A welcome off day / roster moves

The Sea Dogs enjoyed a day off from the grind yesterday. Kevin Thomas of MaineToday.com takes the pulse of the team in today's story. The team recognizes that it's struggling, and they are ready to continue fighting through it as they open a series in Manchester tonight.

The Sea Dogs made a couple of roster moves during the day off. Raul Nievez was placed on the DL and Justin Sturge was reassigned to Wilmington. Taking their places are pitcher Edgar Martinez and infielder Scott Youngbauer. Sturge has been a part of the bullpen that has struggled of late. In 33 appearances he's pitched 48 innings with a 4.88 ERA and 1.41 WHIP, along with a 33/16 K/BB ratio. He's replaced by Martinez, who was a backup catcher in Portland last season. Martinez was abysmal with the bat, which prompted a demotion and his conversion to pitcher. He's had much success on the mound - a 0.90 ERA in just 10 innings pitched last season, while this year he's pitched 34.1 innings with a stellar 2.10 ERA, 0.93 WHIP, and 46/12 K/BB ratio.

Youngbauer started the season playing for the Akron Aeros, where he did not hit well (216/275/353-5-19 in 41 games), though he is a better hitter than Nievez (576 OPS this season). Youngbauer has been tearing it up in Wilmington, however (321/380/514-2-18 in 27 games, with 5 doubles and 5 triples to boot). I'm assuming that Youngbauer will fill Nievez' super-utility role. He hit fairly well at AA last season (744 OPS between Reading and Akron), but at 26 he's not a prospect and I find it hard to believe that he'll be taking significant playing time away from Kenny Perez or Jared Sandberg.