Aaron Altherr made his big league debut, popping out as a pinch hitter in the twelfth inning. Maikel Franco was 2-4 with a double. Roman Quinn played his first pro game in centerfield. For Williamsport, fifth round pick Rhys Hoskins got his first professional hit, Cord Sandberg hit in his fourth straight game, and Ricky Bielski struck out two in a clean inning of work.
The SAL all-star game is Tuesday, and J.P. Crawford will be joining Clearwater on Wednesday.
Maikel Franco went 1-3 with a double and a walk to raise his OBP for the month to a whopping .408. Oh wait, that’s his OPS for the month. That’s not so whopping. But I may be weeping for a minute.
David Whitehead threw six hitless innings in his professional debut. The 2013 34th round pick, who missed last year after having Tommy John surgery a couple months before the draft, walked two and struck out five. Whitehead was #89 on BA’s 2013 pre-season Top 100 Eligible College Prospects, (one spot ahead of Andy Knapp), so he’s got more talent than round 34 would suggest. So everyone freak out.
Also in WIL, Cord Sandberg had his third two hit game to start the year. Perci Garner walked six in five+ innings for Reading, while Tyler Viza gave up nine hits in three+ for Lakewood. Willerker Isava went 3-4 in the VSL. The 2012 six-digit signee has been used sporadically this year, like he was last year.
Leandro Castro was 2-4 with two doubles and a walk. He turns 25 Sunday, and I think he’s next in line for an outfield spot at this point. He’s improved his game this year and I’d say he’s earned a shot ahead of any of the other options. Hoby Milner struck out six in seven innings, and Kyle Simon and Seth Rosin worked scoreless innings of relief to beat Altoona. Carlos Tocci stays hot with two hits on the night. I didn’t include the box from the FSL All-Star game, but I can tell you Art Charles was 0-1 with a K as a reserve.
Cord Sandberg had two his as well, his second straight multi-hit game. He also stole a bag. 20-year-old Venezuelan Ricardo Pinto struck out eight in 5.2IP in his stateside debut. Mitch Rupert had him touching 95 with his fastball. Things kind of fell apart for him in the sixth, but an eye-opening performance nonetheless.
Lehigh Valley got to Twins’ stud Alex Meyer early, knocking him out after two shaky innings where he threw 55 pitches, but only 29 for strikes. The Pigs’ staff made it hold up, shutting out the Rochester lineup on 10 hits and three walks. Brad Lincoln has an 18 inning scoreless streak going, and Luis Garcia hasn’t allowed a AAA run since April. He did have that little blip in there where he went to the bigs and got absolutely blasted over four appearances, but still.
Aaron Altherr, AKA “The Rhineland Rocket”, (yeah, almost no chance that sticks), continues to hit like a man possessed – his June OPS is up to 1.183. His hitting streak has cracked double digits, and he’s hitting .474 over the life of the streak. Goodness. And speaking of goodness, Severino Gonzalez struck out 10 over 6.1IP, though he also allowed nine hits, one of them of the “four bag” variety, and four runs. Take the goodness with the badness I suppose.
Every Blueclaw reached base safely, led by a rehabbing Cody Asche with two homeruns, and Carlos Tocci, Andrew Pullin and Andy Knapp, who all had three hits. Tocci’s OPS is back to .600, after an abysmal May had pulled it below. I notice also that he’s been caught stealing seven of the nine times he’s tried. That’s kinda lousy. Or all the way lousy. Or around 78% lousy, I guess.
Cord Sandberg had two hits in his NYPL debut, and Rhys Hoskins became the first 2014 draftee to take the field for the organization. Clearwater is on their all-star break, with Big Art Charles getting the team’s spot on the roster. The FSL is back Monday, as Lakewood’s break begins, with Crawford, Astudillo, Hiciano and Forsythe invited to that showcase.
Phillippe Aumont started his inning of work really well by striking out the first batter he faced. Except for one thing…yeah, wild pitch. Guy gets on base, steals second, scores on a single to center. DYK – Aumont is French for “Oh, for the love of-“?
Ethan Stewart somehow managed to hold Tampa scoreless for five innings, despite allowing three hits and walking five, as CLR shut out the Yankees in a seven-inning affair. Stewart is French for “Uhh…I’m from British Columbia, not Quebec”.
Andrew Pullin, Willians Astudillo and Samuel Hiciano all had multi-hit games in Lakewood’s 3-1 win over Hickory. Pullin also drew his 20th walk, a marked improvement over his 2013 total of seven. Six home runs after just three last year is pretty nice also, and he’s OPing nearly .800 for the month to help out his season line after a weak April.
As some of you may have seen on “The Twitter” today, I am going to be doing some minor league/prospect writing for Crashburn Alley, on a weekly/whenever basis . You’re stuck with me, though, as I’ll still be doing the box score recaps for at least the rest of the year, if not beyond. But enough about me…
It was a light day, with LV and CLR off. Aaron Altherr won the day, going 3-5 with a triple and a home run. Jesse Biddle struggled, and didn’t get through four innings, walking six men and allowing five runs, (though only two were “earned”). Jiwan James with his first two hit night of the year.
