Crown Crazed » Blue Rocks

Blue Rocks Lose Series To Hillcats On 8th Inning Homerun

Jeffery Pettyjohn — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 05:59:50 +0000

After recovering from a disastrous 1st half of the season to winning the 2nd half title in roaring fashion, this year's edition of the Wilmington Blue Rocks overcame a lot to put themselves 1 game away from advancing to the Carolina League finals. But at the end it was another one of those 1 run loses that ended their season. The game started out as a pitcher's duel between Blue Rocks' Leondry Perez and the Hillcats' Aaron Northcraft with both sides not getting a runner past first base til the top of the 3rd when Blue Rocks DH Geulin Beltre hit a one out solo homer to left, giving the Rocks the 1-0 lead. That lead would hold til All World/Future Atlanta Braves SS Andrelton Simmons hit a solo homer in the bottom of the 4th to tie it up 1-1 for the Hillcats. The pitchers' duel would continue with help from both team's defense and the game did have the feel of one that was going to be decided in extra innings until Hillcats catcher Braeden Schlehuber hit a one out homer in the 8th for a 2-1 Hillcat lead. The top of the 9th had swinging strikeouts from Matt Fields and Cheslor Cuthbert before Brett Eibner worked a walk to keep the game going for the Blue Rocks. However the next batter Geulin Beltre hit a soft flyout to right to cinch the series win for Lynchburg. Lynchburg now will play the Southern Division champ Winston Salem in a best of 5 series for the Carolina League Championship which started Saturday in Lynchburg.

Blue Rocks Win 2nd Half Division Title; Begin Playoffs At Home Versus Hillcats

Jeffery Pettyjohn — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 04:11:47 +0000

At one point a little over 2 weeks ago the Blue Rocks had lost a 2.5 game lead to the Frederick Keys but after splitting a series with Lynchburg, they came home, won 11of 13 games and punched their ticket to the playoffs. This team started to come come together in the 2nd half after the additions of 1B Mark Fields, RHP Brooks Pounder, and SS Orlando Calixte . Mark has simply racked since he has joined the Blue Rocks, having one the best offensive outputs for the 2nd half for either the minors or majors. Brooks came up and solidified the back end of the starting rotation and became an ace on the team. Orlando was a midseason call up who was a welcomed surprise with his offense and becoming an anchor for the infield defense. These 3 under the leadership of manager Vance Wilson have saved what was looking like a horrible season and now are 2nd half division champs and ready to do damage in the playoffs. As of this posting the Rocks are hosting the Lynchburg Hillcats in game 1 of the Carolina League Northern Division Championship and for a brief preview of the series comes down to one man for the Rocks: Mark Fields. If he gets in the mix its hard for other teams to handle the press he puts on opposing pitching staffs. For the Hillcats they will have an interesting addition coming in game 2 in the form of SS Andrelton Simmons. He was the Carolina League batting last year but I first saw him play short was for the Atlanta Braves this season before he hurt his wrist sliding into 2nd on a heads up hustle play. Simply put this guy may be the the Derek Jeter cause everything he is so smooth and effortless but so powerful. The Hillcats having this guy for the duration of the playoffs could be a problem but first they have to get by Hillcat starter and Carolina League Pitcher of the Year Greg Scholosser tonight. (Again as I type this I am underground working on the NYC subway so I don't know the score. I think I will tell everyone about my new job on a later post) Congrats to the Blue Rocks and good luck in the playoffs. (I just made it topside and the Rocks lost 8-0 so I will have a post on tonight's game before morning)

Brooks Pounder Named Carolina League Pitcher of the Week

Jeffery Pettyjohn — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 06:16:54 +0000

