Pending Pinstripes: Columbus Clippers Organizational Report 14 April 2006

A not-so-Good Friday if you happen to be a Columbus Clipper.

The Yankees' AAA affiliate lost badly, 9-1, to the Buffalo Bisons, the Cleveland Indians' top farm club. Kevin Thompson had half of the team's six hits and stole two bases, and Danny Garcia hit a solo homer. Those were the only real "high"lights for the Clippers. Matt DeSalvo walked five batters in thre innings and change, allowing four runs and took the loss. Justin Pope allowed another four runs, and only recorded three outs. Scott "What Elbow Cartilige?" Erickson allowed the ninth run in 1.2 innings of relief. Top prospect 1B Eric Duncan made an error, went 0-for-4 and is now hitting just .097 for the young season.

For Buffalo, DH Lou Merloni hit two doubles and a homer, driving in two, and catcher Einar Diaz had a double, two runs and two RBI. Two outfielders named Jason (Dubois and Cooper) each had two hits, one of which was a homer for Cooper, who scored three runs.

The Clippers are 5-4 on the season, having taken 3 of four games from the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons to start the year and then splitting four games with the Charlotte Knights. All four of the team’s losses had been by one or two runs before tonight’s embarassment in its first road game. Two of the Clippers’ five wins had been blowouts, a 12-6 trouncing of the Knights on Wednesday, and a 13-1 Opening Day rout of the Red Barons last week.

Overall, several players are having pretty decent seasons at the plate, as the team is hitting .306 combined. Thompson is hitting .353, Melky Cabrera is hitting .429, Mitch Jones is hitting .355, and Russ Johnson is hitting .484, with two homers in eight games. The only regular who isn’t hitting is Eric Duncan, who’s also trying to learn a new defensive position. Backup infielders Damian Rolls and Andy Cannizaro aren’t really hitting either, but as backup infielders on a farm team, that’s neither a surprise nor much of a problem for the orgnization as a whole.

LHP Sean Henn is 2-0 with a 3.97 ERA, having struck out nine and walked only two in 11.1 innings over two starts. Darell Rasner allowed only one run and struck out 11 in seven innings in his first start, Colter Bean has allowed only one run in four relief appearances, striking out six, and Scott Erickson hadn’t allowed any runs at all before tonight. Closer Mark Corey has struck out 6 in 4 innings with no walks or runs allowed, saving three games. The two main problems on the pitching staff are Jeff Karstens, with an 8.64 ERA in two starts totaling 8.1 innings, and Matt Childers, with a 12.15 ERA in two starts (6.2 IP).

The Clippers have three more games at Buffalo and the four at Scranton, followed by two in Toledo to finish up the road trip. Hopefully the rest of it will go better than tonight did.