A lot of baseball folks might not consider losing their No. 2 and No. 3 hitters a way to “jump start” a struggling team.

Yet that’s exactly what Aeros manager Tim Bogar believes happened to the Aeros when they lost shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera and right fielder Brian Barton recently in a week’s span.

Say what?

“This change is exactly what this team needs,” Bogar said confidently. “We were kind of mumbling and bumbling along, just kind of getting through it. Then all of a sudden Cabrera leaves, a week later Barton leaves, and these guys still here are like ‘Hey, what’s going on? Maybe I have a chance to move. Maybe I could do some things and get out of here. Now I’m the guy, so I better put some numbers up.”

First baseman/designated hitter Jordan Brown has been putting up numbers all season long, entering Wednesday game batting a team-best .331 (second in the league) and leading the Eastern League in hits with 128. This, despite battling a nagging knee injury that will require off-season surgery.

Center fielder Trevor Crowe has begun to pull his weight, turning his dismal season around the last month to enter Wednesday batting a much more respectable .248.

Now it’s time for veteran left fielder Ryan Goleski (.253) to do the same, as well as shortstop Brandon Pinckney (.220) - now that he has the advantage of playing every day with Cabrera gone.

“Right now we got what we got,” Bogar said. “We’ll figure it out. There’s plenty of hitters on this team.”

The Aeros’ pitching staff needs to share a portion of the burden during this final month as well, as the hitters have carried the team most of the season.

As decent as Wednesday’s starter Chuck Lofgren has been at 10-6 with a 4.28 ERA, the left-hander has yet to live up to his pre-season “ace” billing. And as a three-year Double-A veteran, right-hander Jake Dittler needs to do better than the 4.37 ERA he’s posted in 19 appearances.

The Aeros made SEVEN roster moves the last wo days - a few just paper moves, but moves none the less.

Ready? Here goes:

Right-hander NICK PESCO was sent to high Class-A Kinston, catcher WYATT TOREGAS was placed on the Disabled List with a lower back strain, catcher DAVID WALLACE joined the team from Triple A Buffalo, right-hander CLIFF POLITTE was added to the roster from his rehab assignment, left-hander CHUCK LOFGREN returned to the Aeros from short-season Mahoning Valley, pitcher LUIS VALDEZ was transferred back to low Class-A Lake County and infielder CRISTO ARNAL was sent to Extended Spring Training.

Got all that? Hopefully, this helps:

Pesco was once again overmatched at Double-A (he was last year as well). H’s got some things to work on so doing it at Kinston makes more sense than getting his brains beat in by more experienced hitters.

I had a feeling something was wrong with Toregas since he hadn’t played in two days - I wonder if the back injury isn’t from the akward slide into second over the weekend. Originally, it looked like he really hurt his ankle, but the next day when I talked to him, he told me he felt fine. Backs are tricky (I know personally), so hopefully, it’s nothing too serious.

Doesn’t it figure, though, that as soon as backup catcher Javi Herrera is traded, Toregas goes down? That’s O.K. with Armando Camacaro activated, but it’ll be interesting to see if (former Aero) David Wallace becomes the main catcher until Toregas returns or is just with the team as a back up plan. Unfortunately, since neither Camacaro or Wallace can hit, neither are in the Tribe future plans. However, the Indians brass is increasingly getting higher on Toregas, as evidenced by the willingness to let Herrera go for essentially nothing.

Politte’s move is merely a paper move. The only difference is that now he counts against the team’s active roster, which is why Pesco had to be moved.

Lofgren’s transfer was also a paper move as he’s been with the team since returning from his spot start Friday in Buffalo, but he didn’t need to be activated (and thus count against the roster) until it was his turn to pitch again.

With Lofgren back on the active roster, Valdez returned to Lake County. He was only up to help the tired bullpen for a few days until Lofgren needed to be put back on the roster.

Lastly, Arnal simply sounds like a guy without a team and was bumped to extended S.T. with no where else to go until Mahoning Valley’s season gets underway June 19th.

I wrote a story for Saturday’s paper that dealt with reminding Aeros fans the real purpose of minor league games. While everyone loves to win, the Number One priority in the minor leagues is development. Let me say it again: Development of a player will always superceed winning.

