No doubt, Hudson has been busy talking to the media since he got picked up by the Rangers organization in late January.  Not only that, he will join another former Illini, catcher Chris Robinson.  Both have an invite to spring training. 

Good luck to both!

In my opinion, it’s a good move for Robinson, who hit .316 with 29 rbis in 2011.  Robbie has done well with the AAA I-Cubs but hasn’t seen any sign from the parent organization that he’ll be moving up in the near future.  He’s 27 now and if wants to see some time in the bigs, a move was necessary. 

Good luck to Chris! 

Robinson played a big part in his team’s victory.  His base hit in the sixth inning started a two-out rally.  Robinson eventually scored the tying run.

Congrats to Robbie on his new gold medal!

More specifically, Robbie and and Canadian teammates will be taking part in the 2011 IBAF World Cup in Panama and the Pan-Am Games in Mexico.  The IBAF World Cup begins October 2 and the Pan Am Games begin October 19.  With Robinson’s help, Team Canada won the Bronze Medal at the IBAF World Cup in Italy.

Good luck, Chris!

Earlier in the second, Hudson, also drove in his first rbi.  Teammate Robert Andino scored on his fielder’s choice.

Hudson had a odd game Sunday for his career first game in the majors.  Hud, known for his speed, hit into two double plays.  He got razzed about it by his new teammates.  No doubt, Hudson feels good to get that first hit out of the way.

“It’s been a pretty wild couple of days for me but it’s been exciting,” Hudson said. “To get my debut out of the way is nice. Today was pretty unbelievable going into Yankee Stadium with all the tradition.”

Congratulations, Kyle!  Keep ‘em comin’!

Robbie gets 100

Hud wasn’t the only one with a milestone.  Former Illini catcher Chris Robinson reached 100 rbis for the year in the Iowa Cubs’ season finale.  Robbie went 2-4 for the game and finished with a .316 batting average for the year.

From the Iowa Cubs website:

Chris Robinson has been an I-Cub and a fan favorite for the past three seasons, and Johnny’s Hall of Fame is sponsoring a Jersey Shirt Giveaway to the first 2,200 fans commemorating the catcher.

It doesn’t surprise me that Robbie has endeared himself to the I-Cubs Nation.  He does have that personality.  I’ve probably told this story before but it’s worth re-telling.  I was at a Cubs Convention a few years ago and visited the Tennessee Smokies booth.  Robinson had just finished up a season with the AA Smokies that year and I mentioned I had a casual acquaintance with Chris.  The friendly PR woman for the Smokies said with a lovely southern accent, “Oh, we love Chris!  He’s so nahce!.”

Will we see more of Wes Braun after his fantastic appearance at Busch?

After traveling to St Louis to play in the Battle at Busch on Wednesday, the Illini don’t get much break in their traveling schedule.  They’re off to Iowa City to play the 10-15 University of Iowa Hawkeyes.

All three of these games will be streamed on the Big Ten Network web site.

Illinois has been pretty dominant historically over Iowa.  The good guys have a 122-77-2 record over the Hawkeyes.  Last time we played them was our season opener at the Big Ten/Big East Challenge last year.  Illinois won that game 8-3. 

Details on Iowa:

Hitting .315, OF Ryan Durant leads the Hawkeyes in rbis with 20 and is second in runs with 19.

Iowa is 10-15 for 2010 but they’re on a roll now.  They’ve managed to win six of their last nine games.  That didn’t stop Michigan State from taking two from them this past weekend though. 

The Hawkeye’s power is a bit down this year.  They’ve been out-homered 19-10 by their opponents.  Unfortunately for Iowa, it’s not being made up by gap power either (39 doubles to opponents 49).  No Iowa player has more than 2 homers. 

Look out for Jarred Hippen.  The Iowa starter is looking good so far this year.  He’s 2-2 with a nice 2.62 ERA.  He also has good control (12 walks in 48 innings).

Random Ramblings

I mentioned the other day that Iowa was scheduled to play former Illini Chris Robinson and his AAA Iowa Cubs.  Unfortunately, that game was canceled because of bad weather.

Also, this came out last week but is worth mentioning.  Illini Retrospective: The 1940s was posted last week.  It’s the latest in the series of historical Retrospectives that the Fighting Illini web site is putting out.

Good Luck Illini!!!

