Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Streak Ends At Ten And Single A Callups Begin

Syracuse withstood bases loaded and one out in the ninth with an 8-5 lead against Pawtucket to break their ten game losing streak on Monday, winning the game 8-6.

Yes that's all I care to write about the games anymore. As has been the case many years, these August games just don't matter here in Syracuse. You go to the stadium to watch the game, but it's only for your enjoyment. There is no urgency about every game mattering because what's the difference between 20 games under .500 and 22 games under? Toronto obviously feels this way, too. To fill out their roster, Syracuse has been given two Dunedin players. With Sal Fasano going onto the DL, we now have Robinzon Diaz and TWO other catchers. This is due to the call up of David Corrente. Also called up was Dunedin backup infielder Al Quintana. Here are their lines:

Al Quintana: In 41 games, he was batting .243 with Dunedin, with one homer and 12 RBIs. He has not strung together two straight days of play within the past month. Worthy of a AAA promotion? Not likely. In 2006, he played in both Auburn and Lansing. In 24 games there, he batted .197 in his 61 at bats.

David Corrente: He already saw a one game stint in Syracuse this year. He was 0-1 batting. In Dunedin, he saw 39 games. He batted .220 with 7 homers and 25 RBIs. Again, obviously not worth of a promotion two leagues above. The positive about this guy, however, is that last year he did bat over .300 with Dunedin, so he may have potential (though being the backup catcher in single A doesn't really help give confidence in that).

Listen, I understand that with New Hampshire still on the fringe of the playoffs, that they don't exactly want to screw them over. Problem is, since when has Toronto given any consideration to Syracuse early in the season? In my opinion, someone in the organization would rather see New Hampshire win than Syracuse. How else can you explain continually sending Dunedin's backups to Syracuse, even early in the season? Remember Carlo Cota, anyone? It's just frustrating to sit here and know that even with great aspirations before the season, that Toronto is just going to find ways to make this franchise lose yet again. And I will admit this here, I was definitely in favor of staying with Toronto on the affiliation signing last year. However, within the past year I have made it a point to really look at things, and now I think it's time to look elsewhere.

Look at the majority of the players from this year's Chiefs team and last years. With one or two exceptions, it has been nearly the same team! To quote Albert Einstein “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Sounds a lot like both Toronto and the Syracuse Chiefs board members, doesn't it?

Monday, August 20, 2007

And Sunday Makes It Ten

Another day, another loss for the Chiefs as they push their season long losing streak to ten. It's just getting more painful each day to check the box score. I used to care enough to at least listen on the radio, but why bother? This team seemed to have mailed it in during the last homestand with some of the worst playing I have seen.

Some moves have been made. Matt Roney has been sent back up to Syracuse. You may remember him as the first Chief to make it on the ESPN bottom sportsticker in awhile, as they told us about his fifty game suspension for using an illegal substance. Thanks Toronto, give us another reliever when we are already spot starting players massively.

Then in another interesting move, the Chiefs get catcher John Schneider from New Hampshire and send down shortstop Sergio Santos. My only guess, and let me emphasize the word guess here, is that one of the catchers may be dinged up. However, looking at the box score from Saturday night, it says Robinson Diaz came in to play second base later on and Ryan Roberts played catcher for two innings. If anyone can explain that to me, or let me know if it was a misprint, I'd appreciate it. Wouldn't it be ironic if Toronto decided to put Thigpen at catcher and Diaz in the infield, when anyone who has seen them both play, knows it should be the opposite? Again, I don't think that's the case, but with Toronto..you honestly just never know.

Looking at MLB.com, I also saw Gustavo Chacin was sent down with the past couple days for "minor league rehab." Could that mean another stint with Syracuse or another team? Only time will tell I guess.

With ten games left to be played with Ottawa, the Chiefs are only five games behind them for the worst record in the league...oh wait, we are supposed to be chasing the top. So they are actually five games ahead of Ottawa..ahh maybe the team made the same mistake that I just made (/end sarcasm)

That's all I got for now, I may have had more, but we are known for blocking out painful memories...