As much as fans needed the reminder (Bogar has been hounded by fans for not pulling struggling pitchers quicker), I probably wrote the story a day too early. That’s because Sunday’s Aeros win over visiting Erie proved yet another lesson in player development when Akron ace Chuck Lofgren was taken out of the game with a no-hitter through seven innings.

Instantly my cell phone rang, and I knew exactly who it was. For anyone who knows me and what a baseball fan I am, let me just say that Toby Rosen is my baseball twin. No sooner had Jake Dittler come on in relief than she was on the other end in exasperation. “What are they doing?” my good friend Toby asked from her seat down in the stands, scorebook in her lap. “Lofgren’s only thrown 84 pitches! He’s throwing a no-hitter! What is going on?”

First, let me giver her credit. i didn’t even know Lofgren had thrown just 84 pitches. I don’t always keep count when I’m working on a couple stories at one time, and I figured he was closer to the 95 mark or so.

Toby didn’t want to hear about pitch counts and young arms needing to be protected. She wanted to witness Lofgren get the no-hitter. And the effortless way in which he was pitching, I honestly feel he could have done it.

Aeros manager Tim Bogar joked in office after the game that when he told Lofgren his day was done, he first said. “If you’re going to punch me, do it now. But that’s it for today.” He admitted Lofgren was upset at first, but quickly understood it was happening for his best interests.

A little later, Aeros pitching coach Greg Hibbard (who is incidentaly the best pitching coach I’ve ever worked with in my 10 years in the minors) explained that Lofgren had thrown 107 pitches in his previous outing in Binghamton. And there was no way the organization was going to allow him to do it in back-to-back outings this early in the season.

Bogar admitted he could have sent Lofgren out for a few more batters, but what was the use of pushing the pitch count if he didn’t have enough pitches left to go the full nine innings anyway? As a fan of the game, I didn’t like the answer, either. But deep down I knew Bogar and Hibbard were right.

Understand, these are not decisions that are made lightly. It kills coaches like Bogar and Hibbard to pull a guy working on a no hitter. They both played in the Major Leagues, they know how specail such a feat it is. But their jobs aren’t to help a pitcher throw a no-hitter in the minor leagues. Instead, their jobs are to get Lofgren prepared to be able to it at the Major League level some day.

Sooner or later, we all have to understand that.

Finally…some Aeros baseball to write about!

There’s a couple things on my mind after the Aeros finally got the season-opener in after four days of snow delays, namely the encouraging pitching performance of left-hander Chuck Lofgren in the Aeros 6-1 victory Monday.

I feel like I’ve already said a ton about Lofgren, but trust me, this kid deserves it! Consider it was freezing cold Monday night (although no snow, thank you!), he hadn’t pitched in a game in 10 days and he’s learning the nuances of a new ball park, team and manager/coaches. Yet, Lofgren quietly and without complaint or excuse delivers five innings of four-hit ball.

Sure, Lofgren allowed a homer to Altoona’s Randy Ruiz. But it was a solo shot, came sandwiched in between six strikeouts and most importantly, didn’t rattle or phase him one bit.

After the game, reporters had a hard time finding Lofgren. He had quickly showered and was on his way out to greet friends and family when a young kid came up to him with a shiny black broken bat. He told Lofgren first baseman Jordan Brown had given it him, and he was hoping Brown would sign it for him.

A lot of players would have blown the kid off, or simply told him to wait for Brown to come out. But Lofgren tells his group to hold on, goes back in the clubhouse, hunts down Brown, then spends a few minutes looking for a silver Sharpie that would show up on the bat and has Brown sign it so he can take it back out to the kid. I don’t know about you, but trust me when I say there are few people in this world that will go that far out of their way to do a favor for a kid they don’t even know - let alone many ball players. It’s more proof that Lofgren is just as special of a person as he is a player.

Overshadowed a bit by Lofgren’s big night was the 4-for-4 performance of DH and nine-hole hitter Rodney Choy Foo, whose two-run home run in the fourth inning handed the Aeros the lead for good.

Also overlooked was the performance of the Akron bullpen. Newcomer Joe Ness followed Lofgren and promptly stuck out the side in the sixth. Former starter-turned reliever Jensen Lewis and closer Bubbie Buzachero continued to shut down the Curve hitters. In all, the bullpen combined for four shutout innings while striking out six and not allowing a single hit.

In all, it was avery good opening night for the Aeros - even if took four more days than expected.