Mormon Baseball

Most of the minor leagues completed their seasons this past week, and the majors expanded their rosters to 40, leading to shuffling among the minor leagues. Two Mormons in the minors were promoted as a result, one went back to the majors, and a total of 7 Mormons may play in the various minor league post-season games.

Among the best last week was Matt Neil, who was one of those promoted. Leaving the Jacksonville Suns (Southern, AA), Neil started this past week for the New Orleans Zephyrs (Pacific Coast, AAA) and turned in a strong performance, blanking the Albuquerque Isotopes over 6 innings, striking out 6 and walking just 1. Neil also pitched for the Zephyrs earlier in the season, but this was probably his strongest performance there. With luck, he will start the year next year in New Orleans.

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Ok, that is not really the question at hand. A panel at Post Sports Live from The Washington Post took at look at whether Bryce Harper with the Washington Nationals was getting hit by pitches because he is hated. Take a look at the video here.

Bryce Harper
(source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:9TH_Bryce_Harper.jpg)

At the Henrichsen home, we really like Bryce Harper. He is one Shem’s heroes. The fact that Harper is from Las Vegas is the first thing Shem (11) mentioned when Lyndee got the offer to come and teach here in Las Vegas.

Are players like Harper being targeted by pitchers? Maybe this is just part of the game of baseball.

Bryce Harper is young superstar. I can easily see how he might be viewed as cocky. Heck, he deserves to be cocky!

Oh, and asking if Bryce is hated because he is a Mormon is clearly a clown question. I know. I know.

Author’s Note: I originally posted this at my blog Approaching Justice. For other sports posts (mostly baseball) follow this link.

Chris is also a fan of the Dutch National Team.

Mormon Baseball is pleased that Chris Henrichsen has agreed to join our staff.

Chris is a long-time baseball fan. Growing up he collected the baseball cards of Baltimore Orioles players and Mormon baseball players. He still roots for the Orioles and whatever little league team his son is playing on.

Chris, a former congressional candidate, has taught political science at BYU, BYU-Idaho, and Casper College. He blogs full-time at Approaching Justice.

He will write occasional posts here. He will eventually write a post based on his sacrament meeting talk which interweaves Hugh Nibley and Cal Ripken. It is reported that he has been saying that for years.

We have confirmed that Tiger’s starting pitcher Doug Fister is Mormon and have added him to the list of players we track each week. Fister is in his 3rd year with Detroit, and his 5th in the majors. He was drafted in 2006 in the 7th round by the Mariners, and spent 4 years in that organization, including 2 1/2 in the majors.

However, this past week Fister struggled, giving up 7 earned runs in 5 innings for a loss. But overall this season he has been good. He is 11-7 with a 3.81 era and 1.30 WHIP.

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If it is hard to adjust to professional baseball from college for some players, then how hard must it be for players drafted from High School? Mason Smith, who graduated this summer from Rocky Mountain High School in Meridian, Idaho, was selected in the 4th round of this summer’s draft (118th overall) by the San Diego Padres. After signing he was sent to the Padre’s Arizona League affiliate (the AZL Padres), where he struggled to adjust.  While Smith initially did well at the plate, he fell into a bit of a slump in July, and his batting average dropped to a low of .154. But since then he has adjusted and started hitting. In August he hit .303, and last week he was 4 for 11 (.364) with 2 rbis and a stolen base. No doubt Mason will suffer slumps from time-to-time in the future, but the past month shows he has adjusted to the minors, and may be ready for promotion next year.

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In a bit of a bind when forced to use Sunday’s starter on Saturday, the Phillies activated Roy Halladay from the DL rather than have him pitch another rehab game in the minors. And Halladay pitched fairly well, giving up just 2 earned runs in 6 innings while striking out 2 and earning a win. Since the Phils have still 32 games to play, Halladay could still start 5 or 6 games, bring his win-loss record into positive territory and perhaps even bring his era down below 5.00. Of course, all that assumes that he is back in his best form—a big assumption.

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The Marlins’ promising prospect in the AA Southern League, Matt Neil, pitched a gem last week, but failed to get a win when his team didn’t score during his 5-inning service. Neil gave up just 3 hits and struck out 6 in the first of his two outings last week. He also pitched 2 innings of relief last night, giving up a run and two walks. Still, his season era, including 9 games in AAA, is now 3.95, while his era for AA this year is 3.05.

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Despite his team’s poor performance, Matt Lindstrom is still managing to perform well. This past week he gave up just 3 hits and one walk while striking out 5 over 4 2/3rds innings. And despite struggling a bit earlier this month, Lindstrom’s season era is just 3.26.

But all this doesn’t mean that Lindstrom will be able to stay with the White Sox, as he would like. The team is second from the bottom in the American League, and third from last overall, which has led it to make many of its players available for trade, including Lindstrom, who cleared waivers this week. But his relatively low salary should have let him be claimed off waivers if there was any interest, so perhaps he will stay with the White Sox.

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Adjusting to a new league can be difficult sometimes. Taylor Mangum has found that out over the past few weeks. After pitching well in the Midwest League (A)—3.35 era, Mangum was promoted to the A+ Florida State League in late July, and immediately struggled. He gave up 3 runs in 2 innings in hist first start in the new league on July 31st and another 3 in 2/3rds of an inning on his second start. But his third start was different. Mangum went 3 1/3rd innings in which he gave up just 1 hit and 1 walk. Perhaps he will now be able to handle the new level.

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Adam Rosales hasn’t had much fun during the past month. As the Oakland As have tried to improve their team and maintain a lead as the season winds down, Rosales has become more of a liability. But instead of simply going back to AAA, Rosales has ridden a roller coaster between the majors and AAA and halfway across the country as well.

To understand the roller coaster, it helps to understand MLB’s rules for demoting players. As I understand it, teams must first “designate a player for assignment,” which allows other major league teams an opportunity to claim the player first. If no one claims the player, on the 5th day the player can then be assigned to the minors.

Rosales’ trouble started on July 8th, when the As designated him for assignment and then sent him to AAA Sacramento on the 12th to make way for Grant Green. But he was brought back to the majors just 11 days later when Green didn’t work out. Then on the 31st, he was designated for assignment again when the As acquired Alberto Callaspo. But this time the Texas Rangers thought he might be useful, and claimed him on waivers August 2nd, though the As would have preferred to keep him in their AAA stable. But the Rangers didn’t even give Rosales a chance to play, and designated him for assignment on August 5th. But in the mean time Alberto Callaspo was injured, and the As claimed Rosales back. He saw one at bat last week on August 9th, and the As designated him for assignment again on August 10th.

For Adam and for the As the question remains: Will he clear waviers and stay in the As system? Or will someone else claim him?

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