The Story of Nelson Gore

[NYY #23]

There isn't anything better than opening day, a chance to wipe the slate clean and get off to a fresh start. Tonight we sent our number one pick out to pitch, Daryl Hall out to the mound. I wasn't too sure what to expect, he has looked good so far in practice, but come game time you never know. I didn't exactly have the best experience with my first round pick last year.

Hall showed why he was the first round pick though, pitching six shutout innings while striking out 7. A dominating performance by Daryl Hall. David Swank came in to pitch a scoreless seventh, and Guillermo Tavares rolled through the eighth inning without giving up a run. Tavares got into some trouble in the ninth, giving up 2 runs and only could retire two, but Josh Widmar came in to retire the last batter.

Johan Garcia put us on the board first with a second inning home run, and for the night he was 3-4 with 1 RBI and two runs scored. We struggled to score tonight, but did the little things right, moving runners over, and had a couple of timely sacrifice flys and came out on top 4-2. Hall picked up the win, Widmar the save, and we won our first game of the year.

It definitely feels like a good way to start the season.

Season record: 1-0

[texasrangers13]

Just wanted to say I am enjoying this! Best of luck with the 2010 campaign!

[NYY #23]

Originally Posted by texasrangers13

Just wanted to say I am enjoying this! Best of luck with the 2010 campaign!

Thanks for following along! On a positive note, I don't think 2010 can be any worse.

Just one more note for anyone following along, the next four weeks will be bad ones for updating this as I'll be out of town on either vacation or travelling for work. Unfortunately I don't expect to get in much time for OOTP or updating, so expect infrequent updates after the next couple of posts, but after August things will go back to normal.

[NYY #23]

A couple of transactions. We released the following players, none of whom got in a game yet:

1B-Shawn Sigale
CF-Yuda Mulifi
LF-Joe Babrick

Aubert Galliano took the mound tonight, as we tried to win our second game in a row. For 2 2/3 innings Galliano was dominate, but his season was over after recording the second out. Galliano was diagnosed with ulnar nerve irritation, which is a blow to our rotation.

Orlando Mendoza took over for Galliano, and was able to get through 2 2/3 innings while giving up 3 runs to pick up the win. Our offense was led by Nicholas Farnsworth today. In the third inning Farnsworth cleared the bases with a grand slam. He connected again on a solo shot in the fifth inning, and our other run came on a Johan Garcia solo homer, his second in as many days.

I'm still getting used to my bullpen, and the best way to use each guy. We went through five relievers today, and they got the job done, barely. Dan Eastham pitched the last inning and a third without allowing a base runner to pick up his first save in the 6-5 win.

Two in a row!

Season record: 2-0

[NYY #23]

Pablo Mejia took the mound tonight, and pitched 6 innings while allowing three runs, and left with the game tied at 3. Daniel Elorriaga-Matra hit a home run in the top of the six to tie the game for us.

I brought David Swank into the game to start the seventh, and he pitched well for both the seventh and eighth innings. Our offense couldn't get it going though, and we failed to score another run. Swank started the ninth, and hit a batter, followed by a sacrifice bunt, an error, and a wild pitch. Life in the rookie leagues. Final score 4-3, as Swank picked up his first, and our first loss of the year.

The one frustrating part of the game, except for the loss was our team made five errors in the game.

Season record: 2-1

[NYY #23]

vs Kingston Mets (2-1)

Transactions:

SP - Don Danton joined the team after being promoted. He was 1-0 in one start for the GSL Cardinals.

Mets 7, Cardinals 6
L: Carl Barr (0-1)
HR: Nicholas Farnsworth (3), Johan Garcia (3)

Player of the Game:
Johan Garcia - Garcia went 3-5 with a home run and two RBI.

Our late rally in the eighth fell short as we dropped a close one to the Mets. 16 hits for the game, but we left 13 on base. A bad start by Barr made it tough to come back from. I'm still having trouble getting everybody into the game, and seeing how they perform.