After having two outstanding starts and giving up only 1 unearned run between both games, Brooks Pounder was named the Carolina League Pitcher of the Week for August 13-19. Against Potomac on August 13th, Brooks pitched 7 innings of shutout baseball, giving up an unearned run on 4 hits with 5 strikeouts and no walks to get the winning decision. But on August 18th the right hander pitched even better going another 7 innings, giving up no runs on 3 hits, 1 walk and 7 strikeouts in a game where he didn't figure in the decision. This past week was so good for him he lower his ERA by 1 whole point. Brooks was originally drafted by the Pirates in the 2nd round in 2009 but only made it their high A affiliate before being apart of the Yamaico Navarro trade that brought him to the Royals this past December. Brooks was another guys brought in midseason to kick start the team much like Matt Fields was brought in for offensive spark. Well I hope both catch on with the Royals and congrats to Brooks on his award

Blue Rocks Begin Playoff Push With A Series Win and 1st in Division

Jeffery Pettyjohn — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 09:15:45 +0000

Jason Adam looks like a whole different pitcher when he gets run support and that was evident as the Blue Rocks won the rubber match to win the series versus the Potomac Nationals. In fact over Jason's last 6 starts, he's 4-2 with an ERA of 3.36 and getting an average of 4.8 runs of offense per game during this stretch. Last night was a great example of how different of a pitcher Jason can be as the Rocks put up 7 runs in the 1st inning and he took care of the Nats' offense. In 6 innings of work he gave up only 4 hits with no runs allowed and 5 strikeouts. If the team can continue to give Jason and the rest of the starters then the Blue Rocks can make some noise come playoff time. Oh and what of these playoffs? Right now the Rocks lead the Frederick Keys by one whole game with a little over 2 weeks to play. The Blue Rocks next 14 out of 18 game will be against Northern division foes so I'm sure the Nationals and the Keys are going to have their say on whether the Rocks can hang on to 1st place. And yes the team has been playing great as of late winning their last 5 out of six and last 7 out of 10 so the team is coming together. I like to think that Rocks manager's Vance Wilson painting the wall one night due to the team's uninspired effort. Honestly if he could light into these guys once a week cause seeing this team seems to on the within reach of a long offensive run, they fall back into their ruts. I hope when he did go off it was like this: [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnIaqAsnSxU&w=420&h=315] The Rocks continue their playoff push at home this weekend against 1st half Northern Division winner Lynchburg this weekend at home.

1B Mark Fields Named Topps Carolina League Player of the Month

Jeffery Pettyjohn — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 23:41:37 +0000

If being named the Royals Organization Blue Rocks' Offensive Player of the Month wasn't enough, Mark Fields wins an award that two former Blue Rocks/current major leaguers have won. Thanks to our friend in the Blue Rocks Media Dept Jeff O'Connor for compiling these stats, Mark had a blistering month of July hitting .355 with 13 home runs and 19 RBIs. He scored 18 runs in the month, belted six doubles and added a triple. He recorded an on-base percentage of .425 and a slugging percentage of .794 for a 1.219 OPS. In the 23 games he played first base, he only made one error. Mark started his career out with the Tampa Bay Rays and made it as far as AA Birmingham before he was released. After that he was playing independent baseball in Illinois before the Blue Rocks signed him and after a slow start, he has been tearing the Carolina League pitching up and keeping the Rocks in playoff contention. Now this Topps award he has won, a Blue Rock player hasn't this since Brian McFall did it in July of 2007 but former Blue Rocks Glendon Rusch, Johnny Damon and Carlos Beltran are also past winners of the award. We all know what careers they're still having and I hope its a good omen for Mark and the Royals to see him contribute to turning the parent club around.

Blue Rocks Aim to Find Consistency Heading Into Final Month of Season

Jeffery Pettyjohn — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 08:15:58 +0000

