PROSPECTS FOR YANKS, SOX PROMOTED

While I'm always trumpeting the virtues of minor league baseball, one of its inherent liabilities surfaced today.

Left-hander Chase Wright, the Yankees pitcher who yielded the four consecutive home runs to the Red Sox on April 22, was slated to pitch in front of a sellout fireworks crowd tonight at New Britain Stadium. It isn't happening.

Wright was been promoted to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes Barre of the International League Thursday.

Wright wraps up his time with the Double-A Trenton Thunder with a 2-0 record and 0.90 ERA. He struck out 25 and walked only three in 20 innings.

Minnesota Twins general manager Terry Ryan always says that when a player dominates a level, he will be promoted. Well, folks, those numbers indicate that Wright's time to graduate from the Eastern League had come.

In the meantime, the Red Sox promoted center-field phenom Jacoby Ellsbury to Triple-A Pawtucket Thursday.

Ellsbury, as leadoff hitter for the Portland Sea Dogs, was hitting a league-leading .452, scored 16 runs and swiped eight bases in nine attempts in just 17 games. He leaves the Sea Dogs with a 15-game hitting streak intact.

Ellsbury, 23, plays the game with a Pete Rose-like electricity. For those of you who never watched Charlie Hustle play the game, you can substitute Johnny Damon's name and not lose too much in the translation.

For those of you who missed Ellsbury's visits to New Britain Stadium at the end of last season and April 23-26, all I can say is, "Tsk, tsk, tsk."

GOOD MOVE, ON THE "SERFASS"

The Binghamton Mets announced Thursday morning that right-hander Joey Serfass of Newington is expected to meet the team in New Britain before today's doubleheader concludes.

Serfass, who turns 26 on Sunday, will replace left-hander Ryan Cullen, who has been promoted to Triple-A New Orleans.

Serfass, 6-foot-4 and 208 pounds, was a multi-sport athlete at Newington High and pitched for Eastern Connecticut State University.

In four games with high Class A St. Lucie of the Florida State League, Serfass was 0-1 with a 7.88 ERA. In eight innings, he's allowed 11 runs (7 earned) on 13 hits with a walk and four strikeouts.

Serfass split last season between low Class A Hagerstown and St. Lucie. At Hagerston, he was 0-1 with a 3.05 ERA in eight games. At St. Lucie, he was 1-2 with a 3.32 in 24 games. His lifetime numbers coming into the season were 5-5 with a 1.94 ERA in three professional campaigns.

Serfass was the Little East Conference Pitcher of the Year in 2003 after helping ECSU to the Division III championship in 2002. He bounced back after undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2000. He was signed to a pro contract by Winsted native Greg Morhardt.

Cullen, 27, was 0-1 with a 2.53 ERA in seven games with the B-Mets.

IT'S ONLY "WRIGHT" TO STOP BY

I’ve been around the Eastern League a long time, if 25 years is long enough to qualify as a long time, and it becomes more and more evident how exceptional the players are at the Double-A level.

Read on, please.

HEADLINE: Papelbon, Red Sox ‘Bucked’ by A’s

Travis Buck, 22, began 2006 in the high-A California League and spent the brunt of the year at Double-A Midland as a teammate of current Rock Cats outfielder Matt Allegra. He wasn’t expected to make the A’s out of spring training, but he did.

So many fans in Red Sox Nation now know his name because he proved with his two-run homer Tuesday night that Jonathan Papelbon is not infallible like so many of them seemed to truly believe.

And as for Papelbon, be aware that he pitched seven innings of three-hit, shutout baseball against the Rock Cats at New Britain Stadium for the Portland Sea Dogs on the morning of May 4, 2005.

HEADLINE: A near no-no? Get “Hughes” to it

Yankees fans, stung by their team’s last-place effort coming out of the gate, have been clamoring for right-hander Philip Hughes to ride over the hill, saber in hand, to lead them out of the woods.

Hughes, 20, pitched well enough in his first start but stymied a darned-good Texas lineup with 6 1/3 innings hitless innings in his second Tuesday night. Unfortunately, the communicable hamstring injury that’s been spreading like wildfire from pitcher to pitcher on the Yanks’ staff caught up with Hughes, but he’ll be a staple in somebody’s rotation for a long time.

Question: Where was Philip Hughes on May 22, 2006? Answer: Allowing three runs in six innings against the Rock Cats at New Britain Stadium, including a two-run homer to current New Britain second baseman Felix Molina.

