AAA All-Star Game

Just got through watching my DVR'd copy of the AAA All-Star Game. If I'd known ahead of time that the AA All-Star Game was going to be on SNY yesterday, I would have taped that too. Then again, with the amount of fog they said there was during that game, better that I stuck with sunny, easy to follow AAA play.

Funny, there felt like more homeruns during the start of this game than there were during the first round of the MLB Homerun Derby this year! (Then again, these kids weren't trying to hit the ball out of that stadium in San Francisco).

MiLB has the box score here. The International League All-Stars beat the Pacific Coast All-Stars 7-5. Intrigue in the 9th inning(~!) as the game ends on what seemed to be a make up call from the homeplate ump on a fastball on the outside corner from Cory Doyne, from the Orioles' AAA-affiliate in Norfolk. His previous pitch was a pretty curveball right on the outside corner that was called a ball. The final pitch, the aforementioned fastball, was further outside than the curveball.

Hey, it's baseball.

Took some quick notes on the game. Just on players whose teams I follow, nothing fancy:

Brandon Watson: (CF) - Columbus, Nationals

1. Groundout to SS
2. Double up LF line, RBI
3. Lineout to pitcher
4. Groundout to 2B

Shelley Duncan: (DH) - Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Yankees

1. Walks
2. Strikeout swinging
3. Strikeout swinging

J.R. House: (C) - Norfolk, Orioles

1. Srikeout swinging
2. Groundout to pitcher

Jack Cassel: RHP - Portland, Padres

Pitched 2nd inning for PCL. 1st batter (Bixler) reaches on error from SS. 2nd batter (House) K's swining on 0-2 pitch. One out. 3rd batter (Watson) doubles on first pitch, scores Bixler from second (Bixler stole 2nd during House AB). 4th batter (Tolbert) soft grounder back to pitcher, Watson to 3rd. Two outs. 5th batter (Perez) grounds out to 2B. Three outs.

Pitched 3rd inning for PCL. 1st batter (Hessmen) HBP on 3-2 count. 2nd batter (Moss) flies out to CF. One out. Third batter (Duncan) K's swinging on 0-2 pitch. Two outs. Fourth batter (Votto) K's swinging on 2-2 pitch.

Chris Booker: RHP - Columbus, Nationals

Pitched 3rd inning for IL. 1st batter (Patterson) flies out to RF. Out out. 2nd batter (Romero) doubles up left field line. Romero moves to 3B on wild pitch during Jones AB. 3rd batter (Jones) strikes out swinging, but makes it to 1B on passed ball. Romero tagged out by Booker at home trying to score. Two outs. Jones moves to 2B. 4th batter (Pascucci) flies out to CF. Three outs.

Willie Collazo: LHP - New Orleans, Mets

Pitched 5th inning for PCL. 1st batter (Hessmen) K's swinging on 0-2 count. One out. 2nd batter (Moss) flies to RF. Two outs. 3rd batter (Duncan) K's swinging on 3-2 count.

Jim Brower: RHP - Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Yankees

Came into 6th inning for IL with two outs. 1st batter flies out to LF. Three outs.

Cory Doyne: RHP - Norfolk, Orioles

Pitched 9th inning for IL. 1st batter (Patterson) K's swinging. One out. 2nd batter (Young) grounds out to 1B. Two outs. 3rd batter (Jones) infield single. 4th batter (Pascucci) K's looking on 2-2 count.

Brower had the pleasure of throwing a grand total of one pitch, which was a shame because I've seen very little of him and was looking forward to seeing him out there. But better a one-pitch out than a one-pitch homerun, I suppose.

One game is an extremely limited sample size, but Collazo of the Mets had some nasty stuff. Jack Cassel of the Padres has some sweet breaking pitches that batters were swinging right over. I don't follow Portland nearly as much as I do S/WB, but it should be interesting to see how he continues to develop. Obviously, they're in no real rush for starting pitching with Peavy, Young, Maddux, and Wells down in San Diego. Germano's struggling a bit more now that hitters are adapting to him, but he's been good for them too. Not sure what the projection rate is on Cassel, but it should be interesting to see how he does with some more time to develop.

Again, small sample size, but Duncan looked to be having some trouble reading off-speed pitches. Watson's double was nice. I know he's tasted some time with the Nationals this year and will be interested to see if and when he winds up with the main club for good.

Highlights for me were back-to-back homers in the first inning from Hessmen and Moss, and a nice catch out in left field from Delwyn Young. Six runs put up in the first inning. Not bad, not bad. The rest of the game was, for the most part, about the pitchers. But I like some good pitching so that was fine with me. And the 9th inning got interesting, which makes it better.

Semi-related (minor league news), Jeff Karstens pitched five strong innings for Staten Island this afternoon. Five innings, 8 strikeouts, no walks, four hits, and one earned run off a solo HR. Obviously, if he and Phil Hughes are ready at the same time, that fifth starter spot is going to go to Hughes. But won't it be nice to have a longer list of possible fifth starters than Kei Igawa and...Kei Igawa?

To Igawa's credit, I'm not ready to give up on him in the long haul. I'm about as far from being a pitchers as one can get, but it seems to be asking a lot to expect a guy to change all of his mechanics around in one month and suddenly be ready to return to the big league level. In a perfect world, he would have had the rest of the season to try to sort himself out in the minor leagues. But this hasn't been a perfect world for the Yankees this season, not even close.

Back to Karstens. Maybe, if Hughes is back at the same time, he'd get the position people assumed he'd have at the start of the season: long man out of the bullpen. Either way, it'll be good to see him 100% again. Karstens, Rasner, and Hughes had a near-ridiculous stretch of bad luck. Broken bone off a line drive for Karstens. Line drive off the hand for Rasner. Hammy for Hughes during a perfect game, and the ankle injury after that. Good to see them slowly working their way back.