Wednesday’s Weekly Recap

Welcome Back Adrian Cardenas!

The Threshers had a pretty good week this week despite going just 3-3 in the process with Sunday as an off-day for Mother’s Day. The week began with the Threshers picking up two wins to extend their streak to four wins-in-a-row for the first time this year; they then lost two tightly contested games on Friday & Saturday.

The team was shut out by their cross-county rivals the Dunedin Bluejays on Monday with Tuffy Gosewisch picking up the team’s only hit in the game, and then they ended the week with a come-from-behind win over the Bluejays thanks to a seventh inning home run from Adrian Cardenas in his first game back since April the 17th.

Roster Moves - Pitching changes

On Friday the Threshers shook up their pitching staff. Zack Segovia was added from Reading, Nate Johnson was released,
Darren Byrd was placed on the DL &
Reymond Cruz was added from extended spring training.

Zack Segovia had some velocity issues this year in Spring Training, and got a late start to his season. In four games at Reading he had not performed well (5.0 IP / 7H / 9R / 6BB / 1K / 14.40 ERA), but was mostly solid in his first start at Clearwater (5.2 IP / 7H / 3R / 4K / 0BB / 4.76 ERA).

Nate Johnson was entering his third season at Clearwater. While he been a solid contributor he had never been able to take that next step, having not been able to stick at Reading in a couple of brief trips up over the least two seasons.

Darren Byrd had a decent year at Lakewood in 2007, but had gotten off to a rough start in Clearwater this season. He had a record of 0-4 with an ERA of 9.75. Hopefully Darren can get back on track in extended spring training, and perhaps contribute with the Threshers again later this season.

Reymond Cruz was originally signed by the Phillies out of the Domican Republic in 2004. He played with the GCL Phillies in 2005, and the Batavia Muckdogs in 2006, but missed the entire 2007 season. Unfortunately he lasted just 0.1 innings in his Threshers’ debut on Friday giving up a run on two walks. Let’s hope it was just a case of nerves in seeing his first live game action in two years, and that he gets on track in his next outing.

Clearwater Threshers Break out the Bats on Thursday Night

The Clearwater Threshers have been rolling lately, and the train just kept on going in Thursday night’s effort versus the Jupiter Hammerheads. The team picked up their fourth consecutive win, and their fifth in the last six games. Coming into the game the team had just eight home runs in the first 33 games of the year, however the club picked up four home runs on the night with Jake Blalock, Welinson Baez, Tuffy Gosewisch and Clay Harris each crushing a long ball all for the first time as a Thresher this season.

Clearwater Threshers Weekly Recap

We are now just over one month into the season and the Threshers have an 12-20 record so far. Over the last week the team faced the Ft. Myers Miracle for three games, followed by a four-game set with their first Eastern Division opponent of the year, the Brevard County Manatees. The Miracle began the Threshers week by sweeping them to give the Miracle a perfect 9-0 record against the Threshers this year, but the Threshers faired better against the Manatees with a 3-1 series record.

The team began the season with the pitchers leading the team in production, and the hitters lagging way behind. As the season has progressed the hitters have begun to get on track while the pitching has seen their stats fall in the league standings. The offense has the fourth best batting average in the league up from last place after week one, while the pitching has seen their ERA go from third best in the league after week one to the third worst at present.

Despite the good batting average the team has still got room for improvement. They are dead last in the league in all extra base hit categories, and have scored the third fewest runs as a result. On the positive side though, the hitters have the second most walks in the league and the second fewest strikeouts ranking them third in the league in OBP. As for the pitchers the team has the second most strikeouts in the league with 254, but has also allowed the second most walks with 122. Also the team lost their early season ace Antonio Bastardo to the AA Reading Phillies and has seen starter Carlos Monasterios placed on the DL this week.

Player Transactions

The Phillies organization has made a few player moves in the past couple of days affecting the Clearwater Threshers’ roster. On Thursday Threshers’ starter Carlos Monasterios was placed on the DL & Tyson Brummett was promoted from Lakewood. No word yet on what exactly caused Monasterios to go on the DL. On Friday Bear Hill was sent from Reading to Clearwater and Antonio Bastardo was promoted from Clearwater to Reading. No big surprise to see Bastardo move up as he leads all pitchers in the minors in strikeouts at this point in the season. Best of luck to Antonio, and welcome to out two new additions. Bear Hill was a solid member of the Threshers bullpen during their 2007 Championship season and can hopefully help out the team’s bullpen this season, and Tyson Brummett was having a terrific year in Lakewood as a starter this season with a 3-0 record and an ERA of 1.95 after six games.

Clearwater Threshers Weekly Recap

Well last week’s report contained 8 games due to a 10:30 am game on Wednesday last week, so this week’s report includes only 5 games because of a day off for the league on Tuesday this week. Of course the big story for the week was Antonio Bastardo’s line in his game this past week. Overall the team went 2-3 on the week winning it’s last two games making it the first time this season the team has won two games in a row.

The offense has come to life a bit as of late coming up from last in the league in team batting average after week one, and next to last in batting average after week two to fourth (of twelve teams) in batting average currently. The offense has drawn the second most walks in the league, and has struck out fewer than all but one team in the league. Unfortunately the team is hitting without any power at all. The offense is last in slugging percentage, and in all XBH categories, last is RBIs, and next to last in runs scored as a result. (The odd thing is the team with the fewest runs in the league, the Tampa Yankees, are only one game out of first in the division.)

For the most part pitching remains the team’s strength and they lead the league with four shut outs so far this year, and have allowed the second fewest runs. The team has the third most strikeouts in the league with 197, but has also allowed the second most walks with 99.

Bastardo & the Sharks Blank Yanks

Despite having given up just four runs in four games while striking out a league high 34 batters the Clearwater Threshers starter Antonio Bastardo had earned just one win in his first four tries this year. On Sunday afternoon he would be given his fifth chance to earn a win, and he certainly made the most of his outing. Antonio had his best outing of the year going 8.0 innings and striking out 13 Yankees in the process both season highs for him.

Clearwater Threshers Weekly Recap

This week’s Clearwater Threshers report includes a bonus 8 games for the week thanks to a 10:30 am game on Wednesday that I was able to include here. Fortunately it was able to add another win to put them at a still disappointing 3-5 since my last report. As I mentioned last week it continues to be the pitching that is helping Clearwater out while their hitting as a team remains a disappointment to this point in the year.

Despite the poor team record there are some prospects on the team putting up terrific numbers. As I mentioned the pitching is carrying them to this point so I’ll touch on that first.

Former Clearwater Thresher Brad Harman Called Up

Brad Harman was called up to the big league club today from AA Reading with Jimmy Rollins being place on the DL. Congratulations to Brad and best of luck. It’s always exciting to see one of our boys from Clearwater to be rewarded for their hard work.

Two Threshers Players Promoted to AA Reading

This isn’t exactly breaking news since it happened a few days ago, but you’ll hear it here before you get it from the Clearwater Threshers official webpage…Jake Blalock (on 4/13) and Nate Johnson (on 4/16) were both promoted to AA Reading.

There have not been any replacements yet for them on the Clearwater roster. Most likely some one will come over from extended Spring Training at the Carpenter Complex to take their roster spots. That is the norm for this early in the season.