Congratulations to Wings outfielder Dustin Martin and closer Anthony Slama who have been chosen to play in the Triple A All Star Game coming up July 14 at Lehigh Valley.  Both are richly deserving of the honor.  Coming into today’s game at Lehigh Valley, Martin is hitting ,269 with 8 HR and 51 RBIs. That total is good for 4th in the IL.  Slama leads the IL in appearances with 37 and has logged 15 saves.  His most impressive stat, however, is what opponents hit against him…a microscopic .126.  This will be the first time that two Wings have participated in the Triple A All Star Game since 2007 when Bobby Korecky and Jose Morales were in the game. 

Here is the release from the International League concerning their roster.  The Pacific Coast League roster will be released tomorrow.

Speaking of All Star Games…the Eastern League just announced their All Star Game rosters and three New Britain Rock Cats will be on the Eastern Division roster.  OF Ben Revere will be joined by pitchers Kyle Gibson and Deolis Guerra.

Now some odds and ends…

The Wings roadtrip has not been good so far, but—for me—the highlight might have been the appearance of Matt Macri on the mound Saturday night in Scranton.  The Wings had run out of pitching in that extra inning duel and had to turn to Matt to pitch in the 12th inning.  He worked a scoreless frame in the 12th but gave up the winning run in the 13th. 

It was the first time a Wings position player had pitched since Corky Miller pitched an inning (coincidentally in Scranton) in July 2005. 

Macri was actually very impressive topping out at 92 mph on the radar game.  He originally went to Notre Dame with the intention of being the closer for the Irish when he didn’t pitch.  However, before his freshman season started, Matt blew out his elbow while pitching during practice.  He had the dreaded Tommy John surgery after that causing him to miss Notre Dame’s trip to the College World Series that year and Matt had not thrown off the mound since.

Prior to the 12th inning Saturday, Wings manager Tom Nieto told Matt to head down to the bullpen and catcher Jose Morales flipped Macri his catcher’s mitt and mask thinking that Macri was supposed to head down to the pen to warm up a pitcher.  That’s when Nieto chimed in with “no…you need to warm up.  You’re going to pitch.”  Matt says that’s when the butterflies arrived.  Macri may have gotten the loss, but he impressed everybody with his effort on the mound.

Best wishes to former Red Wings catcher Chris Heintz.  Chris just stepped down as the Twins Gulf Coast League manager to become an assistant coach at his alma mater the University of South Florida.  I’m sure a big reason for this move is to be close to his family and I am also sure that Heintzy will be fabulous in his new role.

South Carolina won their first College World Series title last night.  UCLA finished runners-up.  The stepson of Red Wings great Bobby Grich was on the UCLA roster.  Brandon Lodge is a pitcher for the Bruins.  You might recognize his dad, Roger Lodge, for his appearances on the ESPN show Rome Is Burning or when he hosted the show Blind Date.

Congratulations to longtime Twins farm director Jim Rantz.  50 years ago yesterday Rantz signed a contract with the old Washington Senators after finishing his pitching career at the University of Minnesota.  Rantz spent a few years pitching in the Senators/Twins organization and has worked for the team ever since.

The second leg of the Wings current three city, 10 game, nine day roadtrip closes tonight at Lehigh Valley.  The Wings will play in Buffalo for the first time this season tomorrow night.  That means the Wings will once again run into former Wing Jason Pridie who just came off the Bisons DL.  He had been sidelined for the last month with a hamstring strain.

Hope to see you out at Frontier Field on the next homestand.  The Fourth of July game Sunday night should be a blast and—as of now—Rochester’s own Tim Redding is scheduled to pitch that night for Scranton/Wilkes Barre.  It will be his second ever start in Rochester as a pro.

The Red Wings wrap up the four game visit to Columbus tonight with a chance to win a series for the first time this season.  Last night, the Wings won a slugfest 10-9 in a game that featured three home runs from each team.  Brian Dinkelman, Matt Macri and Dustin Martin all went deep for the Wings.  The Wings have now won 5 of the 7 games they have played at the new Huntington Park over the last two seasons.

The Wings lost shortstop Trevor Plouffe after the game last night.  The Twins placed J.J. Hardy on the disabled list last night so Plouffe will go up to replace him.  For the time being, the Twns left side of the infield will be the most common left side of the infield for the Wings this year with Plouffe at short and Danny Valencia at third.

To replace Plouffe, the Wings are getting infielder Yancarlos Ortiz from Double A New Britain.  From what I hear, Ortiz is a very good defender.  The Wings are also placing Luke Hughes back on the disabled list today with that groin strain that he can’t seem to shake.  The Twins are encountering some serious injury problems in the minors right now.  Twins beat writer Lavelle Neal has more on that here.  Among the bad news, Rene Tosoni is out for the rest of the year due to a bum shoulder.  Tosoni was set to be the Wings Opening Day centerfielder before the Twins signed Jason Repko.

