Random Ramblings

Congrats to our favorite Sun Cory Van Allen on his 1st win of the year!
Cory has pitched in bad luck all season as far as getting wins,so it is good that he finally got a victory!
Could not have happened to a better guy!

As you read here First-(we had it up and on line before anyone else),the entire Hagerstown Suns outfield are now Potomac Nationals,but what we did not report was that 1st baseman Brett McMillan is going with them.
I did not have a firm report on McMillan,although he was mentioned and I did not want to post wrong information.

In my opinion,some of these are good moves and some I would question.
Justin Maxwell and Mike Daniel are older prospects and being college players,I think the Nationals
need to move them up a level and see what they can do.
Both have done pretty much what they can do here in Hagerstown.

Chris Marrero is a different case.Marrero has destroyed SAL pitching,but has had defensive struggles in the outfield.
Chris is a 1st baseman that is ready to happen and if they had kept Marrero and moved up McMillan,Marrero could start getting his time at 1st.
My concern with Marrero is due to his age (19),he may be moving up too fast and could struggle at High A,then he ends the season on a down note instead having a terrific 1st year here.
I would have kept him here at least another month and then thought about a Potomac move.

Brett McMillan is a case of another type.
McMillan has decent numbers(.266.5 and 21),but not outstanding ones and unless there is a reason that I am not aware of,this seems to me to be a rushed call-up as well.

Anyway,the Hagerstown Suns were in next to last with these 4 guys.
Without them? Look out because this is going to be a weak hitting club.

Kudos to all 4 players that are leaving.
All 4 are very classy young men and I wish them the best as they move up the ladder.

Pitching Matchups
Texas-Kevin Millwood 2-5 at Pittsburgh-Zach Duke 2-6.
Cleveland-Fausto Carmona 7-1 at Florida-Scott Olsen 4-5.
Arent these type of matchups that makes Inter-league play great?
Yeah Right.............

More chats with our favorite pitching coach-Ed Hodge of Lakewood .
Ed talked to Battling Bob and I for a while yesterday about things with the Blue Claw pitchers and his playing career as well.
Great Guy!

The Tribe lost to the Mariners yesterday 8-7 in another one of the makeup games from April's snow.
The Mariners Raul Ibanez was the big culprit-2 HRs,a triple and the game winning double in the 9th to go with his 5 RBI.
Paul Byrd had a bad outing allowing 7 runs in his 4 inning workload,although Joe Borowski got the loss to drop to 0-3.

Do or die for the Cavaliers tonight in the 1st ever NBA Finals game in Cleveland.
The Spurs lead 2-0 and even though I have no real concrete reason for saying this,I think Cleveland gets this one.

We will be at the Lakewood-Hagerstown game.
Not only will the new Suns debut tonight,we will see Phillies 2006 number 1 pick Kyle Drabek pitch for Lakewood.
Kyle,as most of you know,is the son of former Pirates Cy Young winner Doug Drabek.
The Suns will pitch another one of our favorites in Erik Arneson.
This is the 1st time we get to see Erik pitch and here is hoping things go well!

Today in the Pirate Q and A section,Battling Bob got his email in the paper.
Way to go Bob!

Will likely work on the Pirates shadow draft later tonight and hope to have it up no later than tomorrow.