Monday, July 02, 2007

The Fearsome Five

The Connecticut Defenders posted five players to the Eastern league All-Star team for the game held at Dodd Stadium July 11.

The players are: Pitchers Geno Espineli and Alex Hinshaw, catcher Steve Holm, second baseman Eugenio Velez and outfielder John Bowker.

Manager Dave Machemer will guide the Northern Division team as Norwich is the host city.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Has there been any explanation to the role change for Joe Bateman? Last year he was the closer/setup man and his numbers looked good. Now he's out there 2 or 3 innings at a time and it doesn't seem like he has enough gas to get through it. Why aren't they using him for just the 7th or 8th innings?

Joe said...

Bateman was hurt during spring training and is behind everyone else because of this, but also the team has felt that he is better suited for at least the time being, that long/middle relief is the place for him. Part of the reasoning is that Osiris Matos has risen into the set-up role and may one day be a closer and Brian Anderson is the closer.

Bateman has gotten better after giving up too many home runs in his earlier appearances.

One thing Bateman gives the team is the ability to go more than one inning.