Take care everyone.

Friday, August 17, 2007

8/17/07: Chiefs Make It Seven, Blue Jays Make It 23

Well, one and three-fourths series later, the Chiefs are on a seven game losing streak. There's a lot to be said here so I will just cut to it.



The Pawtucket series was marred by more bad umpiring. Kevin Causey and Brian Kennedy made enough mistakes in the series to cause Doug Davis to even get tossed twice. Causey's rotating strike zone and Kennedy's disappearing eye act at first were just laughable by the end of the series. They held those positions in the first and last game of the series, easily the two most horrific (though Causey looked just as bad at first base in the third game). Now, I am not saying they are the sole reason for the sweep, but I think with better umpiring, the Chiefs would have won at least one game.



That being said, what an amazing time the infield had against Pawtucket. Nine errors in four games, which included one game where Chief had an error. We had Russ Adams with two errors, John Hattig with one, along with Sergio Santos and Kevin Barker both having three. At that point Santos had six errors in ONLY nine games for the Chiefs. It can also be argued that Barker's scooping abilities (lack there of) helped a few more errors occur, but due to the throws being bounced, they were ultimately awarded to the thrower.



Moving on to the Scranton series, the Chiefs have held early leads in two of the three games played so far. A problem, however, is that the Chiefs have been hung out to dry regarding pitching. At the current time, they only have ten active pitchers on the roster (more on that later). A spot start by Justin James went well until the fourth inning where he earned the loss by giving up four there and five overall. My question is, can you expect a guy who has been in the bullpen all year to be able to perform great when asked to start and go more than the innings he has been used to? Granted, he has pitched three innings a number of times, but he was doing well until that fourth one. Aside from that, the Chiefs have given up seven homers in three games, and Josh Banks didn't pitch any game. That's just not acceptable. The plus for the team is Chad Mottola picking up two homers in Thursday's game.



An interesting not about the Scranton series so far is that Kevin Barker has not played in either of the last two games. That marks what I believe to be the first time this year he has missed consecutive games.



As I alluded to in the title, with call ups and releases, the Syracuse Chiefs now only have 23 active players on their roster. Among the transactions is the release of Mark Redman. Along with that, Hector Luna has been sent down to the Chiefs, while Russ Adams was called up by the Blue Jays. Now, looking at New Hampshire, things get confusing for me. They also only have 23 players, but they also have 13 pitchers active. With Chip Cannon on the DL, I would think about possibly sending Kevin Barker down, while possibly bringing Ty Taubenheim back up. Possibly sending down Sergio Santos also would be in my realm of thinking. I would consider this even if Brandon League gets sent down when he is off the DL.

With August comes the normal Chiefs' fan's discouraged feeling. Another season down the tubes, great looking on paper but just not panning out. We will probably see another Auburn Doubleday sent to Syracuse to "fill a spot" once September 1st hits. Let's just hope the Chiefs can take a couple from Ottawa the rest of the year, or else they could have an outside shot at being the worst team in the league.

Thursday, August 9, 2007

8/9/07

Just a quick fix here. It was brought to my attention that Mike Venafro asked for his release. So there ya have it, his choice, my bad. Guess maybe that was his early birthday present (his birthday was the next day lol). Unfortunately, I can only go by the little information that I can scrape up from various areas, none of which are too extensive at the moment. If I am ever in error, please don't hesitate to leave a comment and let me know. Thanks guys and gals

8/9/07

Hi sports fans..



I wanted to write a quick note to let the readers know that I am still alive. I have had a lot of personal business to attend to, however, I have still been paying attention to our beloved Chiefs.



It seems as though Toronto is in the process of cutting dead weight, releasing guys like Royce Clayton and Jason Phillips, while picking up Hector Luna. They also reclaimed Curtis Thigpen and Ray Olmedo from the Chiefs, giving us Howie Clark back, as well as Sergio Santos from New Hampshire.



