Aaron Nola and Jesse Biddle were on the hill for Reading and Clearwater, in the opposite order from where you’d have logically guessed that six weeks ago before Biddle was put on the inactive list. Nola pitched well, allowing one run on six hits, one walk and four Ks in five innings. He threw 65% of his 72 pitches for strikes, and was innings limited at five. Mitch Rupert was there on his day off and said on Twitter that Nola was sitting 92-93 on scouts guns, and though he touched 97 on the stadium gun, that seems far-fetched.  Mitch estimated that stadium gun was probably 2MPH hot. Still a fine outing from Nola.

As for Biddle, he was facing a Daytona team that has some pretty nice players right now, namely Kyle Schwarber, this year’s 4th overall pick, (who was generally ranked in the teens pre-draft but picked high and signed underslot), Dan Vogelbach, who’s OPSed near .800 on the year, and Billy McKinney, last year’s 24th overall pick who came to CHC in the Jeff Smajfgskuh trade and has been raking ever since. That’s some nice talent, and Biddle unequivocally shut them and the rest of their mates down. He threw five no-hit innings, allowing just one base runner on a walk, and striking out five. Rad. Here’s a nice write-up with comments from Biddle from MiLB.com’s Jake Seiner.

Elsewhere, Jia Tromp and Cord Sandberg both had two hits, and Tromp’s were both doubles for WIL. Tromp’s hot right now, with 5XBH in his last four games. Jose Pujols was 2-3 including his fourth homerun of the year and Denton Keys worked six fine innings for GCL – 1R 0ER 3H 1BB 5K. 2013 J2 guy Bryan Martelo was 2-4 with a double and a triple in the DSL.

And finally, VSL lost game two of their championship series on Wednesday. The last game is today, for all the marbles. Which for all I know is what these guys get for winning a championship. They probably get like a pizza party or the Venezuelan equivalent, and a neat plastic trophy. Or whats the drinking age in VZ? Maybe they all just go get blasted. Anyway, we likley won’t know until the box score starts up who will be starting for the VSL, but I would actually be a little surprised if it isn’t Ranger Suarez. I’ve wavered on that point for the last couple days. 11:30 EST, we’ll find out.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 8/6/2014 →

Holy Zachamole! Collier hit his fifth home run in four games. That’s pretty remarkable. Kely Dugan drew two walks in that one – he’s got five walks in his last four games. Not quite as impressive, and certainly not worthy of a “Holy Kellymole” or a “Kelly Guacamole”. Freddy Galvis hit his first of the year for LV, as Maikel Franco had two hits, including a double. MAG did not fair well in his third AAA outing. Roman Quinn on base again, as Jim pointed out in his write-up, for the 20th game in a row. Be sure to read Jim’s report for a nice write-up on Miguel Nunez’ start, plus a nugget about Jesse Biddle.

For Lakewood, Willians Astudillo had two hits – his fourth multi-hit game in a row and he’s OPSing .858 over his last ten games, and I can’t believe I missed that he struck out twice in the same game on July 30. That’s craziness. Especially considering that was his entire strikeout total for the month of July. Two. In a month where he took ~85 PAs. Yes, he also only drew two walks, but still. Otherwise, this year’s 8th overall pick, Rockies prospect Kyle Freeland, pretty well shut down the Blueclaws in his SAL debut – he struck out six and allowed two hits and nothing else in five innings. It is nice to see that Dylan Cozens had one of the hits off Freeland – a double. Proves very little in the grand scheme, but nice to see our questionably good guy can sometimes hit their probably good guy.

Hmm…kinda regretting saying “Holy Zachamole” earlier. Oh well, no turning back now.

And finally, Victor Delgado and closer Alejandro Garcia shut out Detroit in Game One of a three-game VSL championship series. I talked about the prospects for the series yesterday. Delgado allowed three hits over eight innings. Luis Mendoza and Jesus Alastre each pushed runs across, and 17 yr-old 2B Daniel Romero had two hits and scored twice. Game two today could be the clincher. Watch out for updates from me early-mid afternoon as the 11:30 EST start time should have me posting a result sometime around 2-3pm, time permitting.

**Update** VSL lost 4-2 today. Jesus Alastre and Joseph Miranda were both 2-4 with a double, and Carlos Indriago had a fair start in the loss. He allowed eight hits and a walk in five + innings and Sergio Velis couldn’t keep those inherited guys from scoring. It all comes down to Thursday’s game three. We’ll see if they throw Ranger Suarez or not.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 8/5/2014 →

Maikel Franco was 2-4 with a double, and MAG and Luis Garcia worked scoreless innings in relief of a nice start from Greg (not Matt) Smith. Kelly Dugan was 2-3 plus a walk and Zach Collier had two hits, including his sixth home run – that makes four in three days for the Reading centerfielder. It was perfectly reasonable to waive him earlier in the year to make room on the 40-man roster, but I don’t think the club will totally give up on him when he does things like hit four homers in three days. He’s been off the field so much this year, yet he has managed to marginally improve his overall offensive game while repeating AA. Still striking out too much (>25%), and unless he’s really going to hit homers in bunches, that’s not a great profile going forward. Someone close to the club should let him know to keep hitting homers. Thanks.

Nic Hanson was not terribly sharp in his first FSL start of the year, while JP Crawford was 2-3 plus a walk. Roman Quinn was 2-5 with a double and a steal, his 23rd in 30 attempts and has a 19-game on base streak going back to the second game of a double header on July 17. Over that 87 PA span he’s got 8 XBH, 11BB, just 13K and 14 steals in 17 tries. His wRC+ is 152 from July 17 thru Sunday – Fangraphs is a day behind still, and it won’t let me set my arbitrary endpoint between the bad and the good games in the 17th. Bummer.

Andy Knapp, Dylan Cozens, Mitch Walding and Malquin Canelo all with XBH for Lakewood, while Green and Greene both had singles and walked twice. LGj has continued to take his walks, hanging around 10% for the season, and his 28% K Rate is a marked improvement over his 35% last year. He is OPSing 1.271 in August, So that’S Something. Jia Tromp hit his 12th home run, and his third in as many days. One shy of tying the team record of 13, held by Zach Green and Walter Young. Brandon Leibrandt pitched really well over five hitless innings, and then it all went wrong in the sixth – he allowed four doubles and a single in the frame and ended with 4ER, 5H, 10k, 1BB in 6IP.

Look for a brief post from me shortly about the VSL club – they made the playoffs, starting today.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 8/4/2014 →