Hoorlebeke has a brother who is/was a slugging organization 1b for the Dodgers and some Indy ball team and a cousin of theirs is a big slugger for Central Michigan who will probably also get a shot in the pros as an organizational player after this year.
Not a bad family

Other notes..
I really thought Holt could be pretty good pickup at one point. Part of that might have just been me loving the mid 90s-early 00s LSU baseball teams but he was an exciting talented player and looked really good at one point.

George Lombard being 32 is REALLY sobering. I remember the stories about him in HS. He signed his letter of intent to play RB at UGA while on a yacht in the Caribbean or something for a "senior cruise" or a spring break trip or something (because thats how those rich Lovett kids do) and then became a Brave instead. Being a Braves and UGA fan, this was a guy to watch for me.
In another dimension he is Jeff Francouer (same back story) Mark 1... or a good football player

He showed some definate power and speed (fun player to watch) but never really totally learned how to hit and when he was starting to show his game coming together enough in his late 20s his hammys or something started to act up.
Poor guy.. I'm still rootin' for ya George

Ruckle

The link above is Ruckle showing off and explaining his delivery, and some of his teammates impersonations of it.

For what little it is worth Ruckle is from a town with a pretty cool name.
Bullhead City, AZ.

It is next to the Mojave on the Cali/Nevada/Arizona border

Hoorelbeke's name is actually pronounced like HORE-L-beck. After reaching AAA in his fourth season of professional baseball and going 23 1/3 scoreless innings in AA with a final ERA of 2.63 it seems like he could actually have a more promising career than you say. Only time will tell, but he seems to be a pretty effective sidearm pitcher.

HORE-L-beck
That's how my boss' name is pronounced although he goes by the easier-to-spell Horlbeck.

Demoted OF Caleb Stewart from New Orleans to Binghamton. For some reason, the Mets like Stewart, who has yet to do anything above A-ball; perhaps another sojourn in AA will get him untracked.

For about 1/2 of Met "prospects" whether or not the Mets likes one seems to be an almost random process. They have a paucity of players who everyone agrees are prospects, but seem to have the need to name a full complement of players as prospects anyway.

If Stewart were 4 years younger he'd be a prospect, but he's not. He hit .272/.385/.487 in the NY Penn League, which is nice (not great), until you realize that he was 23.
He hit .259/.343/.519 in the FSL, which is nice again, until you realize he was 24.
He hit .252/.314/.400 in the EL at age 25 BZZT GAME OVER

at this point many organizations would have released him, or sent him back to AA for another year, but no, the Mets promote him.
Mike Carp (a prospect, not a great one, but a prospect nonetheless) hit .251/.337/.387 in 97 injury riddled games in the EL- The Mets send him back to re-do AA. Stewart? They promote him.
Corey Coles, the same age as Stewart
in 2005 the Mets had a 22 year old hit .275/.341/.416 in the El- they released him (to be fair, that hasn't come back to bite them)
Brett Harper hit .277 .344 .560 combined between A/AA as a 23 year old- he missed a year due to injury and was sent BACK to AA to hit .296/.350/.500 as a 25 year old- and they released him.

Yet Mr. Stewart hits .252/.314/.400 in the El at age 25 and gets promoted.

What does this tell players in the Mets farm system? (And Stewart is just a minor example)
PERFORMANCE means nothing- the organization has guys it likes and guys it doesn't and there is nothing you can do about it.

Ambiorix Concepcion is apparently bullet proof, the organization LIKES him, it doesn't matter that his age was off by a few years, it doesn't matter that his career line is .268/.309/.397 and he can't get his OPS above .660 in AA ball. Someone[s] in the organization like him, he's an athlete- he LOOKS like a ballplayer, and by golly, back when we thought he was 19 (and he was really 22) he had a lot of projection!

Hoorelbeke's name is actually pronounced like HORE-L-beck.

I was remembering Patrick Kinas's pronunciation - he's very good about getting the names right, so blame my faulty memory :)

-- MWE

Anyone has taken a look at the Nats's sytem or seen the Potomac team? Their pitchers are absolutely dominating.
Jordan Zimmerman is looking good in AA too.
Josh Smoker is in extended?

Anyone has taken a look at the Nats's sytem or seen the Potomac team? Their pitchers are absolutely dominating.

Most of them are college pitchers, age 23. They SHOULD be doing well in high-A. And Detwiler, who's the only one considered to be a strong prospect, is also the only one who ISN'T doing well.

Josh Smoker is in extended?

Yep. And Jack McGeary will report to extended after his classes at Stanford are completed. I expect both will go to Vermont to start.

