Leiter Contributes to NL Beatdown

The Philadelphia Flash only sent one representative to this year's midsummer classic, and by the time SP Donovan Leiter got to contribute, the game was all but won. Leiter would get a chance to record the final 2 outs of the 8th inning with the score already 15-7 in favor of the National League. Most of the damage by the senior circuit had been done in the 4th inning, when they exploded for 11 runs, highlighted by a grand slam off the bat of Washington D.C.'s RF Johnny Costello that earned him MVP honors.

The Flash organization was disappointed to only send one player to the All-Star game, but they will be the first to say no one else had the eye-popping numbers required to earn the honor. Bench coach Lawrence McIntyre said, "[CF Brady] Pickett's had a good year, but platoon players never get the nod. Maybe [SP Benny] Aybar, but the NL is dripping with talented pitchers."

The general consensus around the clubhouse is that the Flash sending only one player to the All-Star game while holding the National League's 4th best record is exactly the reason the Flash have managed such success. SS Richard Takada, an all-star a year ago, said, "We didn't send a lot of guys because no one guy is the reason we're winning. Everyone is making contributions. It's a very fun brand of baseball." Though RP Duke Monroe did not agree, "How Raffy didn't get in is beyond me.", referring to RP Rafael Perez who took Duke Monroe's closer job earlier this year. Perez is 23-years-old but has gone 11-for-16 in save opportunities with a 1.76 ERA and a 1.01 WHIP, and was at one time in the running to earn an all-star roster spot. He has yet to give up a home run this season.

More than anything, the all-star break is a chance to pause, ponder, and party. The Flash players all love the time off, and are excited to jump back into the heated division race with a 4-game set against the Buffalo Hot Wings awaiting them to kick off the 2nd half of the schedule.

Flash get Katou for Stevenson

In an effort to upgrade their offense and alleviate the workload the pitching staff has carried all year, the Flash shipped away SP Quinn Stevenson and got RF Denny Katou of the Cleveland Wahoos in return. Both teams are hoping that the new players will give them a leg up in tight divisions.

As for the newest Flash, Katou struggled in limited playing time this season, but he is a career .285 hitter. Scouts call him a more polished Lefty Hodges. He should hit for high average and give the power hitters some bodies to drive in. He has already made his Flash debut, going 2-5 and scoring 2 runs in an 8-7 loss to the Cincinnati Motorboaters.

Stevenson's departure does decrease the quality of the Flash's starting rotation. Stevenson had been 6-1 with a 2.70 ERA in 11 starts. However, SP Carl Oliver is a solid innings eater, and with SP Donovan Leiter, SP Benny Aybar, and SP Louie Dali still in the folds, it is not as though the rotation is devoid of the ability to win games. For those interested, Stevenson is expected to make his Cleveland debut against the Seattle Steelheads in the 8/25 PM matchup.

Carl Oliver to Make Spot Start

SP Benny Aybar and SP Quinn Stevenson are the two pitchers responsible for the last two Flash wins. Unfortunately, neither feels rested enough to try and buck the 3-game losing streak Philadelphia is enduring. The two losses to start the set against the Atlanta Mad Dogs put the Flash in danger of losing only their second series in their last ten. Meanwhile, SP/RP Carl Oliver, who was a starter through much of the previous two seasons, will take to the mound in Game 3 to make his second emergency start of the year.

His previous start came while Quinn Stevenson was on the DL. In that outing, against the Portland Beavers, he served up 3 home runs in the 3rd inning, at which point bench coach Lawrence McIntyre made the call to the 'pen for RP Junior Martin. Oliver's line included 2.2 IP, 8 H, 5 ER, and 3 HR. The Flash maintain hope that he can be better, despite facing a tougher lineup this time around.

Oliver has been a successful starter in the past for Philadelphia, so management is not nervous about tossing him out there. Of course, ideally spot starts would not occur in the middle of a series in which the team has dropped the first two contests, and the last three overall. To make matters worse, the entire NL East is red-hot, only exacerbating the problem and really putting the spotlight on Oliver.

