This game followed what is becoming a familiar theme as some of the starting pitchers improve. Starter pitches well. Offense struggles. Defense plays unevenly. Threshers lose. Tonight, the victim was Jeb Stefan. He pitched a season high 6 innings, allowed 2 hits, 1 unearned run, 2 walks, 2 strike outs, and 1 wild pitch. He left trailing 1-0. One other bright spot was Lino Martinez. He enetered the 8th inning with one out and the bases loaded. He retired 4 in a row before allowing two base runners in the 9th inning and then closing out the opposition. Continue reading Threshers; May 29, 2014
Monthly Archives: May 2014
XST; May 29, 2014
Brandon Short was in the line up today for the Williamsport squad . He has begun a rehab assignment that will hopefully end in his being activated on the Threshers’ roster. He led off and started in centerfield. Unfortunately, this pushed Cord Sandberg to the GCL squad and the DH position. Still, Trey Williams, Jan Hernandez, Jake Sweaney, Jose Pujols, and Herlis Rodriguez would be in the Williamsport line up and Ricardo Pinto would get the start. Continue reading XST; May 29, 2014
Box Score Recap – 5/29/2014
Maikel Franco was 2-4 with a 2B and a 3B, his first XBHs since May 19 (8 games). Tyson Gillies threw out Brett Wallace at the plate to end the game, saving the save for Ken Giles, who gave up 2R on 2H, 2BB, 1WP and 0K in his most tumultuous inning of his short stint in AAA. Cesar Jimenez hasn’t allowed a run all month for the Pigs. He’d seem to be the next lefty up to the bigs.
Cameron Perkins left the Reading game after being hit in the arm with a batted ball while leading off third. He tried to tough it out, apparently, but was removed an inning later. Jeb Stefan pitched well allowing one run on just two hits and two walks in six innings , but his offense couldn’t score, managing just two hits and one walk in support. Ramon Oviedo entered the game with one out in the seventh and two men on base, recorded three total outs and walked five men, and did not allow a run, thanks to a DP in the seventh and a caught stealing in the eighth. Amazing.
Willians Astudillo has himself a 12 game hitting streak. Also worth noting – he’s been behind the plate nine times in the last 18 days. And Jesus Alastre kept his on-base streak alive by virtue of getting plunked in the eighth inning. Well done.
Top 30 Stock Watch (1-20)
After exploring the back of the Top 30, it is time to look at how the stock is trending for the Top 20 prospects in the system. This is not a reranking, and it does take into account any injuries that we present at the time of the original ranking. The Top 30 list can be found here.
20. Adam Morgan (LHP) – Morgan has not yet started his rehab, and shouldn’t be throwing for a bit longer. Stock: Static
19. Severino Gonzalez (RHP) – Severino has not been good this year, but he has not been as bad as his ERA looks. Overall, Severino is not missing bats this year and the fastball is about where it was last year. Overall Severino is still on pace to be a back of the rotation starter or middle reliever. Stock: Slightly down Continue reading Top 30 Stock Watch (1-20)
Hot or Not
The attention this week should go to the relief pitchers who put on quite a show during the time period of May 22-28. Tyler Knigge is making people notice once again, while Kenny Giles simply keeps doing what he does. Colton Murray, who spent a bit of time at High A before promotion, has had an outstanding start for Reading…Samuel Hiciano is taking the attention away from the other, higher ranked prospects in the Lakewood OF simply by performance…Cameron Rupp has been really struggling since his return from the oblique injury, while Brian Pointer remains consistently on the Not Hot list….I intend not to waste another word discussing Miguel Alfredo Gonzalez.
Hot Hitters: (MIN 13 AB’s): KC Serna (.400, 7R HR 4RBI, AB); Samuel Hiciano (.370, 2HR 4RBI); Deivi Gruillon (.357); Everett Williams (.357, 4RBI); Cameron Perkins (.345, 3R, HR, 6RBI); Ronny Cedeno (.341, 5RBI); JP Crawford (.333, 3R, 3RBI, SB); Tyler Henson (.333)
Not Hot Hitters:Malquin Canelo (.000, 0-13); Brian Pointer (.071); Andrew Knapp (.118); Cameron Rupp (.136); Addison Maruszak (.143); Nick Ferdinand (.143); Roman Quinn (.150); Carlos Alonson (.154) Chris Serritella (.167); CHris Swauger (.176);Albert Cartwright (.179) Continue reading Hot or Not
Box Score Recap – 5/28/2014
Tyson Gillies (2) and Cameron Rupp (6) went deep for Lehigh Valley. The pitching there was not so good. Brad Lincoln got good and messed up. Meanwhile, Rob Rasmussen is in the Toronto bullpen. Just sayin’.
