Stars of the Day: May 11

The highest concentration of stars aligned themselves in Clinton where Blake Beavan (2-1;  2.65) held Peoria to a run on six hits and a walk, fanning five along the way as the mighty LumberKings improved to 24-8 with 12-4 victory.

Ian Gac (.364 / .479 / .788) went deep twice -- giving him an incredible 14 bombs on the year -- and drew a walk in five trips while Cristian Santana (.261 / .340 / .455) showed signs of pulling out of a horrendous slump, going 2-3 with a walk, an  HBP and his fourth homer of the year.

In Bakersfield, first baseman Mauro Gomez (.268 / .311 / .362) hit his second homer of the year and then drove in the winning run as the Blaze scored a 7-6 victory over Stockton in extra innings.

Get this:   Thirteen games ago, Johnny Whittleman was hitting .225 / .303 / .375.   After going 2-3 with a pair of walks last night, he's up to .276 / .403 / .457 and headed north.   During the run, he's drawn 18 walks and fanned 10 times.

An old problem isn't getting better, however.  Whittleman is hitting .309 / .412 / .536 against righties and .167 / .375 / .200 against lefties.  

Part of what interests me about those numbers is that it really underscored his selectivity.  That .375 OBP against lefties -- who, you would think, know very well that he's highly unlikely to do much damage against them (given the .167 batting average and .200 slugging percentage) -- demonstrates that Whittleman is simply not going to swing at a pitch that he doesn't think he can do something with.   He's drawn walks in 25% of his plate appearances against lefties this year.