And now, a special word from Big Lug

Hail to thee, Marshall Thundering Herd

I just took a look at this website's page views -- and realized, to my amazement, that there are a ton of folks checking in!

Heck, if that's the case, I can't let you down and just put up one post a week then, can I?

• Keep your eyes on the disappearing baseball...
• We've revamped the "Around the Nest" show page.  What do you think?
• Here's the updated Lansing Lugnuts audio page.

Speaking of Ian Kadish, he and fellow Marshall product Arik Sikula have been awesome recently.  To wit:

Kadish has faced 28 batters in May and has struck out 14 of them.  He struck out the side on May 4th, whiffed two in a perfect inning on May 8th, K'd four batters in two innings on May 10th, and then punched out four more in two perfect innings on May 13th.  This season, Ian Kadish has recorded 25 strikeouts... and just three walks.  In May, the league's batting a mere .120 against him.  In total, right-handed batters are hitting just .154 against him.  Dominance.  Batters, beware... the fastball.  Kadish is not afraid to challenge with his heat.

(Here's my interview with Ian.)

And Arik Sikula has been even better.  On May 2nd, Sikula allowed a two-run homer to Beloit's Mitch Haniger.  It is the only hit in 24 at-bats against him this month.  On the other hand, it accounted for two runs, which is one more run than Arik allowed in all of April.  The total numbers:  19.1 innings, 3 runs, 24 strikeouts, .115 average against.  Batters, beware... the curveball.  It can arrive in any count.

(Here's my interview with Arik.)

Since I'm on the subject of strikeouts and relief excellence and unhittability and things of that nature, I suppose I could mention Wil Browning here.  But he didn't go to Marshall, so we'll leave him for another day.

*  *  *

Have you bought The Baseball Thesaurus yet?  If you have, bring it to the ballpark and I'll personally inscribe it for you.

Around the Nest, now on iTunes!

Big news!

"Around the Nest," our weekly talk show (Fridays, 5:00-5:30 p.m.) with the radio voices of the Blue Jays' minor league system, is now available for subscription on iTunes.

Tell your friends!

Ode to the great Balbino

There was a time when writers and broadcasters came up with athletes' nicknames.  This may have been their job, or they may have merely thought that this was their job -- since writers and broadcasters have egos just as large as the players they cover -- but they certainly set their minds in motion to the task.  So it was that Joe DiMaggio became "Joltin' Joe" and "The Yankee Clipper," Stan Musial became "Stan the Man," and Willie Mays became "The Say Hey Kid."

Credit Taylor Hone, Lansing Lugnuts

Both Balbino Fuenmayor and I joined the Lugnuts in 2009.  Balbino was just a kid, relatively -- 19 years old.  The Lugnuts athletic trainer at the time, Dan McIntosh, told me that Balbino would work as hard as anyone on the team in order to improve.  He had met the young Venezuelan the previous year, in the Gulf Coast League, and was impressed.

"The Great Balbino" nickname came quickly, a play off of Babe Ruth's moniker, "The Great Bambino."  He was big but baby-faced like Ruth.  His power was evident.  And the name... what a name!  Sit back and enjoy the sound of Bal-bi-no Fuen-may-or rolling off your tongue.

It is now four years later and Balbino Fuenmayor is still a Lugnut.  With the seasons' passing have come moments of hot streaks and glory for Fuenmayor -- and also moments of cold spells and frustration.  At times, I have heard the nickname get turned on itself, spoke with acrid sarcasm.  I understand; Fuenmayor received a hefty signing bonus from then-Toronto GM J.P. Ricciardi.  He was once ranked among the Blue Jays' top prospects.  He is no longer consider as such.  I grant you this.  If you're a Blue Jays fan, your attention has long since turned elsewhere.

