Henry Sosa......

Ramon Castro.....

Mike McBryde...

Tyler Graham...

Brandon Crawford...

Brad Boyer...

Dan Otero....

Brett Pill....

Brett is currently playing winter ball in Venezuela for a team managed by new Giants hitting coach and former Yankee great Hensley "Bam-Bam" Meulens. Go Brett!
Road uniforms for Brad Boyer #5 and AR and also not listed on the Milb.com auction site...

Joe Paterson.....

The road grey uniforms are now up for bid on Milb auctions. They all have an opening bid of $75 with S&H charge of $20. A S&H charge of $20 is a total ripoff. US Priority Mail flat rate box is like $8 or something and by contrast I just paid $7 shipping US Mail for a Defs uniform last week from another source.

The blue mesh ones are also on the block with same price points: $75/$20.
How Milb justifies a $20 S&H is beyond crazy when the camo uniform S&H charge was $15 (also a ripoff). I'm emailing them.....

There are no bids on any of the uniforms and bidding ends on Nov. 18 at 3:00 PM

The unsold camos from the first auction are listed with the same price points as before: $60/$15.

Brett Pill's #48 road and blue mesh are not listed which raises an eyebrow with me.

I already have a blue mesh uniform from '06 that is just slightly different than the '08/'09 version so I'm passing on those.

I'm going to have to think this one over....those road greys are pretty sharp but $95?

Dan Griffin....

Matt Yourkin....

Tyler LaTorre....

Brock Bond...

Daryl Maday....

Maroul, Schoop, Bond and Pill...

during a pitching change at NB.

Brandon and Brock....

27!!!!!!!!!!!!

as in World Series championships for the Yankees. And as happy as I'm about that, I'm almost happier these 4 hour marathon games are over.

GB sac bunt....

Victory!...

Dave Maroul scores....

Brandon Crawford and Andy D'Alessio....

And in other news....

from yesterday's Burlington Free Press:

"The Vermont Lake Monsters are making plans to play ball next summer, even though the New York-Penn League has not officially said minor-league baseball is returning to Burlington for the 17th season.

Monsters owner Ray Pecor said Thursday that an architect and an engineer have been brought in to study possible structural and cosmetic improvements to the University of Vermont's Centennial Field, which serves as the home field for the team.

"We've also been talking with UVM about extending the lease," Pecor said.

Pecor has one more year on his contract with the Washington Nationals for the major-league club to provide him minor-league players for the 2010 season. However, he said in June the future of the sport here was in jeopardy because of the dilapidated condition at Centennial Field.

Periodic inspections on behalf of the commissioner of Major League Baseball have shown the park fails to meet minimum standards for minor-league baseball. The recent inspections cite concerns with the pitching mound, playing surface, lighting, dugouts, clubhouses and more.

"We have not met with the New York-Penn League about it," Pecor said.

Robert Corran, UVM's athletic director, and Tom Gustafson, vice president of student and campus life, said Thursday that the discussions are ongoing with Pecor about continuing to play host to the minor-league team.

"We'd be fine with having them back. We have no other plans for the field," Gustafson said.

One proposal to rehabilitate -- and perhaps rescue -- Centennial to preserve minor-league baseball in Burlington is projected to cost $5 million to $7 million. The Preservation Trust of Vermont said it wants to help save the 103-year-old diamond, the oldest minor-league baseball park in use in the nation."

Also the long time GM of the team quit earlier this week after 14 seasons with the team citing he wanted to explore other avenues of work.

The article makes it clear that the league appears to be calling the shots on where the team plays in 2010 given the conditions of Centennial Field on the UVM campus.

Feels like I'm going to get semi-familar with the Washington Nationals farm system next year...

Shane Kaufman....

One of the Augusta relievers that came to the team later in the season, Shane threw in 18 games, saving two of them. He recorded a 5.91 ERA over 21.1 IP. Shane gave up 27 hits, issued 6 BBs and rang up 20Ks in his time with CT.

Mike Musgrave....

Mike appeared in 23 games for the Defs in '09. he was 3-0 with a 5.76 ERA. He threw 29.2 IP allowing 34 hits and getting 23 Ks. He ended up pitching at both Fresno and SJ in '09.


Oct LY 1518

Ramon Castro.....

A late season addition, Ramon played in 48 games getting 36 hits (3 HRs, 13 RBIs) in 130 ABs for a .277 BA.

Jesse English.....

