Mormon Baseball

The Sacramento River Cats’ Shane Peterson is hot once again. After all but taking over spring training as a personal showcase, he cooled down during the season, settling into a sub-.250 batting average. But this past week Peterson has become hot again. In games against Albuquerque and Round Rock Peterson has exploded, going 10 for 22 with a home run, 5 rbis, 4 runs scored and six walks. In the process he has raised his season average to .241. With Oakland leading the AL West and expecting to make the post-season, they will want another hot bat on the bench when the roster expands to 40 on September 1st. Will Peterson be ready?

Another 40-man roster candidate is the Yankee’s Nik Turley, currently playing in the AA Eastern League for the Trenton Thunder. Turley has steadily improved over the past few weeks and could also be ready for the expanded roster on September 1st. This past week he was stellar, giving up just 1 run in 11 innings (0.82 era), striking out 9 and posting a WHIP of 1.00. For the season the lefty’s era is down to 3.77 and his WHIP stands at 1.31, and given the doubts about the Yankee’s pitching, he may make his first appearance in the majors this Fall.

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Over his past 5 starts, the Kansas City Royals’ Jeremy Guthrie has a 4-1 record, improving his season totals to 11-7 and putting him tied for 11th in the majors in wins. Does this mean that Guthrie has turned around his performance? Can we expect solid pitching for the rest of the year?

The answer isn’t quite clear. Guthrie’s struggles have kept everyone guessing, with the best guess being that he will pitch well one game and then struggle the next. And looking behind the wins at his era and performance each game, Guthrie’s performance is still not something you can count on. In the last 5 games, he first pitched well, and then twice gave up 5 earned runs, but somehow managed to win one of those games. The most recent two games were solid—he gave up first 1 earned run, and then 2 last week. His era for these 5 games was still 3.98, just a little below his season era of 4.22. So its hard to make much of the last 5 games. But give me another strong outing or two in a row? Well, the Royals will be much happier and much more confident in him.

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Former BYU Cougar Jaycob Brugman, who was drafted in the 17th round this past summer, is starting to make his mark in the New York-Penn League. After a slow start, Brugman’s stats are improving, and this past week he was stellar, hitting 9 for 27, scoring 3 times and earning 4 rbis.
This week he also reached the top of the league stats, when his 22 rbis reached the top ten.

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If you thought the Home Run Derby and All-Star break might leave Bryce Harper off his game for a little while, you weren’t correct. If anything, the experience has sparked Harper, making him play better. In the first full week after the break Harper was 9 for 25 (.360) with 4 runs scored and 6 rbis. AND, Harper hit his 14th and 15th home runs during the week.

The week wasn’t without a downside for the 20-year-old. He once again aggravated his left knee, took a day off and then by the end of the week aggravated the knee again. But while the knee has bothered Harper all year, he has still managed to play well, and often play brilliantly.

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The Lansing Lugnut’s Taylor Cole has struggled this season, but seems to be slowly improving, especially in July, given Cole’s  2.52 era for the month. This past week he was even better, earning a 1.64 era over 11 innings, despite winning 1 and losing the other of the two games he pitched. Overall he has a sub-4.00 era and a 5-9 record with 71 strike outs. He must be showing coaches what they want to see because they keep starting him and keeping him in the games—he now is 9th in the league in innings pitched at just over 100, more than his totals in either of his previous two seasons in the Northwest (A short season) league.

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The week of the All-Star Game can be a boon to some players—those who don’t play. First you get three days of rest. Then the shortened week can make you look good for the week. And among the Mormons in the Majors, the All-Star week worked best for Eric Sogard. After his three days of rest, Sogard, who is best known among the Oakland fans for his glasses, went 4 for 8 and hit his 2nd home run of the year. His batting average is back up to .264, and unlike fellow Mormon on the team Adam Rosales, Sogard has not been sent down to triple A ahead of the trade deadline.

Sogard isn’t the only Mormon blasting away at the plate. Jacoby Ellsbury was still red hot after the All-Star Game, hitting .364, scoring twice and walking twice. His batting average is up to .307 and he has maintained a lead in stolen bases in the majors with 37.

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After spending the first half of the season this year in the Red Sox’s bullpen, Clayton Mortensen is back on the AAA Pawtucket Red Sox and wasted no time making a case for his return to the majors. Mortensen pitched 4 1/3rd innings of relief last week, giving up just 3 hits and 3 walks, but no runs, while striking out 3. While his era for the week was lower than the 5.34 era he managed over 30 innings in the majors, his other stats were in line with his MLB performance.

That may not be enough to keep Mortensen in the majors for the long term, however, he is likely good enough to again make the team’s 40-man roster when the roster is expanded ahead of the end of the season. Of course, Mortensen might also be a strong enough prospect that the Red Sox will trade him in search of high calibre players that will keep them at the top of the American League East.

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Bryce Harper reached the finals of last night’s Home Run Derby, but despite a remarkably consistent performance (Harper hit 8 home runs in each of 3 rounds), Harper was passed by the Oakland A’s Yoenis Céspedes, who dominated the first round with 17 home runs and then easily passed Harper in the final round, hitting the winning home run with 5 of his 10 outs to go.

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Managing pitchers is, more than perhaps anything, a search for consistency, and I tend to think that pitching staffs are actually constructed as a series of backups for when consistency proves elusive. This year, if I were to chose the Mormon pitcher who seems most consistent, I think I’d have to choose Matt Lindstrom. And this past week Lindstrom showed the quality of his relief, appearing 5 times for a total of 4 innings without giving up a single run and just 2 hits. While Lindstrom isn’t exactly lights out (WHIP is 1.38), his era is down to 2.87 for the season, the lowest among the Mormon pitchers in the majors.

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It has to be exactly what any newly drafted ballplayer wants. Adam Law was drafted in early June in the 12th round by the Dodgers, assigned to play in the Arizona League, and there he has played well almost from day one. Law is among the leaders in the Arizona League in OBP, runs scored and stolen bases, and last week he practically exploded, going 10 for 18. While it is very early in Law’s career, this performance raises expectations that he may be promoted next year, and hopes that Law, the 3rd-generation in pro ball in his family, may eventually join his father (Vance) and grandfather (Vern) as someone who played in the majors.

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