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Sea Dogs Welcome 4 millionth fan

Victoria Dalzell wins the honor. Read about all the stuff she won.

This may seem like a fluff story, but it's a really big one, in my opinion. This is the 11th season for the Sea Dogs, and the love affair between the fans and the team is still going strong. The affiliation with the Red Sox certainly gave attendance a boost, but this team was drawing like crazy anyway. Just watch any kid's reaction when Slugger comes around the stands. They go nuts. Slugger himself may sell out the stadium one day. There is a terrific relationship between the team and the fans, and Dan Burke, Charlie Eshbach and the rest deserve a great deal of credit for making this thing work so well. Kudos to the Sea Dogs.

Win Streak Snapped

Portland's two game winning streak was snapped Thursday night at Hadlock, thanks to a 13-2 pounding at the hands of the Norwich Navigators. Instead of BK Kim, who pitched five strong in Fenway, the Sox sent down Phil Siebel, who was much more effective in his couple of outings with the Red Sox.

Sea Dogs Split with Phillies

Portland loses the opener 3-1, before taking the nightcap 5-3. Zink gave up 3 runs in 5 IP for a so-so outing, while Alvarez is really coming around, giving up 2 runs on 5 hits, 0 walks and 6 K's in 6 innings in the nightcap. I probably shouldn't be using my out loud voice here, but perhaps the fact that minor league double headers are only 7 inning games saved the Dogs from a 7th straight loss, as the bullpen was only called on to pitch one inning (giving up one run) in the victory.

On another note, it looks like BK will start for the Sox in the double header vs. Tampa on Thursday, so no rehab start in Portland. This keeps Wakefield between Pedro and Schilling in the rotation. I imagine that Wakefield will be available for relief in the next couple of days.

BK Kim to Start

According to sources (WJAB, etc.), Byung-Hyun Kim will start for the Sea Dogs in Hadlock on Thursday. Unfortunately, I don't have a link to a story. I believe that, if all goes well, BK will be back with the Sox after this outing. While Bronson Arroyo has mostly pitched well in Kim's absence, I think Kim will join the rotation when he returns.

Sox Sweep Yankees.

In case you missed it, the Sox took three from the Yankees in the Bronx over the weekend. The pitching was good, with strong outings from Lowe, Arroyo and Petey. The offense wasn't so good, aside from Friday night's barrage. Jose Contreras has really struggled against the Sox. He has allowed more earned runs (20 in 10 IP, 18.00 ERA) vs. the Red Sox than he has against every other team (19 in 72 IP, 2.38 ERA). Come June 29, Joe Torre may tell Jose to just stay home for a couple of days. Aside from Contreras, the Yankees pitched well, but the bats were nonexistent other than ARod, and the fielding was sub-major league quality during the series.

Dogs Skid Reaches Five

The Sea Dogs were swept by Bowie over the weekend. The team is really struggling right now. One of the best performers is CF Eric Johnson, who also took a shot at a football career in the last couple of years. At 280/351/460, with 2 HR in 57 PA's (that equates to a .275 GPA, a metric devised by Aaron Gleeman and explained at the Hardball Times) I mention GPA, because I plan to maintain this metric for the Sea Dogs and use it in my writing more, especially while I am unemployed.

Sox Lose to Jays

The Red Sox blew a 3-1 lead in losing to the Blue Jays 7-3. Curt Schilling felt strong and feels like he should pitch at least 8 innings every time out. That's a terrific attitude. Unfortunately, his splits show that he becomes less effective after 105 pitches or so (320 OBP/515 SLG/835 OPS over the last three years, vs. 262/376/638 overall), so it's probably not a good idea to push your luck with him in a close game. Boston has a good bullpen and Scott Williamson was rested, it was time for Terry to take the bull by the horns and make the change. Hopefully, this game will be a lesson to all.

Largely overlooked in all of this "Grady, Part 2" talk are the 13 men left on base, including 7 in scoring position. The Red Sox haven't had the timely hitting, with Gabe Kaplar (456 OPS in 28 plate appearances), Pokey Reese (445 in 23 PA's) and Bill Mueller (634 in 36) doing a lot of the squandering. Reese should do better (though not a lot), Mueller will do better and Trot Nixon will return next month, but the team is struggling a bit with the bats right now. A couple of extra hits (or, in some cases, just putting the ball in play), and Curt could have taken a rest with a bigger lead.

Still, the Sox took 2-3 from the Jays and are in good shape, behind their pitching, heading into the Bronx this weekend. Tonight: Arroyo vs. Contreras.

