He was a star all by himself.

On his game all night, the second-year Clone gave up just four hits in seven scoreless innings of work, leading “Baracklyn” to a 7-3 win over the Hudson Valley Renegades.

“I’ve been in a groove since extended spring training,” said Moore. “It just carried on to today. I felt great out there.”

The Cyclones coaching staff was pleased with his performance as well.

“He’s made big strides from last season in Kingsport,” said Clones skipper Pedro Lopez. “It’s unbelievable.”

The Renegades pitching staff was not solid however, as Glenn Gibson, Jordi Amargos and Jeffrey Cinadr gave up seven runs on seven hits and an error, courtesy of RBI hits by John Servidio, Matt Bouchard, Ralph Henriquez, Alex Gregory and Juan Centeno.

Wes Wrenn came into the game for Baracklyn in the eighth and gave up three runs the rest of the way, but kept it together to get the final out and ensure a 7-3 Clones win.

“Tonight was an outstanding game,” said Lopez. “I just told the guys that we have a good thing going here.”

Photo by Patrick Hickey Jr.

A fan favorite due to his hard-nosed work ethic and mega-watt smile, the 23-year-old is looking forward to getting an opportunity to show what he can do in a starting role, something he lost last season after the Cyclones brought in Sean Ratliff and Seth Williams to add depth to the outfield.

“I’m looking to set personal highs, be consistent and injury free,” he said. “I’ve never got a ring before either, so that’s another goal.”

Getting plenty of ABs in Extended Spring Training this season, Cyclones manager Pedro Lopez has liked what he’s seen so far from the Barry University-alumnus as well and plans to use him in a variety of roles.

“He’s a big part of our team,” said Lopez, who also mentioned that he likes Servidio in the lead-off spot due to his versatility. “He did a great job through extended Spring Training with us.”

Photos by Patrick Hickey Jr.

“I feel like Centeno was a better fit tonight,” Lopez, a former minor league catcher himself, said Friday night. “He’s retained a lot of information during the past two months in extended Spring Training. He runs well and handles the bat well and does a good job calling the game. It’s too early to say who the starter he, but he’s earned another start.”

Despite playing in only 39 games professional, Lopez has confidence in his young backstop.

“Last year in Spring training we really saw him as a number one guy somewhere,” said Lopez. “But there were little bumps in the road for him to get to St. Lucie. He’s putting everything together now.”

Centeno, on the other hand, is thinking too much about the future.

“I have a chance to play every day,” he said. “I just want to do things right. I’m so happy where I am right now.”

While Dan Murphy and Nick Evans are currently hitting over .300 and positioned atop the teams leader board in hitting this spring, several other former baby bums have been swinging well as well.

Even four Cyclones from last year got a call, as Sean Ratliff, Zach Lutz, Kirk Nieuwenhuis and Ike Davis have garnered plate appearances, with mixed success. Lutz and Nieuwenhuis each have a double a piece in three combined at bats, while Ratliff and Davis have gone hitless in four at bats.

It should be very interesting to see what happens with Lutz, who despite showing remarkable poise at the plate in his minor league plate appearances, has had tremendous problems staying healthy over the past two seasons. A good and injury-free showing in the Grapefruit League could help get him back on track.

The same thing goes for former Cyclone Angel Pagan, who looks ready to rock again after spending most of last season on the shelf after a fast start and is hitting .467 in 15 at-bats.

On the pitching side of things, Dillon Gee has looked decent in three appearances, but doesn’t seem ready for the show as of yet. Some more seasoning in Double-A with a stop in Triple-A before his big league debut should do the trick for him. Carlos Muniz also seems like another pitcher that could use a bit more seasoning, but at 28 years old, you wonder if he’ll ever be able to reproduce the stellar numbers he put up in Brooklyn, in Queens.

2005 Cyclone Bobby Parnell looks a bit more polished than he did in his small cup of coffee with the team last season and could be someone to keep an eye out for as well.

Other notables include Mike Antonini and Roy Merritt, who have also seen time in Spring Training with much different results. Antonini has thrown two scoreless innings this Spring, while Merritt, who is still developing his secondary pitches to compliment an excellent slider and a average fastball, is still finding out what he needs to do in order to be successful. In just a third of an inning of work, the lefty-side-armer has given up three runs and two hits.

