and a pair of walks while fanning 1. He'd be on the mound in the eighth when Beloit staged their rally to pick up the win, his second of the season.

Jose Quintero would step up to the mound for Clinton and would be greeted by an Eric Santiago single out to left. Chris Cates hit a sac bunt, but reached on a throwing error by Greene. Following a pop out to Romero, Parmelee's big bat when BOOM, putting his 14th yarder of the season over the right field wall to make it 6-5 Beloit. Benson would follow that up with a single before Adalberto Flores took over for Quintero. Lewis would reach on a fielding error before Dolenc was called out on strikes. Former Miracle catcher Allan de San Miguel would get plunked with a pitch to load the bags. Estarlin De Los Santos then smoked a line drive out to center to drive in Benson and Lewis for the insurance runs.

Parmelee and Benson both finished up 3-for-5 with a pair of runs each, Parms with 3 RBIs and Benson with 1.

Game two of the 4-game set is Tuesday at Alliant Energy Field with the first pitch slated for 7:00 PM.

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Miracle drenched by Reds on Water Day #2

Sarasota 5 at Fort Myers 2

W: J. Fogg (1-0, 3.32); L: M. Fox (3-2, 4.04); SV: C. Vazquez (1)
HR: None.

I was trying to come up with something poetic to say about the fury of nature, when in fact there was no fury involved. The game got way after a rain delay of about an hour and the Fort Myers Miracle bats got off to a delayed start as well. Sadly they delayed until the ninth inning as the Miracle lost 5-2 to the Sarasota Reds.

Major leaguer Josh Fog made the best of his rehab, going 8.2 innings, allowing 2 hits on 12 runs and four strike out. I wish that I could say Nick Punto was as impressive. Instead I found myself wishing that it was Yancarlos Ortiz out there at short for the Miracle.

Matt Fox tossed a pretty good game as well. But I had gone up for hot dog though and when I came back, boom! It was 2-0.

Jose Castro and Jake Kahaulelio had both doubled, which brought in Castro. Fox then uncorked a wild pitch that moved the Windsor, California, native to 3rd. Heisey would take a single off Fox to score Kahaulelio. Yup, with the name like that, he's not from Hawaii.

Eddy Rodriguez doubled in the top of the 7th. After Castro had popped out, a wild pitch moved Rodriguez to 3rd. Kahaulelio then singled out to left to score Rodriguez. Field Manger Jeff Smith then pulled Fox, bringing Oswaldo Sosa into the game. One of the things Ozzie is here to work on is his walks, so, of course, the first thing he does is walk Chris Heisey. As Todd Frazier went down on strikes, Kahaulelio and Heisey both stole. Juan Francisco then doubled off Sosa to drive them in.

There was a glimmer of hope when Solarte doubled in the 8th, but the Cincinnati pitching machine did not start tiring until the ninth. Steve Singleton hit a line drive to right and Edward Ovalle tripled to drive him in. Ovalle would score on Garrett Olson's ground out. Danny Santiesteban ground out as well, but Solarte would single. Camilo Vazquez came in for the final out, getting Punto to ground into a force out.

Punto was a very impressive 1-for-5 on the night, to become one of our one hit wonders, and hit an average of .250 over the last three games. Whit Robbins, Ovalle and Solarte were all 2-for-4 at the plate, Ovalle with a run and a run batted in. Portes was 3-for-4 but much like Robbins, did not get the hits at a time when they might be useful. Ramos was the other one hit wonder of the contest, going 1-for-4, while Singleton, who was also 1-for-4 had a run.

The Miracle now head out for a four game road trip against the Palm Beach Cardinals. Jay Rainville will make the 6:05 PM start, his first since re-joining the Miracle. The team returns to Fort Myers on Thursday to face the Brevard County Manatees (Milwaukee Brewers).

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NP: Singleton
NP: Ramos
NP: Promotion Commotion
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I did get Punto's autograph and overall, during the last three games was pretty good in that regard. The only Red I didn't get was Danny Guerrera. Alex Smit told me Guerrera'd been reassigned to Daytona.

I also did not get Mr. Rainville's signature, and am hoping he'll stick with the team through the next homestand. Rene Tosoni and Kyle Waldrop were in the stands to watch the game as well. Tosoni has had a pin inserted in his foot and no longer has a brace on. He says he's still four weeks away from being able to being playing again.

