Midsummer Classic Invites 3 Flash

The Philadelphia Flash send 3 representatives to this year's All-Star Game, up from one solitary honoree from a year ago. Each Flash All-Star is enjoying the honor for the first time in their career. It becomes the second consecutive year the Flash have sent no offensive players to the event.

First and foremost is SP Maximo Lemon, who had a Cy Young-caliber first half. Signed as a free agent from the Augusta Black Bears in the offseason, Lemon has really flourished in the senior circuit. At the break he is 10-3 with a 2.07 ERA, which leads the majors. He also touts an unheard of sub-1 WHIP at 0.99. That stat also leads the majors. It becomes obvious pretty quickly why he earned this nomination. At 35, Lemon could not be more excited to earn his first All-Star Game invitation.

Next up is RP Rafael Perez, the 24-year-old wunderkind the Flash managed to snag in last season's Rule 5 Draft. Last season, at the tender age of 23, he stole the closer's job away from Flash career saves leader, RP Duke Monroe, and has never surrendered it since. In this, his first full season as closer, Perez has successfully converted 20 of his 23 save opportunities. His 2.78 ERA is exactly where the Flash want it for a kid who can only get better as he matures.

Lastly, SP Willie Rodriguez has spun his best season in Philadelphia. Signed before Season 1 as a free agent and under the final year of that deal this season, Rodriguez's arm has suddenly come alive (perhaps because he is making a pitch for another lucrative contract). The 32-year-old has seen only 38 runners cross the plate on his ledger, good for a 10-4 record and a 2.72 ERA. If this is his final year in the red and gold, he is certainly giving the Philly fans something to remember him by.

Petersen Joins Webs' Pitching Arsenal

Anyone who follows the Wailing Onions Baseball League knows the name Mel Petersen. But now the Flash will get to know the SP a little more intimately over the second half of this season. The Charlotte Webs completed their second blockbuster trade of the year on Saturday. Petersen spent 3 and a half years in with the Detroit Great Lake St, where he went 62-24 (a .721 win percentage) with a 2.62 ERA. He also won the AL Cy Young in Seasons 2 and 3.

Anytime a pitcher of Petersen's caliber switches hands, you expect a pretty penny to have been paid. But none of the three pitching prospects Charlotte sent to Detroit (SP Alberto Barrios, SP Slick Sosa, and RP Danny Campbell) have scouts drooling over them. All three have questions about their control above all else. Sure Petersen is just a rental player, but considering he will also bring compensation draft picks to Charlotte when he leaves, the ransom for yanking the reigning Cy Young away from Detroit was certainly an affordable one.

Though Petersen bolsters a fearsome starting rotation for the Webs, some insiders have said Charlotte should have looked for bullpen aid instead. While every starter except SP Garrett Collins has a shimmering sub-3 ERA, no bullpen man has a sub-4 ERA. Even their closer, RP William Lui, has posted a 4.34 this season.

Still, the bold move may provide the necessary spark to push a 43-35 Webs team into the playoff picture, where anything could happen with such a dominant starting rotation. After 3 years and no playoff berths, the Web management has made it very clear that that result is no longer acceptable.

Webs Snag Wood: Perhaps following the advice of this very blog, reports indicate that the Charlotte Webs have agreed to a deal that will bring RP Steven Wood to them for two prospects, pending league approval. Wood has never done anything other than close games for the Santa Fe Booze Hounds, a task he successfully completed 81.7% of the time in a very tough ballpark for pitchers, earning him the distinction of being an all-star in seasons 2 and 3. The Webs packaged two power-hitting prospects to complete the upgrade, giving them yet another bullet with which to gun down the Flash, just days after bringing Petersen to the National League.

Campos Tears Knee Ligament

Philadelphia laid claim to the best record in the National League with a 9-6 win over the Augusta Black Bears. But there was a somber mood in the locker room after the game, as the team awaited word on the status of CF Willie Campos, a former all-star who left the game due to injury in the bottom of the 7th inning.