This season must be driving Blue Rocks manager Vance Wilson crazy. Last Saturday night (Monkey Rodeo Night) the team completes a sweep of the Potomac Nationals for their 5th win in a row and the team is playing well in all phases of the game. Head out on the road against the Myrtle Beach Pelicans, a team mired in 3 game home losing streak, and end up getting swept in the 4 game series. But just now the Rocks just swept the Salem Red Sox in a 3 game series. Got that? If anything has helped the Rocks attempt to become even remotely more offensively consistant is the emergence of 1B/DH Matt Fields. In the last 10 games he's batting .356 in his last 10 games but more importantly he gives the team a deep ball threat that takes the pressure of the rest of the offense. Matt was signed right at the beginning if the second half of the season and after a slow start is proving the Blue Rocks/Royals brain trust right in signing him. The pitching for the most part continues to be the most consistent part of the of the team and even with some big names being promoted to AA NW Arkansas, the replacements are filling in nicely. RHP Brooks Pounder is a 2nd half call up from Kane County and has a 3-3 record in 9 appearances and pitched 5.2 inning with 4 strikeouts in the sweep of Salem Sunday. What all this means is the Rocks have a 15-15 record and are 1 game out of first so if the team can become more consistent, they might be in line for division title and playoff birth. The sweep of Salem would go a long way to making this happen. Here's video of what is becoming the popular Monkey Cowboy Rodeo. If you saw the NFL playoff game last season between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Denver Broncos, they were the halftime show and everyone was talking about them as much as the thrilling finish of the game. He started his show in Wilmington and calls Frawley Stadium home. Maybe they might do the Superbowl next year but til then enjoy: [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOe8n_Khgog&w=560&h=315] [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlGSGgwPU10&w=560&h=315]

Royals & Blue Rocks Renew Player Development Contract For 2 More Years

Jeffery Pettyjohn — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 02:58:02 +0000

Thursday it was announced that Kansas City Royals and Wilmington Blue Rocks have renewed their player development contract for 2 more seasons. This means the Blue Rocks will continue to the Advance 'A' minor league baseball affiliate of the Royals through the 2014 season. Courtesy of Blue Rocks assistant director of media relations Jeff O'Connor, this was a quote from Blue Rocks general manager Chris Kemple "We are thrilled to once again renew our affiliation agreement with the Kansas City Royals. They have been a first-class organization to work with and we look forward to the next two seasons. With this agreement, we will have partnered with the Royals in 20 of our 22 seasons. The Blue Rocks and Royals have almost become synonymous with each other.” Now I did write earlier on how the PDC wasn't renew at that time and what could be some options for the Rocks if it ever came to making that decision. Being around the ballpark I can tell you that there wasn't a nervous energy or worry with the team. The Rocks and Royals have a strong relationship for 20 out of 22 seasons and it doesn't look like its going to end soon. But there was a time that the Royals and Blue Rocks didn't have a PDC. Everyone knows the Rocks were associated with the Boston Red Sox during the 2005 and 2006 seasons but where did the Royals move their advance 'A' interests during that time. The answer is the High Desert Mavericks of the California League. They had a 2 year record of 148-128 and qualified for the playoffs both years. Not bad but upon closer look the team's attendance was one of the lowest in the California League. Maybe that was one of the factors that brought Kansas City back to Wilmington. If it was I'm glad cause the Blue Rocks are one of the best things to happen to Wilmington area. Congrats on another 2 years.

Yordano Ventura Heads off to the Northwest Arkansas Naturals

Jeffery Pettyjohn — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 09:44:46 +0000

In a move that really shouldn't surprised anyone following the Blue Rocks, RHP Vordano Ventura was officially promoted to the Kansas City Royals AA team, the Northwest Arkansas Naturals, after having a spectacular run in Wilmington. In a little over half a season with the Blue Rocks Yordano was 3-5 in 16 games, had a 3.30 ERA, and struck out 98 batters in 76.1 innings. He was named to this year's Carolina League All Star Team where he picked up the win vs the California League All Stars. Yordano capped off his time with the Blue Rocks by being named and starting for the World Futures Team in the MLB Futures Game. Really the sky is the limit for Yordano and what he wants to accomplish and of course get to the majors. Kansas City knows they have a hot commodity and it will be interesting to see how they handle this next step in his career. My guess he's on the Royals 25 man roster sometime mid 2014 season but it could be sooner. And I hope the Royals keep him and a few other Blue Rock pitchers coming up like Jason Adam and Sugar Ray Marimon cause the one thing you can say about the Royals, major league pitching talent is on the way; the type that is solid for the franchise for 5-10 years.