It was rather unusual as we almost never see the rehabbers. They do their work down at the training facility, then go home and take the night off. I made a comment to that extent about Milt and pointed out that since they were drawing a salary, it wouldn't hurt them to come to the games and do some public relations work by signing autographs for the fans. That made him think for a bit. After that he went off to buy some launch a balls.

(Brett, you took off with my gold pen, I'd like it back please.)

Kudos to Gary Sharp who did actually turn the sound down for the game so we could talk over the music. This helped us in cajoling Mr. Punto into using the pen.

Beloit 11 at Peoria 5

W: S. Arias (3-3, 2.76); L: K. Kreier (2-2, 4.66)
HR: BEL: C. Parmelee (13). PEO: D. Johnston (9), L. Bautista (3).

I hear that Ben Revere is happy to be out of Florida because he doesn't like the weather here. Midwest flooding must be more to his taste. He also seems to think he's going to get promoted to the Miracle, which makes me wonder why, if he doesn't like the weather, he wants to come back.

Revere was not in last night's contest however, instead the story of the night was Chris Parmelee, who went 4-for-5 with 3 runs and 3 RBIs.

Chris Cates and Deibinson Romero hit back-to-back singles. Parmalee singled as well, out to center to plate Cates. Ozzie Lewis' ground ball to left drove in Romero. After Joe Benson was called out on strikes, Mario Mercedes would mis-throw on a pick off attempt and Parmelee scurried home for the 3rd run.

Mark Dolenc would double in the top of the 2nd, move on a sac bunt from Estarlin De Los Santos and come home on a Cates ground out. The top of the fourth would see Allan de San Miguel walk move to second on Greg Yersich's single and to 3rd on a Dolenc sac-bunt. De Lo's line drive single drove him in.

Brandon Guyer would single off Beloit starter Santos Arias. One out later Luis Bautista took him deep going over the left field wall for this 3rd home run of the season.

Parmelee put his own ball over the right field fence in the top of the fifth as Zach Ashwood came into replace the oft-hit Kevin Kreier.

The top of the sixth saw Dolenc double then steal 2nd. Cates would bring him in on a sac-bunt.

Bautista walked for the Chiefs in the bottom of the stanza and Cliff Anderson doubled. Dylan Johnson would then go yard over the right field fence to bring in the pair, giving Peoria their five runs for the night.

Ozzie Lewis singled in the seventh and moved to 2nd on Benson's sac-bunt. Stephen Ventro was then trotted out of the bullpen to try to stop the hemorrhaging, but instead went wild, with a pitch that is, moving Lewis to 3rd. After walking de San Miguel, a passed ball by Mercedes brought Lewis home. Yersich would reach on a throwing error which also plated the Aussie catcher.

Chris Siegfried replace Vento on the mound for the top of the eighth, and saw Romero single, then move on another passed ball. Parmelee doubled him in. Lewis' single moved Parms to 3rd, and he'd score when Joe Benson hit into a double play.

Dolenc had a good game, going 3-for-4 at the plate with a pair of doubles and a pair of runs to get his average up to .217. Lewis was 3-for-5 with a run and a RBI, Romero was 2-for-5 with a pair of runs. De Lo was 1-for-5 with a RBI, while Yersich, also 1-for-5 was the one hit wonder. The teams finish up on Sunday with a 2:00 PM game. Snapper's right hander Steve Hirschfield (5-1, 2.06 ERA) will face off against the Chief's Robert Hernandez (0-0, 5.79 ERA).

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Error downs Snappers in extra innings

Beloit 4 at Kane County 5

W: L. Espinal (3-0, 3.18); L: S. Steedley (2-3, 2.38)
HR: BEL: C. Parmelee (12), S. Singleton (5), G. Olson (4). KCC: L. Cobb (4).

The Beloit Snappers rallied late, breaking a shut out in the 8th inning to tie the game, but could not hold off the Kane County Cougars in the 10th.

Santos Arias gave up 3 runs, only one earned, on 9 hits over six innings. He fanned six. Kane County's Scott Hodsdon limited the Snappers to only 5 hits and a walk, striking out 2 over the same period.

