Tag Archives: bakersfield blaze

Blaze Sweep Giants and the win streak hits 7

April 23, 2012   blazerunners   No comments

What a difference a week makes.  On April 15th, the Blaze headed to Visalia after a dissapointing 2-1 loss to the San Jose Giants, allowing the Giants to complete their sweep and sending the Blaze to a division worst 3-8 record. Tony Cingrani had pitched a great first half of a double header and Kyle Lotzkar followed with an impressive performance, but both were squandered.  Prior to the breakout, the Blaze had no one hitting over .280 and they hadnt even been blown out often.  It just seemed as if all cylinders werent firing at the same time.  Six of the 8 losses had come at a margain of 2 runs or less, so they were all definately winnable.  Here are a couple of numbers that jump out over the last seven games:

  • First 11 games the Blaze averaged 3.63 runs per game, last 7 games is 5.57 rpg.
  • Starting pitching ERA is 2.76
  • 8 HR
  • 19 Stolen Bases (leading the Cal League)
  • Ind batting – Billy Hamilton .375, Donald Lutz .357, Devin Lohman .344

Ken Griffey Sr. has got the team on track and now the Blaze look to be rolling.  Hamilton’s play has earned him the top spot in Baseball America’s prospect watch and Tony Cingrani, Daniel Renken and Kyle Lotzkar are showing an incredible 1-2-3 punch.  Next up for the Blaze is a 10 game road trip at Stockton, Modesto and Lake Elsinore.  This will be a great test for them as they have pulled themselves from the cellar of the North division to just 1.5 games back of the SJ Giants.

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Blaze start the season with a gem, beat Visalia 3-1

April 06, 2012   blazerunners   No comments

It was a cool opening night for the Blaze in Bakersfield taking on the Visalia Oaks, however it had no effect on Billy Hamilton’s hot bat and Daniel Renken’s arm as the Blaze had a strong performance to ensure the 3-1 victory.  Renken started off the game striking out the side and giving Blaze fans a great feeling for their team from the first half inning.  Actually, it could not have started any better.  In the bottom half of the first frame, Blaze fans were anticipating seeing the speed we had heard of as Billy Hamilton walked to start off the inning, but Bryson Smith grounded out into a double play to eliminate the threat. 

The game went rather smoothly until the Oaks scored in the top of the third, but the Blaze quickly answered with Hamilton’s 2 run shot to left field to put them back in front.  After that, Renken went into a zone allowing the one run on 5 scattered hits and K’ing 5.  Daniel Wolford and Wilkin De La Rosa both gave strong performances out of the pen and Brian Pearl came in to close out the game by striking out 2 and recording the save.  On the offensive side, the Blaze made the most of their 4 hits by bringing in 3 runs, one of which was a late insurance run thanks to the showcased speed of Hamilton as he did obtain his first stolen base of the season. 

It was a great beginning to the season and Griffey Sr had to have been pleased with the jump out of the gate his pitching staff gave him.  Keep in mind that pitchers report earlier to spring training allowing them to have a little more practise in early in the season so I dont think hitting will be an issue for the Blaze.  It was a great start, so now all they need to do is follow that up with another solid performance in order to compliment fireworks friday.  Go Blaze!

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Welcome Back to Blaze Baseball! 2012 Predictions

April 05, 2012   blazerunners   No comments

First, let me apologize for the long delay on getting back on board.  The off-season for the Blaze was filled with excitement as we saw many of the guys who once donned a Blaze uniform were central in the trade talks.  Last year’s Cal League All-Star and Blaze catcher Yasmani Grandal was an intrigal part in the Mat Latos trade with San Diego.  While it is a bummer he won’t make it to the majors as a Red, Grandal has a great opportunity in San Diego and had an incredible Spring hitting .353 with 2 homers and 11 RBI.   Previous Blaze alumni C.J. Wilson also made a big splash by leaving the Rangers and signing along with Albert Pujols in Anaheim, making them an instant contender. 