After heading back to Philadelphia to undergo an MRI, Campos got the devastating news that he would not be playing any baseball for a while. A torn knee ligament will sideline one of the Flash's everyday players for 2-3 months.

"Crushed, devastated, there's all kinds of words I could use," said ML Bench Coach Harold Willoughby after the game. "But, at the end of the day, it's part of the game, and the executives plan for exactly this kind of thing. Well, the good executives, anyway. We've got a Plan B and we'll put it into action starting tomorrow."

Replacing Campos is no easy task for a Flash club already bumping elbows with the salary cap. As Campos was placed on the 60-day DL, AAA 1B Davy Hausmann received the call-up he thought he was entitled to at the start of the year. "This is not the pretense I would like leading up to my big league Flash debut. But as an individual, this is an opportunity to get myself seen, so I have to make the most of it."

Campos was batting .293 this season with a .372 OBP, and he had also chipped in 8 HRs and 33 RBIs, while scoring 47 runs. His average is one of the highest on the team, and not having him on base in front of SS Richard Takada and 3B Cozy Thomas could cut offensive production for the club. But 2B William Saitou offered a positive spin, "We're the best team in the National League, and it's not just because of Willie. You hate to lose a teammate like that, but he'll be back, and I'm confident we can hold down the fort over the next couple of months."

Philly Management Disappointed by Amateur Draft

After a string of solid draft classes, upper-management in the Flash organization seemed a little downtrodden after the recent Amateur Draft. Of course, the Flash cut back on their scouting budget this season due to a reduction of draft picks caused by no compensation picks this season. Even so, and this is no sleight against some of the players included in the class, the Flash felt this was one of their worst drafts. Below is a quick summary of their selections in the first 5 rounds.

Round 1, Pick 28 - Ethan Rivera, 1B, Pepperdine University, 22-years-old
The Flash hope this mature player will eventually become their long-term solution at 1B. However, though he is pretty solid at the plate, he struggles against left-handed starters. While not terribly deficient, it does seem as though a better 1B could come around by the time hometown boy Rivera is ready to make the leap to the bigs.




Round 2, Pick 74 - Woody Flaherty, C, San Diego State University, 21-years-old
Another solid hitter with some upside, but a couple of flaws as well. For a catcher, he does not handle pitching staffs as well as major league Bench Coach Harold Willoughby would like. He, too, suffers from a slight deficiency when facing left-handed pitching, but is otherwise a very complete hitter, and could easily be a solid bench player some day. He does not seem to have the stamina to play every game in the bigs anyway.



Round 3, Pick 106 - Jake Hogan, SP, Truman State University, 22-years-old
Nothing but a career minor league starter, Hogan brings a lot of heat and a nasty screwball, but his control problems will make him prone to big innings, and he just cannot seem to get premiere hitters out. Still, with five pitches in his arsenal and the ability to pitch deep into games, he should eat plenty of innings throughout his career, wherever he ends up.

Round 4, Pick 138 - Tike Duncan, SP, Aiken Technical College, 19-years-old
The first player drafted by the Flash younger than 20, Duncan brings more control and about equal velocity to the table as Hogan, but Duncan's pitches are just too flat to ever sniff the majors either. Opposing hitters will likely post a high OAV against him, if his brief collegiate career is any indication.

Round 5, Pick 170 - Bruce Corbin, RF, Mott Community College, 19-years-old
While he plays a very servicable RF and has a lot of pop in his bat, Corbin is too streaky of a hitter to be considered a major league prospect either. Of course, power hitters tend to have the edge in the minors, so he could post big numbers during his career, but the higher he climbs, the sharper his AVG and OBP will fall.

For the second year in a row, the Flash drafted exclusively college players in the first 5 rounds. It seems likely they will go in a different direction next year, given the lack of top prospects as you go deeper into the draft at the collegiate level.

Triple Threat in Triple-A

The Flash finalized a minor league trade two days ago that sent slugging 3B prospect Gil Crow to the Chicago Cubbies, of course in exchange for SP Tony Diaz and cash considerations. The Flash made the move to continue to expand their options for future starters now that their ML arms are aging.

