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For your perusal:

By Baseball America Staff
April 20, 2006

• Double-A Arkansas shortstop Brandon Wood hit two homers, but was more focused on a foul-tip call in the ninth inning of the Travelers' 8-6 loss to Tulsa on Wednesday.

With a runner on second, Wood struck out to end the game on a pitch that he and Arkansas manager Ty Boykin argued was foul-tipped. Tulsa catcher Chris Ianetta dropped the ball, then tagged Wood and the game was over.

"Yeah, I foul-tipped it," Wood told the Arkansas Democrat Gazette.

Adding to that controversy was Wood's at-bat in the eighth, when Boykin--who was coaching third base--called for time to check if the white lettering on Tulsa reliever Josh Newman's glove was legal. The third-base umpire called time as Newman released the pitch, but the home-plate ump didn't acknowledge it.

The called strike was allowed to stand after the umpires conferred, even though the home plate umpire apparently told Wood otherwise.

"The thing that bothers me, which doesn't make any sense, the guy behind the plate tells Wood, 'That doesn't count.' Then he goes back up there and he goes, '0-1,' " Boykin told the paper.

"I'm not bashing anybody. If you make a mistake, you make a mistake and it's going to happen. But I just can't deal with calls that are made that there's no rational reason behind it."

Lost in all the debate was the performance of Tulsa first baseman Joe Koshansky, who went 4-for-4 with two homers and a pair of doubles. Koshansky, a sixth-round pick out of Virginia in 2004, is 8-for-17 (.470) in the series.

The two teams meet again tonight as the Drillers have a chance to sweep the five-game series.

• In other random replacement umpire complaints, the Colorado Springs Gazette ran a story today with some scathing comments from players:

"We're only two weeks in and you can see how frustrating it's getting already. The players' jobs are on the line, and we're dealing with some umpires who have trouble at this level."--Triple-A Tucson lefthander Randy Choate.

"We hold the players to a high standard. We have to hold the umpires to a high standard, too. Some of these calls they're missing are just obvious."--Triple-A Colorado Springs manager Tom Runnels.

"The integrity of the game is being compromised, all so minor league baseball can squeeze some nickels and dimes out of the umpires. Minor league baseball ought to be ashamed at the product they're putting on the field. If there are good-faith negotiations going on, I don't need to be commenting in the press because it wouldn't be productive. But I understand there are no negotiations, and that's not fair to us."--Tucson righthander Kevin Jarvis.