If you're a Lugnuts fan, though, it is different.  Do you root for the Lugs to win?  Then you understand exactly what Fuenmayor means to this team.  To wit:  A 7-for-16 performance with two long home runs in Lansing's season-opening four-game series at Lake County.  The Lugs won the final three games, the last time that the team has been above .500 this year.  Hitless in 37 straight at-bats, as the Lugnuts sunk to the cellar.  A stint on the Disabled List, as the team's fortune grew worse.  And then -- off the DL.  A dramatic two-run homer to beat Beloit.  A game-breaking three-run triple to top Great Lakes.  Heck, you could chalk up significant moments in five of the Lugs' 11 wins this season to the Great Balbino.

Second baseman Christian Lopes is an honest to goodness prospect.  He hits safely nearly every single day.  I will not tell you that Balbino Fuenmayor is better than Christian Lopes.

I will tell you that when I see Balbino Fuenmayor in the clubhouse or the dugout before games, he has the same message.  It begins with a smile and a handshake (or a fist-bump).  It ends with the vow, "We're going to win today."  His sincerity is not to be doubted.

I have met Balbino's beloved wife.  I have met his beautiful baby.

I hereby confess my bias.

Regardless of what may come, Balbino Fuenmayor will always be Great to me.

*  *  *

Have you bought The Baseball Thesaurus yet?  If you have, bring it to the ballpark and I'll personally inscribe it for you.

Two weeks into May

One blog entry to another, from April 18th... to today, May 10th.  As you can guess, Slavko and I have been slightly busy, conducting interviews, finalizing baseball cards, and a heck of a lot more.  We're currently working on transitioning to a new website, too.  Stay tuned.

* Check out the updated interview archive.

* Read my latest article for The Good Point.

As far as the baseball team is concerned, yes, there have been quite a few losses recently.  Maybe you've noticed.

The Lugs are currently 9-21.  They rank last in drawing walks, tied for first in striking out, last in ERA, last in saves, and first in wild pitches.  The offense has underperformed, the pitching has underperformed, and the defense has underperformed.

And now, the optimism:  A Midwest League team is not a Major League team.  As much as you would like the Lugs to win and I would like the Lugs to win, this team does not face the same pressure to succeed that, say, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim face.  (If the Angels keep losing, they might just be doubly disowned.)

Because of this, even when negative news comes up -- such as today's report from Gregor Chisolm that 18-year-old ace Roberto Osuna has been sidelined while potential Tommy John surgery is considered -- we can wish Roberto well while at the same time taking stock in these notes:

• Wil Browning and Arik Sikula have become shutdown relievers.  If they keep this up, a Dunedin promotion won't be far away.
  
• Dalton Pompey has blossomed at the top of the order, playing stellar (and graceful) defense in center field while adding extra-base pop to the other talents in his arsenal.
  
• Christian Lopes keeps hitting and hitting and hitting.  Not bad for a 20-year-old in his first year in the Midwest League.

Let's stop there for now, but expect more positive notes to arrive in the weeks to come.

*  *  *

Have you bought The Baseball Thesaurus yet?  If you have, bring it to the ballpark and I'll personally inscribe it for you.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Hello! I'm Slavko Bekovic, Jesse's broadcasting and media relations assistant for the 2013 season. You'll be hearing from me from time to time, but more on that another time...

It's April in the Midwest League. Meaning, the weather has not been too kind to baseball.

The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers lost their 6th home opening today, a few of which were because of snow. Quad Cities, which has lost three home games already, is now bracing for flooding of Modern Woodmen Park on the banks of the Mississippi River out in Davenport, Iowa.

In fact, as of this morning, only three of the 16 Midwest League teams have yet to lose a home opening; Fort Wayne, Kane County and Lake County.

Here in Lansing, we've seen three of the four seasons in the last week. Sadly, baseball is a summer sport, and that is the season we have yet to have the pleasure of experiencing.

Thursday's Crosstown Showdown against Michigan State, presented by Auto Owner's Insurance, was postponed to May 1st, pushing back a game against the Timber Rattlers into a home doubleheader on May 2nd. Sorry, Wisconsin.

That's one.

The Lugnuts' Midwest League home opener started on time Friday night against the South Bend Silver Hawks. The game went to extra innings before being suspended in the middle of the twelfth, to be resumed Saturday before the regularly scheduled game at 2:05.

Not too bad, right?

