Mormon Baseball

Posts Tagged ‘Clayton Mortensen’

Its what every baseball fan dreams of.

Its the playoffs. Bottom of the 10th. Two out. Your team gave up 4 runs in the top of the 10th. You’ve already done well, 1 for 2 with 2 walks and no strike outs. If you can just get on base, maybe your team will find a way to tie, or win the game.

And then you get a perfect pitch. You swing, and watch as the ball sails out of the outfield.

For most of us that is a fantasy. We’ll never even be in professional ball, let alone pull off end-of-the-game heroics.

For Marcus Littlewood that was yesterday.

Read the rest of this entry »

With the end of the regular minor league season yesterday (except for the Pioneer League, which ends on Saturday, September 8th), the Mormons in the minors can look forward to further games in only two ways: they might get called up to the majors with the expanded 40-man roster that started September 1st, or they might play in any of the minor league championship games that have even begun for some teams.

Here’s a run-down of the seven Mormons in the minors who are on teams that will play in the league championships:

Read the rest of this entry »

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

Its an old story in baseball. The pitcher performs extremely well, but the team behind him doesn’t, and the pitcher ends up with a loss. That was the story for the Toronto Blue Jay’s Josh Johnson last week.
Over 5 innings Johnson pitched fairly well. He gave up 1 earned run and 7 hits while striking out 5 and walking just 2. While that perhaps isn’t a great performance, it should be sufficient to win the game. What’s missing is that the the team gave up a total of 6 runs, 5 of which were unearned, due to errors made by Johnson’s teammates.

Read the rest of this entry »

Sometimes just when things are going well, that’s when something goes wrong. Mitch Maier was very hot last week, hitting .571 with 2 runs, 3 rbis and 2 walks. And for the season he has also done well—he sports a .315 average with 3 home runs in 108 at bats. But halfway through the week he injured his oblique and ended up back on the DL—Maier already spent much of the season on the DL and only has half the at bats of most other players. As a result he doesn’t qualify for the stats leaders boards, but if he did he would be among the top ten in batting average, on base percentage and OPS in the International league.

Read the rest of this entry »

After starting the season strong, Royals’ pitcher Jeremy Guthrie has struggled, loosing ground from an era of 2.28 after his May 9th game to 4.11 at the end of this week. But this past week’s game was a quality start, despite a loss, so perhaps Guthrie will turn around his season and do better. Guthrie led the Mormon pitchers in the majors this past week with a 2.84 era, striking out 4 and giving up 6 hits and 2 walks over 6.1 innings. His performance was marred only when he was hit in the hand and taken from the game. But subsequent news reports indicate that Guthrie won’t miss his next start.

Read the rest of this entry »

Yankees prospect Nik Turley, who planned to attend BYU before he was drafted, seems to be improving at the AA level, but his progress seems to come in fits and starts, a strong start followed by a weaker start. This past week Turley lasted 7 innings, while not giving up a single run. He gave up 5 hits, walked 2 (a 1.00 WHIP for the game) and struck out 4. But Turley’s previous start was a 5-inning loss with a 10.80 era. Still, overall he seems to be making progress, and it doesn’t seem unreasonable to suggest that he may start in AAA next year.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Red Sox’s Jacoby Ellsbury wowed fans last week at the plate, and more importantly on the base paths. In four games against the Phils Ellsbury was 9 for 18 with four runs scored and 2 rbis. His heroics for the week culminated in last Thursday’s game, in which he set a new team record: 5 stolen bases in a single game. But Ellsbury’s fantastic performance came to a screeching halt that same game: his groin tightened up. He was benched for the next three games last week, against the Yankees, but not put on the DL.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Oakland A’s Adam Rosales sat down a bit this past week, and it made a big difference. The A’s put him on the bench for much of the week—he only had 12 at bats—but those at bats were profitable. Rosales got 5 hits (.417), walked three times, and would have had a game-tying home run if umpires had made a correct call. The home run was the subject of controversy last week as commentators claimed that Rosales and the A’s had been robbed.

Rosales was almost the only Mormon position player to have a good week, the other exception being Kansas City backup infielder Elliot Johnson, who finally got a chance to start some games. And his batting average promptly rose to .375 for the week  as Johnson got 6 hits in 16 at bats, scored twice and stole a base. Even so, its unlikely that Johnson will get a starting spot, at least not yet.

Read the rest of this entry »