Hall To Scranton, Rodriguez To Trenton

Chad Jennings is reporting, via John Nalbone of the Times, that the Thunder have added catcher Eladio Rodriguez and lost reliever Bo Hall to Scranton.

Hall made eight appearances for the Thunder, and was one of their more seldom-used, yet effective relievers.  He was 0-1 with a 3.38 ERA, and struck out 14 batters while walking only four.

This will be the 27-year-old’s first call-up to Triple-A.

As for Rodriguez…well, he gives the Thunder three active catchers.  He’d been taking batting practice with the team and traveling with them for about two weeks, but only now does he join the active roster.

Rodriguez is 29, and advanced as high as A-Ball in the Red Sox organization as a position player before attempting a conversion to the mound in 2004.

He played in the Israel Baseball League last season, and was signed by the Yankees in the off-season.

Mike Ashmore, mashmore98 AT gmail.com

Game 36: Trenton @ Akron

Game 36 - Trenton Thunder @ Akron Aeros
May 9, 2008
Canal Park - Akron, OH

Pitching Matchup: TRE Chase Wright (4-1, 2.95) vs. AKR Ryan Edell (1-2, 4.50)

Starting Lineups:

Trenton

1 - Pena
2 - Jackson
3 - Curtis
4 - Gonzalez
5 - Pilittere
6 - Tabata
7 - Malec
8 - Russo
9 - Corona

Akron

1 -
2 -
3 -
4 -
5 -
6 -
7 -
8 -
9 -

Pre-Game Notes: The Thunder come into the game riding a season high seven game winning streak.

The pitching matchups for the remainder of the series are:

5/10: TRE George Kontos (1-3, 3.79) vs. AKR Kevin Dixon (0-3, 5.97)
5/11: TRE Dan McCutchen (4-2, 2.15) vs. AKR Chuck Lofgren (1-3, 5.51)

Radio Links: Click here for the links to each team’s broadcast.

Live Box Score: The MILB.com direct link is here.

Around the Eastern League: For scores from around the EL, go here.

Final Score: 12-1, Thunder.

Post-Game Notes: 0 earned runs in 7 innings from Sebern Chase Wright.  Every Thunder starter except Jose Tabata had at least one RBI.

Things That Make Me Feel Old: 15 players on the Thunder roster are younger than I am, including 19-year-old Jose Tabata.

Things That Make Me Feel Young: Getting carded while purchasing Grand Theft Auto 4 for XBOX 360 the other day. 

Mike Ashmore, mashmore98 AT gmail.com

Standing Out To The Skipper

During Trenton’s series with Portland, I asked Thunder manager Tony Franklin if there were any players who were standing out to him, or if there was anyone perhaps performing better than he might have expected.

Here’s what he had to say… 

“I think the guys who weren’t highly touted coming into the season have really helped us in one way or another.  I think that Russo’s been a very pleasant surprise.  Malec’s been able to go to third, and to first, and couple of times in the outfield.  He’s played well.  You expect Colin Curtis to come in and hit like he’s hitting because he’s a good hitter, he’s a good player.  You expect AJ to come in and hit and play defense, which he’s done.  Tabby’s got off to a slow start offensively.  I still believe, and we still believe that he’s going to pick it up and finish the season in fine shape.  But the extra guys, the guys who didn’t come in very highly touted…Malec and Russo, and even Corona.  Muich, Cody’s having a pretty good season now, and that’s what everyone expected him to do last year.  But all those guys have started to put things together, and they’ve been very good contributors to our success here.”

Mike Ashmore, mashmore98 AT gmail.com

Seven Straight, But…

Sure, this year’s version of the Thunder have won seven straight games now. But they’re not the 2007 team. Not yet, anyway.

Last year’s Trenton squad put together an 11-game win streak early in the season, a streak that included them winning 19 out of 20 games. They also put together two other double-digit win streaks, 10 and 11, respectively.

However, did you know that last year’s team didn’t set the franchise record for consecutive wins? The all-time Thunder record for a winning streak is 13, set by the 1996 team between April 15th and April 30th.

Mike Ashmore, mashmore98 at gmail.com

“No Chance” for Chase

Over at Chad Jennings SWB Yankees blog, he asked Nardi Contreras whether Chase Wright would get called up for a start tomorrow.

Nardi’s reply: No chance.

There’s going to need to be a point where some of these guys in the Trenton rotation get rewarded for their strong performances before frustration starts to set in…apparently, now isn’t that time.

That means that SCW makes his scheduled start tomorrow in Akron.

Mike Ashmore, mashmore98 AT gmail.com

Game 35: Trenton @ Erie

Game 35 - Trenton Thunder @ Erie SeaWolves
May 8, 2008
Jerry Uht Park - Erie, PA

Pitching Matchup: TRE Jason Jones (4-0, 2.19) vs. ERIE Josh Rainwater (2-1, 4.74)

Starting Lineups:

Trenton

1 - Kevin Russo, 2B
2 - Austin Jackson, DH
3 - Colin Curtis, CF
4 - Edwar Gonzalez, LF
5 - Chris Malec, 1B
6 - Jose Tabata, RF
7 - Carlos Mendoza, 3B
8 - Joe Muich, C
9 - Reegie Corona, SS

Erie

1 -
2 -
3 -
4 -
5 -
6 -
7 -
8 -
9 -

Pre-Game Notes:

Radio Links: Click here for the links to each team’s broadcast.