Diaz, along with SP Julio Reynoso, acquired earlier this season from Colorado Springs, and SP Kareem Duckworth provide the Flash with a solid core of young arms, all of which look capable enough to jump to the big leagues as early as next season. As it stands right now, the Flash could have a 5-man rotation next year where only SP Maximo Lemon would be over the age of 28.

SP Louie Dali, SP Willie Rodriguez, and SP/RP Carl Oliver all seem likely to depart at year's end. When the Cubbies put Diaz on the market, the Flash did not hesitate to add him to their collection of options for next season. He has been in the majors before and has posted a 3.25 career ERA in 69.1 innings, and is still only 24-years-old.

He does not come without a drawback, though. Scouts say his inability to recover quickly between starts could force him into a long relief/spot starter role instead of being an actual starter. Still, that is the same role Oliver is likely to free up when he departs next season.

As for the other half of the deal, Crow is a respectable defender at 3B and should put up big power numbers in the majors. Last year at AAA he blasted round-trippers 34 times, and scouts expect he has not yet peaked in the power department. The Flash viewed him as expendable, however, because they do not think he will ever hit for much of an average. He is a career .259 hitter throughout his minor league career. Crow is already 26 and blocked by 3B Cozy Thomas as well, another factor working against him.

Around the Farm: Profiling Philly's Top Prospects

AAA: SP Kareem Duckworth, 21-years-old
Stats this season: 1-1, 3.86 ERA, 1.22 WHIP
- Duckworth was the #2 overall pick of the amateur draft during Season 1. Though some scouts were concerned by his occasionally requesting extra days of rest in high-school, the Flash snagged him anyway due to his all-world potential. Though he has plenty of maturing left to do, ML Pitching Coach Howie Zoltan, who worked with Duckworth during Spring Training, says he could already be an all-star on the big club. "Problem is, the team just doesn't need him with all their strong starters. I'd suspect he'd be the backup in case of injury, though."
Expected Debut: Season 5

AA: LF Don Driskill, 22-years-old
Stats this season: .371 AVG, .400 OBP, 9 HR, 24 RBI
- The AA Flash team is pretty thin in terms of talent that could make the big leagues some day. Driskill does have an outside shot, but his impatience at the plate could doom his career. Still, he knows how to make good contact when he finally swings at his pitch, and his batting average has never been below .300 at any level thus far in his development. Though he is only 22, he seems to be near his peak, another factor working against him ever getting to the show.
Expected Debut: Season 7, if ever

HiA: 3B/RF Freddie Quinn, 21-years-old
Stats this season: .350 AVG, .399 OBP, 5 HR, 22 RBI
- It's much harder to single out one top prospect at the High A level, as a number of players have major league potential. None, however, have pleased coaches the way Quinn has since he was drafted in the 2nd round of Season 2. "Quinn's got a ballplayer's work ethic. We expect big things out of him some day," said High A Bench Coach Diego Lopez. Perhaps not an all-star due to a few too many strikeouts, Quinn has put up big numbers at every stop on his minor league tour so far, especially against lefties. Add to that his versatility on defense and you can see why his coaches are so high on him.
Expected Debut: Season 7

LoA: RP Kiki Diaz, 22-years-old
Stats this season: 0-1, 8/9 SV/SVO, 2.45 ERA, 0.64 WHIP
- The Flash felt they did a great job in last year's amateur draft, resulting in a talented Low A squad this season. And while 2B Sparky Stevens draws most of the headlines on the team, the buzz among those in the know is around Diaz. Low A Pitching Coach Orber Bonilla says, "Stevens will be a very complete hitter when his day comes. But of the two, I think Diaz has a higher ceiling." Though his pitches don't have as much bite as the coaching staff would like, he has unparalleled control and velocity, plus the ability to get almost everyone he faces out.
Expected Debut: Season 6 or 7