A total of 45 players remain at Fitch Park, the Spring Training Complex for the Chicago Cubs, continuing the Cactus League season as part of Extended Spring Training.

Many players have been promoted from Arizona, including former Hawks James Leverton (who was in Arizona coverting to a side-arm delivery), Larry Suarez, D.J. Fitzgerald, Jonathan Mota (who was in Arizona converting to a catcher), and Francisco Guzman.

Impressing the most has been lefty Marcos Perez, who has not allowed an earned run in 17-plus innings of work, holding opponents to a .105 batting average, with 16 strikeouts and just one walk in his first season away from the Dominican Republic (went 8-3 in two years in the Dominican Summer League).

At the plate, young middle-infielder Ping-Chieh Chen reminds many of former Hawk, Hak-Ju Lee, with outfielder Jesus Morelli recording six extra-base hits since joining the team from Class-A Peoria.

A complete look at the Boise/Mesa Extended Squad can be found here
HawksEXSpringReport5-13-10.pdf

After coming up with a final list of 20 position players from the decade of 2000-09, members of the Boise Hawks front office, along with members of the Boise Media selected the Top-10 Boise Hawks Position Players of the Decade.

Of the group, only three have played in the major leagues, while nine of the ten are currently active in professional baseball.

Let us know what you think: 
Top-10PlayersHawks.pdf

Former 2007 Boise Hawks catcher Josh Donaldson was called up by the Oakland Athletics on Friday, made a pinch-hitting appearance in last night’s  10-2 loss to the Blue Jays and is in the starting line-up at the Rogers Centre for today’s matinee against Toronto.

 

Donaldson, who was hitting .269 with four home runs and 19 RBI at AAA Sacramento, was added to the 40-man roster after starting catcher, Kurt Suzuki, was played on the 15-Day DL.  He becomes the 70th former Boise Hawk to play in the Major Leagues.

 

In 2007, the former Auburn Tiger had a big season for the Hawks, hitting .346, with nine home runs and 35 RBI.  A year later, he was involved in Cubs-A’s six-player trade that sent Rich Harden and Chad Gaudin to Chicago, for Donaldson, Eric Patterson, Sean Gallagher, and Matt Murton.

 

Donaldson joins another former Hawk, Jerry Blevins, on the Athletics roster.

 

With Donaldson, there are now 19 former Boise Hawks on MLB rosters.

One month into the major league season and three weeks into minor league ball, and former Boise Hawks are excelling around the game.

Although the parent club, the Chicago Cubs have been up and down so far, many possible future Cubs have been outstanding – including Jay Jackson at AAA, Andrew Cashner at AA, and Brett Jackson at A.

Away from the Cubs organization, Joel Peralta continues his dominance of the AAA ranks, now with the Syracuse Chiefs in the Nationals organization, and Brian Dopirak seems to be an injury away from becoming the next former Hawk to reach The Show.

But for me, the feel good story is Darin Downs, the likable former Hawk from 2004-06, who had a breakout season last year at Advanced-A Charlotte, but was nearly killed by a line-drive in his second start with AA Montgomery.  Downs has recovered from a difficult offseason to start off just as he left off last year (when he was MILB’s Class A left-handed starting Pitcher of the Year), going 2-0 with a 1.59 ERA in the Southern League.

A total of 107 former Hawks are playing ball as of tonight – not including those down at Extended Spring Training.  For a complete look a the former Hawks – click here –
HawksAlumniReport4-29-10.pdf.

While the four full-season minor league affiliates for the Chicago Cubs have started play, a group of 53 players remained in Mesa, Arizona, as part of Extended Spring Training – working on fundamentals and playing early morning Cactus League games against other Extended teams.

Of this group, 20 of the players are former Boise Hawks – including players learning the art of pitching (Dylan Johnston, Drew Rundle, Alvaro Sosa), while two other former Hawks are learning the art of catching (Jonathan Mota, Jae-Hoon Ha).

Thanks to Arizona Phil of The Cub Reporter – who attends every EST game, I have been able to compile statistics for the Boise/Mesa group through their first nine outings (3-4-2 during that stretch).  You can find the stats by clicking this link –
HawksEXSpringReport4-22-10.pdf

For the last few weeks, the talk of a possible new facility in either Boise or Meridian to house the Boise Hawks and other local outdoor events has picked up speed.

On Tuesday afternoon, Hawks President/General Manager, Todd Rahr, spent a half hour on 670 KBOI-AM’s Nate Shelman Show to talk about the issue and take calls from listeners.  The following day, he spent 15 minutes talking with Jeff Caves and Brian Murphy on 1350 KTIK-AM’s Idaho Sports Talk.

Click on the the following links to hear the interviews (KBOI Segment 1 –
Todd1.wma) (KBOI Segment 2 –
Todd2.wma) (KTIK Segment
todd3.wma).  Each of the segments run about 15 minutes of length.

Rahr has developed his own blog to talk about the Treasure Valley Sports and Entertainment Complex at http://rahrinsight.blogspot.com/.

After an initial group of 34 pitchers selected from members of the media, past and present Hawks staff, and fans via the Hawks social media networks, a voting panel has selected the Top-10 Boise Hawks Pitchers of the Decade (2000-09).

Of the group, two have not made their Major League debuts, while two others are currently not pitching at the Big League level.