I called a brief meeting after the game to try and boost everyone's spirits and give them a little pep talk. Maybe it is a little bit corny, but I told them that after each of our games I would be naming a player of the game, and we'd do something once a week with each of the players of the game. I'll take them out to dinner, or something to reward their performance. Life in the minors is rough, but life in the low level minor leagues is really rough for some of these guys. If these guys are going to be successful they need to feel like they belong, and give them something to shoot for.

Season record: 2-2

[NYY #23]

vs Kingston Mets (2-1)

Transactions:
None

Cardinals 10, Mets 6

W: Daryl Hall (2-0)
SV: Josh Widmar (2)
HR: William Mitchell (1), Johan Garcia (3)

Player of the Game:
William Mitchell - one of the many first baseman on our roster who got his first start tonight. Mitchell went 1-4 but hit the big three run home run for us.

Hall was rolling until the seventh, where he gave up 3 runs. I probably left him in a little too long, but he was able to get out of the jam and pick up his second win. Through two games he is the best pitcher I've had yet, let's hope he keeps it up. The one thing that bothers me about him is his name, I keep thinking about Hall and Oates, who I never liked, and Out of Touch. I'm not even sure that song is by Hall and Oates, but I think it is. If he keeps pitching like this I'll be happy though. Two big home runs and we even up the series with the Mets.

Season record: 3-2

[NYY #23]

vs Kingston Mets (2-1)

Transactions:

None

Mets 16, Cardinals 9
L: Leopoldo Malveiro (0-1)
HR: Bartolo Young (1), Bei Rao (1), Nicholas Farnsworth (4)

Player of the Game:
Nicholas Farnsworth - we got slaughtered tonight, but Farnsworth did his best, going 2-5 with 4 RBI hitting his fourth home run of the season.

Tough to recover when your starter goes one inning and gives up 8. I said earlier he may be our second best starter, but tonight gave no indication of that. Six relievers combined for 8 innings and gave up 8 runs. We tried to come back, but couldn't keep our rallies going.

We lost two out of three, so it was a disappointing series. Some early thoughts on my team - after having 10 catchers last year, I've got one this year. He doesn't have an arm, so teams are running wild on him. Not as many holes as last year though, just another catcher and "true" shortstop. On to play the Greenville Astros, who are 2-4.

News: The Appalachian League announced today that Johan Garcia was named the Player of the Week. He hit .571 for this week, going 8-14 while driving in 5 runs, scoring 5 runs, and hitting 3 home runs. Congratulations to Johan.

Season record: 3-3, .500, 1 GB

[NYY #23]

@ Greeneville Astros (2-4)

Transactions:

None

Cardinals 9, Astros 6

W: Don Danton (1-0)
SV: Stolmy Pimental (1)
HR: Nicholas Farnsworth (5), Johan Garcia (5), Braulio Hiraldo (1)

Player of the Game:
Johan Garcia went 2-4 with a big 3 run home run, while walking and scoring 3 runs. Garcia raised his average to .423 for the season and hit his 5th home run of the year.

A rough first couple of innings for tonight's starter, Don Danton, but he settled down nicely in the third and pitched 7 2/3 innings, allowing 4 runs, 2 earned, while striking out 5. We took a 9-6 lead into the bottom of the ninth, when Stolmy Pimental ran into trouble giving up three consecutive hits, but settling down to retire the side and earn the save.

We had some fielding difficulty committing three errors. Roberto De la Cruz made his fifth error this season and is having some difficulty at the shortstop position. I don’t have any other options, so hopefully he learns to play shortstop soon.

Season record: 4-3, .571, - GB

[NYY #23]

@ Greeneville Astros (2-5)

Transactions:

SP - Carl Barr was released. In just one start Barr gave up 4 runs in 4 innings.