The Lakewood lineup went off for 10 runs against Hagerstown, in celebration of Zach Green‘s return to the lineup, no doubt. Green played 1B, which is not ideal for his long-term development, so we’ll see how long that lasts, but he, Crawford, Knapp and Hiciano each had multi-hit games, in support of a strong outing from Mark Leiter Jr., who struck out seven in 7.1 innings and allowed just two runs (0ER) on five hits and no walks.
A couple notes – Drew Anderson hit the DL with a finger injury that had him leave a game this week after one inning. Better than an elbow or a shoulder, hopefully. And Roman Quinn indicated on Twitter that he’d be working on a switch to the outfield. H/T Mitch Rupert for confirming that before Quinn deleted the associated tweets. His value drops a little bit, but if he’s personally got more defensive value in CF than SS, then there’s nothing to be done but hope the bat keeps warming up. We’ve all seen this coming as a strong possibility, and it will free up the position in CLR for J.P. Crawford, whenever he’s promoted. As Matt Winks pointed out on Twitter last night, the SAL all-star break is next week at the full-season mid-point, so that might just be moving day for Crawford, among others, from Lakewood or elsewhere. I could see any of Yacksel Rios, Samuel Hiciano, Leiter or Cody Forsythe moving up as well.
Of course the big news of the day was the Aaron Nola signing, and reports that he’ll likely start in Clearwater (or higher, according to Amaro). I wrote a little bit more about that in the post on that subject from earlier.
Roman Quinn was 1-4 with a double, his second extra base hit of the year, and second in the last three days. Brian Pointer was 3-3 – he also had three hits two nights ago, but in a testament to his continuous inconsistency, he sandwiched a Golden Sombrero in between.
Carlos Tocci managed the only hit for Lakewood, and J.P. Crawford drew the only base on balls, as Hagerstown pitching shut down the Claws. Tyler Viza pitched pretty well, and he continues to throw a heavy ball – he tallied 12 ground outs in seven innings. Continue reading Box Score Recap – 6/10/2014
Leandro Castro is trying hard to haul his OPS up over .700 for the year. He was 1-3 with his 18th walk of the year last night. Remarkable for a guy who hasn’t walked that many times in a full season since 2010. He’s added .42 OBP points over last year and he has the exact same AVG. Nice to see.
Aaron Altherr was 3-5 plus a walk – he’s on a bit of a tear, OPSing over 1.000 this month after an abysmal May which saw him OPS .505. Ryan Demmin and the CLR bullpen shutout a pretty bad Daytona Cubs team.
Andrew Pullin had three hits and Dylan Cozens launched his eighth home run of the year, leaving him tied with a handful of guys for sixth in the league. Yacksel Rios struck out five in four innings of scoreless work. He’s been pretty solid out of Lakewood’s pen this year.
Bryan Martelo made his pro debut in the DSL. The 2013 signee ($230k), went 0-4 with a strikeout. Hugo Arrocha, who you may recall was seriously injured in a collision at 1B during spring training, is also back in the DSL after a long look at XST. And it took 17 innings for the VSL squad to take down Seattle, on a walk-off wild pitch. Three men logged seven offical ABs, two men took nine (!) and Jesus Alastre was 2-6 and was hit by a pitch twice. Only one offensive substitution was made the entire game – not showing a lot of confidence in the bench, there, skip.
Vance Worley homered against Lehigh Valley. That’s probably a metaphor or a parable or something. Jeb Stefan sturck out five and allowed just three hits in six scoreless innings for CLR – Roman Quinn homered there, and Jim did a great write-up of the game earlier.
Pullin, Hiciano and Grullon with multi-hit games for Lakewood, but Drew Anderson left after just one 15-pitch inning. Ominous. And Jesus Alastre was 2-4 with a triple and three runs scored for the VSL squad. We’re getting closer to the New York Penn League season – Williamsport’s media day is Wednesday.
There ultimately may not be a valuable, long-term big league starting pitcher among the four, but all four full-season starters pitched well on Saturday.
Severino Gonzalez – 3R, 2ER, 7H, 2BB, 5K in 6IP for Reading.
Colin Kleven – 4R, 2ER, 7H, 1BB, 8K in 7IP for Clearwater.
Jon Prosinski – 2R, 1ER, 4H, 2BB, 8K in 7IP for Lakewood.
And Brad Lincoln again pitched well for Lehigh Valley, allowing just one hit and one walk while striking out seven over six scoreless innings. He’s had success as a starter at AAA before, so I will reserve my excitement for the day when he has big league success, I think. But if he figures it out in the rotation at AAA, maybe he can still be useful in the big league bullpen this year. He had a good 2012 out of Pittsburgh’s pen, so it wouldn’t be the craziest thing to ever happen for him to recapture his optimal mechanics and form after getting reps in the rotation.
Phuture Phillies 