Jesse appeared in 26 games starting in 19 of them. He went 7-7 on the season and threw to a 4.20 ERA, allowing 98 hits, isuing 57 BBs and getting 71 Ks in 100.2 IP. Jesse also threw a complete game.

Madison Bumgarner.....

Madison went 9-1 with the Defenders thrwoing to a 1.93 ERA over 107 IP. He allowed 80 hits, issued 30 BBs and notched 68 Ks. He also swung a pretty good bat going 3 for 7 with one of those hits a grand slam.
He was called up late in the season by the Giants starting one game and appearing in three other games in relief. He threw 10 IP with no descisions and a 1.80 ERA.

Dan Griffin and Matt Yourkin...

Brad Boyer....

at NB.

Nick Pereira....

A starter for the Defs in 2007, Nick had a brief return early in the 2009 season starting three games and posting a 0-1 over 11 IP before disappearing into extended spring training in AZ for the rest of the year.

In other news the Defenders website has vanished along with any 2009 team info on the milb.com site.

Tyler Graham....

If you blinked you missed him. Tyler started the season as out centerfielder but was sent to SJ after just 11 games. In his brief time here he played in just 11 games batting .217 (5 for 24) with a RBI.

Bobby Felmy.....

Bobby played in 126 games batting .253 (96 for 388) with 7HRs and 50 RBIs. He also threw 2.1 IP in relief one game without giving up a run.

Brian Bocock...

The one time Giant started the season with the Defenders as the starting shortstop and leadoff batter. Good glove...no bat.
Brian appeared in 25 games batting .171 (12 for 70) with three RBIs before being sent to SJ.

AR and Sharlon Schoop...

For those of us living in CT the number six has a special meaning these days....

Andy D'Alessio

Connecticut actually started the season platooning Brett Pill and Andy until it became very apparent that Pill was the real deal and Andy couldn't hit. Andy appeared in 22 games with a homer, 6 RBIs and hit for a .194 (13 for 67) average. He was send down to Augusta in May.

Daryl Maday....

The righty starter went 6-6 in 25 games in 2009. Daryl tossed 135.2 IP over 25 starts and threw to a 4.25 ERA with 149 hits allowed, 44 BBs issued and 67 Ks. he leas the team in innings pitched and had one of the four complete games thrown in '09 by the starting staff.

Craig Whitaker

Craig relieved in 10 games, throwing to a 2.30 over 15 IP. He was called up late in the season from SJ.

Josh Phelps...

a free agent signing by the Giants, the former big leaguer played in 11 late season games for CT going 6 for 32 with 2 HRs and 4 RBIs.

GB....

Garrett Broshuis went 6-4 in 12 starts after arriving midway in the season. He threw to a 3.84 ERA allowing 80 hits and getting 34 Ks in 61 IP.
He made Joe Perez's all-time franchise list and has picked up a lot of positive press for his writing in Baseball America and several other publications.

Brandon Crawford, Eddie Brinkman and Ted Williams

Brandon and Eddie were the subject of some recents posts so here they are along with Teddy Ballgame. I remember Brinkman very well from my youth and was surprised to see that he died just over a year ago.

Crawford batted .258 (101 for 392) in 108 games with 26 doubles, 4 HRs and 31 RBIs. And as noted he had 100 Ks and 14 errors.

Below is Eddie's obit from the Washington Post:

"Eddie Brinkman, 66, the quintessential "good field, no hit" shortstop who spent 10 seasons with the Washington Senators before being swapped to the Detroit Tigers in the infamous Denny McLain trade in 1971, died Sept. 30 in his home town of Cincinnati, according to an announcement from the Chicago White Sox. No cause of death was given, although friends said he had a heart ailment.

Playing for the Tigers, Mr. Brinkman won a Gold Glove award in 1972, a season in which he played a record 72 consecutive errorless games and finished in the Top 10 for Most Valuable Player honors. He was named to the American League all-star team in 1973.

He had a fine arm and good range but just couldn't hit. He finished his 15-year major league career with a batting average of .224.

Mr. Brinkman was known among fellow ballplayers as congenial and fun-loving -- and a fine pinochle player. With the Senators, the 170-pounder was "Wimpy," in contrast to his roommate, 6-8, 270-pound Frank "Hondo" Howard.

"He was an absolute delight to be around," Howard said. "We were like brothers."

Mr. Brinkman was a pitcher in high school with a commanding fastball and a vicious curve. Howard recalled that the Senators considered putting him back on the mound if his hitting didn't pick up. Nothing came of the notion, Howard said.

"A contending club could carry Brinkman for his glove and never worry about his bat," Washington player Sam Mele once observed.

