Batter's Box Interactive Magazine Batter's Box Interactive Magazine Batter's Box Interactive Magazine
The Heat may have Shaq, but the Blue Jays have the heat and they were bringin’ it last night. A former teammate of David Bush took his own no-hitter late into the game while two other former teammates, one praised, the other scorned, pitched gems of their own.

Syracuse 1, Toledo 7

Of all the nights for Ryan Glynn to struggle! Sandwiched between some simply remarkable outings in the Blue Jays organization, Glynn just didn’t have it. A grand slam capped the 5 run first inning for Toledo and Glynn was out of the game before the end of the third leaving his team with a 7 run deficit. Toledo conceded only one run in the game when Julius Matos scored from third on a Glenn Williams 1 out groundout.

On the brighter side, the recently demoted trio of Mike Nakamura, Jason Kershner and Adam Peterson took positive steps in their bids to return to the majors as they combined to 1 hit Toledo over the final 5.2 innings with 4 strikeouts and no free passes. Guillermo Quiroz had the only multi-hit night as he hit 2 singles in 3 trips.

Box score
Game story


New Hampshire 2, Binghamton 0

Of all the nights for Scott Kazmir to face a Blue Jays affiliate! Kazmir pitched well, but the lefthanded starter of the evening was Gustavo Chacin. David Bush’s former New Haven teammate spun his own bid for a no-hitter. Chacin baffled Binghamton with 7 outstanding shutout innings without a single batter reaching base by a hit. However Chacin reached his pitch count in the 7th and in the vigilent Blue Jays organization that means you’re done for the evening. Travis Thompson came on to try to keep the no-no in tact with a 2-0 lead. Thompson’s 8th inning: strikeout, strikeout, groundout. No hitter still on the line through 8 innings.

Thompson would return in the 9th. But not unlike their parent club, hopes were dashed by a single to left field. That would be it for the division leading Mets as the Fisher Cats pulled within 1 game of their opponents in the Northern Division standings behind a 2 RBI single from Aaron Hill. Justin Singleton tripled but was thrown out trying to stretch the hit into an inside the park home run. Josh Banks takes the hill tonight as the Cats try to pull even with Binghamton for the division lead.

Box score
Game story


Dunedin 0, Jupiter 2

While plenty of pitchers struggle in their first glimpse High A ball, Shaun Marcum has only elevated his game. Another 7 inning, 5 hit shutout with 8 strikeouts runs his Dunedin K/BB total to 41/3. However Josh Johnson matched Marcum’s seven shutout innings and Brian Reed was unable to hold the game scoreless as the Hammerheads pounded in a pair of runs in the 8th.

Vito Chiaravolotti had a pair of singles and a walk but no Blue Jays were able to advance past second base.

Box score
Game story


Hickory 0, Charleston 6

Tom Mastny was the only one of the three standouts in the Charleston rotation who didn’t get the call up last month. Instead of sulking, Mastny has only elevated his game. Last night he followed the theme of the night going 7 shutouts innings with 8 strikeouts to lead the Alley Cats easily past the Crawdads.

David Smith was the key hitter with 2 doubles, a single 2 RBI and a run scored. Robinzon Diaz, Joey Reiman and Chris Snavely all had doubles while Mike Galloway singled and tripled. John Wesley struck out the side in the ninth.

Box score
Game Story
Story on outfielder Christian Snavely
Alley Cats learning to talk the talk


Lowell 8, Auburn 5

Chris Leonard probably deserved better. The first two runs against him were unearned but a home run in the 4th cost him another 2 runs as he left after 4 innings. He struckout 4 and allowed only 3 hits with 2 walks.

Auburn would attempt a comeback with a 2 run double and a sac fly from Brian Hall. But Lowell pulled away with three more runs off of Chris Neylan in the 9th. The bottom of the 9th would see Adam Lind double and score and Chip Cannon launch his fourth homerun of the season but the Doubledays would fall short for only their 7th loss of the year.

