Saturday, July 3, 2010

Victoria acquires Edgecombe for Cronin

The Victoria Seals have traded utility man Shane Cronin to the Calgary Vipers in return for slugging first baseman / outfielder Matt Edgecombe.

Edgecombe was hitting .321 with 2 HR and 17 RBI in 34 games for the Snakes at the time of the trade. He was mainly playing right field for Calgary, but he was also used at first. Even though he was hitting .321, Edgecombe was batting eighth for the hard-hitting Vipers.

The 6' 4" 235-pound graduate of San Francisco State University turns 26 years old on Sunday.  Edgecombe is in his second year of professional baseball after playing last season for the Long Beach Armada. He hit .303 with 2 HR and 39 RBI in 67 games with the Armada.

Cronin only had 62 at-bats in the Seals’ first 36 games this season. He did not seem happy of late and I wouldn't be surprised if he requested the trade. Although he has the ability to play a variety of positions, manager Kip Gross preferred to use both Josh Arhart and Matt Kavanaugh at first base since Terrence McClain moved to the outfield. Just last night, Kavanaugh also filled in at third base while Cronin was once again relegated to pinch-hitting duties.

The trade appears to be a win-win for both clubs. Cronin will likely get a shot at playing full-time for the Vipers, while Edgecombe will have a more prominent role in the Seals' batting order. In his Royal Athletic Park debut on Saturday, Matt hit sixth in the order and went 2-for-5 with an RBI in Victoria's 8-5 win over the Tijuana Cimarrones.

Seal Blubber Bits
  • The Seals have now won seven of their last eight games and hold a 17-20 record. With the Calgary Vipers on a 9-game losing streak, Victoria is now only three games behind the Vipers and five games behind the second-place Edmonton Capitals. Should Chico win the North Division in both the first and second halves of the season, the three Canadian teams could battle it out for the second-best overall record and the other North Division playoff spot. Even though the Seals can't win the first-half title, they need to win as many games as possible during the remainder of the first half which concludes July 11th.
  • Josh Arhart extended his hitting streak to 11 games on Saturday night. In addition, Colin Moro reached base safely for the 19th consecutive game, although in six of those games he went hitless and reached by either a walk or hit-by-pitch.
  • Wilver Perez stole another three bases on Saturday to raise his league-leading total to 29 (Maui's Fehlandt Lentini is second in the league with 17 swipes). Perez has only been caught stealing once in his 30 attempts. If he can stay healthy, he'll likely break the all-time GBL record for stolen bases in a season (51).
  • Reliever Aaron "Handyman" Easton (2-2, 3.98 ERA) has appeared in 20 of Victoria's 37 games this season and has limited opponents to a paltry .236 batting average. His 20 appearances is tops in the GBL.
  • Brandon Villafuerte earned his league-leading seventh save on Saturday night while lowering his ERA to 2.95 -- best on the Victoria Seals pitching staff.