Clinton not all about Lumber

The Clinton Lumber Kings are riding the hot bat of Ian Gac, who is having an MVP-type season, to first place in the Western Division. But there's more to the Lumber Kings than Gac's home-run heroics. Right-hander Kennil Gomez, who turned 20 last month, is 6-0 in seven starts with a 2.31 ERA. He's struck out 33, walked only six and held the opposition to a .208 batting average.

Gomez, a native of the Dominican Republic, was definitely an under-the-radar type of guy before the season began but folks are going to start paying him some attention now. He pitched five innings of three-hit ball, allowing one earned run at Beloit in his last start on Monday.

"He's a kind of interesting player to say the least," said Texas' director of minor league operations John Lombardo said. "He's kind of been under the radar but we've always liked him. He's another example of an outstanding job done by our international staff. He's got a solid-to-average fastball if not a tic better than that. It sits anywhere from 89-93.

"He also has a curveball and change that he throws for strikes. He has mound presence and command. He's got an advanced knowledge for his age regarding what he wants to do on the mound. He's a very mature young man. And I don't think there's any reason to rush him. He's at an age and a point in his development process that he'll tell us when he's ready. That's the way we look at it."

Staying in the Midwest League, Kane County's Craig Italiano is doing his best to keep pace with Gomez, going 4-0 with a 1.06 ERA in seven starts. He's fanned 48 in 34 innings and has held the opposition to a .172 batting average. He hasn't allowed an earned run in 19 innings dating back to an April 21 start at Great Lakes. If the rotation holds, he'll pitch tonight [Wednesday] against Cedar Rapids.

And one final MWL note, Burlington's Mike Moustakas is starting to heat up. He's hitting .366 over his last 10 games to raise his average to .240. He has three of his four homers and nine of his 14 RBIs in that stretch. All good signs.

I know we went down the Mud Hen road on Monday but here are a few more interesting tidbits from the boys in Toledo. The Hens have 65 homers heading into Wednesday's action, the most in the Minor or Major Leagues. Toledo has 19 multi-homer games this year and has connected for a long ball in 36 of 40 games. The Hens season high is 176 homers in 1999 but they are on a pace to hit 236 this season. It looks like "Larry's Wallbangers" are back.

Jumping back over to the Rangers' organization, Lombardo said he got a chance to see Oklahoma City a few days back and was happy with the progress slugging outfielder John Mayberry is making. The former first-rounder got bumped up to the Pacific Coast League late last month and has really responded. He's hitting .345 through 15 games with three homers and 10 RBIs after hitting .268 in 21 games with Double-A Frisco.

"He's made some adjustments [with Frisco hitting coach Scott Coolbaugh] that has allowed him to have success against advanced pitching," Lombardo said. "He's working at it and doing a tremendous job with he. He understands the ins and outs of the game and because of that, he's been able to make adjustments more efficiently."

On one final note, I went to see Van Halen Tuesday night at the Meadowlands in Jersey. They rocked. The show was two-plus hours and they were phenomenal. Eddie can still play and though David Lee Roth's voice wasn't what it once was, the show was fantastic. It would have been nice to have Michael Anthony on bass and singing backup but Wolfgang Van Halen did a more than adequate job.