Well...Saturday morning's low 30's temperature, 25+ mph wind gusts and freezing rain postponed all the baseball even further, including the continuation of Friday's game. The Lugnuts and Silver Hawks will resume their 12th inning affair on June 11th, before a regularly scheduled 7:05 game.

By the way, the Lugnuts owned a 4-2 lead in the ninth inning and had South Bend down to their last strike before going into extras tied 4-4. That score still stands. And will for 54 more days.

Saturday's original game is now a doubleheader at Cooley Law School Stadium the following day, June 12th.

Still following? Good.

Much to the joy of everyone involved, the Lugnuts and Silver Hawks had an originally scheduled doubleheader (two 7-inning games) on Sunday, starting at 1:05 p.m. Those started in a snow delay. That turned into a sleet delay, which gave way to a rain delay.

Hey, that's snow! 

Best part about the snow was seeing the Latin players out on the field, enamored by the snow. For some of them, it was the first time they'd ever seen it. So, naturally, they ran out on to the field and caught snowflakes in their mouths.

Finally, the doubleheader started at 2:45.

Nothing exciting happened, really. Former Grand Valley State pitcher (Go Lakers!) Kyle Schepel no-hit the Lugnuts in game 1, a 1-0 South Bend win. And then their bats woke up in game 2 en route to an 8-2 win and a twin bill sweep of the Lugnuts. Lansing's losing streak extended to five games, passing last season's longest losing skid of four games.

But, hey! This is about the weather! Sunday actually turned into a gorgeous afternoon with clear skies and blistering temperatures up to 55 degrees!

The Lugnuts were off Monday (Jesse Goldberg-Strassler's birthday!) and got paid a visit by the West Michigan Whitecaps, starting a three game series Tuesday. That game went off without a hitch. The Lugnuts won 4-0 in a full nine inning game without any weather delays.

Imagine that!

So there we were, Wednesday evening, getting ready for game two of the series against the Whitecaps. No surprise, the tarp was on the field, the game was in a rain delay, and then of course, it got postponed midway through our pregame show.

That brings us to today. Thursday, April 18th, 2013.

Last night's game was supposed to be made up today as part of a doubleheader, starting at 6:05 p.m. It's 4:35 p.m., and this is what my weather app looks like:

How about mixing in a little sunshine, eh?

I don't recall seeing 100% thunderstorms across the board. Lo and behold, tonight's doubleheader has been postponed. The games will be made up between June 8th and June 10th at West Michigan's Fifth Third Ballpark.

So...eight games scheduled in Lansing so far and Tuesday's game was the only one to avoid being impacted by weather.

West Michigan, which had just ONE game rained out all of 2012, has already had four this season.

Not cool, Mother Nature.

And here is another update as well: Fort Wayne just sent out a press release announcing that their game against South Bend has been rained out. The good news is the Lugnuts head to Fort Wayne tomorrow! That should be read that with thick, heavy sarcasm, by the way.

So there you go, two teams still standing. Kane County and Lake County.

Give it time.

# # #

For updates on the Lugnuts and other things all season long, you can follow me on Twitter: @SBekovic

Clearly, Kellen Sweeney needs to stop singling in the 9th inning

Infielder Kellen Sweeney

Two posts during the season, each one following a defeat, haha!

Well, Wil Browning is now 0-2 out of the pen, although he pitched far better last night in Bowling Green and looks like he could be really tough on batters down the road.  Meanwhile, Kellen Sweeney singled in the ninth inning in each defeat -- around three strikeouts of his teammates.  Ah, coincidence!

Two key plays last night in the Lugnuts' 4-3 loss:

   1.  In the top of the 6th, Emilio Guerrero was picked off third base by Bowling Green catcher Justin O'Conner.  A little later on, Gustavo Pierre homered, tying the score at 3-3.  But... it could've been 4-3.

   2.  In the bottom of the 6th, with a runner at first, Lansing catcher Santiago Nessy pounced on a dribbler (off the bat of O'Conner) and fired it into center field gunning for a force out.  The error led directly to Bowling Green taking a 4-3 lead.