Today's Score:
Astros 8
Cardinals 2

L: Pablo Mejia (0-1)
HR: Braulio Hiraldo (2)

Player of the Game:
Not a lot of choices for us tonight, but Braulio Hiraldo was our player of the game, going 1-4 with a solo home run. Not a great performance, but the best we had.

Mejia had a strong start through four innings, but allowed a run to score in the fifth, and two to score in the sixth to take the loss. Our offense was steam rolled by Jose Jaramillo, who pitched 7 1/3 innings and struck out 10 batters. When you can't hit you can't win. Back to .500 we go.

Season record: 4-4, .500

[NYY #23]

@ Greeneville Astros (3-5)

Transactions:
Received -
CL - Angel Bernard - promoted from the rookie GCL team after pitching an inning and 2/3 without giving up a run. He was a seventh round pick last year for the Cardinals and spent the season with Johnson City.

C - Richie Williamson - the best news of the day, a backup catcher! He was a 21st round pick last year and spent most of the year on the DL with an injured hamstring.

MR - Thomas Phelps - 22 year old middle reliever was promoted from the Gulf Coast League. I'm already having trouble getting all of my relievers work and we just added two to the mix. Interesting.

Lost -
1B - Leen Noussen - promoted to short season A Batavia. I've got plenty of first baseman so I'm not too worried about losing him. He was 4-14 this year.

3B - Johan Garcia - while this move makes me sad I must say that this is a well deserved promotion for Garcia. He hit .400 with 5 home runs and 10 RBI in 8 games for us.

RF - Vincent Newton - Vincent was demoted to the Gulf Coast League. He hit just .154 in 13 at bats for us, so I hope he benefits from more playing time.

LF - Carlos Gonzales - another demotion to the Gulf Coast League. He did go 4-11 for us, so I must say there are other guys I'd rather have lost off my bench than him. Not to mention I get nervous when I see I'm losing outfielders. Bad flashbacks to last year.

Today's Score:
Astros 6
Cardinals 3

L: Shoji Takahashi (0-1)
HR: Braulio Hiraldo 2 (4)

Player of the Game:
Braulio Hiraldo was our player of the game for the second game in a row, after going 3-4 with 2 home runs and 3 RBI. He drove in all of our runs tonight, and if it wasn't for him we would have been shut out.

My thoughts:
With Galliano hurt I was forced to give the ball to a reliever to start the game, and I gave Shoji a shot. He made it through 2 innings and gave up 3 runs, but his biggest problem was his pitch count. I can't fault him too much though, he stepped up to the plate and volunteered to start because we needed someone to start tonight. Jose Capellan pitched 4 innings of 1 run ball to try to keep us in the game, but outside of Braulio Hiraldo we had no offense tonight. If you take away what he did at the plate we would have been shutout and managed six hits.

We fell below .500 with the loss. Tomorrow we hit the road to take on the Elizabeth Twins. They were one of the teams that I interviewed for, and even though they were very polite with their rejection, and said they wanted to go in another direction, I really would love to beat them this series. I've got to start winning if I'm going to start opening doors to bigger and better opportunities.

Season record: 4-5, .444

[NYY #23]

@ Elizabethton Twins (6-3)

Transactions:
None

Today's Score:
Cardinals 7
Twins 5

W: Orlando Mendoza (2-0)
SV:Angel Bernard (1)
HR: Bartolo Young (1)

Player of the Game:
Roberto De la Cruz went 4-5 with 2 RBI and scored a run, and got our comeback started in the eighth and ninth.

My thoughts:
I've mentioned before that my second best starter should be Leopoldo Malveiro, and then he got lit up during his start. He entered today's game with a 63 ERA and left with a 11.57 ERA. 6 innings and 2 runs with 5 strikeouts for the "Sandman" as he likes to be called. He apparently likes to take naps in the dugout, and the name has stuck with him through college. The "Sandman" left with a 3-2 lead compliments of Bartolo Young who hit a three run home run in the second. Unfortunately Josh Widmar, who up until this point has been great couldn't hold the lead.