Live Box Score: The MILB.com direct link is here.

Around the Eastern League: For scores from around the EL, go here.

Final Score: 7-2, Trenton.

Post-Game Notes: Jason Jones improves to 5-0 after allowing two runs on five hits through five innings of work.  Edwar Gonzalez and Carlos Mendoza both drive in three runs

Thunder Thoughts: Josh Schmidt, ladies and gentlemen!  He finished the game, allowing one walk in one inning of work.

Mike Ashmore, mashmore98 AT gmail.com

Is It All Going According To Plan?

I posed this question to Thunder manager Tony Franklin during the team’s series against Portland, and here’s what he had to say…

“I try not to come in with a plan, so to speak.  I just try to come in, look at a ballclub, then say we’ve got a chance to do certain things.  We’ve got a chance to hit, which we did during spring training.  We’ve got a chance to pitch well, which I think we did a pretty good job of during the spring.  And I said I thought we’d be a good defensive club.  We’ve been OK, and I think that’s one of the areas we need to get better at.  I don’t like to come in with a plan, because anything’s bound to happen.  I’m not that smart to say our plan is this, this and this.  Baseball takes on a plan of its own and you try to make adjustments within that plan or within your thought process as far as what you think that club needs.”

Mike Ashmore, mashmore98 AT gmail.com

A-Rod Unlikely For Trenton

Peter Abraham is reporting that Alex Rodriguez is likely to rehab with Single-A Tampa, a move that makes sense considering the big league club is set to play the Rays shortly after that rehab would end.

I wouldn’t rule out A-Rod coming to Trenton entirely, but it looks like the opportunity for him to blow off one of my questions at the Double-A level may have come and gone.

Mike Ashmore, mashmore98 AT gmail.com

Game 34: Trenton @ Erie

Game 34 - Trenton Thunder @ Erie SeaWolves
May 7, 2008
Jerry Uht Park - Erie, PA

Pitching Matchup: TRE Phil Coke (1-1, 4.91) vs. ERIE Danny Christensen (0-3, 3.77)

Starting Lineups:

Trenton

1 - Ramiro Pena, SS
2 - Austin Jackson, CF
3 - Colin Curtis, DH
4 - Edwar Gonzalez, LF
5 - Cody Ehlers, 1B
6 - Jose Tabata, RF
7 - P.J. Pilittere, C
8 - Chris Malec, 3B
9 - Reegie Corona, 2B

Erie

1 - Rhymes
2 - Worth
3 - Ramirez
4 - St. Pierre
5 - Ryan
6 - Scram
7 - Frazier
8 - Kirkland
9 - Cosme

Pre-Game Notes: After speaking to Nardi Contreras, Chad Jennings has some news over on his blog about the possibility of Chase Wright and Dan McCutchen getting called up.  Interestingly, Contreras said he’s headed to Trenton today…which, uh….you know, might be rough since the team is on the road.  If he wants me to workout for him, I’ll break out my 65 MPH cheddar.

The pitching matchup tomorrow is:

5/8: TRE Jason Jones (4-0, 2.19) vs. ERIE Josh Rainwater (2-1, 4.74)

Radio Links: Click here for the links to each team’s broadcast.

Live Box Score: The MILB.com direct link is here.

Around the Eastern League: For scores from around the EL, go here.

Final Score: 6-0, Thunder.  F/6. 

Post-Game Notes: Technically, Phil Coke pitched a complete game shutout…

Thunder Thoughts:

Mike Ashmore, mashmore98 AT gmail.com

Tony Franklin’s State Of The Union Address

A few days ago, I asked Trenton Thunder manager Tony Franklin what he was and wasn’t happy with 30 games into the season.

Here’s what he had to say:

“I’m happy we’re being competitive.  I think we go out and give a pretty good effort every day.  We’ve gotten better, and the pitchers have gotten better with each outing.  We were a little inconsistent to begin with in the pitching department, and we’ve gotten better there.  We’ve been a little inconsistent with our hitting, that’s kind of fluctuated up and down.  We’ve been waiting for it to happen and it did happen.  We had some games where we didn’t hit well, and didn’t score a lot of runs, but that’s going to happen over the course of the season.” 

“The one thing that I think we have to consistently do well throughout the season is catch the baseball.  We have to eliminate errors from our game.  Simply because we’re not a big home run hitting team, we don’t put three runs on the board very often.  We do it on occasion, but we don’t do it very often.  The runs that we get are very important to us, and we’ve made a few errors lately.  That’s not a good thing for us.”

Mike Ashmore, mashmore98 AT gmail.com