Blue Sparks 5/12/08 - 05/18/08

Previous Blue Sparks

 John Lindsey decided to follow the path of Tommy Giles and Jayson Weth by slugging 3 home runs Saturday Night pushing his OPS over the 1000 mark. Lindsey much like fellow Vegas playmates Luis Maza and Terry Tiffee is trying to get someone in the major leagues to notice him. Maybe he can parlay this into a Japanese contract ala Mitch Jones last year.

 Twenty Three year old Russel Mitchel didn't have one explosive game like Lindsey but he did have 5 multi hit games and ended the week with 11 hits. Mitchell has been permanently moved from 3rd base to 1st base so he will need to continue to hit at this level to make an impression

True Blue fans may be tired of me pimping Carlos Santana but he had another strong week. This week he chipped in eight hits but five of those were extra base hits including home runs on Friday and Saturday night. Add in his 4 walks and you can see how he continues to keep his OBP above four hundred. His OPS is now sitting at .962 and he's 4th in the league.

Steve Johnson is also no stranger to this weekly list. He came up big again by tossing two gems and giving up zero runs in 14 innings. He has now made 8 starts on the season and has yet to give up more then 3 runs in any of them. In five of those games he has given up zero runs.

in hopefully a sign of things to come 20 year old Preston Mattingly put together a six game hitting streak during the week including one game with 4 hits. This pushed his average above the .250 mark and he now has an 850 OPS for the month of May.

Little known Twenty Three year old Victor Garate has been dominating for the Loons in relief so he got the call to start on Saturday night and he continued his domination. In the start he went 5 innings with no runs, no walks, and six strikeouts. For the year he now has 24 strikeout and only 4 walks in 16 innings while giving up only 3 earned runs. The Dodgers acquired him from the Astros via the Rule 5 minor league draft. He pitched for the Astro's from 2005 - 2007 and did get a brief mention in the BA 2007 Astro book as the 2nd best southpaw in the pen. So the Astro's took our top relief southpaw Wesley Wright from us in the Major League Rule 5 draft and we took their southpaw in the minor league draft. Somehow I think the Astro's came out better then we did.

The youngest pitcher on the Loons,Kyle Smit went 7 innings on Friday night and erased the bad memory of his last start. This was his best game of the year as he continues to alternate good and bad games. In his last start he was unable to strike out one batter, but in this game he fanned 7 and walked one.

Other News:

Luis Maza got the call this week and now looks to be the Dodgers utility infielder going forward. After scuffling for much of his minor league career, Maza put together a great April/May to earn the call up when the Dodgers needed some utility help. It seems obvious that he will stick when Furcal comes off the DL and that Hu will become the everyday Vegas SS so that he is not languishing on the Dodger bench. I need to get the real deal breakdown on minor league salaries and such but I'm fairly certain that Maza will be earning more in per diem pay on road trips then he earned with his minor league salary. Throw in the fact his health care for his family will now be paid by major league baseball for the rest of the year even if he is sent back to the minors and you can hear the sigh of relief he heaves as he looks around the Dodger Clubhouse.

Jason Schmidt followed up his one inning rehab stint with two innings on Saturday Night.  At this rate he might be able to go 5 innings by the time his contract his up.

Bryan Morris had a nice start and finally showed some dominance and control.