Not to worry though, we came back and tied in in the eighth and scored two in the ninth to pick up the 7-5 victory.

Season record: 5-5, .500

[NYY #23]

@ Elizabethton Twins (6-4)

Transactions:
None

Today's Score:
Twins 9
Cardinals 4

L: Daryl Hall (2-1)
HR: Emilio Perez (1), Fletcher Carpenter (1)

Player of the Game:
Fletcher Carpenter went 2-2 with a homer and 2 RBI off the bench.

My thoughts:
I felt pretty good with Daryl Hall on the mound tonight, and he pitched pretty good through 5 innings, although he through a lot of pitches and I needed to take him out early. Unfortunately, Roberto De la Cruz made four errors tonight at shortstop, which led to four unearned runs. We fell behind 9-2 and despite a mini rally in the ninth, we still lost the game. Tomorrow is the rubber game of the series and we need it to get back to .500 for the season.

Season record: 5-6

[NYY #23]

@ Elizabethton Twins (7-4)

Transactions:
None

Today's Score:
Cardinals 11
Twins 7

W: Angel Bernard (1-0)
HR: Roberto De la Cruz (1), Alex Kirklan (1), Jose Flores (1), Braulio Hiraldo 2 (6)

Player of the Game:
Braulio Hiraldo went 3-5 with two home runs, 2 RBI, and 4 runs scored.

My thoughts:
This was a real see-saw game for us. Don Danton got the start and left after the sixth inning with a 6-3 lead. Unfortunately we couldn't hold the lead, as Thomas Phelps gave up 3 runs in the seventh to led the Twins tie the game. Our offense didn't give up though, going ahead in the ninth with a Braulio Hiraldo home run to take a one run lead. I brought in one of my closers, Guillermo Tavares to close out the game and that was it….well, it should have been it. Tavares gave up a run to tie the score and send us into extra innings.

Angel Bernard came in to pitch a scoreless tenth and we exploded for 4 in the top of the eleventh, starting off with another home run by Braulio Hiraldo, and capped off by a three run shot by Roberto De la Cruz. I rode the hot hand and left Bernard in to close out the game, and we ended up taking two out of three from the Twins.

We did get some bad news though, as Emilio Perez had to leave the game with an ankle injury. It wasn't terrible news though, as we expect him to only miss a few games.

Season record: 6-6, .500

[NYY #23]

@ Kingsport Mets (7-5)

Transactions:
We'll take a break from our regularly scheduled baseball game for some transactions, a whole bunch of transactions. The following players were assigned to the Gulf Coast Rookie League -
CL - Ramon Juampere
RF - Fletcher Carpenter
MR - Shoji Takahashi
1B - Charlie Thompson
CL - Guillermo Tavares
1B - Qu-bing Yap
MR - Harry Moore
LF - Armando Sanchez
1B - William Mitchell
1B - Hongwu Quian
1B - Gideon Harber
1B - Leonard Bump
1B - Jose Guzman
RF - William Kramer
1B - Neal Lyons
MR - Yosai Tamura
1B - Bei Rao
1B - Paul Henderson
1B - Joaquin Leyva
MR - Orlando Mendoza
LF - Stanley Shanabrook
CL -Josh Widmar
CL - Roberto Medina
SP - Pablo Mejia
RF - Anthony Barraclough
SP - Leopoldo Malveiro

I'm starting to think I'm either not cut out to manage in the minors, or someone has it out for me. This leaves me with a roster of 25 players:

Starting Rotation:
1. SP - Daryl Hall - #1 pick
2. SP - Don Danton
SP - Aubert Galliano -DL

Bullpen:
3. CL - Angel Bernard
4. MR - Jose Barajas
5. MR - Jose Capellan
6. MR - Dan Eastham
7. MR - Jason Gurka
8. MR - Zach Petersime
9. MR - Thomas Phelps
10. MR - Chase Phillips
11. MR - Stolmy Pimental
12. MR - Tyler Sexton
13. MR - David Swank

