Leo: Back and better than ever!

Sorry for my major blogging drought (if I we’re a player this would have surely resulted in my demotion to the New-York Penn League roster), but I’m here and ready to talk baseball!

While I was away, my wife and I celebrated the birth of our daughter Joslyn. She is  7  pound, 3 ounce addition to our family that we have been glowing about for a couple of weeks now. She suffered from some breathing problems and spent an extra week in the hospital, but is home now and doing well. A special thanks is owed to all those who reached out to my family with their thoughts and prayers.

Meanwhile, the Clippers managed to roar to the front of the International League West Division, rattling of 13 straight wins at one point.  Tonight the hometown heroes open an eight game home stand against Pawtucket (Red Sox) and Durham (Rays). The showdown with Durham is a re-match of last year’s Governors’ Cup Championship Series. 

I hope you see you at Huntington Park this week!

* OF Jerad Head has been the biggest surprise of the 2011 season. He leads the league in batting with a .354 average. He is 16-for-43 (.372)  in the month of May.

* OF Ezequiel Carrera is off and running again! He is second in the league in stolen bases (15-for-17).

* CA Luke Carlin (.431) and INF Cord Phelps (.418) are second and third, respectively, in on-base percentage.

* The Clippers still lead the league in batting, but over the last four games, have hit just .214 (28×131) to lower their team average from .299 to .290. Those 28 hits include just eight extra-base hits, as they have slugged only .305 in the last four. They have scored just 15 runs in those games, failing to score more than five runs each time (longest stretch of the season). (special thanks to Clippers PR stud Joey Slosser for this note)

I’ve collected photos from my phone and I’ll be back to post them soon!