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Just a few customers? Owner strategies in case any leave

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Caught on Camera

<p>MOOSIC &#8212; Justus Sheffield had quite the couple of days Thursday, when he was promoted to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, and Friday, when he arrived in Moosic.</p><p>Like the rest of the world, the 21-year-old learned that he was moving up to Triple-A on Twitter. It wasn&#8217;t until he arrived at Arm &amp; Hammer Park later that afternoon when Trenton Thunder manager Jay Bell broke the news to him.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m very excited,&#8221; Sheffield said. &#8221;It&#8217;s been a long couple days just because we got back from Portland at six in the morning. I woke up that day and I read on Twitter &#8212; I heard the news on Twitter. I was like, &#8216;Man, I don&#8217;t even know.&#8217; I hadn&#8217;t gotten a call yet or anything, so I go to the field and they finally told me I&#8217;m coming up here. I&#8217;m very excited to get up here and continue toward the final goal.&#8221;</p><p>Sheffield joins the RailRiders after making five starts and registering a 1-2 record and 2.25 ERA.</p><p>The New York Yankees No. 3 prospect, according to Baseball America, is coming off of his best start of the season, pitching six innings of three-hit baseball against Portland on Tuesday. He struck out a season-high nine batters.</p><p>Sheffield will make his Triple-A debut Sunday in Pawtucket.</p><p>&#8220;I feel good. I&#8217;m confident right now,&#8221; Sheffield said. &#8220;The ball&#8217;s coming out real good. My work weeks have been good. Just got to keep it going.&#8221;</p><p><strong>Lind ready to prove he belongs</strong></p><p>Adam Lind saw some foreshadowing at the end of the last year with the Washington Nationals.</p><p>He knew that once the Nationals declined his option and he chose to elect free agency in November that there was a chance he&#8217;d get squeezed out this offseason as a free agent. And it&#8217;s exactly what happened.</p><p>Lind signed a minor league deal with the Yankees in March but was released after 11 days with the hopes of sticking on with a major league contract with some other team before spring training came to a close. But that never happened.</p><p>Now he&#8217;s back in the Yankees organization and looking to prove to himself that he still has what it takes to make it back.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s just the way the world is right now,&#8221; Lind said. &#8220;You think you had a good enough year to make a major league deal and you&#8217;re good enough to play in the big leagues. It&#8217;s a bit of a &#8212; it&#8217;s kind of depressing to not have anyone value you or want you on their team but it puts a chip on your shoulder and it drives you to get back.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s more about myself because they tell me &#8212; whoever they is &#8212;but nobody wanted me, so it&#8217;s for myself to want to get back to the big leagues and prove to myself that I&#8217;m still a big-league ballplayer.&#8221;</p><p>Now that Lind is with the RailRiders and just one call away, his dream of getting back to the bigs is even clearer now.</p><p>And in his first night in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre pinstripes on Friday, Lind already made an impact. Pinch-hitting in the ninth inning, Lind hit an RBI single to put the RailRiders&#8217; comeback bid within one run.</p><p>&#8220;My goal every year is no DL time and that will probably be the primary goal again,&#8221; Lind said. &#8220;Two, is get back to the show. Get back under the bright lights.&#8221; </p><p><strong>Frazier getting comfortable in center</strong></p><p>Clint Frazier hadn&#8217;t played in center field since 2016. But when he was back in the position for the first time this season on Thursday, it felt like home.</p><p>Despite the layoff, Frazier has found his footing rather quickly. He made a pair of impressive plays on Thursday &#8212; making a diving catch in the first and throwing out a Pawtucket base runner at third in the midst of a late-inning run by the Red Sox.</p><p>&#8220;I think he&#8217;s real comfortable there,&#8221; RailRiders manager Bobby Mitchell said. &#8220;It&#8217;s just like to keep him comfortable and work on his reads, really.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders pitcher Justus Sheffield, right, talks to pitcher Josh Rogers during Friday&#8217;s game against the Pawtucket. Sheffield was promoted from Double-A prior to the game against the Red Sox. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/web1_Justus-Sheffield-SWB-CMYK.jpg</photo0><caption0>Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders pitcher Justus Sheffield, right, talks to pitcher Josh Rogers during Friday&#8217;s game against the Pawtucket. Sheffield was promoted from Double-A prior to the game against the Red Sox. </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By DJ Eberle</p><p>djeberle@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach DJ Eberle at 570-991-6398 or on Twitter @ByDJEberle</p></shirttailMeta></div>

RailRiders Notebook: Justus Sheffield joins Triple-A club after eventful final day in Trenton