Baseball in Fort Wayne

Posts Tagged ‘Eric Sogard’

Here’s an interesting one. The Oakland A’s acquired Kevin Kousmanoff and former Fort Wayne Wizard Eric Sogard for former Padre Scott Hairston and Aaron Cunningham.

Sogard is seen as a Todd Walker type hitter that lacks range defensively but is gap-hitter with great contact rates.

Sogard, a former second round pick out of Arizona State, hit .253 with two home runs and 15 RBI in 22 games with the Wizards in 2007. He should fit in well with Oakland becuase he does not strike out a lot. In 2008, with Lake Elsinore, Sogard struck out just 62 times in 536 at-bats.  Last season, Sogard hit .293 with Double-A San Antonio and wiffed just 47 times in 457 at–bats.

Sogard, a second baseman, was idling on the Padres’ depth chart behind another former Wizard, Matt Antonelli, who held the position at Triple-A Portland. Somewhat ironically, Kevin Kousmanoff was originally acquired by San Diego in a 2006 trade for former Padres second baseman Josh Barfield.

The trade should also see former Wizard Chase Headley return to third base. As Friar Forecast points out:

With Chase Headley on the roster, the Padres had two third baseman, but were forcing one (Headley) to masquerade as a left-fielder.  Not surprisingly, Headley’s fielding was a major liability and zapped much of his value.  In the minors, Headley was considered an average fielding third baseman, and in the majors Headley has shown to be no worse than an average hitter.  In replacing Kouz with Headley at third, the Padres essentially break even.

• White Sox walk off behind Pierzynski: Former Wizards catcher, A.J. Pierzynski hit his second home run of the night in the bottom of the 10th inning to lift the White Sox to their second straight extra-inning win over the Indians, 6-5, at U.S. Cellular Field on Wednesday night. Figures . . . I just traded him in my fantasy league.
• Cuddyer’s MRI shows sprained knuckle: The last player in the Twins system from the Wizards’ days as a Minnesota affiliate, Michael Cuddyer has had a pretty banged up season. I think this is his third DL stint. BTW: he’s on my fantasy team.
• Condrey has big off-day plans: The former Wizards and current Phillie pitcher, Clay Condrey and his wife welcomed their first son on Monday, Cashton “Cash” Lee. Interestingly, Fort Wayne native and current Indian’s skipper, Eric Wedge, and his wife named their son Dalton Cash after his arrival shortly before the season.
• Headley continues to improve in left field: I still think he’ll ultimately end up at third in the long run, but Chase Headley‘s star continues to rise as he adapts in the outfield. For what’s it’s worth, there were some Oakland A’s scouts at the Castle on Sunday. Maybe its just a coincidence that Chavez went on the DL a couple days later. They’re just five games out of first and three-and-a-half out of the wild card.
• Padres land bevy of international talent: A possible look at some future Wizards (or whatever the team is next year and beyond). They forked over 5 million dollars to secure four highly-touted players from Latin America and an Australian outfielder on the first day of the international signing period; Adis Portillo (Venezuela), shortstop Alvaro Aristy (Dominican Republic), outfielder Luis Domoromo (Venezuela), right-handed pitcher Elvin Tavarez (Dominican Republic) and outfielder, Corey Adamson (Australia). They’re all around 16 years old, so it will be a while before we see any of them in the Fort if we ever do.
• Encouraging News on Matt Bush: “He isn’t on a mound yet but he’s long tossing from 130 feet and one third of the way through his throwing program. He could be back getting in serious work by Instructional League.” Matt Antonelli may be finally coming out of his funk and Eric Sogard is drawing some attention. Add him to your watch lists.
• Peavy nominated for an ESPY: Not much I can add to that. The guy is a stud and deserves to be recognized.
• McDaid promoted to Lake Elsinore: I haven’t cataloged any of my 2008 photos yet. Hope I got some good shots before Derek McDaid, an MWL All-Star, was promoted.