August has brought some tough times for Irvine’s offense as hitter after hitter has gone down trying to make plays. Due to poor fiscal management, the team has largely had to rely on older free agents who were willing to take a minor league contract at one point this season to plug and play in these spots. Despite attempts to reason with the likes of Doyle about extending his career at a discount rate in Irvine, his agent understandably thought a MLC was demeaning to his client after his storied past…and a number of other free agents sitting in front of a TV had similar thoughts. However, there have been four veterans who were interested in playing for the love of the game and has thus played on Irvine’s pro roster (or will do so this upcoming sim) filling in for injured players.
1B Frank Geddes: He was crushing the ball in AAA with 28 homers and 100 RBIs and has filled in nicely in the power department even if he hasn’t hit for average for Irvine. Honestly, he wasn’t brought in to hit for average – just pop a few out of the yard here and there which he has done well this last week when he sent four out of the yard against Southern Cal and Nassau – unfortunately, most have been either solo or two run shots. He will be remaining with the team for the duration of September and serve as the DH against RHP moving forward once Quinones returns in a week.
DH Shizue Chouda is well known and the fans have responded to him joining the big club as the fan interest has bumped a couple points. Why fans enjoy stars well past their prime is unknown. He’s not been great in his first week with the club as he hit .077 with a .250 OBP. He even played first base well in one game. He’s not likely to see much playing time moving forward as the hitters return, but management was curious to see if he could regain a bit of his old glory in Irvine.
OF Jose Esparza returned to Irvine after being a main piece of the team in the early days of GM Rice’s tenure when the team was bad. Esparza hasn’t exactly been wonderful, but has done okay in his reserve OF role hitting .111 with a .273 OBP. The team would obviously like to see more from him, but its challenging to get a swing on the ball playing sparingly in a reserve role.
Pablos Rivas is getting a chance to hit at DH in some games this coming week against Springfield and Fresno. The only reason he’s in the lineup is his power as the rest of his game is largely not present. Time will tell if he can still hack.
Biggest Disappointment:
Dao Ho Kim has not been sharp for Irvine thus far since the trade. He’s had some nice games as far as strikeouts go but has given up the long ball a bit too frequently and is sporting a poor ERA for an Irvine pitcher of 4.50. The team hopes he can find his mojo again in the next month and be hot going into the playoffs.
Minor League Players of Note:
Carlos Cordova is taking AAA Houston by storm and has seen just a wee bit of BSA playing time as well. He’s running wild on the basepaths and is on pace to steal 80. In addition, he’s hitting over .300 with a .500 OBP.
Francisco Cardenas is mashing the ball in AA hitting over .300 with 8 home runs after getting promoted to AA this season.
2B Ron Elazer is also mashing the ball in AA hitting over .300 with 18 homers although he did go down with a minor injury the last couple sims.
All minor league teams are currently in first in their divisions.
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