Dogs Lose Matinee

The Sea Dogs lost the last game of the home stand, 7-1 to the Thunder. Alvarez had a shaky start, with his soft tosses getting hit pretty hard, but then he settled down for a pretty good outing, 6 hits, 3 runs (2 earned) and 8 K's in 5 IP. He didn't look like much out there, but was pretty effective for his last three innings. I have to remember that Abe skipped two levels in coming to Portland, he looks like he has a pretty good future in a Bill Lee-sort of way. The bullpen continues to get hit hard for the Sea Dogs.

Trenton was led by 21 year old 2B Robinson Cano, who was 4-5 with a homer and three RBI to bring his average to .356 on the young season, and LF Mitch Jones, who was 3-4 with two homers, one over the monster and one a shot of the CF score board. Jones has some power, but is a 26 year old in his third go-around at AA, so he appears to be an organizational soldier at this point. Baseball America rated Cano the #6 prospect for the Yankees, with Thunder catcher Dioner Navarro (0-5, .194 so far this season) rated as the #1 prospect.

This being school vacation week, there were a lot of annoying kids in the stands. And my worst fears about the Ford Board may be coming true, as they have started pointing the camera in the stands between innings to capture fans making idiots of themselves. Fortunately they don't do this a lot.

Woes Continue

More problems with the bullpen and defense in a 7-6 loss to Trenton. Another good performance from Zink is wasted. Charlie looks to be on the fast track to Pawtucket, based on his early performance. As for the rest of the team, hard to say. Abe Alvarez is on the mound today, a noon time start.

Sea Dogs Recap

Two Losses followed by Two Wins since my last post on the Dogs. The bats are waking up, but the defense and the bullpen are still struggling. Even in AA, beating the Yankees (Trenton) feels good.

NFl: Patriots ink Corey Dillon

The Pats get Corey Dillon in exchange for a second round draft choice.

Call me "Guardedly Optimistic" on this one. Dillon is a 30 year old RB with a lot of carries under his belt. Age 30 is not "prime time" for running backs.

I looked at the top 30 all-time in the NFL in carries (actually, top 31, because Dillon is on the list) to see how they fared in their age-30 season. Of those 30, I had to throw out two because they were retired (Jim Brown, Rodney Hampton), and I chose to exclude Ottis Anderson because he only carried the ball twice that season (and couldn't have been expected to pull a full load, given his injuries). Of the 27 remaining players, 8 had missed significant time to injury within the last 2-3 seasons, and 19 were very healthy.

Overall, the 27 players averaged 877 yards on 220 carries (4.0 avg) and 5 TDs per season. In the "injured" subset (which Dillon belongs to), the average is 735 yards on 173 carries (4.2) and 6 TDs.

Of the 19 non-injured players, 9 gained 1,000 yards in the subsequent season, while Ernest Byner fell just short at 998 yds. Of the 8 previously injured players, only two (Garrison Hearst, 1,206 and John Riggins, 1,153) even gained over 700 yards. All of the "injured" players were playing in 16 game seasons, I should note.

Walter Peyton had the best age-30 season with 1,684 yards in 1984, while Chris Warren had 291 yards in 1998. As noted above, Hearst tops the "injured" list with his 2001 season, while Freeman McNeill managed just 352 yards on 80 carries in 1989 for the bottom of the "injured" list.

Perhaps the two best comps from the injured list are Riggins and Bettis. A season like Riggins' 1979 performance is probably about the best-case scenario, IMO. However, Dillon's coming into this year with the same kind of expectation that followed Jerome Bettis into 2002, and the Bus only managed 666 yds on 187 carries that season. This would be a disappointment.

I think a return to the 1,300-yard production from Dillon is fairly unlikely. I'm going to look for something in the neighborhood of 900-1,000 yards this season, which will no doubt disappoint Patriots fans everywhere.

See "comments" for the players used in the study.

Dogs Win Home Opener

The Sea Dogs overcame brisk winds, cold temps and solid Mets pitching to overcome Binghamton 2-1 in 11 innings last night. Here is the box score.

It wasn’t a pretty game – the ugly side of small ball. People talk about how exciting baseball was as played in the National League in the 1970’s – lots of stolen bases, bunts, hit-and-runs, etc. I’m here to tell you that this type of baseball can be real ugly when it doesn’t work. Like last night, for instance. Granted, the air was cold and the wind was blowing in, so runs were going to be hard to come by – but what is the point of one-run strategies in the early innings? Last night was a stream of bunts and steals, some successful but many more failures. How much fun is it to watch the following series of events: walk, HBP (while attempting to sacrifice), successful sacrifice, strike out, ground out? Not fun. There were very few well hit balls, many holes that the batters put themselves in with sacrifice attempts, and one inning with back-to-back stolen bases. It all came down to the (mostly) cliché dramatic ending: bottom of the 11th, bases loaded, 3-2 count on the batter, and BALL FOUR to end it. It was a win for the Sea Dogs, which was nice, but as a baseball fan it wasn’t all that aesthetically pleasing.