Box score
Game Story


Pulaski 5, Danville 10

Pitchers Derek Tate and Eddie Cannon struggled but it was major leaguer Aaron Harang’s little brother, Daryl Harang, who became the goat as he was charged with 5 runs in only 1/3 of an inning.

Emmanual Sena, Nick Thomas and Jon Ashford all reached base 3 times in the losing effort.

Box score
Five tool Venezuelan Yuber Rodriguez gets some press


Three-Star Selection!

The 3rd Star Shaun Marcum: 7 shutout innings, 8 K’s, 0 BB’s, 5 hits.

The 2nd Star Nasty Mastny: 7 shutout innings, 8 K’s, 1BB, 2 hits

The 1st Star Gustavo Chacin: 7 shutout innings, 8 K’s, 2 BB’s, 0 hits.
Minor League Update: July 21 | 36 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
_Ryan Day - Wednesday, July 21 2004 @ 10:19 AM EDT (#50633) #
Christian Snaveley is married to a woman named Christen. That's kind of sickening, frankly.

Still, good to see he's coming around with the bat.
_Ryan01 - Wednesday, July 21 2004 @ 10:21 AM EDT (#50634) #
Glad I'm not the only one who found that slightly disturbing. Yuber Rodriguez certainly sounds promising as well.
_Marc - Wednesday, July 21 2004 @ 10:41 AM EDT (#50635) #
Good to see Chacin doing well in his third go-around with AA (mind you he's still not that old). You'd think with the Jays lack of lefthanders and lack of good AAA pitching that he would get a shot at pitching in Syracuse. His more recent success, is it a case of third time in AA or has he finally developed that change up?
_S.K. in N.J. - Wednesday, July 21 2004 @ 10:42 AM EDT (#50636) #
Marcum: 35.1 ip, 35 h, 3 bb, 41 k, 3 hr, 10.51 K/9, 13.67 K/BB

Very nice. Hopefully he can go on a David Bush-like climb up the organization. That K/BB ratio is sick.
_MatO - Wednesday, July 21 2004 @ 10:51 AM EDT (#50637) #
Marcum's career K/BB is now 171/26 in 148IP. You have to remember that he was primarily a SS in college. He only threw 76IP in his last 2 years at SW Missouri St. as a closer and so is still learning how to pitch.
_Jonny German - Wednesday, July 21 2004 @ 11:21 AM EDT (#50638) #
Say, I see a nice little promotion chain in the making:

Zach Jackson joins Auburn
Chris Leonard moves up from Auburn to Charleston
Tom Mastny moves up from Charleston to Dunedin
Shaun Marcum moves up from Dunedin to New Hampshire
Gustavo Chacin moves up from New Hampshire to Syracuse
Syracuse releases a pitcher, or simply uses one of the 4 roster spots that will open up when Clapp, Guiel, Willams, and Pond go to the Olympics.

Great report, Ryan.
_Brent - Wednesday, July 21 2004 @ 11:21 AM EDT (#50639) #
Could we possibly see another Marcum promotion this year? Granted that the FSL might be helping his numbers, but Marcum is clearly overmatching his competition in the league. How many innings will be enough for him at that level?

The closest comparison I can make to Marcum is Jason Arnold.
Arnold: Age 22 (NYPL): 66 IP, 10.09 K/9, 2.05 BB/9, 0.27 HR/9
Marcum: Age 21 (NYPL): 34 IP, 12.44 K/9, 1.85 BB/9, 0.26 HR/9


Arnold: Age 23 (FSL): 80 IP, 9.34 K/9, 2.48 BB/9, 0.23 HR/9
Marcum: Age 22 (FSL): 35.1 IP, 10.51 K/9, 0.77 BB/9, 0.77 HR/9


Arnold: Age 23 (TEX): 58 IP, 8.22 K/9, 3.72 BB/9, 0.31 HR/9
Marcum: Age 22/23 (EAST): ???


Both Marcum and Arnold were College relievers turned pro starters and both are not hard throwers. They both rely on breaking balls and command of all their pitches to be effective.

