Lake Elsinore lost their best player this week, as expected. 3B Jedd Gyorko was promoted to San Antonio on July fourth and the lineup faced a shakeup as the batting order was adjusted to accommodate the loss. Whether the weeks’ record of 3-4 was a reflection of the shakeup or just playing a more difficult opponent in Visalia for four of the seven games.

Other changes included closer Miles Mikolas promoted to San Antonio, reliever Jeff Ibarra coming in from Fort Wayne, reliever Robert Lara to Fort Wayne. Starter Nick Schmidt coming in from Arizona for his rehab from the latest in a long list of injuries that have plagued him since being drafted in the first round of the 2007 draft.

Outfielder Mike Baxter will also play for the Storm to begin his rehab from the thumb injury suffered at the beginning of the year.

Pitcher Zach Herr gets a mention for his continued success out of the bullpen for the Storm. His 4-2 record and ERA of 2.06 at the end of the week shows his ability to stay out of trouble in his appearances. His pattern seems to be to pitch only one inning and might be in the process of developing into a late inning relief specialist.

Outfielder Wande Olabisi, the Nigerian working his way into pro ball, is slowly picking up his game and has improved to .263 with four runs scored over the week with a home run, a double and six RBI.

Lake Elsinore has a 10-6 overall record and is seeing improved play from Olabisi and Dan Meeley to strengthen the lineup overall but they must adjust to the loss of Gyorko and show that they can continue to succeed without him.

It seems they will lean heavily on Valdez, Galvez and Hagerty to do the heavy lifting going forward but it will not surprise me if 1B Nate Freiman also steps up to help carry the load. He has quietly carried  an over .300 average and is consistently hitting for power. He managed to keep pace with Gyorko for RBI without the fan fare that Gyorko attracted. It appears he will be hitting behind Hagerty for the time being (5^th) but that might be a fluid situation depending on who has the hotter hand.

Aaron Harang made a start during his rehab assignment, allowing three runs on five hits over four innings pitched and seven strikeouts. Matt Lollis is being limited and actually came out of the bullpen to relieve Nick Schmidt is a long effort but threw three innings with no hits and four strikeouts to lower his ERA to 5.35.