Charlie Zink pitched well again for Portland, 1 run in 5 innings pitched, especially after a rough start in the first inning. (That was the pretty side of small ball, Binghamton’s center fielder Lyon bunted for a single, stole second, moved to third on an out and scored on a base hit – that was fun for the fans). The bullpen was solid for a change, pitching six scoreless innings while allowing only four base runners. Binghamton also received good pitching from Musser (6 IP, 1 R) and the pen, save for Hill’s wildness in the 11th.

Two disappointments. First, Mets third baseman David Wright didn’t do much (0-4 with a walk, looked so-so on defense) after I talked him up to anybody who would listen in the box last night. Too bad, but he’s still batting .414 on the young season. Second was the attendance, announced at 5,169 (vs. capacity of 6,900) and, in reality, probably 1,000 fewer in actual attendance. It’s Maine in April – cold and windy, not real comfortable weather to sit outside for three hours – and last year’s quadruple postponement may have been fresh in everybody’s mind, but come on people, it’s Opening Day! You suck it up to see the opening day game. Very disappointing. That said, I think the Sea Dogs would be well off to reconsider scheduling the opener for the evening. I know that they do this so kids can go to the game, but I think the weather keeps more people away than the start time brings in for kids. I say schedule the game for the daylight (when temps were close to 50 yesterday), and let the kids skip school, just like the old days. April baseball is miserable enough in Portland, let’s not let it get in the way of an opening day sellout.

Home Opener Today

After sending in your taxes, head to Hadlock for the Sea Dogs home opener. After a few days of rain, it’s letting up this morning and the game looks to start as scheduled. I’m going, and I’ll be warm and dry in one of the luxury boxes. (How much longer I’ll have the luxury, I’m not yet sure). It’s Zink vs. Musser on the mound.

Binghamton features third baseman David Wright, a first rounder in 2001. Wright is the #5 prospect in baseball, according to Baseball Prospectus (free registration may be required, but is highly recommended). Wright has a diary at MLB.com, with entries every three weeks. His most recent entry (4/8) can be found here.

Red Sox Hall of Fame

Dennis Eckersley leads a new field of inductees to the Red Sox Hall of Fame.

Eckersley had two great seasons with the Sox, before injuries and off-field issues made him mediocre. He redefined the closers role in Oakland, and that got him into Cooperstown. Still, he had a good career with the Sox (84-71) and he remains in good graces with the team, working as a NESN analyst, so he's a good choice.

Other inductees include Wade Boggs, an obvious choice who will head to Cooperstown next summer, Bruce Hurst, Lewiston, Maine native Bill "Rough" Carrigan, Billy Goodman, Pete Runnels, Haywood Sullivan, and Hall of Famer Jimmy Collins. Bernie Carbo will also receive recognition for his home run in The Game in the 1975 Series.

Carrigan was the manager of the Sox' World Champs in 1915-16 - the Babe Ruth years. His overall record fell below .500 when he came back after Frazee dismantled the team in the 1920's. Goodman and Runnels both won batting championships for the Sox. Sullivan owned the team for a while after Yawkey died, but I'm not a fan of those years.

Hurst had a career record of 88-73 for the Sox, and was huge (3-0, 2.13) in the post season in 1986. Jimmy Collins (who the article incorrectly identifies as Eddie Collins, another Hall of Famer) was player manager for the first six years of the Red Sox' existence (actually, the Boston Americans and Boston Pilgrims in those years). He won two pennants and the first modern World Series as manager (the Giants refused to play the Sox in 1904).

Bernie Carbo was a favorite of mine. He was one of those guys whose skills (drawing walks, hitting for power) were not all that highly valued during his career. Carbo had a pedestrian .264 career batting average, therefore never reached 500 plate appearances in a single season. Yet his .387 OBP and .427 SLG were both well above league average, resulting in a career OPS+ of 126. Contrast that number with some of the "great hitters" who were his teammates: Yaz and Lynn, 130; Rice 128; Fisk 117; Boomer Scott 114. If Carbo were playing today, Billy Beane would be all over him. Or Theo Epstein, for that matter - Carbo's sweet lefty swing was tailor made for Fenway.

Rain

Sea Dogs were rained out both Tuesday and today (Wednesday). Just when they were on a roll! The good news now is that Zink will be pitching the home opener on Thursday, weather permitting. (Right now the forecast is for a chance of rain. I think they'll play unless the field is too soggy).