Beloit would not put anything together until the 8th. Following a line out by Mark Dolenc, Ben Revere would be plunked by a pitch. He'd be picked off however when he attempted to steal 2nd, putting two outs on the board. Chris Cates then took a walk off Cougar pitcher Nick Walters. Garrett Olson put his 4th home run over the center field wall to bring in 2. Chris Parmelee followed that up with his 12 yarder of the season over the right field fence. It was Parmelee's fourth in the last three games.

With the game tied, Steve Singleton found the right field fence as well for a solo shot home run in the top of the 9th. Spencer Steedley came into the game in the bottom of the 9th, but the All-star would surrender a home run to Larry Cobb, to put the contest into extra innings.

Cates would single in the 10th, but Olson and Parmelee were taken out on strikes and Ozzie Lewis ground out to end the inning.

Dusty Napoleon singled to short in the 10th, then moved to second on a sac bunt. Jonathan Johnston was intentionally walked, before Justin Frash hit a line drive that loaded the bases. Adam Klein would reach on a catcher interference call on Greg Yersich to force in the the run, and end the contest.

(Good going Mr. Yersich.)

Cates and Parmelee were both 3-for-4 with a run each, Parms with a RBI as well. Revere was the only one hit wonder for the game, with a single in the sixth inning.

The final game of the series is Sunday at 1:00 PM central time. David Bromberg (4-3, 4.60) will be on the mound for the Snappers while the Cougars will send Scott Mitchinson (4-2, 1.34) to throw out the first pitch.

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Friday:
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DSL White Sox1 1 at DSL TWins 2

W: L. Parra (1-0, 0.00); L: C. Zabala (0-1, 1.69); SV: E. Alvarez (1)
HR: DSL TWI: F. Caro (1).

The DSL Twins scored a pair of runs in the sixth inning to rally back to win against the DSL White Sox1.

Pedro Guerra took the start for the Twins, allowing 1 run on 4 hits while striking out 4 over 4 innings.

Ariel Williams singled in the first for the White Sox1 and advanced to second on a missed catch by the Twins' Rafael Sanchez. Victor Marte's ground out would get Williams to 3rd. Ronald Lora then doubled him in. Following a strike out to Luis Acuna, Lora would be taken out at 3rd on a fielder's choice to retire the side.

That would be all the White Sox1 could get though. They would get as far as putting a runner on third with 2 outs in the top of the sixth, but could not capitalize.

Felix Caro tied up the game in the bottom of the sixth by going yard over the left field fence for his first home run of the year. First baseman Jean Carlos Mercedes doubled out to center. Yorby Martinez would come into the game as a pinch hitter and moved Mercedes to 3rd on a sac-bunt. Xavier Gonzalez would go down on strikes. Following a pitching change which brought Juan Rojas to the mound for the White Sox1, Yancarlo Franco would reach on a fielding error that scored Mercedes for the game winning run.

The visitors never really threatened as former VSL All-star Edison Alvarez worked the final two innings to earn the save.

The Twins managed a total of only four hits in the game. Caro, Mercedes and Gonzalez each had one as did Eliel Sierra.

The DSL TWins take Sunday off, and will visit the DSL Indians on Monday for a 10:30 AM (Dominican Time) game.

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Snappers bat past Kane County

Beloit 8 at Kane County 4

W: B. Kirwan (4-3, 5.22); L: S. Deal (3-2, 3.53); SV: S. Steedley (7)
HR: BEL: C. Parmelee (11), S. Singleton (4). KCC: C. Brown (9), G. Dowling (5).

The Beloit Snappers overcame an early deficit and batted their way to victory as they doubled up the Kane County Cougars, 8-4.

Ben Revere and Chris Cates hit back to back singles to start out in the top of the 1st inning. Garrett Olson would ground into a double play, but Revere still crossed the plate to put Beloit on the board.

Adam Klein bunted his way onto base for Kane County. Following a pop out by Matt Ray, Greg Dowling took Snappers starter Brian Kirwan deep, sending a ball over the right field wall to put the Cougars on top. Larry Cobb would be called out on strikes, but Justin Frash was issued a walk. Corey Brown then launched a ball over the center field wall to make it 4-1 Cougars.

Steve Singleton decided to play launch-a-ball as well, putting a Scott Deal pitch over the right field wall to cut the Snappers lead in half.

With one out on the board, Ozzie Lewis' ground ball to center got him on base while Singleton and Jair Fernandez drew walks. Danny Lehmann would pop out before a Ramon Santana line drive brought in Lewis and Singleton to tie up the game.