Blue Rocks are Hitting Their Way To the Top

Jeffery Pettyjohn — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 02:58:13 +0000

After starting out the second half of the season with a 2-5 mark, the Blue Rocks have amassed a 4-3 record. The reason? The team has brought their hitting shoes and they are getting in the grove, win or loss. After being the statistical worst offense team in the Carolina League in the 1st half and having a record to match it, the Rocks offense has erupted. They lead the league with 14 home runs and have a team batting average of .272 (132-for-486). Hopefully this will keep up and the batters catch up with the great pitchers that the Rocks have so the team can be in sync and win regularly. I like some of the Rocks promotion days and Pirate Day is one of them. They had a band that played thru the 5 inning and neither team flinched. Probably both sides were concerned about All Future Game Yordano Ventura. He struck out 10 in 5 innings and was almost unhittable but didn't figure in the decision. Here' some pics and a video: [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpJPhuqfrL4&w=560&h=315] Next fun days are Star Wars Night and the Monkey Rodeo (July 13-14) so I've have good pics and videos to put up.

New Blue Rocks Make Notable Contributions on 1st Road Trip of 2nd Half

Jeffery Pettyjohn — Sat, 30 Jun 2012 13:37:28 +0000

One of the best things about the minor league baseball season that if you didn't finish in 1st, there's always the 2nd half to start over. And with many teams making roster moves during the All Star break, dividing the season up isn't such a bad idea. The Blue Rocks were also making some wholesale changes on their roster and these new additions help salvage a rough road trip from being worst. With offense being the Rocks major Achilles heel for the team, some of the call ups and player signing were made to address this: - INF Orlando Calixte had a nice series at the plate vs the Frederick Keys (Baltimore) going 3-11, 4 runs scored with 3 RBIs including a go-ahead homer in the 9th of Monday's game to win it for the Rocks. - INF Cheslor Cuthbert had huge game in the 11-2 rout of the Keys Tuesday, going 2-4, with 4 RBIs including a 2 run HR to seal it for the Rocks - Newly acquired RHP Brooks Pounder won his 1st game as a Blue Rock, going 5.1 innings, giving up 7 hits and 2 earned runs while striking out 7 All told the Blue Rocks split the their 4 game series with the Keys after being swept by Carolina Mudcats (White Sox) in 3 games to finish up their first road trip of the 2nd half 2-5. The team now begins a stretch of 17 of their next 20 games vs Northern division foes and with some of the new additions, the team can make a dent in the standing, stay over .500, and contend for a playoff spot. The Blue Rocks continue their Northern Division stretch vs the Lynchburg Hillcats (Atlanta) in a quick 3 game homestand with the featured game being Saturday where World Futures Star Yordano Ventura goes up against RHP Gus Schlosser who sports an 8-4 record, one of the best in the league. Then its back out on the road again with 3 game series vs Frederick and Lynchburg.

Developing: Blue Rocks Player Development Contract With the Royals Up For Renewal At The End of Season

Jeffery Pettyjohn — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 22:35:31 +0000

While this probably isn't big news yet, The Wilmington Blue Rocks Player Development Contract with the Kansas City Royals ends after this season. The reason I don't think this will amount to anything is that the Royals and the Rocks have an outstanding relationship and from a geographical point of view, their are no Advanced A teams with contracts ending this year to move to Wilmington. This story shows all the current agreements for all teams in minor leagues and the only A ball teams that are looking a possible changes are in the California League. 7 teams in the league PDCs are ending but their parent teams are west coast teams so I don't see one of them wanting to join the Carolina League. Now if there's any MLB franchise that might be available to move their minor league PDC might be the Philadelphia Phillies AAA affiliation with the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs. Their PDC ends this year and getting the Phillies AAA affiliate just 30 minutes away from Philadelphia could be a big coup for the owners of the Blue Rocks. However one would think the Rocks would need a bigger stadium to handle a AAA team and I think the Phillies/Lehigh Valley affair looks solid but we'll see Now the Blue Rocks did do a 2 year deal with the Red Sox for the '05 and '06 season and that really didn't work out. Clearly the Rocks and Royals have a special relationship and I don't see it ending soon but as of today there's no new agreement in place. We should keep an eye on things and update this story as it develops.

