Today's Roster Move - July 3rd

And here we go with another roster move:

INF Mike Freeman placed on DL retroactive to July 2nd.
INF Niko Gallego joins team from AA Mobile.
OF Bobby Stone removed from roster and sent to Arizona for further evaluation.

Analysis:  Freeman injured his knee on the rundown play in Lake County.  Hopefully, he will not miss too much time but I think the concern is whether there is any damage to the ligaments.  Gallego was not playing much at all in Mobile, so he gets a chance to come to South Bend and play a bit more often.  Stone hasn't played since mid-May and he keeps having setbacks in his recovery from an arm injury.  They are going to fly him back to Phoenix for more rehab and evaluation.

Today's Roster Move - May 20th

The team has made it to Midland, Michigan, where we get the day of posting started with a roster move.

OF Bobby Stone placed on the DL, retroactive to yesterday.
OF Roberto Ortiz joins team from extended spring training.

Stone injured his arm throwing out the runner at the plate in Tuesday's game vs. Lansing.  He will hopefully only miss the one week minimum, but you never know with arm injuries.

Ortiz has a lot of speed, stealing 23 bases in 27 tries last season with Yakima.  He figures to play off and on in left field with Roberto Rodriguez.

Today's Roster Move - May 21st

Greetings from Eastlake, Ohio. Technically, we're in Mentor, Ohio at the hotel, but close enough.

We start today with a roster move.

Andrew Fie joins the Silver Hawks from extended spring training.

Bobby Stone was sent back to extended spring training.

My Brief Analysis: Stone was struggling mightily, striking out way too much. With the Hawks having trouble scoring runs, they needed a veteran bat in the lineup. While Fie is just 22, he has played some in high-A and hopefully he can provide a spark and protect some of the other hitters.

Today's Pregame Interview

I don't do this often, but since we had some streaming audio problems early last night, and Bobby Stone's catch has generated a lot of interest, I'm going to replay my interview from yesterday again before today's game.

Tonight's Lineup - April 27th

Broxton - CF
Owings - SS
Borchering - 3B
Davidson - DH
Nick - 2B
Stone - 1B
Diaz - RF
Hollinger - C
Narodowski - LF

Anderson - SP

Tonight's pregame interview is with Bobby Stone about his great catch on Sunday.

Pregame show begins at 6:45 PM. First pitch is at 7:05 PM.

Bobby Stone's Catch

The West Michigan Whitecaps have posted Bobby Stone's terrific catch in the bottom of the ninth inning on YouTube with the play-by-play from their announcers. I have embedded it below for your viewing pleasure. He got up and finished the game.

About Last Night

I typically get into work about 10 or so on gamedays, but by the time I put together stat packs and media notes, it's often after lunch before I get around to blogging again (thus, why I'm just writing this at 12:10 when I've been here for over two hours already).

Anyhow, I know that you see a 16-5 loss last night, 3 errors, 9 walks, and no hits after the second inning, and think that this team is in trouble. I'm really not all that worried.

Obviously, last night was bad. However, it's just one of 140 games to be played in the regular season. I promise you there will be other bad losses over the next six months. There will also be some blowout wins. A good baseball expression is that you are never as good as your best win, but you're never as bad as your worst loss.

Aside from the bad things listed above, there were a few encouraging things. Early on, the hitting was great, particularly going the opposite way. Despite the three errors, there were some fine defensive plays turned in (particularly the second inning play by Chris Owings and the dig out of the dirt by Bobby Stone).

The weather should be better tonight, so let's hope that the play on the field is as well.