THE FLYING TIGERS (37-33) - The Flying Tigers downed Daytona 7-4 on Wednesday to close out the first half tied for second place with a 37-33 record. The 37 wins is the most for a Lakeland club since the 2006 team also recorded 37 victories. The Flying Tigers are hitting .215 (71x330) as a team since knocking out a total of 28 hits in back-to-back games on June 8 and 9 and rank third in the FSL with a .263 average. Lakeland has scored an average of just 3.3 runs per game over the last 11 games. The Lakeland starting pitchers have a 6.09 ERA (23 ER/34.0 IP) over the last seven games but do have two complete games in those seven games. Meanwhile, the bullpen has a 3.27 ERA (8 ER/22.0 IP) over the same time frame. Overall, Lakeland ranks third with a 3.15 ERA and has walked the fewest batters of any FSL team.
THE MANATEES (33-34) ... Brevard County scored five times in the bottom of the eighth to snap a 5-5 tie and defeat Clearwater 10-5 on Wednesday. The win gives the Manatees a 27-42 first half record. Brevard is hitting .252 as a team and is second to last in the FSL with a 4.10 staff ERA.
THE SERIES ... Lakeland won the first five games of the series winning all three games played at Brevard County. The Manatees came back to take three of the last four. Overall, Lakeland leads the series 6-3. Three of the last four games were seven inning affairs - two coming in a doubleheader and the third was cut short to due heavy lightning in the area. Lakeland is hitting .236 in the series and has a 3.72 ERA in the nine games. Brevard County has a .251 average in the series with a 3.25 ERA.
PROBABLE STARTERS ... Thu: Jon Kibler (0-1, 7.71); Fri: Luke Putkonen (6-4, 3.61); Sat: Adam Wilk (4-4, 3.24).
ROSTER RAID ... As in common place following the major league draft and the conclusion of the first half, the Lakeland roster got hit hard by organizational moves on Wednesday. Earning promotions to AA Erie were 1B Rawley Bishop, 2B Alden Carrithers and OF Kody Kaiser. Carrithers was leading the Florida State League with a .359 batting average and a .464 on base percentage while Kaiser was third in the league at .325 while leading the FSL with 82 hits. Bishop was hitting .301 with a team-leading six homers and 42 RBI. Collectively, the trio has accounted for 37 percent of Lakeland’s runs and hits. In addition, RHP Wilsen Palacios, who pitched in just one game for Lakeland, was sent to the Gulf Coast League Tigers. The moves were just some of 18 moves made by the Detroit organization Wednesday.
NEWEST CREW MEMBERS ... Taking the vacated rosters spots are infielders Carmelo Jaime, Jordan Lennerton and Bryan Pounds along with RHP Jacob Turner. Jaime began the season in Lakeland but was sent to extended spring training on June 23 while Lennerton batted .290 in 59 games at West Michigan with 15 doubles. Both players played on the 2008 Lakeland Flying Tigers’ squad. Pounds also began the 2010 season at Lakeland and was on a hot streak, batting .370 in the six games before going on the disabled list with a strained oblique muscle. Turner was 2-3 with a 3.67 ERA at West Michigan and had 51 strikeouts with just nine walks in 54.0 innings pitched.
OUTSTANDING IN HIS FIELD ... Daniel Field has batted .333 (11x33) in his last 10 games, but is 0x6 in his last two games.
THE CONN CONTINUES ... Tyler Conn has not allowed an earned run in his last seven appearances and has a 1.37 ERA in his last 14 outings from the bullpen.
FURBUSH FUROR ... Charlie Furbush leads the FSL with 109 strikeouts in the first half this season (11 more than the next pitcher). Furbush recorded 93 in strikeouts in all of last year.
LOOKING TO GET THE MAGIC BACK ... Francisco Martinez had a 13-game hit streak from June 1-17 batting .385 (20x52), but is just 2x13 in four games since having the streak snapped.
BILLY BALL ... Billy Nowlin enters the Brevard County series with a nine-game hitting streak in which he is batting .433 (13x30) with eight runs batted in. He now has hits in 21 of last 23 games and is batting .386 (32x82) in that time frame.
IN “O” WE SAVE ... Lester Oliveros is a perfect eight-for-eight in save opportunities this season with four of those saves coming against the Manatees.
SKIPPER ANDY BARKETT ... Andy Barkett is in his third season as manager of the Flying Tigers and enters the Brevard County series with a 159-178 record with the club. The 37 wins in the first half is the most wins in any half for a Barkett-led club in the Florida State League. Barkett began his managerial career with Oneonta in 2007, going 44-32. He played 11 seasons in minor league baseball with the Rangers, Braves, Pirates, Mariners and Tigers organizations and played one season (2001) in the majors, batting .304 in 17 games with Pittsburgh.
NOTABLE LAKELAND ALUMNI ... Among the numerous Lakeland alumni who have made it to the major leagues are Yankees outfielder Curtis Granderson (2000); Tampa Bay’s Gabe Kapler (1997), Marlins’ Cody Ross (2001), as well as Detroit’s Justin Verlander (2005). Past Lakeland Tigers who played in the major include: Mark “The Bird” Fidrych (1975), Kirk Gibson (1978), John Smoltz (1986) and Lou Whitaker (1976). Detroit manager Jim Leyland played in 1964 for Lakeland and came back to manage the team to back-to-back Florida State League titles in 1976 and 1977.
WHY THE FLYING TIGERS? ... The team’s name and colors pay homage to the Lakeland School of Aeronautics, later the Lodwick School of Aeronautics, which trained over 8,000 pilots between 1940 and 1945, some of whom later flew with the Flying Tigers in China during World War II. The school was actually located at the current site of Joker Marchant Stadium.
FSL CHARTER MEMBER ... The 2010 season marks Lakeland’s 59th season in the FSL. The Lakeland Flying Tigers are in their 45th season as a Tigers’ affiliate, the second longest affiliation in Minor League Baseball and are an original member of the FSL, which was established in 1919. Lakeland has also been affiliated with Cleveland (1960); San Francisco (1962) before becoming a Detroit affiliate in 1963 (Detroit moved the franchise to Daytona Beach for the 1965 and 1966 seasons).
No comments:
Post a Comment