-- MWE

Tommy Hanson pitched well in his first AA start: 6.1 IP, 1 R, 5 H, 4 BB, 7 K

Tommy Hanson pitched well in his first AA start: 6.1 IP, 1 R, 5 H, 4 BB, 7 K

Fretting a bit about his flyball tendencies. He has more of a repertoire than James, but the case of once bitten, twice shy..
Still yay!

And thanks Mike.

Corey Coles, the same age as Stewart
in 2005 the Mets had a 22 year old hit .275/.341/.416 in the El- they released him (to be fair, that hasn't come back to bite them)

Where is Corey Coles nowadays? He was always one of my favorites down in the farm.

Stewart is the new Prentice Redman.

Daniel Stegall is the new Corey Ragsdale.

Now watch us waste away Val Pascucci the same way we did with Petagine.

The Mets minors have a cyclic pattern to them, no?

ow watch us waste away Val Pascucci the same way we did with Petagine.

Well Val is not nearly as good as Roberto was...
but if Delgado has cliff dived and is now a true talent 80-90 OPS+ hitter, Val could beat that given a chance

so could Brett Harper.... who the Mets effing released

Rohrbough to start with Rome this week.
Gunderson upto AA

anyone have an explanation of why rustich was selected in the second round? doesn't seem like that smart a pick since he wasn't really dominating college ball.

anyone have an explanation of why rustich was selected in the second round?

Omar Minaya=college pitching.

-- MWE

Campbell activated and sent to Myrtle Beach.
Gorkys back off the DL. Schafer coming off suspension Saturday.
Mike Gonzalez to AA for rehab.
Smoltz to Rome for rehab.

And Chuck James on AAA DL with back strain.

Nationals:
Harrisburg - OF Justin Maxwell to the DL (right wrist)
Potomac - LHP Atahualpa Severino promoted from Hagerstown

Heyward's MRI on his knee and shoulder came back clean. He's off to ATL today to get it double checked by team physicians and could return to the lineup in a few days.

Jordan Schafer is slugging .600 in 35 ABs since coming back from suspension.

Great news about Heyward. How has Gorkys been hitting?

He's hitting over .300 since coming off the DL, but it's a pretty empty .300.

Tommy Hanson with a no hitter.
9 ip, 14Ks, 3BBs

Someone recently mentioned the fences have been moved up in Myrtle Beach. Does that mean we have to take the pitching numbers there more seriously and downgrade the hitting numbers? 7-8 players on that team have double digit HRs.

But I heard people say that the Beach has a poorish batters eye too. True?

Man, they moved the fences in at Myrtle? Interesting. Its survived as a death-to-hitters park this long, I wonder why they bothered changing now.

The biggest thing about Myrtle is just the wind. Even if it had a short porch and a perfect eye there are days where the wind will eat anything.

The Phillies have reached an agreement with the Oakland Athletics to acquire right-handed pitcher Joe Blanton. Blanton is 5-12 this season after going 14-10 with a 3.95 ERA last season.

The Athletics get second baseman Adrian Cardenas, pitcher Josh Outman and outfielder Matthew Spencer, all minor leaguers.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3494315

Three prospects gone from the NL east

Mike Hampton pulled his groin in his last AA rehab start.

You can't make this #### up

El Duque was pulled after one inning during a rehab start in AA tonight.

Not exactly a Minor Move but Buster Olney is reporting the Phillies added Joe Blanton for 3 undisclosed minor leaguers.

You can't make this #### up

You know who was whinging the loudest. The insurance company that underwrote his contract.

Knowing only that, basically, the Phillies minor league system is considered "barren" at best, I have to think that Beane could have gotten more for Blanton.

Textbook Editor thinks the A's made a bad trade because no Phillies prospects are good. Jason Kendall's #45y237579t23t6y8924809 Fan in the other thread thinks the A's made a great trade because the prospects are younger than the ones they got from the Cubs and therefore haven't yet shown their limitations and therefore more potential and therefore are more valuable.

Let's just hold on a minute, folks. Why rush to grade these things?

A's get the #2 and #4 best Phillies prospect according to Baseball America.

Couldn't even get Golson for Blanton?

Let's just say I think while the trade may help the Phillies in 2008, I would be concerned (were I a Phillies fan) that there isn't much in the farm system, and that hurts both (a) your ability to bring up someone who could help fill a hole (and cheaply, at that), and (b) your ability to trade those minor league chits for something productive for stretch drives like this.

Er, not Golson, Carrasco.

Couldn't even get Golson for Blanton?

How much do you expect from a guy with a 77 era+ this year? He's better than that but he's no ace.

The Phillies have a lot more "minor league chits" than they did two years ago. And this is the year, guys, this is the year that the NL has a total of one good team without huge problems (the Cubs), and this is the last year of Pat Burrell's contract. So let's go for it.