Speaking of soggy, Bonds got another one wet last night for #661 and sole posession of third place. Last night's victim was Ben Ford - he of the career 10.26 ERA. Looks like Ned Yost was thinking, "let's get this over with" and sent Ford out as the sacrificial Lamb.

Amazing, the same kayaker (Larry Ellison) got both balls. The Giants had offered him seats behind home plate for last night's game, but he chose to sit in the water instead. Good call.

Sea Dogs get First Win

The Sea Dogs are in the win column with an 8-6 victory over New Britain. Cameron pitched well over the first five, but the bullpen (and defense) struggled once again. Medrano and Nieves had three hits apiece to pace the 14-hit attack.

Mainers in the News

Bangor’s Matt Kinney pitched yesterday in San Francisco. He took the loss.

Say what you will about whether or not Bonds has been on the juice. With everything that’s gone on in the last few months (and with his new, leaner build), he’s not likely to be on anything at the moment, and he can still hit a rocket into the Cove. He’s good.

Williams to pitch opener

Dick Williams will throw out the first pitch in the Sea Dogs' home opener. Williams is the legendary manager who led the Red Sox to the 1967 Impossible Dream pennant, won two World Series with the Athletics, then led the Padres to their 1984 "Unlikely Dream" pennant. Williams got a little overexposed in his later years, but was a success pretty much anywhere he managed.

Black Bears Lose

Oh, so that's who the University of Denver is. Bummer to see another call go against UMaine, as the crease call certainly violated the letter of the law, but not at all the spirit of the rule. After Denver scored, it was all about disruption for them. Not a pretty game to watch. It's a disappointment, but if you fail to score while skating six-on-three for a minute and a half, I guess it wasn't meant to be.

Sea Dogs fall to 0-4

A new franchise record. Once again the bullpen struggled. It's too early to get upset about these things just yet, tho.

I am going to the opener, despite my "gig" falling through. It looks like we'll miss Zink and Alvarez, however. I might go to the Patriots day game, which would be Abe's spot in the rotation, so I may have to make a point of it.

Maine Black Bears Hockey

One more win and it's the third title for the Bears. Check out the complete coverage from the Portland Press Herald.

Who is Denver, anyway? Should be a cakewalk. Go Bears!

Sea Dogs Updates

Dogs are 0-2. Zink pitched well in the opener, but Alvarez struggled in game two vs. Altoona. Alvarez is making a big jump from rookie ball to AA, and should be encouraged(?) by the fact that he fared better than the bullpen did.

Frozen Four Coverage

Complete Coverage from the Portland Press Herald as the Maine Black Bears prepare for their third National Championship in men's hockey. Thanks to Dave for suggesting this topic.

Update - Reporter job

I just learned that my gig covering the Sea Dogs this summer has been cancelled, as SportsTicker and Minor League Baseball were unable to come to an agreement to allow game coverage. So the nature of this Blog will change, and be less minor-league focused. But I'll still be here doing my thing, whatever that turns out to be.

More Season Prep

A profile of new batting coach Russ Morman, and a last-minute roster change.

Sunday Telegram Stories

The Sea Dogs are ready for the new season, but there aren't a lot of prospects.

Sea Dogs break pre-season ticket sales record

The Sea Dogs broke last year's record with 250,000 tickets sold before opening day. Hadlock field is always a great way to spend a summer afternoon or evening, and it looks like you will have more company than ever before when you go this year. The tickets sold averages more than 3,500 per game. Total attendance averaged over 6,200 last season. 2,500+ season tickets have been sold.

However, tickets remain for all games.

Red Sox Prospects - MLB.com

A good overview of the Sox' minor league system, per MLB.com.

Now that we're running with the blog, and the Sea Dogs season is about to start, I'm going on vacation. I'll probably have a couple of posts next week, but not the daily check in. Those will get into high gear come the home opener, April 15 vs. the Binghamton Mets.

NL West Preview

The last book, and this one promises to be the shortest. You may have noticed that I tend to write less about the bad teams in these previews. These should be short.

1) San Diego 2) San Francisco 3) Arizona 4) Los Angeles 5) Colorado

OK, the Padres were 64-98 last season, which is terrible. What makes me think that they will be able to win the requisite 20+ additional games this season? Well, for starters, every other team in the division is worse than last year. I’m not sure the “+” will really be necessary to get to enough wins. Anyway, first of all they get a full year of Brian Giles, who (many people don’t realize) is one of the best hitters in the majors (his OPS+ of 148 last year was his worst of the last five years). Secondly, they get a full year of Phil Nevin, who was hurt much of last year. Third, Ramon Hernandez is better than Gary Bennett. Burroughs is getting better, and Klesko can still swing it. The Pads will have a good offense this year. The pitching will also be better. David Wells is old and (usually) fat, but he’s been good pretty much everywhere he has pitched. Valdez and Hithcock are decent back-of-the-rotation guys. Brian Lawrence is solidly mediocre, and Jake Peavey and Adam Eaton are youngsters with promise. The might only win 87 or so games, but that will be enough.