Locally, the biggest and GREATEST news happened when local Bakersfield businessmen Gene Voiland and Chad Hathaway bought the Blaze off of the D.G. Elmore group, who has owned the team since 2006… in Indiana.  The first thing you hear about when talking about the Blaze is the state of Sam Lynn Park.  Granted, it is built backwards and has not been taking that great of care of, but Voiland and Hathaway showed how easy a difference could be made with some small upgrades.   Why did it take so long?  Again, Elmore was owning the team from Indiana and most assuredly doesnt come to Bakersfield often, let alone connect with the city to know what the locals say about the park.  If you’re reason for not attending a game was because of the Park, then you OWE it to yourself to get back out there.  Even with all the upgrades, the park will hardly be noticeable once you see the amass of talent ON the field. 

Let’s just say 2012 is going to be a very fun year for Blaze fans as the Cincinnati Reds have really staked our team to be something to mess with in the California League.  Of course, Ken Griffey Sr is back at the helm for the club and he has Eli Marrero with him as batting coach and Rigo Beltran taking on the pitchers.  If you pay attention to Minor League Baseball then you heard about Billy Hamilton last year with the Dayton Dragons (Reds A-team) as he stole 103 bases, the first in pro baseball to hit triple digits in over a decade.  With the upward movement of Rodriguez, LaMarre and Grandal last season, I thought Billy might play a few games here, but he stayed with the Dragons for the entire season.  He is the Reds Organization #2 prospect according to Baseball America and #48 overall in baseball.  If he has a similar season with the Blaze, then there is little chance that he will play all of 2012 in Bakersfield.  The Blaze also have 2 members of the 40 man roster of the Blaze with Kyle Lotzkar, the right handed Canadian 2007 first round pick (as a 1B) and 1B Donald Lutz, the left handed slugger who helped the Reds Futures team take victory against the big league club on 4/3/2012 with a 2 run homer off of Mike Leake.  The futures game in Cincy featured several current Blaze, next to Lutz, Hamilton and Lotzkar also had 3B David Vidal, C Tucker Barnhart and RP Tony Cingrani recorded the save for the futures team. Also returning are some of last seasons favorites, SP Daniel Renken and OF Stephen Hunt, who will be playing a little first base this year.  Let’s just say that the Reds REALLY have given a lot of their treasured assets to Bakersfield and those are all the more reasons to see the club play.   

With that, I am going to make a few predictions on what we will see here with our Club in 2012.

Fan Attendance: 100,000+

Team Record: 81-59

HR Leader: Donald Lutz 28 HR

RBI Leader: Donald Lutz 89 RBI

AVG Leader: Billy Hamilton .312

First Call-Up: Tony Ciangrani

W Leader: Josh Smith 13 Wins

ERA Leader: Josh Smith 3.58 ERA

SV Leader: Brooks Pinckard 18 Saves

What are your predictions?

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Reds option Grandal to Carolina

June 23, 2011   blazerunners   No comments

Yasmani Grandal being the plate for the Blaze in 44 games (photo by Chris J. Martin)

We knew it was going to happen, but not quite this early.  The #12 pick of the 2010 MLB Draft has been optioned to the AA Carolina Mudcats.  Grandal leaves the Blaze after hitting .296 with 10 hr’s and 40 RBI in 251 plate appearances.  Grandal was always a careful selector at the plate and had 57 strike outs and 41 base on balls.  I had the pleasure of interviewing Yasmani before his departure, but havent transcribed it yet.  Terrible, I know.  But we wish him well in Carolina, and are sure he will be up with Cincy before too long.  He played hard in Bakersfield and was a very strong  leader behind the plate, and Carolina just got better.

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Grandal and Fellhauer make Cal League All-Star Team!

June 15, 2011   blazerunners   No comments

Congrats to the two Blaze representatives (Josh Fellhauer and Yasmani Grandal) on the 2011 California League All Star Team which will square off against the Carolina League in Modesto on June 21st.  Henry Rodriguez, Blaze infielder, was also on the team, but has since been called up to the Carolina Mudcats in AA.  Congrats to Yasmani and Josh, let’s root our Blaze on against the Carolina League!

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Blaze drop the series to the Giants

May 09, 2011   blazerunners   No comments

The Blaze dropped 2 games of the 3 game series to the San Jose Giants which resulted in the Cal League Standings standing pat and squandering an opportunity for the Blaze to move up.  The second game showed a lot of grit with the Blaze as they came back after losing 17-7 the night before to literally blast themselves to a win.  Back to back homers by Eric Campbell and Henry Rodriguez bolstered the Blaze offense and Ryan LaMarre hit a long ball that he didnt even think was a homer until the umpires both re-assured him of the bomb.  It had hit a sign and bounced back into play.  Bottom line, it was a great effort by Bakersfield and they truly wanted to make up for the debacle of the previous night by swinging hard. 