Cates doubled in the top of the 5th, then moved to 3rd on a passed ball by Jonathan Johnston. Olson walked and Parmelee said goodbye to his 3rd ball in two days, putting his 11th home run over the left field wall. He would also say goodbye to Deal, who was dealt off the mound in favor of Charles Kerfoot.

Kirwan would give up 4 runs on 7 hits and 3 walks while striking out 5 over six innings before Charles Nolte came in for the next 2.2 innings.

In the top of the 7th, Parmelee would walk, and come home on an Ozzie Lewis double to finish off the scoring for the Snappers.

5'3" Cates was 3-for-5 at the plate with a run, Lewis was 2-for-4 with a run and an RBI. Parmelee was the hero for the second straight game, going 1-for-3 with a walk, 2 runs and 3 RBIs. Singleton was 1-for-3 with 2 runs, 1 walk and 1 RBI, while Santana was 1-for-4 with 2 RBIs.

Kane County's Scott Hodsdon (3-4, 4.38) will face Snapper Santos Arias (2-2, 2.59) Saturday for game 3 of the series, with a 6:00 central time start.

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BDN - Cates & Van Mil

Cates and Van Mil on ESPN: Chris Cates and Loek Van Mil have been making quite a splash in the national spotlight recently. The two have been in local publications around the Beloit area, www.mlnsportszone.com and even appeared in the most recent issue of Sports Illustrated. Now the duo is gearing up for their biggest coverage yet.

ESPN's popular morning show "First Take" will be in Belot to talk with Cates and Van Mil this Monday morning. ESPN First Take is on the air from 9:00am to 11:00am central time and then again from 11:00am to 1:00pm central on ESPN2.

Cates, at 5'3" is the smallest and Van Mil, at 7'1" the tallest professional baseball players in the country. While it's nice that the duo is getting coverage, I'd rather it would be for their baseball prowess than because of their size.

DSL Twins 7 at DSL Orioles 3

W: R. Acosta (1-0, 0.00); L: J. Nunez (0-1, 36.00)
HR: None.

The DSL Twins staged a late inning rally to defeat the DSL Orioles, 7-3.

The Twins got on the board first with Willy Gil taking a walk in the top of the 1st, then moving to 2nd on a wild pitch. He would advance to 3rd on a balk, and come home on Jairo Perez's sac-fly.

However, the Orioles answered back in the bottom of the inning. A fielding error by Yorby Martinez at second base allowed Jaynnertt Melenciano to reach. Gil would make an error that allowed Nivar to reach and Melenciano to score.

Ramon Acosta would allow 3 runs over 7 innings on 5 hits, but none of them would be earned. An error by Felix Caro at 3rd would lead to two more Orioles runs in the fifth inning.

Manuel Soliman drew a walk off Julio Nunez in the top of the 7th and Oswaldo Arcia walked after him. Jairo Rodriguez reached on a failed force attempt that loaded the bags. Cairo then singled to score Soliman. Carlos Vasquez hit into a double play that scored Arcia to tie up the game.

Martize would single in the top of the 8th, and Perez would get hit by a pitch. Yancarlo Franco singled to load the bags. Leonaldo Abad would see Soliman triple off him to clean off the bases. Soliman would then come home on Arcia's follow up single to finish off the scoring.

The DSL Twins host the DSL White Sox on Saturday for a 10:30 AM (local time) game.

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Parmlee Powers Snappers; Cats derail Curve

Beloit 8 at Kane County 6

W: M. McCardell (2-1, 3.82); L: J. Richmond (5-4, 3.78); SV: S. Steedley (6)
HR: BEL: C. Parmelee 2 (10). KCC: L. Cobb (3), J. Frash (1).

Chris Parmelee, the Goodbye Kid, said goodbye to a pair on Thursday, going 3-for-4 at the plate with 3 runs and 4 RBIs to lead the Snappers to a 8-6 victory over the Kane County Cougar.

Ben Revere would single in the top of the first to get the game underway. Chris Cates would ground out. A wild pitch got Revere to 3rd while Garrett Olson drew a walk. With Parmelee at the plate, Jamie Richmond would miss-throw the ball on the pickoff attempt which allowed Revere to score. It hardly mattered as Parmelee put the first of two over the fence, giving the Snappers a 3-0 lead.