Photo by Ron Hatcher

Ike Davis- .270 BA, 15 HR and 75 RBI combined with Savannah and St. Lucie. Contrary to what many think, I don’t see Davis making his major league debut until sometime in 2010, most likely in August or September. His swing still has a few kinks in it and I think spending some time in A-Ball before heading up to High-A will help him address those concerns. When I spoke to Savannah manager Edgar Alfonzo after the instructional leagues were over this past Fall, he believed Davis had come a long way. Rather than push him through the system quickly, I think the Mets, who still have Carlos Delgado at first, will make sure Davis matures into the extra base hitter and slick fielder he’s supposed to be. I see that process beginning this season.

Kirk Nieuwenhuis- .300, six HR, 60 RBI, 30 SB with St. Lucie. Notice the higher batting average than last season? That’s because Nieuwenhuis has the tools to be an excellent professional outfielder and I believe this is the season that he begins to show it. If he can cut down on his strikeout totals from last season as well, he’ll be able to produce even more and may even warrant a call up to Double-A.

Josh Satin- .285 18 HR 59 RBI with Savannah. Eventually showing the tools of a solid second baseman last season, I think Satin would have shown a lot more if the Cyclones made the playoffs. Patient at the plate with a great approach, Satin will make a full-season team out of Spring training and begin to show some promise.

Jordan Abruzzo- .295 14 HR 55 RBI with St. Lucie and B-Mets. Not only is Abruzzo a great catcher that has the skills and attitude to manage a pitching staff at any level of professional baseball, he’s an extremely clutch hitter. While he’d secure himself a spot in Double-A right now if he could hit for more power, I think that after about 30 games this season, you’ll see him in Binghamton where he’ll earn his stripes and show why the fans at Brooklyn loved him so much. Good defensive catchers that can switch hit for power don’t grow on trees and Abruzzo can do it all. This will be the season, unless injuries slow him down, that he shows what he is truly capable of.

Photo by Ron Hatcher.

Jimmy Johnson: At one point, he tried to shy away from contact, but after a while he looked like a veteran out there. He has three pitches he can throw for strikes. He started the season as more of a lefty specialist, but ended it as someone who is very dependable in late innings.

Roy Merritt: He came down to his arm angle and really took to it. He was probably the biggest surprise we had here all year. He’s got good movement and has the same thing Joe Smith had when he was here. His pitch speed fluctuates to the point where you’ll see a fastball at 84 and then one at 89. That’s why it seems why hitters have trouble with the same pitches every night. He’s very good at what he does. Remember he was a center fielder a few years ago; he just picked this up and ran with it.

Wendy Rosa: He wasn’t anywhere near the strike zone and wasn’t on a team out of spring training. But through hard work at Extended Spring Training, he got called up to Savannah and then back here and he was a different pitcher. He’s another guy that just went out and surpassed our expectations. He can throw three pitches for a strike and is another one that can find himself in the big leagues with that plus slider and plus curve ball that he has.

Mattias Carrillo: He’s more of a specialty guy who has to change speeds and be where he wants to be in the strike zone. He has a good changeup to the lefties and a good curve ball to the righties. With that being said, he has to really rely on his command to be good. He did it this season

Jim Fuller: To me, it’s a little disappointing that we didn’t get to see him very much, because he has so much talent. A really small guy with a power arm that can hit 91,92 and 93 miles per hour. He gets a lot of swings and misses at this level and is a guy to keep your eye on. He may be a special guy in the big leagues one day. He’s one of our best workers too and has been a pleasure to coach.

Eric Turgeon: He was a position player at UConn and came here with minimal experience, but he worked hard. He was one of those guys that was always pulling at my coat and wanted to work with me. He ended up giving us some tremendous outings that bridged us into the eighth and ninth innings.

Stephen Clyne and Yury Santana: We had Clyne’s experience on the mound and Yury’s ability to throw a secondary pitch for strikes this season and it helped us a lot. Santana’s slider scored a 65 out of 80 on our rating scale. It gets up to 84-85 miles per hour at times and that’s why you saw all those swings and misses.

Notes-

For some reason, the team’s stellar long man, Jeff Kaplan, wasn’t mentioned in this interview even though his name was brought up a few times. Can’t blame Berrios however, he was pretty much cornered by a four or five reporters and asked to spill his guts.

Aside from that, you have to like what he said about the pen. The only question is who makes it to the bigs from this staff?

For my money, I go with Roy Merritt. The guy’s slider is amazing and just like Berrios said, he mixes his speeds up so well that hitters can’t explain why they can’t hit a 85 mile an hour fastball. A characteristic like that just cannot be taught.

However, considering the fact that this is indeed Single-A ball, we’ll have to wait a while to see if my prediction holds water.

Photographs by Ron Hatcher.

Enjoy!

