UNCW 6 Update

After rough treatment in Vermont, Bradley Holt has come back with a couple of nice, short starts, yielding one run over six innings at State College, strking out 5, and, six days later, holding Batavia to one run in four innings at home. On the season, Holt has thrown 47-2/3 innings, with 31 hits, 25 walks, and 61 strikeouts. He is 3-3, with a 2.08 ERA. My only worry is the relatively high number of innings he's thrown already since UNCW started playing in January. The short season ends at the end of the month, so Holt has probably only 3, at most 4 more starts, and let's hope they keep the pitch count in those starts way down.

Nate Hall is really starting to play well in Ottawa. After a seriously cold start, he's at .243/.322/.262, and has added only a couple of errors to his total (although, it's hard to see how many starts at 3B that was in, as the Rapidz web site has not put up a box score since late July). The .262 slugging percentage (2 doubles, no triples or home runs in 107 AB) is a bit surprising, as I'm sure he's got more pop than that, but I think the combo of wood bats, cold weather, and better pitchers has mostly to do with it.

On August 6, he got a walk-off, game winning base hit, which must have been a great delight for him in his young career.

From the Ottawa Citizen:

Former college player Nate Hall put the wood to the ball to drive in Kyle Geiger with the winning run in the bottom of the ninth inning last night as the Ottawa Rapidz defeated the Sussex Skyhawks, 4-3, at Ottawa Stadium.

''It's a tough transition from metal (bats) to wood,'' Hall said. ''I call my dad every day, and he tells me to just stick with it.''

Before Hall's heroics, Jereme Milons had singled home Jabe Bergeron with the tying run.
Both runs were scored with two outs.

Good job, Nate! Way to stick with it!

Daniel Hargrave hit a game-tying solo home run a couple of hours ago in the 5th inning at Staten Island off of Yankee farmhand Hector Noesi, a Dominican right-hander just up from the Gulf Coast League. This is Daniel's second home run of the season, and puts his stats at .143/.188/.210, with an improved .188 average and .300+ Slugging for the last 10 games. So he's definitely improving, he now has a career-best 4 game hitting streak (including 2 extra base hits), and is still playing much more often than not. The Phillies are showing patience, and Daniel is starting to come around.

Mark Carver has only played in 2 games this month, but has 4 hits (including a two-bagger) in 9 at bats, bringing his line up to .212/.293/.258, which is beginning to approach respectability. In the last 10 games, he's got 4 multi-hit games, and is at .281/.361/.344 over that stretch, which is actually very good for a catcher in the New York-Penn League. Way to go, Mark!

Meanwhile Miguel Mendez, the spectacular Gulf Coast callup who has been playing nearly every day in place of Carver, is at .231/.286/.282, which is not materially different from Carver's line. Josue Peley, the third catcher, a Venezuelan who I also learned played prep ball in Montreal, played yesterday for the first time since July 16, when he suffered a wrist injury in the batting cage. With Peley's return and Mendez's massive amount of recent playing time, it's a great thing that Carver is heating up the bat.

Jason Appel has still not returned to the Renegades. It has been six weeks since he last played.

I still have no news on Jeff Hatcher.