Unfortunately, the Senators were rarely a contending team.

In 1964, the team was hoping Mr. Brinkman had solved his hitting problems when he got off to a sensational start, hitting .400 in the exhibition season. Once the regular season began, he fell into a prolonged slump and finished with a disappointing .224 average.

"I don't know what the trouble was with me last year," he told The Washington Post during spring training in 1965. "I hit everybody in the spring -- good pitchers. But once the season started I couldn't buy a base hit. I was hitting the ball well but always at somebody."

Mr. Brinkman was activated as a member of the D.C. National Guard to help quell the riots in the city in 1968 and missed more than half the season.

He had his best year in 1969, when he hit .267. He credited Nellie Fox, the Senators' hitting instructor and former all-star second baseman with the White Sox, for advising him to use fat-handled bats, to choke up and to spray the ball to all fields.


He said Manager Ted Williams, one of the game's greatest hitters, helped him master the mental part of hitting. "He beat it into my head what I had to do," Mr. Brinkman said. "He never messed with my stance, my hands or my feet."

At the all-star break in 1970, he was hitting .287, "a giddy height he has not approached since eight summers ago when he played for Raleigh in the Carolina League," Post columnist William Gildea noted. He was leading the team with 102 hits.

"Brinkman used to have trouble hitting his weight, which isn't much," Gildea wrote, "and all his hits for a season back to back would have barely reached the Anacostia River. Now they don't even travel as far, but he chokes up and hits 'em where they ain't, a modern-day Willie Keeler."

Gildea said Mr. Brinkman should have made the all-star team and quoted Senators Coach Wayne Terwilliger: "I'd like to see the last out of the ninth inning, with a man on third and the pennant in the balance, go to Brinkman."

He was traded to the Tigers before the 1971 season, with Joe Coleman, Jim Hannan and Aurelio Rodriguez, for pitcher Denny McLain, among others. McLain, the Tigers ace who won 31 games in 1968, was supposed to be the savior of the lowly Senators but turned out to be a bust.

Mr. Brinkman made the all-star team in 1973, a year in which he played shortstop in all 162 games. In his final season with the Tigers, 1974, he hit 14 home runs, the only time in his career he reached double figures.

Edwin Albert Brinkman was born Dec. 8, 1941. As a high school pitcher on a team whose second baseman was Pete Rose, he compiled a 15-1 record, including a perfect game. He signed with the expansion Senators in 1961 as a 19-year-old.

After his nine seasons with the Senators and four with the Tigers, he played briefly for the St. Louis Cardinals and the New York Yankees before retiring in 1975.

The White Sox hired him as an infield coach in 1983. He stayed with the team as a special assignment scout until his retirement from baseball in 2000.

Survivors include his wife, Donna Brinkman of Cincinnati; and two daughters."

Frank Howard and Eddie Brinkman roommates?!

Jackson Williams....

Jackson played in 105 games batting .223 (67 for 223) with 20 doubles, 2 HRS and 24 RBIs. Improved defensively as the season progressed.

Matt Yourkin....

The lefty reliever was 6-2 in 50 games pitching to a 2.42 ERA over 63.1 IP. He allowed 52 hits, issued 26 BBS and had 72 Ks. He finished the season as the team's closer notching 8 saves.

Brad Boyer....

Brad got off to a very slow start in 2009 going something like 0 for 30 but he picked it up and finished hitting .294 (108 for 367)in 106 games. He collected 22 doubles, 3 HRs ( a couple of them game winners) and 41 RBIs. He started at third and later moved to LF.

Henry Sosa....

would have been nice to have him in the series against Akron, but an injury ended his season after 14 starts. Henry went 6-0 in those starts pitching to a 2.36 ERA over 72.1 IP. He allowed 61 hits and had 44 Ks.

Jesse Foppert

Jesse ended up being released midway thru the '09 season. He was 0-3 in 10 games with 8 of those starts. He had MLBB time with the Giants. With CT, he threw to a 6.27 ERA in 33 IP.

Dan Griffin....

was a subject of a lot of discussion in Section 11 in 2009. Dan went 8-7 with a 5.42 ERA in 73 IP. The good: 86 Ks in 73 IP and the bad: 85 hits and 23 BB in 73 IP. When he was on he was on and when he wasn't.....
If someone can harass him the Giants might have sometime there.

Sharlon Schoop....

Sharlon batted .241 (77 for 320) with 3 HRS and 36 RBIs in 105 games. He saw more playing time in the back half of the season when Brad Boyer moved from third to LF.