BACK TO THE ACTION Columbus won on Monday, before dropping their Tuesday night game. In Monday's win, Dioner Navarro and Robinson Cano continued to pick up the AAA baseknocks. Navarro was 1 for 4 with a single and Cano was 2 for 4 with 2 singles and a strikeout. Despite Cano's solid night and Navarro's recent hot streak, both players found themselves on the bench for Tuesday night's effort. Despite the absence of the team's top two prospects Columbus went on to win with an offensive outburst as 6 hitters had 2 hits and Alex Graman provided a strong outing 7-5-2-2-2-8-0 (IP-H-R-ER-BB-SO-HR). With Mike Mussina taking the hill for the Clippers tonight, I wouldn't expect Navarro to play, but Cano should definitely be back in the lineup and continue his quest for 50 extra base hits, he currently has 47. Trenton lost their last two games as their disappointing season continues downhill. In addition to the struggles of the team as a whole, Bronson Sardinha has also been mired in a deep slump. The slump began almost immediately after his 7 for 10 doubleheader and continued through yesterday's game, he sat out Monday. On Tuesday night, the DH was 1 for 5 with a single and 3 strikeouts. I might have to take back my statement about him breaking out and just observe the situation. Ramon Ramirez will take the mound for the Thunder tonight as he attempts to correct his own struggles. Tampa won on Monday and Tuesday. Monday's game was a shortened 5-inning affair (I wonder why), while Tuesday's went the customary 9-innings. On Monday, Melky Cabrera went 1 for 2 with a single and a strikeout, but could only muster an 0 for 4 with a strikeout on Tuesday. It was encouraging to see him take a walk in Tuesday's game though. Eric Duncan was 1 for 1 with a double and a walk on Monday, and followed that up with an 0 for 5 with 2-strikeout night on Tuesday. Duncan has had a very inconsistent FSL-stint, but that is to be somewhat expected with young players, especially one as relatively inexperienced as Duncan, who hails from the Northeast. Unlike the other two notable position prospects on the team, Guillen did not manage one positive game out of the two played; the RF was 0 for 5 with a walk and 2 strikeouts, his average is now down to .255 and without much of a walk rate or extra base hit total, he has had a lost season. The major Tampa hitting prospects had bad nights, but the offense still managed 8 runs. The way Jeff Karstens pitched, all those runs were unnecessary. The right-hander had one of his best outings of the year 7-5-2-2-0-10-1 as he lowered his ERA to 3.82. Karstens does not have any particularly eye-popping numbers, but is one of my favorite prospects in the organization, call it a hunch, I'm anticipating a big season at AA next year. Battle Creek's Monday game was rained out and made up as part of a Tuesday night doubleheader. They actually managed to play the top of the first inning on Monday night and after Abel Gomez threw straight balls to open the bottom of the first (credit to ICEBERG18) and the game was stopped. When play resumed on Tuesday, Tyler Clippard was in for Gomez. Pitching in front of his family (once again, credit to ICEBERG18), Clippard had another solid outing, 7-4-1-1-3-5-1. His ERA is down to 3.21, .004 behind Gomez. Picking up the victory allowed T-Clip to even his record at 9-9, but more importantly, to me at least, he is still tied for third in the MWL strikeout rankings. Over his last 6 starts his line is 40-28-9-8-8-42-3, pretty good for a guy who lacks an "overpowering out pitch". Erold Andrus had a solid doubleheader and Hector Made, the team's best performer in recent weeks, had an outstanding one. Andrus was 2 for 8 with a single, a double, a walk, and a strikeout. Made was 4 for 8 with 3 singles, a double, a walk, and a strikeout. Made was named as the organization's sleeper prospect by BA before the season and after starting off incredibly slow has been rolling for some time now. Since SI was last discussed on this site, Jesse Hoover (4-3-1-1-2-5-0), Eric Abreu (5-6-1-1-0-7-0), and Jeff Marquez (5-2-1-1-1-4-1) all had good starts. This trio of right-handers, 22, 21, and 19-years-old, respectively, are the shining stars of the SI pitching staff. All sport sub-3 ERAs and good-to-outstanding peripherals in addition to possessing good raw stuff. Look for Hoover and Abreu to open 2005 in Tampa while Marquez is likely Battle Creek bound. With the demotion of Marcos Vechionacci, the hitters of greatest note at SI are easily the outfield duo of Harris and Battle. This past week was great for Battle as he begins digging out of the hole he got himself into early in his SI campaign, the CF was 7 for 19 with 4 singles, 3 doubles, a walk, and 7 strikeouts. Meanwhile, Harris started slow, got hot, and is cold again as evidenced by his 2 for 13 with 2 singles, 2 walks, and 6 strikeouts week. Then again, those numbers don't include last night's 3 for 4 with a double, which is hopefully a harbinger of another extended hot streak. The Gulf Coast Yankees won a pitching duel 1-0 yesterday afternoon. Befitting of such a contest, not many hitters had good nights, Vech was 0 for 4 with a strikeout, dropping his average to .325, Poterson was 0 for 3 with a walk and no strikeouts, and Amador was 0 for 4 with 3 strikeouts. Poterson, who is hitting .169, has 50 strikeouts in 154 at bats and Amador, who is hitting .234, has 49 strikeouts in 141 at bats. To Poterson's credit, he also has 18 walks while Amador has 3. In case anyone is wondering, the guy that ICEBERG18 wanted badly over Poterson, H.S. left-hander Gio Gonzalez, went 24-17-8-6-8-36-0 in the White Sox's equivalent of SI before being promoted to the A- South Atlantic League where he went 5-3-0-0-0-3-0 in his first start. The guy I wanted badly over Poterson, H.S. right-hander Jay Rainville, has put up 25.1-28-15-6-3-28-1 in Rookie-ball. It is going to be about half a decade before the draft can be properly assessed, but Poterson already has some ground to make up on these two. *** Just as a disclaimer, I don't mention a lot of guys who are on the GCL team because I can't get any completely assured DOB. Yankees.com use to have that data in season's past, but has taken that feature away for some reason this season. *** Questions, comments, suggestions to minoryankeeblog@hotmail.com   ¶ 11:20 AM