Marcum is a year younger than Arnold, and clearly outperforming him with respect to a couple different metrics. Arnold made the jump to AA pretty well in his Age 23 season. Granted, Arnold's stop in the FSL has a much larger sample size compared to Marcum's, but I don't think extrapolating Marcum's numbers would confound my conculsion by a great deal: that Marcum could appropriately handle the Eastern league right now.
_Marc - Wednesday, July 21 2004 @ 11:49 AM EDT (#50640) #
I am probably one of the biggest advocates for aggressive development and promotion but I think it would be silly to promote Marcum to AA this year. One move up is enough, given his limited starting experience. And it is only his first full season, so I would begin to limit his innings for the last month of the minor league season.
_Sneeps - Wednesday, July 21 2004 @ 11:54 AM EDT (#50641) #
The Dodgers just promoted a 2nd year high schooler to AA for the 2nd straight year. The Jays really should pay attention to the new trend of quickly ascending high schoolers.
_Brent - Wednesday, July 21 2004 @ 11:59 AM EDT (#50642) #
Work beckons me, so I'll try to make this quick.

I should have added the cavaet at the end of my post saying that although Marcum could make the leap to the Eastern league, that doesn't mean that he should. The Marcum/Arnold comparison is interesting in my book purely because of how highly regarded Arnold was coming up through the ranks.

If Marcum is keeping up with Arnold statistically, and a year younger to boot, well that's just gravy. To tell you the truth, I've been following Marcum's numbers throughout the year, but not in aggregate. The post in yesterday's minor league thread showing Marcum's FSL numbers really floored me. A 13.67 K/BB ratio? Man, that's nasty, even if it is in 35 innings.
_Ryan01 - Wednesday, July 21 2004 @ 12:03 PM EDT (#50643) #
The Dodgers just promoted a 2nd year high schooler to AA for the 2nd straight year. The Jays really should pay attention to the new trend of quickly ascending high schoolers.

Of course the first such 2nd year high schooler had shoulder surgery at the beginning of the year and hasn't pitched since. I think Marc makes a great point about taking it easy with Marcum in his first year as a starter.
Mike Green - Wednesday, July 21 2004 @ 12:04 PM EDT (#50644) #
Brent, get with the program...Mastny is nasty, Marcum is remarkable.;)
_Sneeps - Wednesday, July 21 2004 @ 12:08 PM EDT (#50645) #
What does being in AA have to do with hurting yourself?
_Marc - Wednesday, July 21 2004 @ 12:09 PM EDT (#50646) #
I was doing a little projection last night of what teams all the minor league players might player for next season and one thing struck me: There are going to be a lot of college players in the Jays' system having an unnecessary second dose of short season ball, which is normally unheard of for a college player... a good one any way. This brings me back to a comment I made a week or so ago about how the Jays should consider drafting some more high school players. Here is a perfect reason. College players in the Jays system are basically having their careers put in jeopardy because they are becoming too old to be considered prospects And it's only going to get worse.
Mike Green - Wednesday, July 21 2004 @ 12:14 PM EDT (#50647) #
Yes, it is right to carefully watch Marcum's workload. The Jays gave Bush 150 regular season innings last year plus a few playoff starts. That's a reasonable limit for Marcum.

I don't know that it makes a huge difference for workload purposes whether he pitches those limited innings in Dunedin or New Hampshire. To me, the issue is whether it can be said that he's ready for the promotion after only 35 innings in Dunedin. Personally, I'd rather that they give him a bit of double A work this year and much more next, but that's certainly a matter of taste.
_Ryan01 - Wednesday, July 21 2004 @ 12:20 PM EDT (#50648) #
What does being in AA have to do with hurting yourself?