Brandon Hohl hit two homeruns the first as an Illini.  That’s the second time in two games that an Illini player not only hit his first college career homerun but did it twice.  Adam Davis hit two on Sunday which were also his first as an Illini. 

Mike Giller hit 3 doubles and drove in two runs and scored two.  Aaron Johnson, Craig Lutes, Josh Parr and Pete Cappetta all had two hits.  Both of Parr’s hits were doubles.

Random Ramblings

Don’t look now but Illinois is in first place.  I say that in jest since the Illini are in a five way tie for the top spot after only three conference games.  But chomp on this… they have won 10 of their last 12 games. 

At roughly the same time Illinois will be playing Missouri at Busch Stadium, the Iowa Hawkeyes will take on the AAA Iowa Cubs.  The catcher for the I-Cubs is none other than former Illini Chris Robinson.  We’ll be taking on Iowa this coming weekend at their place so we need Chris to take em down a notch. 

Speaking of the Battle at Busch, I’ve seen nasty weather predicted for tomorrow here in Champaign.  But a look at the forecast for St Louis looks pretty good.  Partly sunny and 68 degrees at one hour before gametime. 

The Illinois baseball team are probably on their way right now to Florida in order to participate in the Big Ten/BIG EAST Challenge (I once asked someone in the know why the “Big East” was always in upper case… his answer didn’t satisfy.  “It’s because they’re the BIG EAST, of course!”). 

Normally at this point in the preview, I’d do quick summary of where the Illini are at this point in the season.  Since it’s the first weekend of the season, we’ll skip this part other than to say I’m sure they are raring to go.  So let’s take a look at their three opponents in the Big Ten/BIG EAST Challenge.

Norte Dame firstbaseman Casey Martin was named BIG EAST player of the week thanks to his 7 rbis and two rbis.  The Irish are off to a good 3-0 start, winning all three against Mississippi Valley State.  Their last game was an especially grand drubbing at 19-3. 

The Bulls of South Florida haven’t been so lucky.  One note about Coach Prado, he is three victories shy of his 700th career win. 

Like the Irish, St John’s is off to a flying start.  They seem to have quite an offense as evidenced by their last game against New Orleans when they scored 31 runs.  Wow.  Their pitching so far ain’t so bad either allowing 11 runs in 3 games. 

What the Illini need to do this weekend

The most important key to this series from Illinois’ perspective is their pitching.  If our starters (especially “veterans” Will Strack and Bryan Roberts) can show they handle themselves under pressure, it will put to rest the rumblings that Illinois’ arms aren’t up to the task. 

Random Stuff

Diamond Notes, the baseball program’s platform to have players and personnel tell us what’s going on from their view, is back.  For the first installment, reliever Lee Zerrusen (right) has been given the ball.  Lee reminds those of us back in Illinois that we can follow the games with Gametracker.  Read what else Lee has to say.

In other news, former Illini infielder Toby Gardenhire has made the Minnesota Twins spring training camp.  He is, of course, the son of the manager Ron Gardenhire but doesn’t expect any favors from his father:

"I’ve played with a lot of these guys the last three, four, five years and they’re my friends," he said. "I’ve moved my way up the organization just like everybody else here."

Good luck, Toby!  Don’t let Dad give you any guff.

Finally, former Illinois catcher Chris Robinson got written up by Cubs beat writer Carrie Muskat today on mlb.com.  Robinson is in spring training with the Cubs and got a chance to catch Carlos Zambrano and Carlos Silva.

"I’d never had a chance to catch either one of them," Robinson said. "It was a good experience to get used to them and see them throw different pitches. Obviously, they’re in the beginning stages of where they’re going to be in the next couple weeks. Both guys looked pretty good and it was pretty impressive."

Keep an eye on Chris.  I’m hoping to see him in the bigs soon.

Good luck to the Illini this weekend!!!!

Go Illini!!!

The Big Ten Network has announced that the Illinois-Penn State games will be streamed live from their web site.  These are home games so they’ll have limited value for those who can actually attend (though if you want, you can buy them and re-watch them later).  But for those out-of-towners, it might be kinda cool.

In other news…

Former Illini catcher Chris Robinson has had a busy month.  He received an award at Baseball Canada’s award banquet.  Robbie received a Special Achievement award for his play with Team Canada.  At the same banquet, Justin Morneau became the second player to be added to their Wall of Excellence. 

And as expected, Robinson got his official invite to the Cubs spring training.