Line-up:
14. LF - Jose Flores
15. 2B - Braulio Hiraldo
16. DH - Nicholas Farnsworth
17. C - Richie Williamson
18. SS- Roberto De la Cruz (never played shortstop before this year)
19. CF - Emilio Perez
20. RF - Bartolo Young
21. 3B - Alex Kirklan
22. 1B - Will Becker

Bench:
23. LF - Ramon Lumbrera
24. LF - Julio Martinez
25. C - Daniel Elorriaga-Matra

I can live with 25 players, I'd actually prefer it. What I can't live with is having 2 starting pitchers not on the DL, and no true shortstop. Not to mention my centerfielder being out for a few days. Very frustrating, but I'll make due the best I can.

Today's Score:
Mets 9
Cardinals 8

W: David Swank (0-2)
HR: None

Player of the Game:
Dan Eastham - bad things can happen when relievers start a game in my experience. Especially relievers with no real stamina. I was forced to start a reliever today, and Eastham pitched 3 1/3 shutout innings before running out of gas. For that I'm naming him our player of the game.

My thoughts:
Today was a rough day for the Cardinals. It isn't everyday that you lose 26 players from your roster. Today was one of those days, and it really upset some of the guys. Losing teammates, friends, and roommates is never easy. But I talked to the guys before the game and tried as best as I could to lift their spirits. Life is a series of detours, but just because a bunch of players got demoted it doesn't mean their career is over. They are still young, and have a bright future ahead of them, or at least some of them do. I told them they need to shake it off and go out there and play the best game they could.

I'd say I got through to half the team, but not the whole team. Dan Eastham was great for 3 1/3 innings. Roberto De la Cruz made another error. We took a 5-2 lead into the eighth inning. Jose Capellan gave up four runs in the bottom of the eighth. We got things going in the top of the ninth with a single, a walk, a sacrifice bunt, a wild pitch, two walks, a single, and reached on an error to take a 8-6 lead into the bottom of the ninth.

After Jose Capellan gave up two singles to start the bottom of the ninth, I bring in David Swank who has been one of my best relievers this year. After a hit by pitch and a walk Capellan settles down and retires the next two batters.

With the bases loaded and two outs the next batter hits an easy fly ball to Julio Martinez. Game over, right? Right? Well only if he catches that easy fly ball. Not this time though. E7, two runs score and we walk away 9-8 losers. In a word, frustrating.

Season record: 6-7, .462, 2 GB

[NYY #23]

vs Kingsport Mets (8-5)

Transactions:
None

Today's Score:
Mets 5
Cardinals 3

L: Thomas Phelps (0-1)
HR: Braulio Hiraldo (7)

Player of the Game:
Chase Phillips - even though Braulio Hiradlo went 2-4 with a home run and drove in two runs, I decided to name Phillips as the player of the game. He pitched 3 1/3 innings of shutout relief, and struck out 4, including getting out of a big jam in the second inning. I want to make sure I start letting everyone know they are valuable, not just the guy who drives in the most runs.

My thoughts:
Thomas Phelps started the game, and had a really rough start, leaving in the second inning with us down 5-0. I realize he isn't used to starting games, and he really had a rough outing. My bullpen was outstanding though, with Phillips, Jose Capellan, and Jose Barajas combining for 7 2/3 innings of shut out ball.

We chipped away at the lead, the Hiraldo homer, and another run in the sixth, but couldn't get closer than 5-3. Disappointing to see a fine effort by my bullpen wasted though.

Roberto De la Cruz made two more errors tonight at shortstop, giving him 13 for the year. I don't know what to worry about more, my defense at shortstop or only having two starting pitchers. I feel bad for De la Cruz, because he never played shortstop before, but he is the best possible option. I tried to keep telling him that learning another position would make him even more valuable.

