The Fort Wayne TinCaps have a definite home field advantage in Park View Field. When playing their games at home they are 9-7 but on the road are 3-10 at the end of the fourth week of the minor league season. Their overall 12-17 puts them in last place in the Midwestern league, 5 ½ games back of the leaders. The good news is that the bats are starting to come around a little but, with the exception of Keyvius Sampson, the starters are fighting to find a groove. Adys Portillo, the highly regarded prospect from Venezuela who signed for a $2 million bonus, is struggling with his command and control through four starts and is carrying a 9.82 ERA and a 0-4 record. At 20 yrs old he still has plenty of time to develop his secondary pitches and improve his control but may ultimately be a bullpen reliever if he isn’t able to progress this season as a starter.

With a 4-3 record for this past week, the TinCaps had two standout performances from Sampson, who pitched a total of 10 innings allowing 8 hits, 1 earned run, 4 BB, 13 SO and a HR for a 2.32 ERA over his 6 games started for the season. But we can’t make Keyvius our player of the week every week and there is other good news to report.

Catcher/1B/DH Tommy Medica was able to return to catching in back to back games during this past week. His fight to get his shoulder back into shape for catching is a struggle we will continue to watch as the season goes on, knowing that is his ultimate goal. Offensively, he had a good week and increased his batting average to .338 from last weeks .323 with 2 runs scored, 2 2B and 3 RBI while playing 4 of the 7 games.

OF Rymer Liriano, recently demoted from Lake Elsinore, has done well in his first full week in low A ball. He has brought his average up from a .158 start to .254 by scoring 6 runs, hitting 3 2B, 1 3B and a HR and driving in 6 runs.

Last week we noted that DSL Padres Alberth Martinez was brought in to help in the outfield. He is now gone from the roster and is replaced by Luis Domoromo, a 19 yr old Venezuelan OF that was a non-drafted free agent signee in 2008 and began his professional career with the DSL Padres in 2009. He played in 31 games for Eugene last season and at the time of his signing in ’08 he was regarded as a top ten Latino prospect by ESPN and is now considered the third best LF prospect in the system by Baseball America. It will be surprising if he stays with FW for the entire season but watching his progress will be interesting.

One member of the TinCaps relief corps is putting up good numbers, albeit in a small sample size. LH Noah Mull, drafted by the Padres in the 38^th round of the 2010 draft, is 24 yrs old and made his professional debut last year by being bounced around from the AZL Padres to Fort Wayne and Lake Elsinore. He pitched in a total of 15 games and 26 innings for the period after his mid June signing.

For the 2011 season he has pitched in 10 games and 12.1 innings with a 0-0 record and 1.46 ERA with 2 ER, 5 BB, 15 SO and 3 holds to his credit. He didn’t give up his first earned run until late April and has only allowed 15 hits. He and Mark Hardy have been the bright spots for the bullpen so far with Hardy having more exposure and experience.

Our final topic of the week is to update the status of OF’s Everett Williams and Donovan Tate, who became infamous in April by colliding in the outfield and having the video posted on YouTube.

What was originally thought to be sprains for both players has now ended the season for Everett Williams. He has undergone knee surgery to repair a tear in his knee and will be gone for the rest of the year. The news for Tate is better. He did sprain his knee and is expected back by around June 1^st. But there have been no further updates and we will have to wait and see if that is an accurate assessment.