Defensively, LaMarre also added an amazing catch up against the wall in centerfield which is not a simple task in the lights of Sam Lynn.  The ballpark has extremely low lights and outfielders quite frequently lose the ball above the lights during night games.  Lance Janke also gave a stellar 6.2 inning performance on the mound allowing only 3 runs on 6 hits while striking out 7 and most impressively walking none.  It was unfortunate that such a solid performance didnt result in a win for Janke, but his handling of the hot hitting San Jose Giants proved to be a difference maker in giving the Blaze the “W.” 

Unfortunately on Sunday the Blaze were not able to take the series from the Giants, which would have been the perfect ending and response to the game one blowout.  The Giants Chris Heston out duelled Josh Ravin by lasting a few innings longer.  It’s a sad result for Ravin who carries a 3.31 ERA but a 1-2 record and no decisions in some of his greatest games of the season.  Whereas the Blaze hit 4 homers on saturday, they only got two extra base hits and both were doubles.  It wasnt a bad effort, but the Blaze just couldnt get enough offense together to compete with the Giants offensively.

All in all it was a very good series and a showcase of talent in the California League.  The San Jose Giants have 9 of the Giants top 20 prospects, including the top two pitching prospects in the organization, Zach Wheeler and Jose Casilla.  This team is obviously very good, especially in the pitching department and the team has won the last two California League Championships.  The Blaze had some errors and some pitching that had rough innings but there is still a lot of baseball listen and it will be really interesting to see these two match up again at the end of the month.

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Blaze headed home on a winning note!

May 06, 2011   blazerunners   No comments

On April 27th against the Visalia Rawhide, the Blaze had a 9th inning collapse that lead to a loss and started a small losing streak.   For a team that puts up scores like football games more often than baseball games, prior to that loss they were averaging 7.75 runs per game.  For the 3 games following, versus Visalia and Stockton, the Blaze were only able to put 2.6 runners across the plate.  Is this over analyzing a short time period?  Of course, but there has been a trend of late inning runs scored on the Blaze which has lead to a majority of their losses.

The most positive take-away from the road trip was how they ended it.  The last 5 games of the road trip had the Blaze once again taking batting practise on the opposing pitchers and there isnt only one road for success from this year’s Blaze team.  They play small ball but also hit the long ball.  Ken Griffey Sr. has such a great handle on his team so early in his first managerial season, it can only make you excited for what is to come.  Up next is a three game series at home against the reigning back to back California League Champion and current second place San Jose Giants. The Giants are leading the CAL League in Team ERA so matching up with the Blaze will be a battle.  Taking this series would put the Blaze in the second spot only looking up at the Ports.

AMAZING STATS

We know the Blaze can hit.  Actually, we know the Blaze can flat out MASH.  Check out these tidbits.

  • Three players have OPS over 1.000 (Stephen Hunt, Eric Campbell and Yasmani Grandal)
  • Blaze as a team are hitting .319.  Second Place in the Cal League (Quakes) are hitting .291
  • Blaze BB:K (batting) ratio is 1:1.77! Discerning eyes as well

BACK-TO-BACK

A huge congratulations to Stephen Hunt for earning the California League Player of the Week and giving the honor to the Blaze for the second consecutive week!  Stephen hit .563 with 3 HR and 16 RBI and only striking out twice.  A fantastic first week in his first week as a pro after being the Reds 15th round pick.

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Welcome to Blazerunners!

April 20, 2011   blazerunners   1 Comment

The modestly sized Bakersfield, California is home to the Bakersfield Blaze, currently the Advanced-A Cincinnati Reds affiliate in the California League.  The ballpark is older yet a great reminder of how minor league baseball has been through time (Sam Lynn Park was built in 1941) but the brand of baseball is very good and well worth keeping track of.  I started this blog because currently, there is no one else blogging on the Blaze and there ought to be.  I want to welcome all of you baseball fans out there to subscribe and bookmark this site as I plan on bringing you lots of news and info about the blaze including interviews with the players.  Thanks for stopping by and go Blaze!

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