Why is the Southern League doing exclusively 5 game series this year?

Why is the Southern League doing exclusively 5 game series this year?

Seems like a way to reduce travel expenses.

Sean Tracey was pulled with two outs in the fifth of today's Charlotte - Durham game, despite having a no-hitter going. I hope he's not hurt.

BJ Upton broke up the team no-hitter with a solo homer in the sixth - it's 1-0 Durham in the 7th.

Upton also muffs a *LOT* of routine groundballs - trickier ones he handles with less incident. (comment based on last season)

Mike, very nice writeup. If I make it to any minor league games this summer, I'll try to do a writeup for you.

Tracey was spot starting for the always injured Hideo Nomo. They were warming a reliever the inning before, but I don't think Razor Shines wanted to yank Tracey until he absolutely had to.

The umpires let them play in pretty heavy rain in the top of the 7th just long enough for Charlotte to tie the game on a wild pitch. If they'd called for the tarp between innings, Durham would have won. Instead, it's suspended for 2 months until Charlotte visits again.

As a White Sox fan, I was horrified by the swing of semi-prospect Jerry Owens. It was a weak wristed left handed swing and he barely looked capable of hitting the ball out of the infield. He's no better than Willie Harris.

Why is the Southern League doing exclusively 5 game series this year?

As rLr wrote in #2, the intent is to reduce travel costs. Orlando's move to Montgomery prior to 2004, followed by Greenville's move to Pearl prior to last season, left the league seriously imbalanced geographically, with Carolina (especially), Jacksonville, and Tennessee facing severe amounts of time on buses. Because the move to Pearl wasn't finalized until February 2005, the league couldn't do more than just a quick fix last year (which among other things led to Carolina and Chattanooga playing each other 38 times), but they put a great deal of work into the schedule this year, going to five-game series and five or ten game homestands max. It's still not perfect, but it's a far sight better than last year.

-- MWE

According to Projo.com, the plan is for Pedroia to play SS/2B in a 2-1 rotation.

-- MWE

Steve Green is best known for being the guy named to the Angels postseason roster in 2002, who was then DL'ed and replaced by K-Rod.

Steve Green is best known for being the guy named to the Angels postseason roster in 2002, who was then DL'ed and replaced by K-Rod.

I'd forgotten that.

Of course, the minute I said something nice about him, he was DL'd himself.

-- MWE

Mike,

There's a guy on SOSH named AZBlue who is also a big minor league guy. He agrees with your assessment of Pedroia at SS and has been advocating that he be used as a 2B. What did you think of his range?

I wonder what you make of his great defensive rep in college? Was it just his hitting and his scrappiness?

Great post, Mike! I look forward to reading your experiences.

There's a guy on SOSH named AZBlue who is also a big minor league guy. He agrees with your assessment of Pedroia at SS and has been advocating that he be used as a 2B. What did you think of his range?

Hard to tell. The two plays he made were routine grounders, and I don't recall any plays that he didn't make that another shortstop might have made.

I wonder what you make of his great defensive rep in college?

I didn't remember that he had one.

-- MWE

unstick!

"I wonder what you make of his great defensive rep in college? "

It was quite good as I recall. I saw him for Team USA and (tho i dont remember his arm) he made a bunch of great diving stops. Im pretty sure he took home some D hardware in college

Though I should mention him sure his scrappiness had alot to do with his D rep. I dont remember exactly how much ground he covered but maybe some of the balls he had to make specatacualr dives on were balls other fielders wouldve got to cleanly but i think his range (then at least) projectto be atleast average for a ML SS

Pedroia - his rep was that he'd be a very good 2B one day. :)