Kane County would get on the board when Justin Frash when yard off starter Michell McCardell for his first home run of the season.

Cates would get hit by a pitch in the top of the 3rd, then move to second on Olson's line drive. Pop outs to Parmelee and Singleton would follow before Jair Fernandez's single drove in the two runners.

The Cougars took a pair back in the bottom of the 4th when Adam Klein walked and Larry Cobb homered over the left field wall, his 3rd of the season. The yard balls were being helped by a 20 MPH wind out to left, which may account for the four home runs in one game.

Parmelee would power his own ball, this time over the right field fence for a single shot in the top of the 5th.

A double by Daniel Hamblin started off Kane County's answer back in the bottom of the 5th. Jonathan Johnston singled and advanced on a throwing error by Revere. Matt Ray would sacrifice out to right to drive in Hamblin, making the score 6-4 Snappers.

Beloit would get their final two in the seventh with Ramon Santana and Revere singling. Olson would reach on a field error and Parmelee would single with the bags loaded to drive in Santana. Singleton's sac fly to right brought in Revere.

A pair more were all that awaited a short lived Cougar rally in the 9th before Spencer Steedley finished off the game for his 6th save of the season. McCardell picked up the win allowing 4 runs, earned, on six hits and a walk while fanning 5 over 5.2.

The two teams rematch Friday night with Danny Berlind (4-4, 4.11) on the mound for Beloit.

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Outfielder Ben Revere, the Twins' first-round draft pick in 2007, was named the organization’s minor league player of the month after batting .433 with 18 RBI, 21 runs and 14 stolen bases for Beloit.

New Britain 4 at Altoona 2

W: E. Simonitsch (1-3, 9.39); L: K. Bloom (0-4, 6.46); SV: B. Julianel (11)
HR: NBR: S. Tolleson (5).

After a couple of really bad outings, Errol Simonitsch returned to form on Thursday, allowing only 1 run on 3 hits and 3 walks while fanning 3 over six innings to lead the New Britain Rock Cats to a 4-2 win over the Altoona Curve.

Toby Gardenhire would single to start off the top of the 3rd inning and Drew Butera followed him onto the bags with a walk. Steve Tolleson would go yard to drive in the pair, as the Rock Cats pounced on a three run lead.

Felix Molina would bunt his way onto base in the 4th, steal 2nd and move to 3rd on Gardenhire's sac-bunt. Drew Butera would then single to plate Molina for an additional New Britain run.

In the bottom of the sixth, Shelby Ford would draw a walk, then steal 2nd and 3rd. Joniel Pacheco would then walk. With two outs on the board, Brad Corley hit a ground rule double that scored Ford, but Jason Delaney would fly out to strand the other two runners.

Jason Miller would work two scoreless innings of relief, walking one and fanning 2. Ben Julianel would give up a run late in the bottom of the 9th when Anthony Webster singled with 2 outs on the board and came home on Luis Cruz's triple. Jason Bowers would fly out, however to cut short the Curve's rally.

Next up for New Britain is a 3-game series against the Binghamton Mets.

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Sandlot Swashbucklers Blog

DSL Diamonbacks 2 at DSL Twins 10

W: E. Cardenas (1-0, 0.00); L: Y. Camacho (0-1, 1.59)
HR: None.

Cesar Ciurcina worked 5 innings allowing 2 runs on 4 hits and no walks while fanning three, but would get a no decision as the DSL Twins Used a sixth inning run and a 7-run eighth inning to put the game against DSL Diamondbacks way.

After two straight scoreless games, the DSL Twins got onto the board first. Jhonatan Arais would single in the bottom of the 3rd. Xavier Gonzalez would ground out, sending Arias to 3rd, before second baseman Carlos Valquez was hit by a pitch. Vasquez then stole 2nd. Oswaldo Arcia would reach on a fielder's choice as Arias was taken out at the plate to save the run. However Jairo Perez doubled in Vasquez and Arcia for a pair of runs.

The D-Backs tied it up in the top of the fourth when Gerson Montillo singled and Astolfo Inciarte tripled him in. Raywilly Gomez would ground out before Ruben Felix singled out to center to plate Inciarte.

Perez singled his way onto base in the bottom of the sixth. Following a line out to Eliel Sierra, he'd steal 2nd base. Felix Cairo's single to center scored Perez for the game winning run. The fireworks 2 innings later were just for fun.