Tim Lahey will make just his second career start tonight since the Wings need a spot starter due to doubleheader they played Monday.  2009 Red Wing Yohan Pino gets the start for Columbus.

In other news…

In case you missed it, the annual First Year Player Draft was held earlier this week.  Three Rochester area guys were selected.  Most notably, Irondequoit High shortstop went in the 1st round to the Yankees becoming the highest drafted position player ever from Rochester.  He should enjoy his prom this weekend. 

Greece Athena product Brian Dupra was picked in the 11th round by Detroit out of Notre Dame.  The righthanded pitcher has been highly regarded since high school.  Meanwhile, Dan Jurik, a right-handed pitcher as well, was selected in the 25th round by Atlanta.  He is the first St. John Fisher product ever drafted.

Some other interesting draft tidbits…the Twins drafted Dillon Moyer—the son of one-time Red Wing Jamie Moyer—in the 22nd round.  Dillon is a shortstop who is also committed to Cal-Irvine.  The son of another former Red Wings pitcher was taken in the 4th round of the draft by the Dodgers…James Baldwin III is a high school outfielder from North Carolina.  His dad, James Baldwin Jr.  pitched for the Wings in 2003.  Former Red Wings manager Jerry Narron had his son Connor drafted by the Orioles in the 5th round.  Connor Narron is a shortstop who is committed to North Carolina.  Also, the nephew of former Red Wings manager Phil Roof was picked.  Michigan State shortstop Jonathan Roof was plucked by Texas in the 8th round. 

Stephen Strasburg’s MLB debut went rather well.  Here is yet another entry from Joe Posnanski’s blog concerning Strasburg.  The entry concerns some nuggets from his start in Rochester and includes some Joe Altobelli and Glen Perkins cameos.

That’s all for now.  Make sure you head to www.ilbaseball.com to vote for your favorite Red Wings for the Triple A All Star Game.

Go Wings!

-Josh

The Wings open up a four-game home series with the Toledo Mud Hens tonight.  The Wings have won two games in a row heading into this series, and there are some positive things happening right now for the Wings.

For starters…the Wings starting pitching has really started to come together.  Jeff Manship tossed a nine-inning shutout yesterday in the Wings 9-0 blowout over Norfolk.  Glen Perkins has been outstanding now in about three starts in a row.  Anthony Swarzak is back off the DL and has allowed only two runs in 11 innings since his return.  Plus, Matt Fox has been tremendous two starts in a row.  (I’m not counting his last start Wednesday when he got hit in the ankle in the second inning by a comebacker and left the game.  No worries though…Matt will be back for his next start.)  All told, the Wings pitching staff has allowed four earned runs or less in 11 of the last 12 games. 

Another good sign is the emergence of Wilson Ramos.  The 22-year-old, who came into the season with much fanfare, had struggled much of the year offensively.  He went 5 for 5 yesterday, however, and is starting to hit the ball hard consistently. 

We’ll see what happens, but I have a feeling the Wings are in for a good month of June.

In other news…

-Danny Valencia made his big league debut last night for the Twins and got a single in his first MLB at bat off King Felix Hernandez.

-SUNY Brockport’s Dave Trembley was fired by the Orioles today.  This has set off a chain reaction in the Orioles system.  Juan Samuel is now the interim O’s manager and his spot as the Baltimore third base coach has been taken by Norfolk manager Gary Allenson.  That means former Wing Bobby Dickerson will now manage Norfolk for the rest of the season.

-Everybody has heard by now about Detroit’s Armando Galarraga getting robbed of his perfect game Wednesday night.  But, did you know, the last Tigers one-hitter was thrown by current Wings lefty Mike Maroth?  Mike recently had surgery to remove a bone spur and could be back with the Wings before the end of the season, by the way.

-Major League Baseball’s annual First Year Player Draft starts Monday and it will be interesting to see where Irondequoit High School’s Cito Culver gets picked.  Here is an excerpt from Baseball America magazine’s draft coverage on the shortstop:

Hidden away in upstate New York–hardly a baseball hotbed–Culver sticks out like a sore thumb. He is the rare Northeast prep product with a legitimate chance to play shortstop in the major leagues.

Good luck to Cito.  I remember seeing him at some batting cages when he was 12 or 13 and thinking “Wow.  If that kid keeps getting better.  He is really going to be something.”

-Haven’t found it online but the great Joe Posnanski’s article profiling Stephen Strasburg is in the new issue of Sports Illustrated and—believe it or not—Rochester’s Mr. Baseball Joe Altobelli figures prominently in the story.  If you don’t subscribe to SI, it would be worth heading to the newstand to pick up a copy.  (Speaking of Joe…he will be signing copies of Jim Mandelaro and Scott Pitoniak’s book Silver Seasons: And A New Frontier tonight at the ballpark.)

That’s it for now.  Hope to see you at the park at sometime this homestand.  If not, all four games will be broadcast on Time Warner Cable Sports Net and on 1280 WHTK and FM 107.3 Rochester’s Sports Talk or online at www.whtk.com.

Go Wings!

-Josh