Gerald Laird pulled a hamstring today and was placed on the DL.
As much as I feel sorry for Laird, we just called up Max Ramirez from Frisco to replace him. Ramirez was the guy we got in return for Kenny Lofton last year and he has just been smoking hot all year in Frisco. He is batting .363 with 17HRs and has an on-base % of .457.
And, amazingly enough, he's not the top catcher in our farm system. That honor belongs to Taylor Teagarden who is a very good defensive catcher. (Ramirez is a slugger that happens to play catcher). I've heard a few people compare Teagarden to Pudge Rodriguez, though I doubt he's that good.
I am eagerly awaiting to see how Ramirez does in the majors.
Meanwhile, our über first base prospect, Chris Davis was named minor league player of the week by Baseball America. He hit .400 with 5HRs and 12RBIs last week. Also, Neftali Feliz was ranked #5 minor league player of the week, playing for our lower Class A team. Feliz came over in the Mark Teixeira trade and has been really good all year. He is apparently a big-time fastball-strikeout pitcher. I've heard he has the biggest "upside" of any of our pitching prospects -- that is, he has the biggest chance to become a "#1" starter. (you know, like Edinson Volquez...)
Speaking of Volquez, the man we gave up for Josh Hamilton went into Yankee Stadium and kicked some ass today. He is now 9-2 with a 1.71 ERA and 110 strikeouts. His 110 strikeouts leads MLB and the ERA is tops in MLB by half a run. It is also impressive that he's 9-2 on such a crappy team as Cincinnati.
The "pitching triple crown" consists of wins, strikeouts, and ERA. Currently, Josh Hamilton and Volquez each lead in two of three of their respective triple crown categories. Hamilton leads the AL in HRs and RBIs. He is #6 in batting average, 14 points behind A-Rod. Volquez is 3rd in wins in the NL, 2 behind Brandon Webb. Talk about a blockbuster trade.
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