So, the trading deadline has come and gone, and the roster expansion is now there. Louisville had made their trades early but there was still one to be had on deadline day, 27-yr-old pitcher Rogerio Vazquez was sent to join his former master in Wichita. Vazquez in six years had compiled a 27-23 record with 22 saves but this year was 7-8 with an unsightly 7.32 ERA. In return Sluggers received 21-yr-old first baseman Jose Vazquez, pitchers 21-yr-old Yasuoka Okamura and 18-yr-old Masaru Yokota. Now that Brian Clough has reached the 3,000-hit mark Louisville will look for something more productive in the DH slot and the newly arrived Vazquez, who had 189 hits, 52 homers and 129 RBI the last two years in Triple-A, will have first go.
Newly acquired Jose Vazquez gets his cup of BBA coffee
Roster expansion did not bring many cups of coffee as most of the promising players had already been called up. Pitcher Dylan Schmidt was added to the bullpen though and 3B Doug Glover Jr, catcher Sifal Smerdon and the aforementioned Vazquez were all added to the expanded roster. 18-yr-old Joey O’Brien will also get promotion to Triple-A for the first time with five games left of the season. Yokota will start the final game of the rookie ball season too to give him a chance to showcase his talents.
Kevin Morales & Pepe Jaramillo both had two starts in the final week of August and both were mixed. Morales struckout 11 and only walked one in the first start but walked four in the second, striking out five and unfortunately being tagged with a 0-3 loss. Jaramillo walked three and struck out 11 in the first while walking five and sitting down five in the second, he fortunately received nine runs of support in each game and came away with two wins to up his winning streak to four. Rafael Cruz’s stay in Louisville may be short after the waiver claimer had three outings, pitching only 0.2 innings while surrendering three hits & three runs.
Pedro Saldana was on fire the last week in August hitting .389/.421/1.111 with team leading three homers and eight RBI for the week. Backup 3B Felix Arrojo who had no takers in the deadline day sale got into just one game last week going 2-2 with a walk and getting three RBI. If Glover Jr proves to be any good in his cup of coffee Arrojo will probably be leaving Louisville at the end of the season. The Sluggers are very reluctant to pay his $3 million arbitration estimate, with Sean Maguire in good form and around for at least three more years there is no need for a backup 3B earning more than the league minimum.