HEADLINE: Wright “Chased” from the majors by 4 Bosox bombs

For the time being, the headline rings true for Yankees left-hander Chase Wright. Indeed on April 22, he snapped his neck around four straight times after four Red Sox in succession hit homers off him. It gave Wright the dubious distinction of having his name emblazoned into the MLB record book.

Returned to the Eastern League days later may qualify as a temporary setback for him, perhaps, but a windfall for you. Wright, 24, is slated to pitch for the Trenton Thunder Friday night, right here on the south side of New Britain.

He was 1-0 with a 7.88 ERA in two games for New York, but trust me, he has to be pretty good to be 2-0 with an 0.90 with 25 strikeouts in 20 innings for the Thunder.

Naw, I wouldn’t go to The Emerald on Friday to see him pitch. It’s so minor league.

HEADLINE: Mauer’s three hits lead Twins

Joe Mauer’s 2006 batting title was anything but a fluke. Mauer, 24, batted .347 to become the very first catcher in over 100 years of American League history to accomplish that feat.

Mauer went 3-for-6 on Tuesday to help the Twins decimate Tampa Bay and raise his batting average to .378.

If you don’t need to be reminded, please excuse me, but on July 26, 2003, Mauer had three hits against the Binghamton Mets at New Britain Stadium. For those of you who missed it, he stepped into Rock Cats lore with a .341 average.

Mauers don’t come through New Britain very often, but I hope you didn’t miss AL MVP Justin Morneau, slugging right fielder Michael Cuddyer, sidearming righty Pat Neshek and shortstop Jason Bartlett, too.

Haven’t you missed enough already?

PITCHING PERKS UP

The ace of the staff. The stopper. The pitcher who the team comes to count on to prevent a few losses from becoming a freefall.

With the tribulations the Rock Cats have encountered from leaky starting pitching, left-hander Brian Duensing has been the one manager Riccardo Ingram has discovered can stop the bleeding.

The smile that Duensing emitted said that he was flattered. His words told a different story.
“I don’t know,” Duensing said after tossing seven innings of five-hit, one-run ball against the Connecticut Defenders Sunday. “I don’t know if I’d call myself that. As a staff, we’re struggling a little bit. We’ve been giving up a few runs but we all know we’re better than that. We’re just going to have to keep working a little harder and executing a little more.”

Duensing, ranked number 18 in Baseball America’s prospect parade, is 2-0 with a 2.75 ERA. He has started four games and the Rock Cats, 7-9 heading into Tuesday’s game against Binghamton, have won all four. Perhaps the most glowing statistic is that he’s walked just four batters in 19 2/3 innings. Walks are always incongruent with success but the Rock Cats have been particularly prone to watching them quickly become runs.

Duensing, 24, was chosen by the Twins in the third round of the draft in June 2005. After an injury-plagued college career that included Tommy John surgery in 2004, he has been healthy as a pro and the result has been consistency.

He was 4-3 with a 2.32 ERA in 12 games with short-season Elizabethton (Appalachian League) after pitching in the 2005 College World Series. Last year, he jumped from low-A Beloit (2-3, 2.94 ERA in 11 games) to New Britain, where he ended his season with a 1-2 mark and 3.65 ERA in 10 games.

“He got his feet wet here last year and he knows what’s required,” pitching coach Gary Lucas said. “(The other starters) know, too, but as far as the lone lefty in the rotation, with the seven innings he pitched (Sunday) and the kind of guy we’re trying to keep on course as much as possible, he’s trying to step up and a lot of that will come with consistency. We have to see it here for awhile.”

A BULL IN THE PEN: While Duensing has been the best starter, left-hander Jose Mijares has been the toast of the bullpen. Mijares, 22, is 1-0 with a 1.69 ERA and three saves in seven games. He has struck out 10 in 10 2/3 innings and opposing hitters are batting .135 against him.

“He has stuff,” Lucas said. “We want to keep him healthy all year because he’s had some issues in the past. We want him to be more serviceable. The other thing is staying calm. A lot of that will come with maturity. A lot will come with confidence and being productive.”

Mijares was faced with a bases-loaded one-out dilemma in the ninth inning against Connecticut Sunday when Lucas came out for what he termed “a fireside chat.” Mijares added some zest to the fastball and struck out the next two hitters to preserve the win for Duensing.

“I wanted him to think about throwing it through the glove, not to the glove,” Lucas said. “He attacked better.”