May 22nd, 2012 at 8:45 am 
by Harold Uhlman Ethan Martin continues to progress with another good outing on Monday night in Chattanooga. Martin threw five shutout innings giving up only two hits while striking out five. The Lookouts went on to beat the Huntsville Stars (Brewers) 3-2 in spite of a blown save by recently promoted closer Logan Bawcom preventing Martin from earning his 6th win on the season (he is 5-0). Martin has been pretty much unhittable this season (34 hits in 51 innings) but his command is still an impediment to his further advancement. He threw 102 pitches in his five innings on Monday night – 55 for strikes, 47 balls but his GB/FB ratio still very good. Ethan is moving to the front of the pack with our young starters, along with Nathan Eovaldi. The thought of him throwing a higher ratio of strikes is exciting.
Ethan Martin had another excellent outing on Monday evening allowing 0 runs and 4 hits in his 5 innings of work. (Photo courtesy of www.lookouts.com)
Allen Webster has been relegated to the bullpen and in his three appearances (4 innings) he has allowed no runs. He has walked four, so command is still his issue. Perhaps Webster can be straightened out in the pen. The time out as a reliever seemed to work wonders with Ethan Martin. Here’s hoping the same formula works with Allen.
The forgotten man, John Ely, has surfaced again. John threw eight shut out innings Monday night in Albuquerque, yielding only four hits and issuing one free pass. In his last six games Ely has an ERA of 1.91, along with 39 strike outs and only 7 walks.
James Baldwin had five hits with the Loons in Monday’s game. He has had a dismal start to the season so perhaps he is finding his groove. James will play the entire season as a twenty year old. Leon Landry had been the Quakes hottest hitter but has cooled off in the past four games.
Trent Oeltjen is back with the Isotopes after being designated for assignment to make room for Elian Herrera on the Dodgers 40-man roster. You have to love guys like Oeltjen who keep playing the game with little chance of being a full-time big leaguer.
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Great to hear that both Ethan Martin and John Ely are doing well, Harold. As you know, John has always been one of my favorites. Also great to see Trent Oeltjen is still with the Isotopes. I have never seen a guy smile as much as Trent does. He is always a huge fan-favorite at spring training and goes out of his way to interact with them. That said, I also agree that he (and John Ely for that matter) will most likely never be full-time major leaguers – at least not with the Dodgers.