One thing I know is that kid’s like it when you play tricks on them. For example, I was going to take my nephew to see a baseball game, but instead I drove to an old burned down warehouse.

“Oh No!” I exclaimed, “it looks like the ballpark burned down. I bet all of the players are dead.”

On the way home he cried and he cried, but deep down I’m pretty sure he thought it was a good joke.

Well folks … I appologize for ending updates so abruptly during the 2009 season, but unfortunately real life sometimes takes priority over frivilous things like running a minor league blog. This blog, and especially the Threshers Nation website require tons of time each week to keep up and unfortunately I have just not had the time lately to keep them running properly. I do however want to remain involved, so I am starting to think about how to keep things going next season without having to spend 2-3 hours per day doing it.

I’ve decided that the best way to do that isa to get other people involved. Primarily I am thinking that we need to get a fanclub going for our team in Clearwater. Dunedin and Tampa both have booster clubs, and they get far fewer fans per game than we do, so why not? I’ve had people ask me about this or suggest it to me over the years, and somehow I feel like now the time is right. Running a fanclub website won’t be nearly as time consuming as running a daily news site, and it will also hopefully help grow support for the team.

I’m going to be talking to people at the ballpark over the last few games this year, and hopefully over the off-season we can make this thing a reality. Send me an email if you have any interest in getting something like this going. I obviously can’t be a one man fan club, so let’s work together and get this going for our boys.

Well, so far the month of July has not been kind to the Clearwater Threshers. The team has a 4-7 record on the month, and has been outscored by a margin of 78-38. The team went scoreless in four consecutive games from July 6th to the 9th, although one of the games was called due to rain after 3.5 innings of play. (Over that four game streak the team was outscored 29-0.)

The team had ended the month of June on a hot streak winning the final six of the month, and then won the first two of July to extend their winning streak to eight games. Unfortunately since that time the team has fallen on hard times losing seven of the last nine games by an average margin of nearly eight runs.

Some good news can come from the fact that Freddy Galvis has returned to action playing with the Gulf Coast League team, and has hit .400 in four games. It is expected that Galvis will return to the Threshers roster when the team returns to action at home after the MLB All-Star break this coming Wednesday night.

Needless to say it has been the pitching staff that has suffered the most for the Threshers lately, although the offense has been mediocre at best.

WHO’S HOT:

Steve Susdorf has been one of the few bright spots for the team. He has continued to rake for the offense hitting .403 since his promotion from Lakewood. He has a team high .442 OBP and a .542 SLG.

Tim Kennelly is the only other Threshers hitting above the .300 mark, currently at .301. He recently saw his first action behind the plate since the first month of the season, but unfortunately it was in a losing effort as the team lost 11-0, but he did throw out the only attempted steal by the Manatees in the game.

Michael Durant has had a hot streak going hitting .308 in July and has shown a glimpse of plate discipline with a .438 OBP. Durant has been near the top of the FSL all year in Ks, but looks like (at least momentarily) he may be getting things under control with six walks v. eight strikeouts on the month.

Fidel Hernandez the third-year FSL player earned an All-Star appearance this season, and is hitting .303 for the month, but not much more has happened for the Threshers offense in July.

Micheal Cisco has been the lone pitching standout for the team on the month. He has won three consecutive starts accounting for 75% of the team’s wins in July. He has given up just four runs in sixteen innings pitched in his three starts for a 1.13 July ERA with an overall ERA of 2.48 in his twelve games this year.

WHO’S NOT:

Pretty much the rest of the Threshers squad.

Drew Naylor began July strong picking up a complete game shut out to start the month, but lasted just two innings in his latest start for his second consecutive loss. He seemed completely out of sorts in his latest trip to the hill giving up five runs on five hits with five walks and no strikeouts.

Julian Sampson has only garnered one win this season in thirteen starts and owns an ugly 7.91 ERA on the year. Sampson has only made it to the fifth inning or further in two of his last five starts, and has the boo birds out at his home stadium just about every time he takes the mound.

Click here to listen to your Clearwater Threshers face the Daytona Cubs at 5:35 on Sunday evening.

The Threshers won the first game of their series on Saturday night 5-3 and are looking for a win to remain tied for first place in the FSL North Division.

All Four Games Go Extra Innings!

Thre Clearwater Threshers wrapped up their four-game series with the Jupiter Hammerheads by taking the fourth game to extra innings. Once again the Threshers would come out on top in the game sweeping the series four games to none.



The bad news in the game was that starter Mike Cicso lasted just one batter in the game and will appearantly be headed to the DL for the third time this season. Cisco has had a good season, but has been plagued with injuries. We can only hope whatever ails him is minor, and we can get him back into the rotation quickly. The team would use four more pitchers in the game including Darren Byrd, Dan Brauer, Carlos Monasterios, and Santo Hernandez. Hernadez went the final three innings holding the Hammerheads hitless and earning the win.

One night after going twelve innings with the Hammerheads overcoming a 4-0 Threshers lead it would be more of the same on Friday night with the Hammerheads waiting until their final regulation at bat to grab their first three runs of the game and force overtime.

The Threshers have added two new pitchers, Santo Hernandez and Jon Velasquez and a new outfielder Steve Susdorf, while Manny Ayala was released to begin the second half of the season. Additionally Yohan Flande and ex-Thresher Kyle Drabek have both been honored by being invited to the All-Star Futures game this year.

After starting the season by leading the division for the first month of the year, the Threshers finished with a disappointing 32-34 record in the first half. The second season begins on Thursday however with all team’s record starting over at 0-0.

Let’s GO THRESHERS! The second half is yours!

The second half begins Thursday, June 25th with all team’s records starting over at 0-0. The winner of the second half will face the Brevard County Manatees (winners of the first half) in the playoffs this year. Rumor has it that we will see several new faces on the team within the next few days, and perhaps as soon as Monday the 22nd. OF Steve Susdorf, starting pitcher Jon Velasquez and starting pitcher Santo Hernandez have been officially announced as promotions from Lakewood, and word is that Tyler Cloyd will join them in Clearwater after the SAL All-Star Game on Tuesday the 23rd.

That should mean some players from Clearwater may be moved up, or players could be released which is fairly typical for this time of year just after the draft. So far Reading has not announced any players being promoted, so that likely means we will see some Threshers players released today. Stay tuned here for news as it happens this afternoon.

Yohan Flande, Fidel Hernandez, and Tim Kennelly will represent the Threshers in this weekend’s game in Ft. Myers, Florida. Kyle Drabek and Dominic Brown were also elected. Drabek has since been promoted to Double-A Reading, and Brown is on the DL with a broken hand.

In addition to the All-Star Game, the Threshers manager Ernie Whitt is being inducted to the Canadian Baseball Hall-of-Fame this weekend.

I’ll be headed out to Ft. Myers on Saturday for the game, and hope to have a report up sometime on Sunday when I return to Clearwater.