With Ruben Serrano on the mound for the D-Backs, Aracia singled then moved to second on a passed ball by Ruben Felix. Perez and Sierra would both draw walks, loading the bags. Serrano would then be called for a balk, which scored Arcia. Cairo would be hit by a pitch before Eduardo Gomez was called in form the bullpen. Manuel Soliman flew into a sacrifice double play that scored Perez. Leather Falvin then singled to being in Sierra. Arias singled and Gonzalez walked to load up the bases. Gomez would be called on a balk, that again scored a run. Vasquez would single to drive in Arias and Gonzalez, while Vasquez would get an extra base on a throwing error by D-Backs right fielder Jose Jose.

Arcia doubled bringing in Vasques and Perez would again draw a walk. Danny Leon would be brought into the game and got Sierra to ground into a force out for the final out of the inning.

(There's something about the way the Latin Americans throw that draws a lot balks under MLB rules. One of the reasons for the academy is is to work these glitches out of their system, but you'll still see young Latin American hurlers at the Rookie levels making more mistakes than the domestic pitchers do.)

Eliecer Cardenas picked up the win allowing 1 run and fanning 2 over 2.2 innings, while 2007 VSL All-star Edison Alvarez worked .1 inning to finish off the 8th.

Perez was 3-for-3 at the plate with a pair of walks, and two runs and two RBIs. Arcia and Arias were both 2-for-4, Arcia with 2 runs and 1 RBI, and Arias with 1 run.

The DSL Twins visit the DSL Orioles on Friday for a 10:30 AM local time start.

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Snappers help Bandits out of slump

Quad Cities 4 at Beloit 2

W: N. Additon (5-2, 2.49); L: S. Arias (2-2, 2.59); SV: M. Diapoules (2)
HR: QC: P. Vazquez (1).

Santos Arias has pitched quite well since his promotion from Extended Spring Training, but last night, against the Quad Cities River Bandits, he found that he needs his teammates to lend him a bat from time to time. Unfortunately, the Beloit Snappers only managed four hits, being stoned through the first five innings by Davie, Florida, native Nick Additon, falling to the Cardinals farm team 4-2.

Paul Vazquez would go yard on Arias in the top of the 2nd for a single shot home run, his first of the season. In the top of the 3rd. Adrion Chambers singled and Peter Kosma doubled him in. Kosma would get an extra base on the throw, and a wild pitch by Arias lead to Kozma coming home, making it 3-0 River Bandits.

Arias would work six innings through, giving up three earned runs on 6 hits and a walk while fanning 6 for a quality start. A quality start was nothing to Additon though, who has not allowed a run since May 10, or a hit since May 24.

Charles Nolte worked the next two innings, allowing 2 hits and striking out 2 before giving way to Aussie closer Brad Tippett.

With 2 outs on the board in the bottom of the seventh, Steve Singleton hit a ground ball to get on base and Joe Benson followed with a grounder of his own. Chris Parmelee's line drive to right brought in the pair. A throwing error by Chambers gave Parmelee an extra base, but he could not capitalize as Greg Yersich lined out to end the inning.

The only other hit Beloit had would a single by Ben Revere in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Tippett would get Paul Vazquez and Thomas Pham out on strikes before allowing a single to Nick People, who when stole 2nd. Domnit Bolivar singled out to center to bring in People, and advanced to 2nd on a throwing error by Revere. However, Tippett would get Mike Folli to ground out to retire the side.

Mark Dolenc, Ozzie Lewis and Parmelee each struck out twice, while Ramon Santana went 0-for-3 with 3 K's. Everyone in the batting order had at least one strike out, except for Revere who finished up 1-for-3 with a walk.

The teams rematch Tuesday with David Bromberg (3-3, 5.08) throwing out the first pitch at 7:00 PM central time. The R-Bandits pitcher is T.B.D.

With the Midwest League All-Star Game set to be played on Tuesday, June 17, it may not be a stretch to say you will find Additon on the mound for Palm Beach when the Miracle bus trip rolls in on Sunday, June 22.

Box
Log
Snappers
R-Bandits
QC Times
Future Redbirds Blog
Monday:
BDN

Snappers clubbed by Lumber Kings

Beloit 2 at Clinton 7

W: B. Beavan (3-1, 3.60); L: B. Kirwan (3-2, 4.44)
HR: BEL: C. Parmelee (8). CLI: J. Greene (6).