I think it's very likely that the heavy workload of a full season league is just too much to ask of an 18 year old arm. I wouldn't be opposed to moving Marcum up to AA so long as they were careful with his pitchcount.
_Jordan - Wednesday, July 21 2004 @ 12:26 PM EDT (#50649) #
Don't forget that the jump from A-Ball to Double-A is a very tough one -- witness Josh Banks, who unquestionably was ready to leave the Florida State League but has had some real struggles in the Eastern League. Consider also the IP counts for this recent convert to the mound (college and/or pro):

Year     IP
2001 53
2002 32
2003 78
2004 114 and counting


Marcum is young and valuable, and he's doing very well where he is. Let's have him finish the season in Dunedin on a tight leash and see what spring 2005 brings.
_DJ - Wednesday, July 21 2004 @ 12:39 PM EDT (#50650) #
How many high schoolers are really getting pushed up through the minors quickly? I bet that the vast, vast majority of them are still on the same old timeframe of 4-5 years in the minors before seeing the big leagues. A few exceptions hardly change the rules.
_Nigel - Wednesday, July 21 2004 @ 12:48 PM EDT (#50651) #
I'll second two thoughts:

a) I'd leave Marcum right where he is. I think the most important thing for him right now is to monitor his workload and err on the side of caution. I'd like to see him restricted to about 30 more innings this year. I don't see a huge benefit to getting those 30 innings in at AA this year versus starting him there next year. He's not old for his level so there's no need to rush him.

b) I would move Mastny. He is old for his level. With the huge number of pitching prospects that the Jays have at A and lower, they need to do whatever they can to find out who the legitimate prospects are. Many of these guys aren't far away from 40 man roster decisions. Mastny has done well at low-A but his peripherals (other than HR/9) aren't as good as the others that have moved up and first hand scouting reports put his stuff as pretty average. I think you need to know as much as you can as fast as you can with the Mastny's of the world. Again if he was 2 years younger I might feel differently. The tough thing is that it would gut the low A team for the playoffs, but I think that needs to take a backseat to player development. Still I'm sure its an issue for Dick Scott to worry about.
_MatO - Wednesday, July 21 2004 @ 01:09 PM EDT (#50652) #
I don't have strong feelings on Marcum but with the number of innings he's pitched he might as well stay in Dunedin with a limit on his innings for the rest of the year.

From the transaction wire Brad Esaray has been placed on the DL with Kurt Isenberg coming off the DL for Charleston. I guess the Isenberg injury was not serious. Hopefully the rest has solved his problems after a promising start.
_MatO - Wednesday, July 21 2004 @ 02:40 PM EDT (#50653) #
Speaking of Isenberg he was excellent in relief 2.1IP 0H 0BB 3K as Charleston defeated Hickory in 10 innings 7-6 in one of those morning games.
Mike Green - Wednesday, July 21 2004 @ 02:45 PM EDT (#50654) #
Wow, there's just been a plethora of good pitching news from the minors. Maybe the worm has turned!
_Marc - Wednesday, July 21 2004 @ 02:47 PM EDT (#50655) #
Knock on wood...
_Tim - Wednesday, July 21 2004 @ 03:22 PM EDT (#50656) #
I think we need to keep in mind that a lot of our desire to see fast promotions probably comes from our frustration with the Major League team. The reality is that fast promotions won't help. I've seen far too many players promoted to the majors far too quickly and then struggle for a couple of years. Either they eventually work through their struggles or they become so discouraged that they never succeed. In today's economic climate the Jays can't afford to pay promising young players to struggle. They need to wait until the players are definitely ready, so they don't waste any of the player's pre-arbitration years.

So, it's not really a bad thing to let someone like Marcum stay at high-A or Banks at AA.
_JohnnyS99 - Wednesday, July 21 2004 @ 03:34 PM EDT (#50657) #
Well, Banks certainly deserves to stay in AA for the rest of the year.
_Tim - Wednesday, July 21 2004 @ 03:38 PM EDT (#50658) #
Yeah, Banks is a bad example, I guess. Chacin might be a better example. He's done well, but hasn't dominated (with the exception of this game). Mastny probably should be promoted, based on the experiences of his former teammates. Overall though, I like the pace at which the Jays promote.
Coach - Wednesday, July 21 2004 @ 04:02 PM EDT (#50659) #
Ricciardi and Scott have a very good idea of who needs to be promoted and when. They consider much more than workload and stats, like the player's maturity and attitude, plus they have the medical reports. I'm just guessing like the rest of us, but all of Jonny's suggested moves look good, assuming the physical and emotional signs are favourable.