I hate seeing Clark sent down. The effort he shows alone trumps pretty much any player I have ever seen, both pregame and during the game. As for Santos, unfortunately he has been a bust since coming to the Toronto organization. He is the only guy I have seen to have a 20+ game hitting streak and in that same season not go over .250 or so. He showed strokes of power in New Hampshire, but as per usual, has cooled off the second half of the season.



As for Thigpen and Olmedo, they deserve the call ups. When healthly, Olmedo was easily the team MVP this year for the Chiefs. While I think Thigpen needs to be learning catcher by playing everyday, he performed well in Toronto and its nice to see it get rewarded again. The call up of Robinzon Diaz was something I was looking forward to. This guy has an amazing arm and can swing the bat great. My prediction is that within the next two or three years, you will see Diaz starting at catcher and Thigpen starting at first in Toronto.



As for pitching, I was shocked to see Mark Redman get signed to a minor league deal. The disappointing transaction was the release of Mike Venafro. He pitched quite well his last 15 appearances or so and deserved to stay on the team.


Looking at the roster, I just have so much trouble understanding how this team cannot perform well together consistently. The main flaw I see is outfielding. There have been a lot of game changing plays that have occurred in the outfield this year. Let's look at the five outfielders who are on the roster now:

Wayne Lydon- He gets the most play time and for good reason. He is the only outfielder who can handle center field on a long term basis. He still has trouble judging balls at times, but has improved fielding wise. He still needs to make quicker decisions and work on his arm, but I am impressed by his improvement.

Chad Mottola- He has been hit or miss all season. He has made some good throws this year, but that being said..he has lost too many balls this year in right field and even though he looks great speed-wise on the base pads, his age is starting to show a bit when he is in right field. I would love to see Chad back next year, but I would rather him be at first base or DH.

John Ford Griffin- I actually think he is the second most consistent outfielder on the Chiefs. While he has shown to only be capable to play left and right fields, he is showing good hustle the majority of the time. He seemed gun shy at first (after the injury that the cement turf helped cause him to end his 2006 season) but looks much more comfortable now.

Mike Vento- He looked great at the beginning of the year, but sometimes I am wondering if he is still having affects from the calf injury he sustained early on. He has been very slow in left and right field and has been having trouble handling the ball when it gets into the corner. Unfortunately, knowing Toronto's way of thinking, we will probably not get to see how a totally healthy Vento can play in the field. This is in addition to reports that Vento is unhappy with his current role (DH half the time) and I am doubting he will want to resign with the Blue Jays system.

Adam Lind- Quite frankly, I think this project has failed. Toronto wanted him to become an outfielder. From the looks of it, he is still far away from being an average one. The bit we have seen him in Syracuse consisted of at least two easy fly balls he lost in the sky, attempts to run at balls that flop right out of his glove, and another head injury. I will give credit, the injury was caused by hustle and a dive for a ball. Unfortunately, the cement turf has claimed another left field victim. The problem i have is that Lind doesn't seem to take the games seriously. He loses a ball in the sky then laughs about it. But I can go on about Lind. If anyone has read the Syracuse Chiefs interview with Chad Mottola, you will see a lot of similarities between how Chad describes himself when he was a prospect and how Lind acts now.


So basically, after the release of Jeff Duncan, the Chiefs were left with one speedy outfielder and four guys with average to below average speed. This has not bode well for the team. Spot starts by guys like Ryan Roberts have not been overly successful either. Roberts has speed to get to balls, however lacks the strong arm needed to be a consistent outfielder.

Anyways, my predictions for the outfield?

-Lydon will be resigned and start in Syracuse next year.
-Griffin will be in Syracuse next year. (pending Riccardi stays in Toronto)
-Vento will not be resigned.
-Lind will stay in Toronto organization, my guess is starting off the year in Syracuse.
-Mottola is a tough one. I think Toronto asks him to DH or play first in Syracuse and I am unsure if he would resign in this situation.

So that's my take. I will cover the infield and pitchers sometime soon.