Johnny Damon Number Retirement by Wilmington Blue Rocks and Class A All-Star Game

On Tuesday Night as Part of the California vs Carolina League All-Star game the Wilmington Blue Rocks retired the jersey #18 of Johnny Damon

Johnny Damon

I have been a Damon fan for a variety of reasons. He was an exciting palyer who racked up a lot of hits, ran well and had some pop. He made it to the playoffs with the A's Red Sox and Yankees winning the World Series with the latter two squads. One of the other reasons I like Damon is we share an ethnicity. He and I both have a Thai Mother and American father. it is a unique combination that was precipitated by each of our fathers being stationed in Thailand during the Viet Nam War.

Jonny Damon has honored his heritage by returning to Thailand to promote baseball and represented the country as a player during the 2013 World Baseball Calssic.

In a nice touch to the retirement ceremony, Damon and the Blue Rocks brought back Damon's House Mother from his Wilmington tenure. She is shown in the background of the above photo along with another popular Blue Rocks alum Mike Sweeney.

All-Star Game

There was also a game played last night - The Carolina League All-Stars hosted their Califormia League counterparts. Both Leagues are at a level that is referred to as High Class A. It was a good opportunity for us East Coasters to see some prospects that play for Western Division organizations.

Tha Cal League won the game 3-2 with two Cincinnati Reds prospects leading the way.

Kyle Waldrop

All Three of California's Runs were plated by Kyle Waldrop who hit a Long 2 Run HR to center in addtion to an RBI single.

Ben Lively

The Reds #9 Prospect Ben Lively stuck out 2 of the first 3 batters he faced while pitching a pair of perfect innings for the victors. I would think that Lively has greatly icreased his Prospect status this season posting a 10-1 record and 2.28 ERA including a solid 95-16 K/BB ratio. Both Lively and Waldrop were promoted to AA Pensacola following the game.

Line Ups

A couple of noteables in there. Courtney Hawkins is the White Sox prospect that did a backflip on the podium at the 2012 Draft. Last year Team Phungo ran down to Wilmington to give Hawkins the Eye Test. He failed miserably, I am happy to report Hawkins is having a much better 2014 and appears to be a lot more patient at the plate. Kyle Wren is the son of Braves GM Frank Wren. Corey Seager is making some noise in the Dodgers Org, batting .340 with 12 Homers this season. Gabriel Guerrero is the nephew of Vlad and appears to have a similar build and batting stance. He his playing well for Seattles Hi Desert squad.

Carlos Correa

2013 1st overall pick Carlos Correa didn't get to start but did sub into the game. He went 0-2 with a K in his first AB. Still 19 Correa has displayed good hitting ability at the Hi-A level well represented by his .329/.421/.502 slash line. He was as big as any player on the field for the game and it will be interesting to see if he remains at shortstop or moves to another position as he continues to fill out.

Sources
Johnny Damon Index
Baseball America

Phungo Cards Wil Myers

Yesterday KC Royals Farmhand/Wilmington Blue Rocks Alum Wil Myers hit a grand slam off of Roy Oswalt.  Former Phillies/Astros starter Oswalt is getting some rehab starts in an effort to contribute to the 2012 edition of the Texas Rangers.  For more on the game click here. 

2011 Phungo #14 Wil Myers

With 21 dingers Myers currently ranks 2nd among all Minor Leaguers in Home Runs (Brad Eldred -AAA Toledo Mud Hens/Detroit Tigers).

Seems like we are saying this every year, but I am looking forward to seeing another prospect make the big club in Kansas City, but not sure if they will be enough to make a difference.

Photo above was taken prior to a game in which Myers hit his first home run for the Blue Rocks.  Back then, as the card states, Myers was a catcher.  Now he patrols the Outfield for Omaha. 

If the uniform looks odd, it is because the Blue Rocks were recognizing the Negro Leagues that night in 2010. 

You can also follow the Wil Myers Twitter feed at the aptly named @wilmyers.   