As for my other problem of having only two starting pitchers I called all my pitchers together after the game, and asked them to look at things differently. Don't look at themselves as starters or relievers, just look at themselves as pitchers. Who starts and who relieves isn't important, but it is pitching well when you get the ball. I basically told them to expect the unexpected. I'm not going to set a rotation with three guys that don't belong in a rotation, but I'm going to pitch guys who are rested, and expect them to perform. Be ready for anything. Hopefully they are, because until we get at least two more starting pitchers things are going to be rough for my whole pitching staff.

Season record: 6-8

[NYY #23]

vs Danville Braves (4-10)

Transactions:
None

Today's Score:
Cardinals 3
Braves 1

W: Dan Eastham (1-0)
SV: Angel Bernard (2)
HR: None

Player of the Game:
Stolmy Pimental/Dan Eastham - it was impossible to pick one guy, as Pimental went 3 innings without giving up an earned run, and Eastham went 4 1/3. Great effort by both of them.

My thoughts:
I don't know if my little pep talk to my pitching staff worked, or if we just got lucky tonight. Pimental, Eastham, and Bernard combined for 9 innings, gave up 2 hits, 0 earned runs, and struck out 6.

We took the lead in the second inning on a sacrifice fly, added insurance runs in third and fifth and I just prayed we could hold them. Today was one of those days where things went right and we played a really good all around game. Are we that good, or are the Braves that bad? The Braves are in a bad losing streak, and we took advantage of that. Good teams take advantage of every opportunity they get. I won't say we are a good team yet, but we took advantage of the situation and came out with a W, and there is nothing wrong with that.

The De la Cruz error watch has reached number 14 after he made another tonight.

Season record: 7-8

[NYY #23]

vs Danville Braves (4-11)

Transactions:
None

Today's Score:
Braves 10
Cardinals 2

L: Daryl Hall (2-2)
HR: Nicholas Farnsworth (6)

Player of the Game:
Roberto De la Cruz - not a lot of choices after this game, but De la Cruz went 3-4 and didn't make an error today.

My thoughts:
I felt pretty confident with our ace Daryl Hall taking the mound tonight, and going against a pretty bad Braves team, judging by their record. Unfortunately confident didn't cut it tonight. Hall gave up three runs in the second, and another 3 in the sixth. Nick Farnsworth hit a solo home run in the bottom of the fifth, but his costly error in the top of the seventh allowed three more runs to score.

A disappointing night all around because we really need to win the games our true starting pitchers start.

Season record: 7-9

[NYY #23]

vs Danville Braves (5-11)

Transactions:
None

Today's Score:
Cardinals 2
Braves 1

*18 Innings

W: Zach Petersime (1-0)
HR: Ramon Lumbrera (2)

Player of the Game:
Don Danton - he gave his all on the mound tonight, throwing 6 2/3 innings of 1 hit ball, striking out 5. It would have been nice for him to go deeper into the game, especially if I knew it was going to go 18, but a brilliant performance none the less.

My thoughts:
What is better than playing 9 innings with a depleted pitching staff? How about 18 innings? Not even a double header, but we got in 18 innings anyway. After giving up a run in the second, Ramon Lumbrera hit a solo home run to tie the score at 1. Who knew at that time that would be the only run scored for a very, very long time.

I really must give a lot of credit to my bullpen because everyone who came into the game pitched incredible. 18 innings pitched, 9 hits, 15 K's, 8 walks, and just 1 unearned run. If we can pitch half as good as this game today I'll be really happy.

The downside to today's games? I'd say three things -
1 - Our offense was 11-58
2 - Roberto De la Cruz made 3 more errors to bring his total to 17 for the year
3 - A tired pitching staff having to pitch 18 innings is never a good thing.

Season record: 8-9

[CatKnight]

Just out of curiousity, did Shapiro learn not to put 9-10 catchers on his AZL team?

I'm enjoying your trials and tribulations! At least this year the Cardinals are doing reasonably well.