Let me know what you think…
HawksPitchersofDecade.pdf.

(Special Thanks to Julie Takeuchi for the historical photos)

It is Hot Stove League time in Boise (which typically involves tons of Boise State football), but members of the local media, current and former members of the Hawks staff, and fans have come up with the Top-10 Moments of the Decade (2000-09) for the Boise Hawks.

From Dontrelle Willis to Tom Kotchman, from Bobbleheads to Sharks, from Angels to Cubs – the decade was filled with interesting and memorable moments.

Click on the following link to view the list…
HawksTop10.pdf

Look for more Top-10 lists as we get closer to Opening Day 2010!!!

A great game by Bobby Wagner helped the Boise Hawks to their second straight win, a 5-4 decision over the Spokane Indians in a rare mid-week afternoon game at Memorial Stadium.

The crowd of 500-600 fans (paid attendance was 1,300+) saw Wagner rope a two-run triple in the first, then club his fifth home run, a two-run shot in the fifth, to give the Hawks a 5-2 lead.  They would need it, as a pair of errors in the eighth would allow the Indians to score a run, before Steve Grife slammed the door, getting the final five outs for his first save.

BIG FOOTBALL GAMES: A couple big upsets in college football – Central Washington topped D-II #1 Minnesota-Duluth 13-10, while Villanova upset Temple (sorry Andy Simon) 31-24…Boise State was sloppy at times, but the defense was very impressive in the 19-8 win over Oregon – with an ultra-poor sportsmanship showing by the Ducks after the game.  It was a whirlwind night for Spokane broadcaster Bob Castle, who hopped a plane to Spokane right after the game, in time to catch a charter to Abeliene, Texas, where he has to call the Whitworth-Hardin Simmons game on Saturday.

LOOKING AHEAD: Trey McNutt, Dae-Eun Rhee, and Jon Nagel will be the rotation to close out the season – as the Hawks look to finish with a flurry.

Finally with a computer with a solid connection – guess I had to make it to Caldwell to get one…as we struggled with internet issues the entire series in the Tri-Cities.  A lot has gone down since then, so let’s look at what we have missed.

SOME VIDEO – I was able to get a bit of video work done on the road, including a look at last Friday’s sellout crowd at Avista Stadium, along with a look at my hotel room at the Red Lion Columbia Center in Kennewick.

NEW PLAYERS – I have been thoroughly impressed by the five new players that the Cubs promoted from Mesa, as the quintet has given the Hawks some life.  The lefties – young Austin Kirk and Brooks Raley look like they have some potential, while Steve Grife and Dae-Eun Rhee have good stuff.  I hope the fans in Boise will like the speed of Francisco Guzman – he is super fast.

BALK, BALK, BALK – In Spokane, it got flat out ridiculous to everyone in the pressbox, both clubhouses, and even the fans how many balks were called in the final three games of the series, that I went and did some research.  Through last Friday, there were 70 balks called in the Northwest League, spanning 268 games.  The crew that handled the Hawks-Indians games, Javier Cantu and Ryan Goodman, had called 48 of the 70 balks – including every balk for Yakima this season, all but one of the balks for Tri-City and Salem-Keizer, and ten of the 11 Boise balks.  Think about it 48 balks in 67 games for one crew, 22 balks in 201 games for the other three crews – seeing the same teams, same pitchers.

IT IS MATHEUS – It only took me 68 games to realize that we have been pronouncing George Matheus name incorrectly all year…at the Host Family Dinner at the start of the season, George introduced himself as George Muh-tay-us (or at least that is what we heard on the other side of the room)…however, it is George Matheus (like Mathews) – which we kidded about on Hawk Talk on Monday night (we will get the audio of the interview up shortly).

WHAT A BOOK: Before we left for the trip, Dr. Jasper LiCalzi and I talked books on Business Baseball and Politics on Hawk Talk, and he recommended Clemente by David Maraniss – and loaned me the book for the road trip.  I must say, what a great read about an amazing player.  It was very engaging about his life on and off the diamond – and a sad way for him to die, hurriedly renting a broken plane for $4,000 to get aid to Nicaragua on New Years Eve, 1972.  In fact, after reading it, our bus driver, Hal, took the book and read it as well – and he agreed, a great book about a great player.  When I asked Tri-City radio man Mike Boyle about Clemente, who he saw play in the 1971 World Series against Baltimore, he said that he was one of the three best players he ever saw play in person (the others were Mike Schmidt and Jim Palmer).

FOUL BALLS: This is one that blows me away – in my 30 years of being a baseball fan (the years I remember baseball), I have never caught a foul ball as a fan (I have gotten balls in the booth, but not as a fan).  Well, between my wife Liza and son PJ (23 months old), they have five balls to their name this season – one in Yakima back in early August, then four more during the recent trip to Tri-City.  One of the balls was signed by the complete 2009 Boise Hawks and will be added to the collection at our house – next to the 2003, 2004, and 2005 team balls (not sure why we don’t have them for the other years).

MEMORIAL STADIUM MAGIC, PART 6: Despite a rough season, the Hawks are a formidable foe at home, with a 19-14 record at Memorial Stadium after tonight’s 4-3 victory over Spokane, the sixth walk-off win this season.  Runey Davis has a pair of winners – one in an 8-7 victory over Everett, and tonight’s gapper that scored Jae-Hoon Ha in the ninth.