Sea Dogs All Stars

Four members of the Sea Dogs were named Eastern League all stars this week.

RHP Chris Smith is the most productive pitcher remaining in Portland, exclusive of the injured Phil Seibel. Following Sunday's bumpy ride, Smith is now 9-3 with a 2.79 ERA, 1.11 WHIP and 61:20 K/BB ratio in 96.2 innings pitched. Smith was injured in 2004 and doesn't appear to have his full velocity back, but his arm strength is returning and he records a lot of strikeouts with his offspeed stuff. Still, he was averaging over a strikeout an inning before the injury, which has dropped to 6 K's per 9 innings pitched. Regardless, he's pitched very well and was a key part of a very strong staff through the first half of this year.

3B Chad Spann is hitting 303/367/465-7-38 with 21 doubles on the season, and playing pretty good defense at third base. His status as a prospect slipped after an injury in 2004, but he seems to be back on track an is still just 22 years old. Spann has turned into one of Portland's top hitters and he plays good defense at third base. He has good reflexes and good range, though he does sometimes make a sloppy throwing error. That's the sort of thing that I expect him to improve upon with experience.

1B/DH Jeremy West has posted numbes similar to Spann's: 303/380/490-8-40, also with 21 doubles and only 36 strikeouts in 72 games played. West is no defensive genius, however, playing primarily as DH while Luis Jimenez covers first base. West's bat has clearly improved from last year, but if he's not going to have any defensive value, I think his home run production is going to have to improve. Hadlock Field (and the Eastern League in general) isn't the best place to hit home runs, so perhaps his production will improve with a promotion to AAA.

OF Tyler Minges played the first month of the season in AAA, but struggled a bit before being assigned to Portland. The speedy center fielder hit the ground running here, and has batted an impressive 310/365/465-3-32 with 18 doubles in just 46 games played. Minges doesn't walk a ton, but he has terrific gap power (as well as right-field line power) and hustles on every play. Unlike the other three Sea Dogs reps, Minges doesn't carry any sort of prospect label, but he's a very good AA player.

Also, Edgar "El Guapo Jr." Martinez has been selected to appear in the Futures all star game. Martinez is still a novice on the mound, but he's put up pretty good numbers in just his second full season as a pitcher. Martinez most closely represents Portland's closer this year, and has reponded fairly well with 2-3 record, 8 saves, 3.23 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, and 38 K's vs. 10 walks in 39 innings pitched. Martinez is a hard thrower who is still working to be more consistent with his breaking pitches, but I think he's got a good future ahead of him.

Other Portland players who were promoted before receiving consideration are lefty Kason Gabbard (9-2, 2.57, 1.03, 68 K, 25 BB in 73.2 innings pitched); righty David Pauley (only 2-3, but with a 2.39 ERA, 1.18 WHIP, and 47/17 ratio in 60.1 innings); and outfielder David Murphy (273/315/436-3-25 with 17 doubles in 42 games played). Seibel (2-3 in 9 starts, but with a 1.20 ERA, 0.80 WHIP and 42 K's in 45 IP) would likely have also received consideration had he not gone on the disabled list.

Two current Sea Dog outfielders appeared in the 2005 All Star game but were not selected this year. Chris Durbin missed some time to injury and has struggled a bit, hitting just 247/344/377-3-17 in 46 games. Brandon Moss struggled mightily for two months, but had a very hot June to bring his numbers back to respectability. However, his 256/323/427-8-52 batting line is not overly impressive despite his being among the league leaders in RBI and doubles (24 on the season).