Phungo Road Trip
Team Phungo will be on the road this weekend to catch the punchless Phils at Baltimore.  Gonna be in the 95 degree heat of Camden Yards, but still looking forward to the game.  Going to try for the 2nd time in a week to help Cliff Lee get his first W of 2012.

Negro League Stats up at Baseball-Reference

Baseball-Reference has announced that they have added Negro League Stats to their database.  The data may be incomplete but regardless it sure is fascinating. 

2010 Phungo #42 Judy Johnson

One of the first players I looked up was Delaware Rep and Hall of Famer Judy Johnson.  Career .293 hitter batted over .370 two different times 26 career Home Runs.

2010 Phungo Cards - Mike Moustakas

2010 Phungo #17 Mike Moustakas

You may not know who Mike Moustakas is right now, but I think you may a year from now.

Moustakas is a Third Base prospect in the Royals system. Earlier this week he had an impressive game for Kansas City's Omaha Franchise. He connected for four hits that night including 3 homers and an incredible 11 RBIs. That's more runs then the Phils have scored in a couple series this year. Click here for the MiLB story on the game.

The picture from the Phungo card above was taken at a Wilmington Blue Rocks game last year. This is the Phungo Game Report from that day that also featured Pirates prospect Pedro Alvarez.

Phungo Game Report - 2010 08 14 Salem Red Sox @ Wilmington Blue Rocks

To take advantage of a rare beautiful night in August, Team Phungo made the jaunt to Wilmington to catch the Blue Rocks hosting the Salem Red Sox. Both teams are members of the Class Hi-A Carolina League. The Blue Rocks are affiliated with the Kansas City Royals, while Salem's Parent club is the Boston Red Sox.

It was Judy Johnson Night at the ballpark - Johnson was a negro league player from Delaware and the Blue Rocks play on a field that bears his name. The Blue Rocks do a good job of honoring Johnson and the Negro Leagues, bringing in the several players and their living relatives. A rather large silent auction listing dozens of items was held during the game. Autographed photos of players past and present were up for bid.

The Game ended up being an early blowout. The Blue Rocks led 8-0 in the third and would prevail 11-0.

Snapshots (For most pix you can click to enlarge)

Wilmington Blue Rocks - Kansas City Monarchs

For the Judy Johnson celebration both teams donned the uniforms of Negro League teams. Wilmington wore the uniform of the Kansas City Monarchs.

Salem Red Sox - Homestead Grays

The Salem Red Sox wore the uniforms of the Homestead Grays. The Grays were one of the teams that Judy Johnson played for as well as Josh Gibson.

Blue Rocks LHP Will Smith

Will Smith is with his 4th team this year, He was involved in a trade that sent Major League infielder Alberto Collaspo to the Angels. Smith has struggled at higher levels this year but returning to Class-A ball may have helped him as he shut out the Red Sox for 7 innings on yielding just 3 hits and one walk. Prior to this season Smith was the Angels #15 prospect according to Baseball America.

Wil Myers

The Blue Rocks DH was Will Myers who Hit his first Home Run as a Blue Rock. Myers was promoted to the Blue Rocks mid-season and was ranked as the Royals #3 prospect by Baseball America prior to the 2010 season. the 20-year old is currently batting .323 (.435 OBP) with 11 dingers between Wilmington and Burlington.

Christian Colon

Kansas City's first pick this year was Christian Colon. He was picked 4th overall and as far as I know he is currently the highest ranked pick from the 2010 draft to sign. Colon is batting .258(.309 OBP) through 163 ABs for the Royals.

Oscar Tejeda

I couldn't find many BoSox prospects in this game. Tejeda was Boston's #12 BA Prospect prior to a pedestrian 2009. Tejeda is in the middle of a bounce back year batting .312 (.349 obp) with 10 homers.

Blue Rocks Retired #33 Mike Sweeney

One of the Blue Rocks Retired Numbers is #33 which was worn by the Phils latest Addition Mike Sweeney.

