Rain stops Pedro and Two Cents, and outtakes from the Trenton pitching story

The Dugout is experiencing one of those weird baseball days. The original plan was see Pedro Martinez' rehab start in St. Lucie, but that game was rained out. So The Dugout headed south to catch Palm Beach’s game against Daytona.

It was raining there, too. In fact shortly before the 5 p.m. start of the doubleheader, the park was struck by lightning, knocking out the speakers around the ballpark. The lack of audio forced the Cardinals to postpone their My Two Cents Night, which incidentally, is today’s MinorLeagueDugout.com Promo of the Day.

Though the doubleheader started late, it appears as though both games will be played. The Cardinals won the first game and have just taken the field for the second game. Jeff Samardzija is pitching for the Cubs. Fervent readers may remember the MinorLeagueDugout.com feature on Samardzija from earlier in the year.

Speaking of pitching, the much anticipated story about the Trenton Thunder pitching staff is now up on the site. For those Yankees fanatics, and there are plenty of you, here are some of the quotes that didn't make the story. There won't be many, if any from Joba Chamberlain. Those are being saved for a Rounding The Bases segment which will appear on the site later this year.

Manager Tony Franklin breaks down Trenton’s success:
No. 1, we’ve got some very good arms that can make some quality pitches and have a pretty good understanding of how to pitch.

No. 2, we have a tremendous pitching coach in Scott Aldred. He’s done quite a bit to nurture the talent hat we have here.

No. 3, things have just been clicking overall for us this year.

Franklin on the starters:
It's pretty much a phenomenon when you can pitch five guys out there for five straight nights and you can get to the sixth or seventh inning – and we’ve done that quite a lot this year.

Franklin on the future of the staff:
I wouldn’t say it's out of the realm of thinking that some more guys could go to the major leagues this year. I think we've got some major league pitchers. How soon they’re ready to pitch there is yet to be determined.

Trenton catcher P.J. Pilittere:
Those guys definitely make my job a lot easier and it’s definitely exciting for me to come to the park every day. These guys are on a pretty good roll right now.

OK, one quote from Joba:
Down there [Tampa] they had a great pitching coach in Greg Pavlik and he broke down mechanical things. Here we’re working on the mental game and being prepared for the hitters. It makes it a little easier when you can get your mechanics down in High-A so that when you get here you have a little less to worry about.

Pitcher Alan Horne on the starters:
They are guys running out with quality start after quality start each time out. Each time one of us takes the hill, we feel like we have a great chance to win.

OK, that's it. Gotta run. Going to be a guest on Palm Beach's radio broadcast. Enjoy.