Lots to talk about here – but probably the most interesting thing I see is Severino Gonzalez’ first start stateside. He went 4 innings, giving up 3 hits and striking out 5. If they think he’s got the stuff to stick there, he’s suddenly jumped from likely a fringe/non-prospect at Williamsport, to someone on whom we’ll need to get more information. That’s a big jump, and one that would be surprising for anyone to make successfully. Continue reading Box Score Recap – 6/9/2013 →

Pete Orr and Michael Martinez both went deep for the Pigs…somewhere Rube regrets his decision to hang onto Cesar Hernandez. Lesson learned, I’m sure. Quite an outing for Phillippe Aumont – 15 pitches, 14 strikes, struck out 4 of the 5 men he faced. And JC Ramirez got the save in that game. THE SECOND CLIFF LEE TRADE IS FINALLY PAYING OFF!

Jesse Biddle again reminding us that pitcher wins are a useless stat – 7IP, 1R, 4H, 3BB, 7K, 1 “Loss”. I’d give the loss to the Reading hitters, personally. They can share. So I guess Biddle still gets part of the loss. 1/9 of a loss.

And after being no-hit on Friday, the DSL club managed 2 hits on Saturday. An improvement of infinity %. So good for them.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 6/8/2013 →

Hoby Milner keeps doing things. 7IP, 1R, 5H, 0BB and 6K.  Quite a night from Michael Martinez. 4-4 with a HR, drove in 2 and scored 2. Sebastian Valle with a HR in his second straight game pumping his OPS to .857 in his last ten games. Seth Rosin didn’t get out of the third – his second straight clunker.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 6/5/2013 →

Lots to see in those Clearwater boxes – first off, there has been a Miguel Alvarez sighting. 1-4 with a double in his season debut with CLR. Dugan and Franco also doubled in that contest, Franco had 3 hits and doubled in the rain makeup from earlier in the day, and Aaron Altherr had 2 hits, including his 5th homerun, and stole his 14th base over the course of the day. Nick Hernandez got the job done in the nightcap – 6IP, 1R, 8H, 0BB, 4K, and he got Giancarlo Stanton out three times on fly balls, so that’s something.

And back for a second turn through the DSL, fresh off slaying a dragon or saving a princess or something, Seranthony Dominguez. Nice line for the 18 year-old righty – 2 hits, 2 walks and 7K in seven scoreless innings. Too bad the team didn’t think him prospect enough for the GCL. The name plays. The stuff? Maybe not so much. Continue reading Box Score Recap – 6/4/2013 →

Not much activity last night – VSL DSL and AAA. Clearwater got rained out and two other off-days. A nice night from Raul Valdes as a starter again for Lehigh Valley, 6IP, 1R, 5H, 0BB, 6K. A walk-off homerun from Leandro Castro won that contest. Here’s a link to the video of that action. On the replay near the end, you can tell he gives a bat-flip after he hits it, though there’s no video of how the bat flies. Shame. Looks like it would have been a nice one.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 6/3/2013 →

Cody Asche, Sebastian Valle and Maikel Franco all went deep. A good day for David Buchanan – 7IP/1R/5H/3BB/3K. Kelly Dugan on base four times – his season OPS sits at .991. Severino Gonzalez worked another clean frame – he’s given up just one unearned run in 13 2/3 innings, allowing only six hits and two walks while striking out 15. And Roman Quinn stole home on an executed double steal, in case you see that steal of home and wonder like I did how he pulled it off.

Also of note – Reading 3B Tommy Mendonca went 5-5, including a triple, a run scored and three RBI. Brody Colvin worked a clean ninth in a Reading blow-out win. And Carlos Zambrano struck out three, walked two and gave up four hits in six scoreless innings. According to what he told @BaseballBetsy (www.baseballbetsy.com) after the game, he’s done in Clearwater. Lock up your water coolers, Pennsylvania!

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 6/2/2013 →

June 1 and DSL starts up. None of thier starting nine are jumping out as big bonus guys. Anyone remember any of those names? Jermaine Mitchell seems to have been the catalyst for a 10-9 Lehigh Valley vistory, as he was 3-3 with a HR, 2 BB and scored 4 runs. Anthony Hewitt went deep for Reading.

Word came down that Cameron Perkins hit the DL. He was hit in the hand with a pitch two nights ago. I haven’t heard a diagnosis yet. “Hurty hand”, perhaps? “Ouchy hand”, maybe?

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 6/1/2013 →

Tyson Gillies with 2 HR in one night, and 4 in his last 6 games. That’s worth watching. If his goal this season was to retool his swing for more power, and he suddenly has more power, maybe the “retool” has finally worked. We shall see.

Three hits for Carlos Tocci, two including a homerun for Brian Pointer, and a good line from Shane Watson – 5IP, 2R, 2H, 1BB, 5K – the only bad thing is one of the hits was a round-tripper. Kelly Dugan’s been on base 9 times the last three days. And once a day, he got to slow down and jog all the way. Feelin’ the flow. Workin’ it. Workin’ it.

Cam Perkins pulled from the game for pinch-runner Chris Serritella, (odd phrase, that), after being hit by a pitch on the hand. Let’s hope he’s alright.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 5/31/2013 →

A strong start from Hoby Milner – 1R on 3H, 0BB and 7K in 7 IP. After a slow start to 2013, he’s had a really good May. His overall season numbers show K/9 of just over 9, and BB/9 at 2.3. That’s good stuff. Too many HR allowed, and his GO/AO is pretty low – flyball tendencies so far this year, not unlike 2012.

Kelly Dugan went deep for the second straight game, his fifth of the year, Roman Quinn went 2-3 with a walk and his fifth, and Leandro Castro was 2-5, including hit his fifth bomb.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 5/30/2013 →

A mild improvement from last time for Austin Wright – he did give up 4 walks and 5 hits, but he got through 5.1 IP. He threw 73 pitches, 41 for strikes, which needs to get better. To me, he’s a candidate to go to the AFL as a starter – if he’s completely healthy, of course. He missed some time, and so would likely have some innings left under his season limit, and seeing him against some better competition probably couldn’t hurt in evaluating his ceiling as a starter. 

Cameron Rupp with another homer – he’s up to 8 on the year and his OPS for May sits just over 1.000. A bit of a clunker from Perci Garner – couldn’t get out of the fifth inning while allowing 4R, 6H, 4BB and striking out just 2. Kelly Dugan with his 4th HR – his OPS sits 20 points higher than where he finished 2012 as he gets to a pretty significant sample of around 125 PAs. The guy can rake a little bit – no doubt about it. Continue reading Box Score Recap – 5/29/2013 →