The Beloit Snappers got 2 runs in the 7th inning, narrowly avoiding a shut out by the Clinton Lumber Kings. Brian Kirwan would suffer the loss, allowing 6 run, earned on 7 hits and 2 walks while striking out 3 over 4.2 innings.

The bottom of the 4th inning got ugly when Ian Gac doubled out to right and Jonathan Greene went yard over the center field wall for the first two runs in the game. Mitchell Moreland followed that up with a double and Cristian Santana would be hit by a Kirwan pitch. A throwing error by Steve Singleton resulted in Jake Kaase reaching which loaded up the bags. Justin Pickett singled to bring in Moreland, before Kirwan would get Engel Beltre and Renny Osuna to strike out to end the inning.

The bottom of the 5th was nearly identical, with Gac doubling and Greene tripling him in. A wild pitch by Kirwan brought in Greene. Moreland would fly out and Miguel Alfonzo would be walked before Blair Erickson was brought in to replace Kirwan. He'd walk Kaase, then give up a double to Pickett that plated Alfanzo to make it 6-0 Clinton.

Chris Cates singled in the top of the 7th. Following a ground out to Garrett Olson, Chris Parmelee sent his eight ball of the season over the fence for the only two Snappers runs.

Steve Hirschfield would take over the mound in the bottom of the 7th. Gac singled out to left. After Greene struck out swinging, Moreland doubled to bring in Gac, making the final score 7-2 Lumber Kings.

None of the Snappers had multi-hit games. Ben Revere was 1-for-4 to in the contest; Singleton and Gerg Yersich were 1-for-3 with none of these players figuring into the scoring.

While Parmelee leads the team in home runs and runs batted in, his .233 batting average remains a concern.

The series concludes on Thursday, with Santos Arias (1-1, 3.32) handling the pitching chores for the Snappers.

Boxscore
Log
L-Kings
Tuesday:
BDN
Herald

Venezuelan Summer League played started on Monday, May 19th. The Twins are not participating in the league this year. The Dominican Summer League should be starting up around the beginning of June.

Baseball Advanced Media

Some days I just want to collect all my toys, pack them up, quit, go home and not play anymore. Usually the reason for this is disgust, which is the current problem.

I'm disgusted with Baseball Advanced Media. For those of you not familier with the situation it goes something like this:

MLB decided they wanted to cash in on the fantasy baseball crazy by protecting their stats. That means other places can't have them or use them for Fantasy Baseball. Copyright laws by the way state you cannot copyright a list of facts and figures so basically, stats can't be copyrighted. But MLB will try...oh yes, they'll try.

Then they decided to take it one step further and put Minor League Baseball on the same system. So now, all scoring is done through Baseball Advanced Media (aka BAM).

To a certain extent, as far as the fans are concerned it's great! If you can't listen to the game you can at least check the stats while the game is in progress. How this is actually handled on a club level however...

Well, according to Sean, the broadcaster for the Fort Myers Miracle, Benn - the Miracle statistician - calls into BAM at the end of each inning and gives them an update on what is going on. This is then entered into the computer and published on line. Needless to say, sometimes the person on the other end of the phone gets it wrong, and so Benn then has to call back in, usually at the end of the game, and get it corrected.

Sometimes I have to tell Sean to tell Benn if I notice something erronious, but, Benn is pretty meticulous.

Rather unfortunately, this has not been the case with the scoring for the GCL Twins.

Let's take the roster for example. The Twins drafted a Michael Cowgill in the 40th round, signed him, and sent him down to play Gulf Coast League. He's listed on the roster as Thomas. Okay, so maybe he's trying to change his name now that he's playing professional baseball, but everyone down at the park still calls him Mike, not Tom. Meanwhile "Esterlin" De Los Santos has suddenly become "Starling" De Los Santos. I mean, I don't know, maybe the Twins media guide is wrong but...

Then there is "Jon" Staatz, who is in fact named "Justin" Staatz. It took me a while to track him down, but when I went up to him and said "Hi, who are you?", he was definate about being a Justin.

Finally there is my new little buddy Dan Leatherman who, up until just today, was listed as being 5'11", 175 pounds and 30 years old. (He's 6'2", 195 and he says he's 22, by which I think he's 21 going on 22.)