As a Marcum booster from draft day, I believe he can handle the next level and beyond. Whether a promotion comes in August or April, Shaun may not be a Fisher Cat for more than three or four months; at either pace, he'll make it to Syracuse sometime in 2005. The most exciting thing about him is that he's still just learning how to be a pitcher. If he's anything like Dave Bush, whatever timetable the club has for him is fine with me.
_Finn McCool - Wednesday, July 21 2004 @ 07:05 PM EDT (#50660) #
Re: Francisco Rosario

I was listening to the New Hampshire pregame show and Mike Basso the Fisher Cats manager said the Francisco Rosario would definately be starting for the Fisher Cats in this Fridays game.
Mike Green - Wednesday, July 21 2004 @ 09:12 PM EDT (#50661) #
Our own Gerry McDonald is on the Fisher Cat internet broadcast right now doing colour.
Mike Green - Wednesday, July 21 2004 @ 09:19 PM EDT (#50662) #
It's 1-1 in the 7th inning New Hampshire-Binghamton. Danny Solano doubled to lead off the inning for the Fisher Cats. Ty Godwin struck out. Dominic Rich flies out to the wall in left center; Solano to third. Aaron Hill grounds out to short.

1-1 at the stretch.

Gerry is off to Auburn after tonight's game. I am eagerly awaiting his report on Josh Banks (who pitched well tonight), and the Doubledays.
Mike Green - Wednesday, July 21 2004 @ 09:24 PM EDT (#50663) #
Bottom of 7 AA:

League pitching for New Hampshire.

Velasquez grounds out to third. Lyden grounds out to short; it was a nice play by Aaron Hill on the speedster. Pagan gets blown away by League (99 MPH fastball, 87 MPH change, 97 MPH fastball).

1-1 after 7.
Mike Green - Wednesday, July 21 2004 @ 09:32 PM EDT (#50664) #
Top of 8:

McGinley (a lefty) hurling for Binghamton.

John-Ford Griffin strikes out. Maikel Jova (who doubled in the only Fisher Cat run) popped up to right field. Justin Singleton flies out to left center.

1-1 after 7 and 1/2.

Gerry's doing a great job.
Mike Green - Wednesday, July 21 2004 @ 09:38 PM EDT (#50665) #
Bottom of 8:

League on for his third inning.

Acuna grounds out weakly to Dominic Rich. Justin Huber strikes out (Gerry point out that Huber, a fine Mets prospect, looked overmatched). Chase Lambin strikes out.

League sounds absolutely unhittable.

1-1 after 8.
Mike Green - Wednesday, July 21 2004 @ 09:50 PM EDT (#50666) #
Top of 9 AA:

Paul Chiaffreddo singles up the middle. Mike Snyder lays down a bunt, Justin Huber pounced on it and threw out Chiaffreddo at second. Mike Snyder takes off, Solano takes it, and Snyder is thrown out (probably a missed sign on a hit and run). Solano singles to left. Tyrell Godwin doubles to left center; Solano to third. Dominic Rich up. Binghamton manager Jerry Reuss makes a trip to the mound.
Victor Valencia to pinch hit for Rich (to get the platoon advantage).
Count runs to 2-2. Valencia swings and misses.

1-1 going to the bottom of the ninth.
Mike Green - Wednesday, July 21 2004 @ 10:03 PM EDT (#50667) #
Bottom of 9 AA:

John Ogiltree in to pitch.

Duncan walks on a 3-1 pitch. Presley fouls off a couple of bunt attempts, and the count is 1-2, and takes a called third strike on the outside corner. Basak up. Duncan steals second. The count is 2-2...and Basak hits the ball to deep right over Jova's head. Game over.

2-1 Binghamton final.
Coach - Wednesday, July 21 2004 @ 10:04 PM EDT (#50668) #
Gerry's doing a great job.

Very nice radio debut, Gerry. However, after that tough loss, the Fisher Cats are now 0-2 with Bauxites in the booth, so I hope Murph doesn't stop inviting us to sit in.
Minor League Update: July 21 | 36 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.