Notable Blue Rocks Roster Moves

Jeffery Pettyjohn — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 16:53:08 +0000

It looks like post All Star break in the minor league season is good time for major roster and the Blue Rocks were big players with some big moves: -Blue Rocks INF Alex McCure and INF/OF Brian Fletcher promoted to AA NW Arkansas Naturals *Alex has been a steady presence for the Blue Rock infield and a good contact hitter. Brian Fletcher was one of the few Blue Rocks that had clutch hits this season -Kane County Cougars INF Orlando Calixte and OF Lane Adams were promoted to the Blue Rocks *Orlando was rated the #13 prospect in the Royals' organization coming into the season according to MLB.com. Lane was a Pioneer League All Star and according to his bio a heck of a basketball player in Oklahoma -Blue Rocks sign 1B Matt Fields, who according to his bio was drafted by the Tampa Bay Rays in '05 and made it as far as AA Montgomery in '10. He spent his last 2 seasons of organized ball with the Southern Illinois Miners of the Independent League, playing in 94 games with an average of .262. He amassed 95 hits, 19 doubles, 4 triples, 26 home runs, 72 RBI's, and scored 55 runs. He also stole 8 bases and walked 39 times. -Blue Rocks release INF/DH Jake Kuebler released by the Kansas City Royals *Jake had came off the disable list on June 8th but with the Rocks sometimes anemic offense being the blame for the team's 29-41 1st half record, someone had to take fall and I guess Jake was the guy

Blue Rocks Yordano Ventura Named to Play on World Futures Team

Jeffery Pettyjohn — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 16:33:29 +0000

After coming off his scoreless inning appearance at the Carolina/California Leagues All-Star game more good news for Yordano Ventura as he was named to the World squad for the Futures Game being played on Sunday, July 8th. This game features some of the top minor leaguers in all of baseball and its quickly becoming highligh of All Star Weekend. Yordano is having a great season for the Blue Rocks, 3-5 record with a 3.10 ERA and 78 strikeouts in only 61 innings pitched. He has quickly moved up the hot prospect list for the Royals and Baseball America considers him on of the top 50 prospects in all of minor league ball. Hopefully if he is still on the team when the game comes around and create some buzz for other Blue Rocks top prospects but again congrats to Yordano

Blue Rocks RHP Sugar Ray Marimon Gets Promoted to NW Arkansas

Jeffery Pettyjohn — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 23:28:48 +0000

On the heels of being the winning pitcher for the Carolina All-Stars and the possibility the Blue Rocks' best player in the 1st half of the season, Sugar Ray Marimon (4-2, 2.12 ERA) was promoted to the AA affiliate of the Kansas City Royals, the NW Arkansas Travelers of the Texas League. While many Rocks' fans are going to miss him, he definitely deserved to be called up so he can get closer to making it to the Royals' roster. In Sugar Ray's spot, the Blue Rocks are assigned RHP Matt Ridings from Kane County. Matt was 4-3 with 2 saves and a ERA of 2.43 in 21 appearances for the Cougars this season.

Blue Rocks Pitchers Marimon and Ventura Play Big Roles for Carolina League All Stars

Jeffery Pettyjohn — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 12:19:23 +0000

The pitching power of Wilmington Blue Rocks was on display last night as the Carolina All Stars beat the California All Stars 9-1. Sugar Ray Marimon (4-2, 2.12 ERA) pitched a scoreless 4th inning, striking out 2 batters and Yordano Ventura (3-5, 3.10 ERA) pitched in the 5th striking out 1, pitched around a walk and a error allowing no runs. Sugar Ray earned the win and Yordano was awarded a hold and these 2 are becoming of the biggest pitching prospects in the Royals' organization and for a season that has been a bit of a disappointment for the Blue Rocks, these two continue to shine. The Wilmington Blue Rocks second half of the season begins Thursday June 21 on the road against the Carolina Mudcats.

