July 3 to July 4
- Lugnuts 2 games, Hawks 0 games
- Lugnuts are 8-6 (.571)
- Tied with the Whitecaps for first place, one game ahead of Michigan and Fort Wayne
- Thorn threw a complete game on Tuesday
- Tim Grieve’s been reassigned to Wilmington
Tuesday’s was the fourth consecutive excellent game; Wednesday, while less than perfect, was an easy win. Thorn’s CG was 99 pitches, according to pitch chart (I sat behind the gun again).
Turns out Grieve was in Lansing on a rehab assignment. Nothing against that, but I always imagined the first Lugnut to get a promotion would be someone I’ve seen enough to appreciate. Oh, well; player development counts more than my expectations.
Additional note on Grieve: Tim’s brother, Ben, is a highly-regarded prospect in the Oakland organization; he played the first half of last season for the Whitecaps. Their father Tom was once a major leaguer and is the former GM of the Texas Rangers.
Cepeda hit a home run in South Bend, his first as a professional. The crowd didn’t properly appreciate it, of course, but the Lugnut players were delighted, and astonished. He’s been hitting really well since mid-season.
Spokane Indians Roster
Just some sketchy information. I’ll do the same with GCL team soon.
Coaching Staff
Manager: Bob Herold Coaches: Jeff Garber & Buster Keeton
Pitchers
Alonzo Aguilar 1995 draft; East Los Angeles JC; 1995 GCL Royals Brandon Baird (LH) 1996 draft; Wichita State Jamie Burton (LH) 1995 GCL Royals Enrique Calero 1996 draft; St Thomas Jake Chapman (LH) 1996 draft; St Joseph's Steve Huesten 1996 draft (round 10); California State (I've got references to this player with his name spelled three ways....) Aaron Lineweaver 1996 draft; Dallas Baptist Scott Mullen (LH) 1996 draft (round 7); Dallas Baptist Taylor Myers 1996 draft (round 2); Green Valley HS (Henderson, NV) Donald Quigley 1996 draft; Sonoma State Allen Sanders 1995 draft (round 7); Lee (TX) JC; 1995 GCL Royals; 1995 Spokane Craig Sanders 1995 draft; University of Nebraska; 1995 Spokane; 1996 Lansing Jason Simontacchi 1996 draft; Albertsons College Ethan Stein 1996 draft; North Carolina Modesto Villarreal 1995 Spokane; 1996 Lansing
Catchers
Roman Escamilla 1996 draft; Texas Juan Robles 1995 GCL Royals; 1995 Spokane; 1996 Lansing
Infielders
First Base Jason Layne (LH) Kit Pellow 1996 draft; Arkansas Second Base Kenderick Moore Third Base Courtney Arrollado Kris Didion 1996 draft; Riverside CA Shortstop Eric Sees 1996 draft; Stanford Brett Taft 1996 draft; Alabama
Outfielders
Carlos Beltran (SH) 1995 draft (round 2); Arroyo PR; 1995 GCL Royals; 1996 Lansing Brandon Berger 1996 draft; Eastern Kentucky Jeremy Giambi (LH) 1996 draft (round 6); California State Scott Harp 1996 draft; Dallas Baptist Rick Pitts (SH) 1995 GCL Royals; 1996 Lansing
Designated Hitters
Doug Blosser (LH) 1995 draft (round 3); Sarasota FL; 1995 GCL Royals; 1996 Lansing Tony Miranda 1995 draft; Cal State Fullerton; 1995 Spokane
Reposting a day late again. Such is life.
I’ve already discussed Grieve and Cepeda, and plan talk about Thorn some other day. Jose Cepeda would never develop any power, which certainly didn’t help his major league prospects.
A few notes on the 1996 Spokane Indians:
Before I go into detail about his career, let me say this: Kit Pellow was a fun player to watch. He was a big guy who played full-out, charging around the third base corner. And he could just rake at the plate.
He played hard, but he didn’t defend well. I wrote a little profile of Pellow for the 1998 Lansing Lugnuts magazine. My writeup included this: “Can you say Bobby Bonilla? Howard Johnson? The offensive contributions of these big-league third basemen more than make up for their defensive weaknesses. Pellow should take notes.” (Actually, this is editor Mary Connors‘ rewrite of my comment, incorporating a clarification from an email. Mary was always more conscious than I was of the difference between what I knew and what my readers would know.)
Pellow’s major league career is insignificant, except that he broke up a Tom Glavine no hitter. But his minor league career, almost entirely at the Triple-A level, is really quite remarkable. This man was a threat hit thirty or more home runs per season, and knocked in tons of baserunners. But he did that hitting in Omaha and Colorado Springs and Saltillo (where he won the Mexican League Triple Crown in 2008). And you’ve got to think that any player whose career includes stints in Korea, Mexico, and China is playing for the love of the game.
Kit apparently never learned to field. Nonetheless, you might suppose that Jim Leyland or Davey Johnson would have found a way to get him into the lineup.
Just in case you think I’m being hard on Pellow’s defense….
In the event you’ve just stumbled onto this entry, here’s an explanation of what I’m up to. With an index!