BTW, expect something similar tomorrow on Eddie Kunz!

DemBrooklynBums.com: Heading into the offseason, what do you need to work on the most to be ready for next season and what will you be doing to work on it?

Daniel Murphy: First, I’m heading down to the instructional league to heal up a little bit more and keep on working; heal my knee and arm up and put myself in a situation where I come back bigger, stronger and faster so I can come into spring training and really help the organization.

DBB: What would you say is your biggest strength as a ball player? What do you bring to the field and to your team?

Murphy: Hitting. I think I also help in the clubhouse because I’m a happy go lucky kind of guy and I keep things light. Things can get pretty tense around a baseball team, so I think my attitude helps my teammates. When it’s time to play, we play, but when it’s time to have fun, we have fun too.

DBB: What did you think of your season this year? How do you think it went for you?

Murphy: I tore my PCL and strained my hamstring three weeks after my college season ended, so there are still things that I can’t do that I usually do, like read a ball hit to third or get an extra base on a base hit. If I’m struggling, I like to lay down a bunt from time to time and I can’t do that right now either. I played a little in the Gulf Coast League and Kingsport this year, I’m just trying to prepare myself for the future at this point and help my team anyway I can.

DBB: To give our fans a better idea of the type of player you are, who would you compare your game to at the Major League level and why?

Murphy: Growing up, I was a huge Tony Gwynn fan, I loved watching him hit. Some people compare me to Pete Rose because of the way I get down at the plate and because I hustle. He hits the ball a little better than I do though [laughing]. I just try and play the game as hard as I can, but I’m a little hampered right now, so I’m doing the best I can with what I have.

Notes-

New Podcast is up on I-Tunes as well, featuring an interview I did with Murphy on June 29. I didn’t think I was going to use the audio originally, but I still wanted to talk to him considering I remembered him from 2006 and how well he’s been doing. Happy I did now. Enjoy!

Click here to listen and download the interview on I-Tunes!

or stream it on the web here!

Photo by Ron Hatcher

Despite that though, the kid had several flashes of brilliance on defense and hit well in the right spots. With that being said, many of the reporters wondered what his fate would be over the course of the 2007 season.

Customary with the start of every Cyclones Season, the media and season ticket holders get a chance to watch some of the players a few days before the season gets started. Let’s just say that from the way Eigsti looked, he wasn’t content with being a spare part anymore.

Leading the ‘Clones in RBIs for a long stretch of the season in 2007, Eigsti was one of the rocks on the team. He continued to play solid defense and proved to every one that he could hit if he got playing time. This Spring Training, he showed the Mets he could hit as well, getting an RBI hit in his only at bat in the Grapefruit league. For a guy drafted in the 29^th round, Eigsti sure has left an impression on the organization and if he continues to work on his game and develop and little more power, he could be playing AA or AAA ball very soon.

While he was fun to watch on the field, my favorite part of Jake Eigsti was the person. A down to earth kid from Peoria, Illinois, Eigsti was a lot like another former Cyclone, Nick Waechter in that he was a straight shooter and didn’t like to beat around the bush. However unlike Waechter who I mentioned scared the be-Jesus out of some of the guys because of his size and Ghost Rider-esque stare, Eigsti always had a smile on his face and was extremely polite. To my knowledge, he and Grady Hinchman were the only married guys on the team last year [Jason Jacobs was engaged and is now also married] and it really showed. He was just so comfortable in his own skin and it really came through in interviews.

When it was all said and done, Eigsti was definitely one of those guys that you hate to see leave. With guys like Eigsti, Matt Bouchard, Lucas Duda and Jason Jacobs all gone this season as well, it’ll be fun to see who the ‘Clones get to fill their shoes. It’s not going to be an easy task to say the very least.

Site news- Hey guys, just want you to know that I’m working on a few things for you over the next few weeks. I have left messages for 2007 Cyclones Michael Antonini and Chris Fournier over the past week and change and should be hearing back from them about setting up an interview. If not, I’ll have to annoy them a little bit he-he. As well, I will have a fun interview in a few weeks as well that while it isn’t directly Cyclones related, will be a fun one for all you baseball fans. Ross Bernstein, the author of “The Code: The Unwritten Rules of Fighting and Retaliation in the NHL,” has just written a sequel which is entitled “The Code: Baseball’s Unwritten Rules and It’s Ignore-at-Your-Own-Risk Code of Conduct.” For those of you who really want to know why managers don’t pad their scores against horrible teams or why guys get plunked, this is definitely something to check out.

Photos by Daniel Wos