Monthly Archives: May 1996

Lugnuts Notes: Home and Away series against Michigan Battle Cats

I think we can write off the half-season title; frankly, they look like they’ve lost interest. These games weren’t really horrible, but the team’s not playing anywhere near its potential. They’re stale. They come to the park and play the games, but there’s no fire there.

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Lugnuts Notes: Home and Away series against West Michigan Whitecaps

Saturday’s game looks like it was all right, but Sunday’s was a sorry affair. The Whitecaps played a poor game, but the Lugnuts let ’em win it anyway. WOOD Radio’s broadcast (1300 AM) of the game was on tape delay, so I got to hear the worst part of the game again from Whitecaps announcer Rick Berkey while I drove home. Can’t say I liked it any better the second time, but I like listening to Berkey.

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Lugnuts Notes: Home and Away series against the South Bend Silver Hawks

Better baseball, this series. [Blaine] Mull and [Todd] Thorn had good outings, and [Scott] Key had a terrific relief appearance. [Matt] Treanor and [Gary] Coffee have been improving their hitting marks.

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Lugnuts Notes: : Home and Away series against the West Michigan Whitecaps

Sunday’s game was the 23rd home game (I know because it says so on my ticket). That’s one third of the season, give or take three innings. That’s enough to make some judgements. So: What have we got here?

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Lugnuts Notes: Series at Home vs. the Fort Wayne Wizards

The homestand featured four pretty good games against one of the best teams in the league (Quad City), and four terrible games against one of the weakest teams in the league (Fort Wayne). Our guys split both sets, and I don’t think I like the implications. They’ve got to beat the bad teams and play even against the good ones; that’s how baseball works. Mr. Poldberg? I think you’re up….

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Lugnuts Notes: Series at Home vs. the Quad City River Bandits

I’ve now seen Carlos Febles enough to begin to appreciate what he brings to the game. He’s really very loud–chatters incessantly on the field. He looks to be a fine fielder, for this level. He’s got good baserunning skills, though not enough baserunning smarts. And he gets hit by pitches regularly (a beanball on Monday, which didn’t seem to faze him, though it bounded into the stands over the visitors dugout).

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Lugnuts Notes: Fort Wayne @ Lansing

These games were sorry excuses for baseball, with little to recommend them except Lugnut victories. The weather was wet and the defenses, for both teams, were pretty sad. Starter Todd Thorn pitched really well on Wednesday, and Manuel Bernal (back from the DL) had a good relief stint on Thursday. The Wizards protested Wednesday’s mud.

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Lugnuts Notes: Series at Kane County Cougars

The good news of the road trip is that Poldberg’s finding ways to use the bullpen. Scott Key had a good outing, which I hope is an omen, and Modesto Villareal has evidently been assigned to relief work. I still expect one or two of the relievers to improve dramatically, but we need better relief now, regardless.
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Lugnuts Notes: 1996 Position Players

To really appreciate the Midwest League, you need to watch the players through two lenses. One thing you want to know is what the player’s capable of achieving. Many people express this question as “Is he a prospect?”, but a better question to ask is “What makes him a prospect?” These guys have professional contracts because the Royals think they’ve got real talents. The second question is “How does this guy contribute to the Lansing Lugnuts?” Our guys are playing for a championship, and some MWL team will win it. This is valuable in its own right. Since only a handful of our Nuts will play in the bigs, this year might be the most important in their career. Not everything which might contribute to this year’s season will matter to a career, but it might make our seats and devotion worthwhile.

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Lugnuts Notes: Series at Home against the Clinton LumberKings

Our team’s winning about half its games because that’s the way it plays; they have excellent days, then have terrible days. No single player’s playing particularly badly, except for the relief staff, but nearly everyone’s managed to make serious errors of one sort or another.
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