Baseball in Fort Wayne

Posts Tagged ‘Luke Carlin’

Former Fort Wayne Wizards pitcher, Jared Wells became the 64th player in the history of the team to make his Major League Debut. He entered the game against Cincinnati in the seventh inning in relief of Mike Adams. He coaxed outs from Joey Votto and David Ross before issuing a walk to Bronson Arroyo, followed by a single to Ryan Freel. He then got Paul Lanish to line out to end the inning unscathed.

Wells was a 31st Round (925th overall) pick in the 2002 Major League Draft. He joined the Wizards in 2002. During that season, he started 14 games and compiled a 4.09 ERA with one complete game and 72 strikeouts over 81.1 innings pitched.

The bottom of the seventh saw two former Wizards, Paul McAnulty and Luke Carlin take their at-bats before Wells was lifted for a pinch hitter.

Update (5/25/2008): Sandy Burgin talks with Wells and his teammates regarding the reliever’s Big League Debut:

“Jared’s debut was fine,” said Black. “He looked comfortable and I think he’d like to have that walk back to the starting pitcher [Bronson Arroyo], but overall, his stuff looked good, his delivery looked fine.”

As SignonSanDiego reports:

(Former Fort Wayne Wizards catcher, Luke) Carlin showed off his arm, gunning down Jonathon Herrera stealing second in the sixth and then got his first major league hit with an eighth inning one out double.

He may have already seen more time that Morton did. Wonder what Bud Black had against Colt.

Tonight, Luke Carlin became the 63rd former Wizards Player to make his Major League Baseball debut. In three plate appearances, he struck out three times. But he did something that couldn’t be accomplished in four previous tries by his predecessors. He was the catcher for Greg Maddux’s 350th win.

Luke Carlin caught the future Hall of Famers, Maddux and Hoffman. He looked spry behind the plate, but was overwhelmed at the plate, punching out 3 times. All told, the Friars struck out 12 times. [hat tip to Friar Forum]

I gotta think your first big league game is pretty memorable. I guess that would be the only way it could be made even more memorable.

Luke Carlin looks to be the first former Wizard to make his Major League Debut in 2008. He was called up yesterday, while another former Wizards catcher, Colt Morton was sent down to Double-A San Antonio after having been sorely misused during his stay on the roster.

“I got a little nervous,” said Carlin, who until Friday was a backup catcher for the Triple-A Beavers. “The last time I got called in the office, I was released (from Detroit in 2003).”

The 27-year-old, switch hitting Carlin was hitting .387 with 3 home runs and 11 RBI’s in 11 games for Portland. While with Fort Wayne in 2003 and 2004, Carlin appeared in 44 games and had 144 at-bats. He scored 12 runs on 33 hits with 15 bases on balls. If Black actually puts him in a game, Carlin will become the 63rd Former Fort Wayne Wizards player to debut in Major League Baseball.

To suggest the San Diego Padres are having a bad season is an understatement. They’ve lost their last four games, have gone 2-8 in their last ten and now they find themselves 11 games out of first in their division as they sit alone with the worst record in Major League Baseball. Oh, and to suggest that the division leading Arizona Diamondbacks are playing “pretty good” would be just as equally an understatement.

You might think bright side is that they are only 7.5 games out of the wild card . . . but EVERY NL team is ahead of them. Now, I know the season is young and there’s still a chance they can turn things around; but I’ve also been a Cubs fan long enough to know when a team has lost all hope. And I am sorry San Diego fans, but you’re getting close.

I’m not one to relish miserable seasons for any team except the Yankees. But I do have to wonder if what this season has become could lead to opportunities for players the Fort Wayne faithful have seen in a Wizards’ uniform.

This season, we’ve gotten to see Colt Morton get called up . . . but he’s mostly sat the bench. We’ve also seen Justin Germano lose his spot in the rotation. But even then, Wil Ledezma was inserted instead of Josh Geer, Cesar Ramos, Wade LeBlanc or others.

I guess the fact that the Padres aren’t tapping into their minor leaguers jut yet could lead one to speculate that they are not quite ready to give up on the season, but last night, I started to think that they were taking their first steps. MadFriars reported that catcher Luke Carlin’s contract was being purchased to add him to their 40 man roster. But I am glad I wasn’t the only one who noticed that MF removed the story shortly thereafter (but it’s back so I really don’t know what’s going on with Carlin).

But now there is increased speculation that Jim Edmonds might be on his way out of San Diego. As Tim Sullivan suggests:

Maybe it signals some major moves, and in short order. Maybe it tells you that Padres management has resolved to change the story because it is resigned that it can’t change the standings.

I find it hard to believe that Michael Barrett’s eventual return and Jody Gerut (a bust with three other teams) could be the answer.

So what’s all this mean? What’s my point to this post?

I guess my point is that while Padres fans are probably downright pi$$ed about the season gone awry (and rightfully so), I have a more selfish outlook. When the Padres throw in the towel, they’ll become sellers and they’ll be opening roster spots for minor leaguers. Many of them are former Wizards. It means we might see the MLB debuts of many former Wizards.

At the same time, we might see some fresh faces in Fort Wayne as the result of trades. they’ll likely be PTBNL players, but hey, you never know when a team might give up on a Joakim Soria.

Let’s just hope they use their probable first-round pick a little more wisely than they have in their recent past.