Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Weekly Minor League Update

Been worried over the past week as Brian Goodwin has not played for a week or so.  Checked all the wires to see whether he may be injured but I don't believe the minor leagues have the disabled list so if a player is injured he just doesn't play.    I can find no official word from the Washington Nationals.  I hope if he is injured he is healthy by September.  I just have a feeling that since the Nationals going into Tuesday's game with the Braves were 12 games back that Brian might get called to and see some action in Washington during September since they are pretty much out of the race in the National League East.

Hobbs Johnson has pitched another two inning in his new home of Appleton Wisconson.  He has give up one run in two appearances but he has struck out eight batters in four innings.  Every time he has pitched this summer he has pitched two innings so it surly looks as if the Brewers are grooming him as a long relief pitcher.

Since I don't have a crystal ball to look in to but from where I sit in North Carolina Xavier Macklin days seemed to be numbered with the Oakland A's.  This summer X has been relegated to playing about one game a week  Being and outfielder that is not a good sign when you are not in the lineup.  I would suspect that at the end of the season X will probably get released by Oakland and Xavier will have to make a decision.  Can I play this game at this level and do I want to shop myself around to other teams?  Right now X have only batted about 12 times in the last month and his batting average is less than 190.

Some of you may be interested in the progress of John Wooten who's dad is Sonny Wooten and was a member of the 1973 Gryphon State Championship baseball team.  John who played at Eastern Wayne in Goldsboro and played at ECU is hitting 251 in Beloit for the A's.  Beloit is the upper A level and is the same league where Hobbs Johnson is.  John has shown  to be a power hitter having hit 16 dingers so far since signing out of ECU.

Finally today I run into many people over a week's period and have been asked this question many times.  Where is Wes Bradshaw these days?  Many of you Gryphon fans know when Wes Graduated from Rocky Mount I think in 2000 he had a hard time cutting loose his high school ties and for many years was at every Gryphon sporting event there was.  Funny thing about what getting married and having  a child it can really change your life.   Wes works for a Home Health Care Company out of Wilson but he works the Greenville area.  This summer you could find Wes in Pinetops coaching little league.

 Since many of you are like me and have direct TV or Dish and you don't get WHIG-TV then you wouldn't know that Wes still can be seen every Sunday night on the All New Sports show and will be doing play by play of the game of the week this fall during football season.