Very strong day from the Lehigh Valley bullpen. They worked four scoreless innings, with Ken Giles allowing the group’s only hit, Phillippe Aumont surrendering their only walk, and Ethan Martin and Justin De Fratus working clean innings. Maikel Franco drew two walks in that contest, as Cam Perkins did for Reading, as that squad got past New Hampshire. Hoby Milner didn’t throw a ton of strikes, (around 60%), and he surrendered his eighth home run in his last four, but he got the W. Value that “W” as you will.

Colin Kleven induced 12 ground ball outs, but struck out just one, and let up eight hits and three runs in seven innings in Clearwater’s loss. Andrew Knapp had two hits for the Threshers. Meanwhile, the Lakewood lineup was school by Hunter Harvey, Orioles 2013 1st Round Pick and son of former Angels and Marlins closer Bryan Harvey. he struck out 10 in seven scoreless. Only Sam Hiciano managed a hit off Harvey, while J.P. Crawford extended his hitting streak to 13 games with a double off of Jimmy Yacabonis, who is not necessarily significant except his last name is pretty rad and he went to St. Joe’s. Drew Anderson was the hard-luck loser there, allowing 1R on 4H, 2BB, 6K over 6IP.

The VSL season kicked off with the Phils club taking out Chicago. There’s a couple familiar names, mostly because we saw them there last year. That’s generally not a good sign for their prospect status. You all should read Matt’s VSL Roster Intro from yesterday for a better idea who to be watching in the VSL boxes. Hint: It’s mostly teenagers you have likely never heard of.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 5/12/2014 →

Tyson Gillies has it going on a little bit right now. He’s OPSing .908 in seven games this month, including 2-3 with a BB on Sunday. Maikel Franco also had two knocks in that one, while Sean O’Sullivan, Cesar Jimenez and Justin De Fratus held Gwinnett to two runs on five hits and three walks, all given up by O’Sullivan. De Fratus hasn’t walked a man in his last five outings, and has struck out eight over those six innings.

Cam Perkins is coming back to earth a little. He’s still been on base in all but one of his last ten games, but he’s OPSing just .579 over that span. Severino Gonzalez should have stayed in bed Sunday. He allowed 10 runs and couldn’t escape the fourth inning. Austin Wright didn’t manage to stop the bleeding, as he allowed 5 runs over 3 1/3 IP. Both men threw more than 2/3 of their pitches for strikes, they just weren’t fooling anyone with them. First baseman Brock Stassi pitched a scoreless eighth inning, so there’s that.

Mark Leiter Jr. managed his start well, leaving with two men on base in the sixth. Delvi Francisco couldn’t strand them, but the Blueclaws offense was one better than Delmarva on the day. All but Dylan Cozens had base hits, and Willians Astudillo, Mitch Walding and Jan Hernandez had two hits a piece. J.P. Crawford extended his hit streak to 12 games, walked, stole a base, rescued a cat from a tree, performed the Heimlich Maneuver on a wounded combat veteran, helped an adorable old lady cross the freeway and manned the grill at the post-game tailgate. I heard he let the burgers on the flame too long, though, and they got all dried out. Luckily, he made a really fine Garlic Aioli for the grown-ups and a homemade ketchup for the kids. Hard working young man, there.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 5/11/2014 →

J.P. Crawford extends his hitting streak to 11 games, as he went 3-3 with a double and drew another walk to match his season K total. He’s OPSing 1.242 this month thus far, no big deal.

Delmarva, Orioles affiliate in the SAL, has a guy with a familiar last name – Mike Yastrzemski. He is, in fact, Yaz’s grandson, and he was a home run shy of the cycle to help The Shorebirds take down The BlueClaws. Not sure how I missed young Yaz last season in the NYPL. I blame Mitch.

Maikel Franco had a double and drew a walk in the Iron Pigs extra inning loss. He’s now drawn five walks in his last seven games, after drawing just six on the year prior to that point. He’s OPSing .959 in May. Clearly he’s turned the corner from his slow start.

Reading’s game was suspended by rain in the 13th inning. Chris Serritella had three hits, including two doubles. Colton Murray gave up an unearned run and walked two in his AA debut. They’ll finish up that game on Sunday, and I suspect Tyler Knigge will come out for the 13th so as not so burn another pitcher. They’re quickly running out.

And finally, don’t forget to read Jim’s game story from CLR tonight. Good notes there on a couple guys.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 5/10/2014 →