Rainiers News

We’ve got a whole bunch of stuff to get to, so let’s dive in – bullet-points style.

• The Rainiers beat Las Vegas yesterday, 4-3. Tacoma had good starting pitching from Luke French, and Scott Patterson delivered a 1-2-3 ninth inning for the save. The Rainiers took advantage of a Vegas mistake: third baseman Brett Lawrie booted what would have been an inning-ending double play grounder in the sixth, and the next hitter – Carlos Peguero – launched a three-run homer to give Tacoma the lead.
• First place Reno lost in extras at Fresno, and the Rainiers are within 9.5 games of first. Still a long way back, but if the team can make up a few more games before the August 20 series at Reno, things will be interesting.
• It’s August, and this is when Daren “Augie” Brown* shines: his Tacoma teams are 60-39 in the month of August, and that includes a 1-7 mark last year before ol’ Augie was promoted to Seattle.
• Yesterday, Tacoma activated infielder Luis Rodriguez from the disabled list, and sent Luis Jimenez back to Double-A Jackson. Also, infielder Matt Mangini was placed on the Temporary Inactive List and he is away from the team on a personal matter.
• Today, Tacoma receives outfielder Trayvon Robinson from Albuquerque. He was acquired in the Erik Bedard trade (links below). Robinson hit .293-26-71 for the ‘Topes, and he is a first-year Triple-A player who is a candidate for the PCL Rookie of the Year award. Robinson switch-hits and plays all three outfield positions – Augie told me that he has Robinson hitting sixth and playing center field tonight, although it’s early and he may change the lineup.
• The Rainiers added starting pitcher Erasmo Ramirez from Double-A Jackson, and he will be Tacoma’s starter tonight. Scheduled Tacoma starter Anthony Vasquez is being pushed back a day or two. Ramirez went 7-6, 4.73 in 19 starts for Jackson. In 110.1 innings he walked only 19 batters and struck out 81, but he gave up 128 hits.
• Pitcher Fabio Castro, who has been on the disabled list since June 20 with a broken bone in his foot, has been pitching at the Arizona complex and is close to rejoining the Rainiers.
• Start your planning now: we have one of those lunch-break day games on Tuesday to wrap up the homestand, 11:35 AM first pitch. You still have time to “schedule a meeting.” 

Tonight’s game is at 7:05 at Cheney Stadium, and you can hear it on 850 AM and streaming online right here. Tacoma starts RHP Erasmo Ramirez in his Triple-A debut against Las Vegas RHP Chad Beck (1-0, 3.60).

Links:

• Here is the Rainiers game story written by Ryan Divish of The News Tribune.
• The Mariners made a big trade right at the deadline, sending Erik Bedard and Rainiers reliever Josh Fields to Boston, and receiving two hard-hitting outfield prospects in return. Trayvon Robinson joins the Rainiers, and Chih-Hsien Chiang goes to AA-Jackson (pronounced Chee-Shin Chang).
• Josh Fields was in the Tacoma bullpen when he was summoned to the dugout in the middle of the first inning. He was told he was traded, shook everybody’s hand, and went inside to pack.
• And just like that, Blake Beavan secured a spot in the Mariners starting rotation for the remainder of the season.
• Divish has some rambling thoughts on the Mariners trade activity. More trade analysis: from John Sickels, USS Mariner, and Lookout Landing. 
• Larry Stone reminds us that the July 31 deadline is sort of a fake deadline, anyway.
• New Mariners outfielder Casper Wells talks about getting traded.
• We have the weekly Minor League Wrap from USS Mariner.
• Diamondbacks first round draft pick Trevor Bauer has some unusual workout habits – he broke out his foul pole-to-foul pole long toss, with pitching coach Doug Drabek serving as the return throw relay man in center field. Here’s the story from Visalia.
• In the PCL, Fresno helped out the Rainiers by beating Reno in 11 innings. Edgar Gonzalez had the game-winning hit.
• Sacramento blew out Colorado Springs, and Graham Godfrey became the PCL’s second ten-game winner.
• Salt Lake beat Tucson in ten innings, and Alexi Amarista made the play of the game.
• Jose Lopez is crushing it for New Orleans. He’s hitting .390-5-17 in 21 games for the Zephyrs.
• Memphis received a great start from Cardinals pitching prospect Brian Broderick.
• Johnny Giavotella is deserving of a Call Him Up Already! The Omaha second baseman is tearing up the American Conference.
• Rumblings out of perhaps not-so-baseball-hating Portlandia, where a couple of ballpark proposals are emerging. However, they both involve short-season Class-A teams.
• I leave you with this story out of the Texas League about minor league kangaroo courts.

That’s it for a busy Monday!

* nickname credit goes to M’s Special Assistant John Boles.

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