Cameron Perkins hit a walk-off 3-run home run, his third, to win it in the 12th for Reading. Good performance from Tyler Knigge there. Art Charles‘ 3-run shot tied it for CLR in the ninth and Logan Moore walked it off with a single in the 11th. Good line from Colin Kleven there. Roman Quinn‘s some kind of scuffling in his small sample of a season – 10Ks and no BBs thus far, and he’s OPSing .465 through 7 games.
And finally, Dylan Cozens was 2-4 with two doubles for Lakewood. His last multi-hit game was five days ago when he hit two home runs at West Virginia. Robinson Torres was 1-3, but that hit pushed across Cozens and Willians Astudillo to make a winner out of recently demoted Jon Prosinski.
VSL was off, but a friendly reminder that the DSL starts on Saturday. Among those inpresently rostered there are Luis Encarnacion and “that German guy” Julsan Kamara.
Threshers; May 28, 2014
The Threshers rebounded this afternoon with a gutty 5-4, 11 inning win over the Fort Myers Miracle. For 8 innings, it looked like another 4-hit loss with a decent outing by starter Colin Kleven. But the team staged a two-out rally in the 9th inning to tie the game and eventually won the game in the 11 innings.
Kleven was greeted in the first inning by a Jorge Polanco triple on the second pitch of the game. The Twins #8 prospect scored on a single by the next batter. Kleven responded by retiring the next 3 batters, one via his first of five strike outs. He continued pitching well over the next 3 innings, facing the minimum, allowing 1 hit and recording 2 more strike outs. Kleven pitched into trouble in the 5th inning when he hit a batter after recording his 4th strike out. The Miracle executed a hit-and-run and scored the runner with out a throw on a double. Afterward, his only walk of the game, a sac fly, and his 5th strike out ended the 29-pitch inning. Kleven responded with a tidy 9 pitch 6th inning to close out his afternoon with the following line – Continue reading Threshers; May 28, 2014
Box Score Recap – 5/27/2014
Samuel Hiciano is really killing it with the bat right now. He hit his sixth home run of the year last night, and is OPSing 1.075 over his last ten games, and .959 for the month of May. Wonder if they’ll challenge him with a promotion mid-year. Would be fairly surprising, but he’s really raking, so it’s possible. Ken Giles gave up one hit and struck out one in a scoreless inning for Lehigh Valley. Severino Gonzalez put up an OK line – 3R on 7H, 1HR, 0BB, 5K in 7IP. He was throwing strikes – just over 2/3 of his 92 pitches, so that’s good to see.
And the dream is gone, folks. 17-year-old Jesus Alastre went hitless in the VSL, ending what was a ten game streak to start his pro career. Thought he’d maybe just keep going forever and ever. He did walk twice, so we can talk about his on-base streak, if you like, for as long as that lasts. Also, he managed to successfully steal a base, while unfortunately and predictably being caught stealing once as well. He’s 1-6 thus far. As AndyB pointed out, there’s nothing wrong with letting the kid keep running. My joke to the contrary yesterday was both not terribly funny, (keeps my streak going), and developmentally silly. So keep running, Jesus. Keep running.
Threshers; May 27, 2014
The Threshers returned home to begin a homestand after completing a 2-10 road trip that dropped their record to 10-39. While they were away several changes were made to the roster. Continue reading Threshers; May 27, 2014
Lehigh Valley Weekly Report
Another week with a winning record for Lehigh Valley who went 4-3 on the week, including a sweep of a doubleheader in Norfolk on Tuesday. The ‘Pigs are now 28-24 and tied for second place in the Northern Division of the International League, just 0.5 games behind division leading Syracuse. Lehigh Valley left for a nine game, 8 day road trip after last Sundays game that takes them to Norfolk and Durham. The ‘Pigs, at 17-10, have the second best record in the IL in May.
‘Pigs Prospects:Cameron Rupp has really struggled with the bat since returning from his oblique injury and is hitting just .161 since his return(31 AB’s). He continues to play quite well defensively with a caught stealing rate at over 30%.
Tyson Gillies after starting very slowly, has improved slightly and now sits at .226/.288/.302 in 124 AB’s with Lehigh Valley this year. His strikeout rate is still a high 26% and Gillies has stolen just 3/5 bases this year. He does appear to be playing smarter over the last couple of weeks, trying to use his speed to bunt for a base hit which is occasionally very nice to see. Over his last 10 games Gillies is right at the Mendoza line, hitting .200.
Phillippe Aumont receives kudos for having a solid week this week after a very poor week last week. Over his last 3 games, Aumont has thrown 5.1 shutout innings, allowing 3 hits, 2 walks and striking out 5. On the year, Aumont is now 1-1 with a 4.30ERA and 1.65 WHIP. Opponents are hitting just .211 against him, but that is counter balanced by the fact that he has walked an average of a hitter an inning. In 9 May appearances spanning 13.1 innings, Aumont has walked 11. Continue reading Lehigh Valley Weekly Report
Phuture Phillies 