Series Recap Between the Blue Rocks and the Salem Red Sox

Jeffery Pettyjohn — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 12:28:15 +0000

About a week and a half ago the Wilmington Blue Rocks had won 4 out of 5 games and was a 1/2 out of 1st place in the Northern Division. Things were looking up and maybe everything was coming together to sneak past Lynchburg but then the Rocks went on a 8 game losing streak. This not only knocked the team out of contention, but also guaranteed the team would have a losing record for the first half. Instead of trying break down the many woes this team is having, I'm going to let Blue Rocks manager Vance Wilson do it for us:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EumPmYXV4Jk&w=305]

I really think that the team's offense isn't keeping up with their pitching. The Blue Rocks have some of the best pitchers in all of high A minor league ball in Jason Adam, Greg Billo, Yordano Ventura, Sugar Ray Marimon, Edwin Carl, etc but where is the offensive stud that could of even things out? It's really hard to find anyone that you could say has been a threat for the long ball or getting that key hit so far this season. Expecting the starting pitchers to nearly be perfect every time while the only getting 3 runs average a game might be too much to ask with this offense. One of the goals for the Rocks in the second half is to create an offensive threat and the team score more consistently.

The Blue Rocks will finish up the 1st half of the season at home against 1st place Winston Salem Dash in a 4 game set that began Thursday night and will conclude Sunday afternoon.

Wilmington Blue Rocks Pitchers Sugar Ray Marimon and Yordano Ventura Named to Carolina League All Star Roster

Jeffery Pettyjohn — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 20:25:57 +0000

The one sure strong point for the Blue Rocks this season has been its pitching and that was reflected in Sugar Ray Marimon and Yordano Ventura being selected for the 2012 Carolina League All Star roster that will play against California League All Stars June 19, 2012 in Winston Salem, NC.

Sugar Ray, who was named an All Star last year at Low A Kane County, has a record of 4-1 with a 2.05 ERA in 13 games and eight starts. The team is 6-2 when he starts. He currently leads the league with a 0.95 WHIP and second in ERA and batting average against with a .192 clip. He has worked 61.1 innings, allowing just 42 hits and 16 walks while striking out 54 hitters. The Cartagena, Colombia native pitched 7 2/3 innings of a combined no-hitter for Class A Kane County vs. Cedar Rapids on May 17, 2011.

Yordano, with a fastball that regularly hits 100 mph, was ordained with the "Best Fastball" and being the 10th rated prospect in the Kansas City farm system according to Baseball America, has a 3-5 record with a 3.21 ERA in 12 starts this season. He is second in the league with 70 strikeouts, third in batting average against with a .229 mark and holds the top K/9 IP ratio in the league at 11.25. The diminutive (he's 5'11, 140lbs) Samana, Dominican Republic native has only given up 48 hits in 56 innings so far this season.

Carolina League All Stars were selected by the league managers, general managers, and the media.

Blue Rocks Start the Week Hot Versus Carolina and Struggle at the End Against Winston Salem

Jeffery Pettyjohn — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 23:53:52 +0000

Coming off a home series win against the Frederick Keys (Baltimore), and with the Northern Division leading Lynchburg Hillcats in the middle of an eventual 8 game losing streak, the Rocks were poised to get over .500 and possibly take the division lead. However after winning the 1st two games against Carolina, the team ended up splitting that series and now are struggling to get a win on the road against the Winston Salem Dash

Monday night at Frawley Stadium was former Blue Rock and current Royals 1st baseman Eric Hosmer bobblehead night

(I know how much Travis likes bobbleheads) and it was rain shortened game with the Rocks winning 2-0 in 5 innings. But the win came a huge price as Blue Rocks starter Santiago Garrido was injured making a throw to 2nd trying to start a double play. RHP Nick Graffeo was called up from Kane County to fill his roster spot while Santiago is on the disable list. Nick was probably looking at possibly being selected to to the MidWest League All Star Game but now has to come up and help the next team on the ladder up through this injury. Gotta love life in the minors and I'm sure Nick really doesn't mind as much as maybe a fan would.