And that was the final score:  Hot Rods 4, Lugnuts 3.

*

It was a rough start by the Lugs' Daniel Norris, but he's getting his feet beneath him.  All things considered, allowing only three runs on eight baserunners (six hits and two walks) plus a wild pitch shows a pretty good job of limiting damage.

On the bright side, everyone around Norris has come out of the gates strongly.  Roberto Osuna, Javier Avendano, Taylor Cole, Alonzo Gonzalez... that's one heck of a debut week.

Early one today... game time 10:35 a.m. local (Central) time.

One Day In

The Lugnuts opened up their 18th Midwest League season last night losing 5-4 at Lake County.

On the bright side... Welcome back, Balbino Fuenmayor!  The great Balbino scored two runs, walked, singled, and hit a mighty home run to left field.

pitcher Javier Avendaño

Most Impressive:  Lugnuts starting pitcher Javier Avendaño who limited Lake County to just two hits and one unearned run, striking out six Captains in five innings, and setting down the last seven batters he faced.  "El Mayor" departed the game with a 4-1 lead, with everything looking good in the Lugs' favor.  But then...

Not as Impressive:  Lansing relievers Daniel Norris and Wil Browning struggled, allowing four runs in the 6th and 7th innings, as the Lugs' lead disappeared.  Neither one had command of his pitches, which -- to be honest -- is expected of pitchers in their first outing of the year on a cold night in April.  Expect both to be far better as the season goes on.

Don't Overlook:  Left fielder Ronnie Melendez was injured on his very first at-bat, leading off Vancouver Canadians Opening Day 2012, breaking his ring finger, and causing him to miss the rest of the season.  Last night, he went 2-for-4 with an RBI single.  What a difference a year makes!

Intriguing:  6'4 shortstop Emilio Guerrero also collected a pair of hits in four at-bats yesterday, including a ringing double to left-center.  This could very well be a breakout year for the 20-year-old.

Moises, Moises, Moises

That's Moises Sierra, native of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

In 2007, at age 18, Sierra batted just .203 with the Gulf Coast League Jays.

Toronto nevertheless decided to skip the young outfielder up to the Lansing Lugnuts in 2008.

The 19-year-old started off his MWL career like gangbusters, notching seven hits in three games vs. Fort Wayne from April 4-6.  He finished the month with another three-hit outing and entered May wielding a .310 batting average.  From there, however, the teenager's season took a nosedive.  Following the All-Star Game, he hit a dismal .225 with only 14 walks compared to 62 strikeouts.

When I arrived in Lansing in 2009, I heard rumors that the Blue Jays were considering moving Moises Sierra from the outfield to the pitcher's mound.  After all, though his bat had been overmatched at the Single-A level, his throwing arm had drawn rave reviews.  My Director of Marketing swore that Sierra once picked up a ball at the warning track and fired it in to home plate without a bounce.

Sierra was not alone in his 2008 Midwest League struggles.  International signees like Sierra and Johermyn Chavez joined high school draftees like Eric Eiland, Kevin Ahrens, Justin Jackson and Mike McDade amid a young Lugs offense, with teenagers and 20-year-olds all over the field.

Both Chavez and McDade returned to Michigan's state capital in 2009.  The next year, Eiland, Ahrens and Jackson came back, having run into a wall in Class A-Advanced Dunedin.  All needed more seasoning in Lansing.  But Moises Sierra moved forward.  He enjoyed a breakthrough year with Dunedin in '09, battled through an injury-plagued 2010, blasted a career-high 18 homers for Double-A New Hampshire in 2011, played even better in 2012 for Triple-A Las Vegas, and made his MLB debut on July 31st.

An even more significant honor waited ahead:  Moises Sierra was named a starter on the Dominican Republic national team for the 2013 World Baseball Classic.  Good thing, too.  Last night, facing Puerto Rico in the WBC semifinals, Sierra played a significant role with both his glove and his bat.

In the first inning:



And then, in the fifth inning:

Not bad, eh?  Helping to win the WBC semifinal for your nation is a little different from a Midwest League slump!