Stevenson to be Dealt?: If possible, the Flash would like to upgrade their lineup, and they may be willing to part with one of the top arms in their rotation to do so. SP Quinn Stevenson, who is 6-1 with a 2.70 ERA in 11 starts this season, has been an essential cog in keeping the Flash in the mix in the very competitive NL East division. Still, an extra bat would push an offense that ranks right in the middle of the pack in the NL over the top.

Amateur Draft Interrupts Exciting Season

With the NL East being as competitive from top to bottom as it has ever been, Flash brass had to turn their attention away for a bit to tend to the Amateur Draft. An exciting event in its own right, the draft once again provided glimpses into the baseball of the future. Yet again, Philadelphia had 3 selections in the first round, including the compensation round. Here is a look at the most talented of the new crop of Flash players, those drafted in the first 5 rounds of this year's draft.

Round 1, Pick 22 - Kiki Diaz, RP, Arizona State, 21-years-old
This former Sun Devil is an incredibly versatile relief pitcher with electric stuff. Durable enough to pitch multiple innings per outing, the sky is the limit for Diaz. It is hard to pinpoint any weakness in his arsenal, other than a tendency to get injured during his collegiate career. With proper training, however, Diaz will be a dominant back-end weapon in the years to come.




Round 1, Pick 24 - Sparky Stevens, 2B, Weatherford, 20-years-old
Though he came two picks later than Diaz, Sparky Stevens may actually have been the crown jewel of this year's draft class for the Flash. Though he's not likely to be a Gold Glover at 2nd base, Stevens is a wizard with a bat in his hands. He has got some pop to his swing as well, which is a nice bonus to a very complete offensive player.





Round 1, Pick 37 - Wesley Reynolds, RP, Le Moyne, 22-years-old
Reynolds is a nice pick-up at #37, as he is another major-league quality relief pitcher. Though he is not as useful against right-handed hitting as he is against left, he still throws hard and under control, and his 4-seam fastball and slider can both retire big league hitters. If he reaches his potential, he will be a very competent set-up man.





Round 2, Pick 77 - Jerrod Ramirez, 2B, Union County, 20-years-old
Though his defense is a notch above Stevens, Ramirez will not put up the kind of numbers at the plate that his 1st-round counterpart will. Still, there's a lot to like about his game, particularly how he handles left-handed pitching. And considering how the Flash are absolutely dominating left-handed pitching at the big league level this season, he'd fit right in.

Round 3, Pick 109 - Jack Jordan, C, Texas Christian, 22-years-old
Those familiar with the Flash big league club can compare Jack Jordan to current backup C Jorge Ayala. Though his defensive limitations make him a bench player at best, his discipline at the plate will get him into the lineup quite a bit. He can hit for power and for average, making him very useful off the bench. Luckily his low durability will not come into play if he indeed becomes a bench lifer.

Round 4, Pick 141 - Buck Barber, 1B, Angelina, 20-years-old
Buck is a solid pick considering 140 other players went before him. He is not a power-hitting 1B like most are; instead he relies on making good contact and making the contact count. He's also a unique player in that he's a right-handed hitter who fares better versus right-handed pitching. Tracking his development will be interesting, as he very well could make the major leagues at some point.

Round 5, Pick 173 - Howard Richard, SP, Indiana, 22-years-old
His inability to get right-handers out, as well as his lack of a plus pitch make Richard nothing more than a minor-league innings eater. Still, as those go, he could be worse. He never seems to give up long balls, which should help keep his ERA a bit lower than comparable pitchers. Still, his best pitch is his slider and it lacks enough bite to navigate him through tough innings.

It is worth noting that all of the Flash picks in the first 5 rounds were players out of college, but those in the know will not be surprised by this fact, given that the scouting department scours college campuses a lot more often than it visits high schools.