Tuesday night saw the Blue Rocks with a rare offensive explosion, scoring more than 3 runs in a 5-2 victory over the Mudcats. One of the team's biggest problems this year is with its offense, scoring 3 runs are fewer for 16 of the last 18 games so getting a few more runs is a welcomed sight to Blue Rocks manager Vance Wilson and the pitching staff. Sugar Ray Marimon was the winning pitcher and he has been a Rocks' good luck charm with the team having a 6-2 record when he starts (Today's game included).

At this point the Rocks were only one game under .500 and 1/2 game out of 1st when the wheels fell off and the team started to spiral in the wrong direction.

Wednesday night started off promising with a 2 run double by Juan Graterol as the Rocks took a 2-1 lead heading into the 3rd but that was all the runs the Rocks would get. Mudcats 2nd baseman Tony Wolters would provide much of their team's offense with key RBI hits 5th, 7th, and 9th innings to lead the Mudcats to victory.

The Rocks had a chance to get back into the game in the 7th with runners on 2nd and 3rd with one out but Mudcats' 3rd baseman Giovanny Urshela made maybe one of the best defensive plays in all of baseball this year. Luis Piterson hits a bullet down towards 3rd and Urshela has to twist his body going into foul territory to get ball and he ends up on the seat of his pants in foul territory. He then throws the ball to 1st, getting Piterson by a step and a half and while this was going on no runners were able to advance. Geulin Beltre then stuck out to end the inning, defusing the Rocks really last scoring opportunity.

After the game Blue Rocks manager Vance Wilson talked about the emergence of Juan Graterol as a clutch hitter and seeing his team only 1/2 game out after all the struggles they've been through in the 1st half. Lynchburg won their game that night vs Myrtle Beach, breaking their 8 game losing streak, putting the Rocks 1.5 games out of 1st in the division. But where one losing streak came to an end, unbeknownst to the Rocks another one was about to start for them.

The getaway game of the 4 game set turned out to be a blow out for the Rocks, losing 12-1. A Mudcat lead of 4-1 at the end of the 2nd compounded with 3 run innings in the 5th and 7th put the game out of reach for the Rocks. The series with the Mudcats ended up being a split and off to Winston Salem to play the 1st place Southern Division Dash.

The series with the Dash was a lost cause. Friday the Rocks were swept in a doubleheader, Saturday another blowout loss and Sunday ending up on the wrong end of a 2-0 shutout. It would be easy to go over all the high and lowlights of the series but it was one of the pitchers that reminded of Cliff Lee.

Jason Adam started out this season with 4 good starts and being named Blue Rocks pitcher of the month for April by the Royals. But Saturday might of been his worst start if the season. He gave up 3 homeruns and while managing to make 6 innings, he at times scuffled. But he reminds me sook much of Cliff Lee of the Philadelphia Phillies cause he is 0-3 but still competes. But with Cliff you almost expect him to have one bad inning and get almost zero run support. And while Adam still has good stats, on has to think how the losing might be taking its toll. He leads all of baseball with 9 losses and maybe some times you might need to take a step back and make sure he has the right approach and teams aren't trying to figure out his approach towards hitters.

As a result of being swept the Blue Rocks are now 5.5 games behind Lynchburg and even if they win the 7 remaining games they will not finish over .500 and have a losing record for the 1st half. Yet still the Carolina League is know for weird things happening so these last 7 home games will be important for the team to build some momentum going into 2nd half.