If you see a young Lugnuts player struggling this year, you might do well to keep Moises Sierra in mind... and so might that struggling young Lugnut take motivation in Sierra's well-earned success.

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I'm a published author!  Have you bought The Baseball Thesaurus yet?  If you have, bring it to the ballpark and I'll personally inscribe it for you.

A stab in the dark at the Lugnuts' pitchers

Behold:  Roberto Osuna!

Take these guesses with a grain of salt -- an early prediction of the 2013 Lugs pitchers:

                         Starting Rotation
                         RHP Taylor Cole

                         RHP Javier Avendaño

                         RHP Roberto Osuna
                         LHP Kyle Anderson
                         RHP Jeremy Gabryszewski

                         RHP Zack Breault
                         RHP Wil Browning
                         RHP Chuck Ghysels
                         RHP Ian Kadish
                         RHP Jonathan Kountis
                         RHP Drew Permison
                         RHP Andrew Sikula
                         LHP Colton Turner


Let's talk about some of these players.

*  Taylor Cole was sensational last year in Vancouver, putting up a 6-0 record with a 0.81 ERA.  Even better, when you remove a six-inning, four-run start from his ledger (in which he received the victory), that ERA drops to 0.30.  Good heavens.  He closed with a flourish, firing 7 2/3 no-hit innings in his final regular season start.  Bring this man to Lansing.

*  Javier Avendaño and I got along quickly when he began the season in Lansing last year, serving as a top-notch setup man for Ajay Meyer (30 1/3 innings, 1.48 ERA, 39 strikeouts).  The right-hander then moved down to Vancouver to convert to starting pitching.  The move suited him well:  He was the Canadians' R. Howard Webster Award winner as team MVP, compiling an 8-1 record with a 1.27 ERA.  A quick Javier story -- He's Venezuelan, but his grandfather is Italian, so he roots for Team Italy in international competitions.

*   In his Vancouver debut last year, Roberto Osuna struck out 13 batters in five one-hit scoreless innings.  He was nearly as good in the Northwest League playoffs, whiffing 15 batters in eight shutout frames while allowing only two hits.  If Aaron Sanchez is the Blue Jays' #1 prospect, Osuna could very well be #2.  I'm psyched to have him here.

*  We need a lefty in the rotation, so Kyle Anderson (4-2, 4.81 for Vancouver last year, and pitched well toward the end of the year) fills out the starting five.

*  I'm rushing Jeremy Gabryszewski up the ladder somewhat.  He pitched only for Bluefield a year ago, but he pitched (3-0, 2.35, 46 innings) and he has excellent control (22 strikeouts / four walks).  He's young, about to turn 20 on March 16th, so I can understand if the Jays take it slow and send Jeremy to Vancouver instead.

*  As far as the bullpen is concerned, I have Ian Kadish returning to Lansing simply because we always get a returnee or three.  (Last year, for instance, we got Brandon Berl back.)  I'd much rather see Ian in Dunedin, moving up toward the Majors.  A healthy Drew Permison, Andrew Sikula and Wil Browning should comprise the back end of the bullpen.  Zack Breault is a swing man.  Colton Turner gives the Lugs a shutdown lefty.

*  The two wildest guesses are Chuck Ghysels and Jonathan Kountis.  Ghysels was the closer for the Gulf Coast League Blue Jays a year ago, going 7-for-7 in saves with 41 strikeouts in 25 2/3 innings.  Kountis was signed out of Indy ball during the offseason after posting a dominating 6-2, 1.06 mark with the Frontier League's Lake Erie Crushers.  As a former Independent League guy myself, I'd love to see him here.

Other possibilities:  Tim Brechbuehler, Matt Johnson, Jonathan Lucas.

*  I'm hoping for top LHP prospect Daniel Norris.  There's a chance, if his spring goes well, that we see Norris in Lansing to anchor the rotation.  Near the end of the year, we might seen another touted lefty in Chase DeJong.

*  *  *

I'm a published author!  Have you bought The Baseball Thesaurus yet?  If you have, bring it to the ballpark and I'll personally inscribe it for you.