It was a special day for two of the Jays' minor leaguers yesterday, and I'm not referring to the good starts by Evan Thomas and Neomar Flores.
Rochester 1 at Syracuse 6
Evan Thomas made perhaps his best start of the year, fanning seven against four hits and no walks: other than a solo homer by Michael Restovich in the fourth, he didn't allow a single Red Wing to cross the plate. Jeff Tam gave up a lone hit in the eighth, and Brian Bowles did the same in the ninth while striking out two. DeWayne Wise homered twice for the SkyChiefs, and Jimmy Alvarez, Jorge Sequea, and Kevin Cash each hit a long ball and a single. Gabe Gross went 0 for 3 with a walk.
Trenton 5 at New Haven 2
David Bush tossed seven shutout innings (7 H, 0 BB, 5 K) and Guillermo Quiroz hit a two-run homer in the fourth (his sixteenth) to give the Ravens a 2-0 lead entering the top of the eighth. Jordan DeJong and Adam Peterson allowed five hits and four runs (one earned) in that inning to put Trenton on top for good. John-Ford Griffin and Dominic Rich each had a single, and Alexis Rios' 0 for 4 dropped his batting average down to .335. Russ Adams did not play.
Dunedin 7 at Jupiter 0
Neomar Flores took his cue from Thomas and Bush, blanking Jupiter for six innings (2 H, 1 BB, 6 K). Or maybe he took his cue from the man behind him: Jamie Vermilyea, freshly arrived from Auburn. Vermilyea pitched the final three innings (3 H, 0 BB, 3 K) to complete the shutout. He's brought his fire with him but the jury's still out on the brimstone. Jason Waugh, newly displaced as Dunedin's best hitter, went 1 for 4 with a walk; Aaron Hill, the man who displaced him, hit three singles in five trips while batting eighth.
Lake County 1 at Charleston 4
Charles Talanoa, not to be outdone by the likes of Thomas and Flores, threw six innings of one-run ball for the Alley Cats (6 H, 0 BB, 6 K, 0 HR). Tracy Thorpe and Ryan Costello pitched well in relief, and the batsmen managed four unlikely runs.
Batavia 7 at Auburn 1
It's got to be demoralizing to lose Hill and Vermilyea. Justin James and Brian Wheeler gave up seven runs on ten hits (including a homer run off James) in six innings; the bats, if not entirely silent, certainly weren't talking in more than a loud whisper. Vito Chiaravolloti went 1 for 3; he might be disappointed that he didn't get the call, but at least his competition for the NYPL triple crown has diminished.
Princeton 3 at Pulaski 5
Juan Perez allowed eleven hits and a balk in six-plus innings but only conceded two runs. Robinzon Diaz, as usual, led the P-Jays with a single and double in four at-bats, lifting his average to .443.
***
This seems like an appropriate time at which to compare Russ Adams and Aaron Hill. Adams got the call to Dunedin on July 20 of last year. The hitting stats at the time of promotion are too close to call:
Player Year Team AB H 2B 3B HR BB HBP K BA OBP SLG $H $BB $K power Age
Russ Adams 2002 Auburn 113 40 7 3 0 24 1 11 .354 .464 .469 .354 .158 .072 .098 21y 11m
Aaron Hill 2003 Auburn 122 44 4 0 4 16 6 20 .361 .446 .492 .339 .108 .135 .118 21y 4m
Adams didn't demonstrate any home run power in Auburn, but he hit for extra bases more frequently than Hill did. He also walked substantially more and struck out substantially less. (Mike, I'm not going to say significantly). Hill's OBP was propped up by an awful lot of plunkings.
The major difference between Russ Adams on July 20, 2002 and Aaron Hill on July 27, 2003 is that Adams was seven months older on the former date than Hill was on the latter.
Furthermore, Adams has been modestly disappointing since leaving Auburn:
Year Team AB BA OBP SLG
2002 Dunedin 147 .231 .321 .306
2003 Dunedin 258 .279 .380 .388
New Haven 155 .265 .329 .335
I would say that Hill is now the better prospect, contrary to my vote in the recent BB Top 10 Prospects Poll.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20030728112318999