I seem to always enjoy Wilmington and should get down there more often. For less than the price of parking at a Phils game I got nice a nice night out of baseball, took some fun pictures, and learned a little history of the game as well.

2010 Phungo Cards - Judy Johnson

2010 Phungo #42 Judy Johnson

Judy Johnson is a Negro League Player from Delaware. He was active with 5 different negro league teams between the years of 1918 and 1936. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1975.

The Wilmington Blue Rocks (KC Royals Class A affiliate) play on Judy Johnson Field @ Frawley Stadium. The Statue you see on the above card is in front of the Stadium.

The Card number is #42 in honor of Jackie Robinson. The Picture was taken after a Double Header between the Blue Rocks and Lyncburg Hill Cats. I had gone to see Mike Moustakas and Pedro Alvarez play 3rd base for each of the clubs. Neither player was remarkable that day as the pitchers were the highlight.

For another great custom card of Judy Johnson check out the Infinite Baseball Card Set. In addition to producing a fine custom card Gary has also added the usual quality biographical information that he brings to every post.

I always enjoy learning the history of the game and seeing the creativity that other card bloggers bring to the table. In an era where we find the baseball card designed by the sole authorized producer can be sometimes wanting, it is good to see that the card collecting community can provide some interesting and quality alternatives.

Game Report: Lynchburg Hill Cats @ Wilmington Blue Rocks (Pirates & Royals)

Frawley Stadium Wilmington, Delaware (click to enlarge)

Sunday was a beautiful day here in the Philadelphia area and the Phils were playing the ESPN night game so I took the opportunity to run down to Delaware and check out the Kansas City Royals Hi-A affiliate Wilmington Blue Rocks. The Blue Rocks hosted the Lynchburg Hill Cats who are affiliated with the Pittsburgh Pirates. The game featured arguably the two best third base prospects in the minors. Mike Moustakas mans the hot corner for the Blue Rocks while Pirates 2008 second overall pick Pedro Alvarez is gettting his first taste of professional ball as a Hill Cat. In this years Baseball America preseason Prospect Rankings the two were ranked 13th and 12th respectively overall and as the top two third basemen.

Moustakas is starting to heat up with 7 homers thourgh 51 games, 35 RBIs and a .265 batting average. Pedro Alvarez is only batting .242 but does have 10 dingers and 42 RBIs for the season. Unfortunately neither player contributed at the plate on Sunday as they went a combined 0-6. Alvarez did hit a long flyball to center in his 2nd at-bat but it was nowhere near home run distance. There was also a second game on Sunday - I only stayed for each players first at-bat, in which each player made outs. Moustakas did eventually get a pair of hits and an RBI in the 2nd game. The only notable play for either player in the field was leading off the first inning of game 2 Moustakas bobbled a grounder that was not ruled an error, had the ball been handled cleanly the runner may have been out.

The star of the day turned out to be a pitcher. Eduardo Paulino pitched 6+ strong innings for the Blue Rocks. The only hit he yielded during the first 5 frames was a solo homer to Jordy Mercer. Paulino did give up 2 more hits in the 7th before giving way to Ben Swaggerty who earned his 2nd save with 2/3 innings of work.

Pedro Alvarez (click to enlarge)

Alvarez politely declined my request for an autograph. I didn't have a card or a ball for him to sign so gave him one of those blank inserts that are pack fillers to sign. Pedro said "I am not allowed to sign those". I imagine he thought it was an index card. I usually ask out of town players to sign a ticket stub, but wasn't really thinking at the time and he was on his way back to the dugout. Between games several of the Blue Rocks players signed autos. I do not believe that Moustakus was among them.


Mike Moustakas (click to enlarge)

The minor league game was a fun day out and very affordable. Tickets are $10 for a box seat so close that it scares you. Parking is free. 24 oz imported beers (cans) were $8.50 I think. Other concessions were somewhat cheaper then at Citizen's Bank.

I hadn't been to Wilmington in about 10 years I am glad I went and hope to get back there later this year.