Baseball in Fort Wayne

Posts Tagged ‘Wade LeBlanc’

Here’s some news on two former Wizards pitchers; Dirk Hayhurst and Wade LeBlanc. Both are at similar stages of their journeying through the Padres’ farm system.

Both are with Triple-A Portland. Dirk Hayhurst saw his first action of the season Sunday against the Fresno Grizzlies. He allowed two runs on three hits over two innings in a game that saw the Beavers lose 9-1. Over at Mad Friars, they have a good interview with Hayhurst. I can’t help but post a wonderful quote from that segment here:

I write for Baseball America. I write their non-prospect diary. Everybody else writes this thing called a prospect diary, which is what it’s like to be cool and awesome and hitting real well and drinking protein shakes. But, that’s not real, that’s not the minor leagues. The minor leagues are getting off a bus at 3 am to eat at a gas station or fighting over seating arrangements on a bus in A ball. What’s it like to bicker about who’s going to do the ball bucket, that kind of stuff, real stuff. [read the full piece at Mad Friars]

On the other hand, Wade LeBlanc dazzled in his Triple-A debut. The former Wizards pitcher tied a Beavers record with a career-high 11 strikeouts over just six innings of work to lead Portland to a 9-1 win over the visiting Sacramento RiverCats on Monday (yes, Hayhurst really did lose in a game 9-1 while LeBlanc won a game 9-1).

LeBlanc’s strikeout record ties other former Wizards pitchers Oliver Perez (2003) and Steve Watkins (2004) in single-game strikeouts for Portland. There was speculation during Spring Training that Leblanc had an outside shot at the fifth starter spot before being assigned to Triple-A. Methinks we may see him a time or two before the season is over.