Dogs are Back Home

The Sea Dogs are back home after completing a four game sweep of New Britain. Portland now leads the EL North by 4.5 games over Trenton with 26 games remaining. Jeremy West apparently likes the hot weather. After taking about four months to collect his first 30 RBI, it took him only a week to get the next 10. He's now got his slugging percentage back up to .431 and his OPS back up to .771, both much more respectable numbers than he had even two weeks ago.

Navigators Prospect Review: (per John Sickels' rankings)

Merkin Valdez (RHP, #2, B+ rating): 104.2 IP, 3.62 ERA, 1.33 WHIP, 94/42 K/BB. Fairly middlin' numbers for a top prospect, IMO. He of the 99-mph fastball appears to be pitching out of the bullpen to limit his innings the rest of the way. Solid potential. If he gets the walk rate down, look out.

Fred Lewis (OF, #7, B-): 427 AB, 277/361/397-5-33, 64 runs, 26 steals. I wrote about Lewis the other day. I'm not real impressed with his game. OK leadoff hitter, but probably not as good as cleanup hitter Dan Ortmeier would be. Ortmeier has an almost identical OBP (.363), but with more runs (74) and steals (30) than Lewis has. More on Ortmeier below.

Alfredo Simon (RHP, #8, B-): 77.1 IP, 5.47 ERA, 1.44 WHIP, 46/22 K/BB ratio. 13 saves, but given the other numbers, that should tell you how great the save stat is. Has made nine starts also this year. Not a good season for Simon.

Patrick Misch (LHP, #9, B-): 5 starts for Norwich after earning a demotion with a 6.35 ERA at AAA Fresno. Appears to have righted the ship: 33.1 IP, 2.97 ERA, 1.05 WHIP, 28/5 K/BB. Doesn't appear to be scheduled to pitch in this series.

Billy Sadler (RHP, #12, C+): 68.2 IP, 4.06 ERA, 1.24 WHIP, 59/28 K/BB, 5 saves. At times dominant out of the bullpen. Relatively high ERA belies otherwise decent stats.

Brian Burres (LHP, #18, C): 103 IP, 3.76 ERA, 1.35 WHIP, 80/42 K/BB ratio. Leads Norwich with 9 wins. Kind of a poor man's David Pauley, I'd say. These numbers are respectable - comparable to the much-more-highly-touted Merkin Valdez. Scheduled to face Anibal Sanchez Friday night.

This is an interesting contrast to the New Britain and New Hampshire prospect reviews, where both of those rosters have changed significantly this season as players are aggressively promoted. San Francisco's prospects have, for the most part, stayed put this year. Other than Valdez, there is nobody on this list to get all that excited about. I would imagine that if Sickels were to generate this list today, Ortmeier would figure prominantly on it - at least he should be ahead of Lewis, I would say. As noted above, Ortmeier's "speed" numbers are the best on the team, but he also leads in all "power" categories. Overall he's batting 275/363/481-19-71 on the season. Carlos Valderamma is another offensive threat, batting 303/355/433-7-50 with 25 steals on the season. Catcher Eliezer Alfonzo has put up big numbers since being promoted from single A: 314/368/533-6-17 in 31 games.

In addition to Valdez and Burres, the rotation has been anchored by Chris Begg (3.44, 1.28 WHIP, impressive 71/18 K/BB ratio in 107.1 IP) and Brian Mazone (3.80, 1.39, 64/28 in 94.2 IP). They are scheduled to pitch over the weekend. Brian Wilson was promoted from Augusta in July, and has an 0.66 ERA and 18/5 K/BB ratio in 13.2 innings while recording 6 saves.