I saw Reggy perform Wednesday and I thought he was very good so I wanted to put this video up [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhJ3BJDF15Y] I hope the ump made to the majors if for only being a good sport

Blue Rocks Win Series Against the Keys; Team is Now 2.5 Games Out of 1st Place

Jeffery Pettyjohn — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 23:01:55 +0000

Returning home was the fix the Blue Rocks needed to get back to their winning ways, beating the Frederick Keys (Baltimore) 2 games out of 3. Friday night's game was rained out so that set up a twilight doubleheader starting at 5:05pm Saturday. Doubleheaders in the minors mean two 7 inning games and with the pitching in the Carolina League don't come too late cause you might miss the game. The 1st game pitching matchup featured Blue Rocks' Yordano Ventura versus the Orioles' number 2 prospect Dylan Bundy and this game lived up to the hype. The only run scored in the game was a perfectly executed suicide squeeze by Blue Rocks Alex McClure that scored Roman Hernandez. Ventura pitched 5 inning, giving up only 3 hits and 3 walks while striking out 5 and no runs allowed. Relief pitcher Chase Boruff came on and pitched 2 innings of shutout ball to get his 3rd save of the season. As for Dylan Bundy he was equally as impressive, pitching 5 innings, striking out 7 Blue Rocks while giving up 3 hits and 1 walk. The Rocks gave Bundy his 1st professional lost and after the game he had an interesting take on the game and his short time in the Carolina League. While wins and losses aren't that important in the minors, Bundy said, having a consistent effort is key. He also thinks the Carolina League batters are more solid than the ones in the South Atlantic League. But from all appearances Bundy as well Yordano Ventura are going to be on a MLB roster sooner than later. The second game was another pitcher's duel with the Blue Rocks coming out on top 2-1. Greg Billo started for the Rocks pitching 5 strong inning, giving up only one run on 3 hits with 6 strikeouts and 1 walk. The only run he gave up in the 4th was matched by the Rocks in the bottom of the inning with 3 consecutive hits and a bases loaded walk. Rocks' Nick Rodgers came on 2 innings for save and to compete the doubleheader sweep of the Keys. The Sunday game was as a close affair but 5 Blue Rock errors did the team in, losing 6-2 to the Keys. Between the errors, highlights for the Rocks were Brian Fletcher with 3 hits and 2 RBIs and reliever Edwin Carl pitching 4 innings of shutout ball to keep Wilmington close til an error-filed 9th did the Rocks in for good. But the even bigger news is the Lynchburg Hillcats (Atlanta) are in the middle of a 6 game losing streak and their Northern division lead over the Blue Rocks is down to 2.5 games. With 15 games left til the All Star break, the Rocks have a chance to catch the Hillcats and though the remainder of their opponents are from the Southern division and they won't play Lynchburg head to head, the division race should be fun to watch. The Blue Rocks continue their homestand with 4 games against Carolina Mudcats (Cleveland) and after their recent 1-3 effort down in Zebulon, hopefully the team can get some home cooking and win this series to keep.pressure on Lynchburg.

Royals Name Fletcher and Ventura as Blue Rocks of the Month

Jeffery Pettyjohn — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 10:37:23 +0000

Courtesy of the Blue Rocks director of media communications John Sadak, the Kansas City Royals named Brian Fletcher and Vordano Ventura Blue Rocks Player and Pitcher of the Month for May, respectively. Brian batted a team best .327 with an .828 OPS on the month while Ventura posted two wins, a 2.17 ERA and 31 strikeouts against six walks. Since I didn't start blogging here til May, I was curious who the Royals named Player and Pitcher of the Month for April and what names came up? Angel Franco and Jason Adam. Angel finished the month of April as the batting leader in the Carolina League with a .375 mark. He had a 13-game hitting streak during the month. He scored nine runs and drove in seven. He also led the team in on-base percentage and slugging percentage. Jason Adam was named the Blue Rocks Pitcher of the Month of April. In five starts, Adam recorded a victory and posted a 2.36 ERA. In 26.2 innings, he struck out 25 batters and walked eight. He only allowed seven earned runs in his five starts for the month.