You know, I spell one kid's name wrong and I get a nasty gram from a parent or girlfriend about it. I'd like to see a few of them send nasty grams to BAM.

Then there are the boxscores. On Saturday they missed a positional change. On Monday they missed a pitching change. I mean, okay, maybe I'm wrong and it wasn't Garcia on the mound, maybe it was Carreras, but it sure as heck wasn't Schoenbachler. (Jeff's just NOT THAT TAN, if you take my meaning).

Loek gets off the mound and is disappointed because we have the score at 4-2 when in fact it was 4-3, but I had Chris Parmelee's parents, some people from Joliet come to see Joe Benson and one of the players brother in the bleachers with me and we were all talking back and forth. So I lost a runner. It's easy to do. But to miss an obvious pitching change?

Then there is the questionable entry on June 28th where they have Brad Tippett pitching .01 innings and taking the loss. The next day they have him down for a save after pitching another inning.

I'm not saying it didn't happen, I'm just saying it's unlikely the Twins allowed him to throw on two consecutive days.

And I know for a fact that he pitched the 29th as I was there, but I don't think that loss on the 28th belongs to him.

Meanwhile, if I'm right it was Garcia and not Carreras that relieved Schoey on Monday, and I'm pretty sure I checked the roster just to be sure, then he certainly didn't pitch the following day in Sarasota so that was someone else.

Ah...you say, you're nitpicking.

You're right, I am. But these kids play down here in relative obscurity with almost no coverage. Is it too much to ask that the coverage they do get be correct?

And I know whoever is doing the stat work, is not calling back into BAM to correct things when they go wrong. So then this stays on their professional record?

I dunno. I think we had problems last year too, so maybe I should see if I can figure out if a erronious stat from last year (and I think I marked the errata on the boxes) is listed in the media guide that way.

And maybe by next year Michael, Esterlin and Justin will all be Thomas, Starling and Jon in the media guide as well.

::sigh::

But you know, if I did pick up my toys and pack it up, who would provide the right information to the general public? And granted, I'm not perfect, not even close, but when I do see something wrong on the site, I fix it.

Not so with with BAM it seems, as there is no one to complain to.

Maybe Saturday I'll ask Milt or Jake about it and see what they say.

Meanwhile and speaking of Parmelee's folks...

We got on the subject of Angel stadium. They live close enough to see both the Dodgers and the Angels, but prefer the Angels. I don't blame them. That's a beautiful stadium.

They also said he prefers wood bats to aluminum and that he'd played in the summer wooden bat leagues for a couple of years.

"That's good," I said. "Because if he can hit the high school with a wooden bat, I'd hate to see what he can do with an aluminum one."
I think that's going to be our new little bit when he comes up to bat. "Common Chris, hit the high school again!"

"Let's go Parmeleeeeeeeee!!!!! Out of the park and into the football stadium!"

I'm sure we can come up with a few more as we go along.

The current concessious -- and we don't have a tape measure on that -- but we think that first home run went like 420 or 425 feet. He wasn't just over the fence. He was WAY over the fence.

When we were talking out of the park on Saturday I said to Knappy "I love Joe Benson. He's a great little player."

"Yeah, he says, "and that Chris Parmelee isn't too bad either."

Naw....he's an overachiever, is what he is.

The Goodbye Kid

So...I have this head cold, you see, and decided I needed to go see Dr. Bromberg (2005 RHP D&F) pitch today in an effort to cure it as I don't want to be sick for the four-day weekend.



Number 1 comes up to the plate, first professional game, first professional at bat and nails it -- not just over the little fence, but over the big fence and out into the street. That thing would have been gone out of any ballpark, major league or otherwise. Everyone's just standing there, not saying anything watching this kid trot around the bases.

Finally the old guy in front of me, turns around and says "Who was that?"

"Chris Parmelee, " I said, with a bit of awe in voice. "The Goodbye Kid."

And then I did my best impression of a Blur song.

He walked on his next two at bats, and then struck out for his fourth at bat.

So -- if a visit to the good Doctor Bromberg didn't cure me, the single shot over the left field fence by Nurse Parmelee certainly did.

Man...that was one of the prettiest things I ever have seen. I think at 1.5 mil, he may be a bargain.



2nd Rounder Joe Benson. I love Joe!!!!



3rd Rounder Tyler Robertson.