It is difficult to imagine anyone wielding a hotter bat than veteran Jay Gibbons, who is going to make it increasingly difficult for the Los Angeles Dodgers to keep him out of the major leagues if he maintains anything close to his current pace.<\/p>\n
After starting the season 1-for-9 in three road games for Triple-A Albuquerque, the 33-year-old outfielder has pounded out 13 hits in the first five home contests, including back-to-back four-hit games. The lefty hitter, who needed two Atlantic League stints (Long Island, NY in 2008 and Newark, NJ last season) to get his career back in gear, is at .467 (14-for-30) with six doubles, two home runs and 12 runs batted in. His slugging percentage is sky high at .867, and Gibbons has struck out only three times.<\/p>\n
ANOTHER SOUTHPAW SIZZLING ON MOUND<\/p>\n
Tom Cochran may be nearly as impressive as Jay Gibbons although his level of attention may not be quite as high since he has only pitched twice in the young season.<\/p>\n
The former Can-Am League all-star (Worcester, MA) has given up only one earned run (two overall) in a pair of Double-A outings for Cincinnati’s Carolina Mudcats. His ERA is a skimpy 0.75, and he has only surrendered five hits in 12 innings while fanning 15.<\/p>\n
Cochran, who did not sign with the Reds until he had pitched seven times (three starts) for Lancaster, PA in the Atlantic League early last season, shut down Montgomery, AL (Tampa Bay) on two hits over six scoreless innings Friday. He struck out eight and walked only one. He had limited Birmingham, AL (White Sox) to three hits and the one earned run in six innings in his season debut.<\/p>\n
(This story is from the blog www.IndyBaseballChatter.com<\/a> written by Bob Wirz, who also authors\u00c2\u00a0two columns via subscription, the Independent Baseball Insider and the Atlantic League Notebook.\u00c2\u00a0 Subscriptions are\u00c2\u00a0available at www.WirzandAssociates.com<\/a>.)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It is difficult to imagine anyone wielding a hotter bat than veteran Jay Gibbons, who is going to make it increasingly difficult for the Los Angeles Dodgers to keep him out of the major leagues if he maintains anything close to his current pace. After starting the season 1-for-9 in three road games for Triple-A […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":452,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,4746],"tags":[6162,537,542,6157,620,6159,493,6158,6165,6161,60,5210,499,6164,843,6160,556,379,6156,6163],"class_list":["post-4359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-indy-baseball-insider","tag-al-white","tag-baseball-insider","tag-can-am-league","tag-gibbons","tag-hitting-streak","tag-home-contests","tag-independent-baseball","tag-jay-gibbons","tag-lancaster-pa","tag-long-island-ny","tag-los-angeles-dodgers","tag-newark-nj","tag-outfielder","tag-road-games","tag-scoreless-innings","tag-season-debut","tag-slugging-percentage","tag-southpaw","tag-tom-cochran","tag-wirz"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t