Reynoso Deal Stabilizes Club

The cost was the Flash's 1st round pick of a year ago, 2B Bubba Fox. But the reward has been tangible already. A trade that brought RP Giomar Reynoso and minor league RP Mark Ming to the Flash has served as a springboard to the big club. Since the swap, Philadelphia has gone 9-5. But that includes an active 7-game win streak that can be contributed to Reynoso's addition to the roster.

When the Reynoso trade was accepted, the Flash offered Rule 5 draft pick 3B Gabby Trujillo back to his original franchise, the Seattle Steelheads. The Steelheads would refuse him, sending him to the Flash AAA team. This meant that the Flash would be reverting to a 13-man pitching staff, as they had used in the first 2 seasons. Twelve pitchers simply had not proved enough through the early portion of the schedule.

It has not been the quality of work that Reynoso has provided that has propelled the club back to their winning ways. Rather, what he brings is stability. More bullpen arms get more rest, more often. The big guns like RP Duke Munroe, RP Felipe Martin, and RP Rafael Perez are able to enter games more frequently. Reynoso's job is simply to work a few quality innings, which he has done well to this point. His own numbers are favorable, with a 1.13 ERA since coming to Philly, although he possesses a WHIP of 1.63 that will need to come down.

Their recent hot streak has drawn the Flash to within 4 games of torrid division leader, the Washington D.C. Senators. They are also 2 games behind the Buffalo Hot Wings, who are tearing the cover off the ball offensively. But quietly, slowly, the Flash are building momentum of their own and are ready to climb to the top of the NL East yet again if they have it in them.

Catcher Controversy?

In years past, every day C Henry Wyatt never had to worry about losing his starting job to backup C Lyle Herzner. While Herzner was a great veteran bench presence, he wasn't the type of player who could make consistent contributions.

Now however, 24-year-old Wyatt, who is still learning the ins-and-outs of the game himself despite 4+ years of major-league service time, might have someone breathing down his neck. 22-year-old C Jorge Ayala received the call up to the big club during spring training, and though he is still designated as the backup catcher, he's seeing more and more of the field as the season continues.

Ayala has hit .302 in limited at-bats, and it is that consistency at the plate that has found him earning more playing time. His style at the plate is completely different from Wyatt's. While Wyatt is a pure-slugger who cannot hit for average, Ayala is a more complete player, from an offensive standpoint. Despite having 20 fewer at-bats than Wyatt, Ayala has an equal number of hits and RBIs.

The one area in which Wyatt has the advantage--and the reason it makes the coaches' decision as to who should get each start difficult--is the way he handles the pitching staff and plays defense. The starters much prefer the way Wyatt controls a game, both in the way he calls it and when he chooses to hold a mound conference. So for now, the two have had to get used to sharing playing time a bit more evenly.

Stevenson Strains More Than Shoulder

After an electrifying start to the year for the pitching staff in which they allowed just 54 runs over the first 20 games (an average of 2.7 runs against per game), the first bit of bad news struck during a 2-1 loss to the San Fransisco Slingers. SP Quinn Stevenson, who is spending the entire year as a starter for the first time, had gone 2-0 with a 0.37 ERA and a 0.70 WHIP in 4 starts. Then, however, in the 5th inning of the game he strained his shoulder after allowing a single to Slinger CF Corky Kapler.

Beyond the obvious loss of a stud starter, the injury also put a large strain on the bullpen. Needing a new 5th starter, SP/RP Carl Oliver had to jump out of his long relief role, forcing a chain reaction of promotions to new roles. RP Brett Ramirez got called up from AAA to complete the bullpen, but immediately struggled. So, as a stopgap and possible long-term addition to the bullpen, the Flash signed free-agent RP Junior Martin.

Martin has posted a 4.53 ERA over 47.2 innings for his career. The Flash won't ask much of him this season, but he should prove valuable over the next 14 days as Stevenson recovers. Once Stevenson returns, Martin may stay in the bullpen to alleviate some of the strain caused by the Flash carrying one fewer pitcher than a year ago. Until then, the offense will just have to pick up some of the slack.