Baseball in Fort Wayne

Posts Tagged ‘Josh Barfield’

Former Wizards infielder, Josh Barfield is set to rejoin the big league club after the Indians optioned the struggling Cabrera down to Triple-A Buffalo and recalled Barfield to take his roster spot.
Barfield was acquired in a trade that sent Kevin Kouzmanoff to the Padres and was slotted in at second base. However, after batting just .243 with three home runs and 50 RBIs over 130 games, Cabrera was promoted from Buffalo and took over the everyday gig at second.

Following those events and Barfield’s inability to show anything more during spring training, he began the year at Triple-A Buffalo. He had hit safely in nine of his last 12 games while at Buffao. During that time, he batted .288 (15-for-52) with a homer and five RBIs.

He was in Monday’s starting lineup for the Indians.

“Being down there was enough motivation,” Barfield said. “It wasn’t fun at all. It’s something you deal with. The first thing I thought about when I woke up and the last thing I thought about when I went to sleep was getting back here. [source: MLB.com]“

This caps a big couple week’s for the Barfield family. Josh’s younger brother, Jeremy, was taken by the Oakland A’s in the eighth round of last week’s First-Year Player Draft and signed his first professional contract Monday.

Photo courtesy of the Fort Wayne Wizards.

Matt Latos, who signed for $1.25 million with the Padres last May, has recovered from shoulder soreness. The Padres will keep him in extended spring training and then he is expected to report to the Wizards. “He threw a lot of pitches” in two innings Thursday, said Grady Fuson, vice president of scouting and development. [source: SignOnSanDiego]

Intentional Blog On Balls has a nice look at Justin Germano.

Michael Cuddyer looks to return on Sunday. He dislocated his finger on April 4 when he slid headfirst into third base and collided with Royals third baseman Alex Gordon.

Asdrubal Cabrera’s struggles have dropped him from the second spot in the order down to number seven. Josh Barfield is at Triple-A Buffalo and would love to take his job back. But after a hot start, he’s hitting just .175 in his last ten games, including an 0-13 streak in his last three games.

Former Wizards catcher, George Kottaras had a career game for Triple-A Pawtucket (Boston). “The former Olympian hit a pair of homers and drove in a season-high five runs as the Pawtucket Red Sox beat the Louisville Bats, 8-2, at Louisville Slugger Field to earn a split of Monday’s doubleheader.” Kottaras was selected by San Diego Padres in 20th Round (595 overall) of the 2002 draft and played in Fort Wayne in 2004 where he produced the highest batting average of his minor league career (.310) over 271 at-bats. He was traded to Boston in 2006 as the “player to be named later” to complete the David Wells trade.

After being released by the Indians in Spring Training, former Wizards pitcher Aaron Fultz quickly caught on with the Detroit Tigers and was assigned to Triple-A Toledo. However things haven’t transpired exactly the way he had hoped (or thought they would). It’s no secret that th eTigers have pitching issues. Following the Tigers’ decision to promote Clay Rapada to the Major League level, Fultz requested his release from Detroit. It was granted.

On the other hand, the good news continues for Josh Barfield. At Triple-A Buffalo, Barfield is batting .344 through his first 32 at-bats. However, he does have eight strikeouts, an attribute that has plagued him in the past. However, the fact that he has drawn 4 walks is a step in the right direction. His on base percentage had been hovering a little over .400.

Cedric Hunter is off to a great start in Lake Elsinore. In 9 games, he’s hitting .378 with 14 hits, 5 walks and a stolen base. His on base percentage is .465. Wonder how long it will take those who wrote him off following his Wizards performance last season to hop back on the bandwagon.

Will Venable is putting up similar numbers at Triple-A Portland.

Finally, Tim Williams lists his Prospect Watch at AccuScore. He lists Chase Headley as one of the “Situations to Watch”:

There was talk that the Padres were going to keep Headley around in the majors as an outfielder, but that ended when Headley became one of the final cuts. The solid performance of Kevin Kouzmanoff and Scott Hairston right now is enough to keep Headley down, but don’t expect this to be a permanent situation. Headley hit for a .330 average with 20 homers in 121 games at AAA last year. Headley will be up at some point early in the season.