The Giants are turning into some sort of sick experiment – just how little can we surround Bonds with? Bonds will be good, but I don’t think he’s going to be Bonds this year. He has to slow down sometime, right? AJ Pierzinski is a good upgrade at catcher, Durham is a good 2B, but Fonzie may not be a big stick any more, and Neifi Perez is in the lineup. The rest of the lineup (Snow, Grissom, etc.) is likewise old and mediocre. And the rotation is – who? Jason Schmidt has a tender arm, and without him the Giants are sunk. Jerome Williams impressed as a rookie last year, but Kirk Reuter is an aging soft-tosser, and guys like Brett Tomko and Dustin Hermanson look to get a lot of innings. Yuck! 85 wins and second place for the Giants.

The Diamondbacks are another old team. Lineup mainstays include Steve Finley, Luis Gonzalez and now Robbie Alomar. All old, and Robbie’s not handling it well. Richie Sexson is not so old, and he can really swing it – he’ll be a big upgrade at first base, and enable “Swing Away” Shea Hillenbrand to be an outmaker at third this season. Alex Cintron is a good bat at SS. They’ll score a fair amount of runs because of their park, but I think they’ll be a below-average offense this year. Pitching has always been the real strength of this team, but Curt Schilling is gone to Boston, and the Unit wasn’t so good last year. I think Johnson will bounce back and win about 20 this year, though. Brandon Webb was great last year, and was deserving of the NL Rookie of the Year, but he didn’t get enough wins, therefore didn’t get the hardware. The rest of the rotation is made up of guys like Elmer Dessens and Shane Reynolds. Not good. 84 wins, just shy of the Giants.

The best acquisition for the Dodgers may have been new GM Paul dePodesta, a Billy Beane disciple who could very well turn this team around quickly (sooner if the ownership wasn’t so cash strapped). Last season the Dodgers had the worst offense in the majors. They still do. The middle infield of Alex Cora and Cesar Izturis can throw the leather, but can not hit a lick. Paul LoDuca is a decent hitting catcher, but he might get some time at 1B, where his bat is not an asset (nor is Robin Ventura’s for that matter). The Dodgers added Juan Encarnacion and (recently) Jayson Werth from the OF-prospect rich Blue Jays, but neither of these guys looks like a difference maker. A rebound from Shawn Green and a breakout from Adrian Beltre are the only real hope for the Dodgers. But who cares about offense, right? The strength of this team is pitching. And LA did have the best pitching in the league last year. But they traded their best pitcher (Kevin Brown) for a guy who, frankly, stunk up the joint in the Bronx last summer (Jeff Weaver). Nomo had an abnormally good year, Ishii is middling at best, Perez may or may not be a good pitcher, and Edwin Jackson is 20 years old. They’ll be good, but not good enough. Bullpen’s great, though – Mota and (of course) Eric Gagne were devastating last year. They’ll be around .500 this year.

Colorado is a train wreck in the middle of one of those tunnels through the Rocky Mountains. Todd Helton is great. Larry Walker would be if he could stay healthy. Preston Wilson puts up superficially good numbers. Jeromy Burnitz will do the same. Original Sea Dog great Charles Johnson’s best years are behind him. Vinny Castilla returns. Royce Clayton is the starting SS. The bad news started early in that list. As for the pitching, Shawn Estes gets the opening day start. Look out, Rockpile! 65 wins and the cellar for the Rockies this year.

Sea Dogs Initial 2004 Roster

The opening day roster is pretty much set. It looks like Alvarez is definitely coming, along with Zink and Gamble in the rotation, while Juan Cedeno (the Sox’ #2 pitching prospect) will start in A ball and perhaps be here before the end of the season. Same with Murphy and Ramirez. Most of the position players look to be career minor leaguers (“organizational soldiers”), the only guys on the Prospect list are 3B John Hattig and OF Matt Cooper. The returnees include pitchers Tim Kester, Eric Glaser and James Johnson, and infielders Sean McGowan and Raul Nieves. There are also a few guys who played for the Sea Dogs in the Florida organization, including Jesus Medrano, who was an EL all star playing for Portland in 2002.