Wall to Wall BLUECLAWS!

The Lakewood BlueClaws are one win away from winning the South Atlantic League Championship. Game 3 of the best of 5 series is tonight in Greenville, SC at 7:05pm EST. Games 4 and 5, if necessary, would be played Friday and Saturday at 7:05. Ahead are some key quotes from this week, some links to get you ready and some additional notes on the series. The Greenville Drive is Boston's single A affiliate.

Catcher Travis D'Arnaud, a supplemental 1st round draft selection in 2007, is in the midst of a 24-for-57 stretch. That's a .421 average.

The BlueClaws were 41-25 (.621 winning pct) on the road in 2009.

Tonight's starting pitcher for Lakewood is 2008 4th round draft choice Trevor May. The 19 year old has gone 14 straight starts without a loss.

BlueClaws pitchers have allowed just 5 runs over the first 4 playoff games...all wins.

Greenville's starter is righty Stolmy Pimentel who was 10-7 with a 3.82 ERA in the regular season. Pimentel is 19 years old and was signed as a free agent out of the Dominican Republic in 2007 by Boston.

Lakewood hitting coach Greg Legg on his confidence level going to Greenville: "I'd love to win the first one. I know how tough they are. We've already been there. They're a good ball club and we'll have to play really good to beat them."

Legg on if he'd still consider the season a success if things don't go the BlueClaws' way in SC: "You want to win it all. ...So close, you want to win it for these guys (the players). I think we had a great year no matter what happens, but it's always good to win the last game of the year. That's a good feeling, to win the last game of the year. And in this situation that would be a great feeling."

Lakewood manager Dusty Wathan on if there are any players that were on Lakewood's roster this year that he wishes could be with the team right now to experience this run through the post season: "Oh, yeah- (BJ) Rosenberg. He was lights out for us. He was pretty much the reason we have this opportunity right now. And, I mean, (Steve) Susdorf came in, and when we needed somebody to get us over the hump, he came back from his surgery and put us over the hump and let us win the first half by a few games. I think it would have been a lot tighter race coming down to the last few days if it wasn't for Steve in the middle of the lineup."

Phillies player Greg Dobbs on spending time around, and playing with, the BlueClaws players while they are in the midst of a potential championship run: "It's a lot of fun. They're really playing for something...there's some energy, some excitement. You can tell, from when I walked in this clubhouse, these guys have worked hard and they're very proud of what they've accomplished so far and you want to keep up with that."

BlueClaws.com fills you in on tonight's match up in Greenville.

Tony Graham of the Asbury Park Press has quotes from players and Wathan on not losing focus and more.

---------------------------

Congratulations to Lee F., of S. Burlington VT and Marty T., of Vincentown NJ, for being selected as winners of PhoulBallz.com's Cliph Lee/Roy Who? t-shirts!

Be sure to follow PhoulBallz.com on Twitter HERE!

PhoulBallz Q&A with Mike Stutes

Mike Stutes completes "The Reading Phils Mike Tri-fecta" over three days, here on PhoulBallz.com. Stutes, a 22 year old, was an 11th round selection by the Phillies in the 2008 amateur draft. Stutes, a right handed starting pitcher, helped lead Oregon State to the College World Series championship in both 2006 and 2007. Stutes and teammate Vance Worley are the first players to begin a season at Reading the year after being drafted since Pat Burrell did it in 1999. Stutes was the Phils' minor league pitcher of the month in August '08, when he went 4-1 with a 1.72 ERA in 6 starts. Check out my Q&A with the third Mike below. Can I get you to talk about the coaching staff and how they help you deal with ups and downs? They've been real positive with me. I started out good and then I hit a rough patch. They've stuck with me through it all. I haven't heard any negative words from them. Every day they try to come out, work with me, try to get me turned around...

Jason Knapp Q&A

PhoulBallz .com was fortunate enough to meet with Phillies prospect Jason Knapp just one day after he caught the attention of the baseball world with his 7 shut out innings, 14 strike out performance against the Indians' Lake County team. - I asked Jason, the Lakewood BlueClaw , for some thoughts about his big game... I had pretty good command of three pitches (fastball, curve, change up). I was on the same page with my catcher, D'Arnaud , and I ended up, ya know, I felt pretty good. - In a great performance like that, how much credit goes to Travis D'Arnaud , the catcher? More than you might expect, definitely. I didn't shake him off once. He told me what to throw and I do what I'm told. And if it works out, a lot of the credit goes to the catcher. - Does the lack of run support (Lakewood has scored 3 total runs in his 3 starts), in your few starts, increase your stress level, or enhance your focus? No, I just try to go out and do my job every outing. Ya know, we...

Yankees Fans Misled By Pepsi Promotion

**** Today, New York Yankees fans attended a Pepsi promotion in Times Square hoping for chances to win opening day tickets to the new stadium, but the tickets, which were difficult to track down due to poor organization on Pepsi's part, were actually for a game in June. Furthermore, the 250 pairs that were promised were actually only 100 pairs. The fans, who were made to sprint through traffic over multiple city blocks when locations for the promotion changed, quickly turned against the soda brand by pooring out their beverages and chanting anti-Pepsi phrases. Yankees fans are even threatening a boycott of Pepsi. An appearance by Yankee great Goose Gossage could not even settle the angry mob, as he had to be whisked away, as a precaution, according to the Daily News . Ooo , I'd hate to see what "the worst fans in sports" (Philadelphia fans) would have done to their free Pepsi cans and beloved reliever in that situation. Because this happened in a non-Philly city, th...

PhoulBallz.com

Search This Blog