The Fresh Prince of Salt Lake

Monday, June 14 2010 @ 11:31 PM EDT

Contributed by: Dave Rutt

Two of the affiliates had the night off, and two took the night off. Also: an in-depth look at the Dunedin roster.

Las Vegas 4 at Salt Lake City 7

Well, this is a story all about how
Las Vegas got flipped-turned upside-down
and I'd like to take minute for the reader's sake
and tell ya all about the game they lost to Salt Lake.

In Newnan Georgia born and raised
On the diamond was where he spent most of his days
Playin' catch battin' takin' grounders all cool
Spittin' sunflower seeds outside of school
When a couple of scouts
Thought they found their mark
Brought their radar guns to the ballpark
He went to one little camp and his mom got scared
She said "You're going to college if I have to march your butt there"

He studied for a year but still his path wound
To baseball, he was drafted in the 7th round
Little more than 2 years later he was in triple A
Facing off against the affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays

He went 8 and 2 thirds, 4 runs, pretty nice!
Struck out Hoffpauir, Padilla and Calderone twice
Brian D. hit a homer but not a difference did it make
Will Smith, 2 and 4, the Fresh Prince of Salt Lake.

New Hampshire - scheduled day off

Dunedin 3 at Tampa 7

In the top of the first, all of these things happened (consecutively):

That's gotta be the most productive inning for things-that-are-listed-at-the-bottom-of-the-box-score that I've ever seen.

After that, Dunedin went up swinging for the fences, and this proved mostly unsuccessful as they whiffed an incredible 16 times against Andrew Brackman and the Tampa bullpen. I say mostly unsuccessful, though, because one of those hacks did, in fact, result in a home run - this one off the bat of Tyler Pastornicky. Pastornicky is not as unlikely a candidate for Dunedin's only home run as you may think - he already has four on the year, which is really pretty good for a speedy 20-year-old shortstop in the FSL. We'll hear more about him in a few centimeters.

Unfortunately, Pastor Nicky's heroics weren't enough to lead the D-Jays to victory. Tampa jumped on Charles Huggins early, tagging him for four runs in four innings. Huggins allowed seven hits and two walks, striking out four.

Adeiny Hechavarria was the only D-Jay to reach base twice, with a single to go along with his reach-on-error. John Tolisano kind of continued his hot hitting with a double, but also struck out twice. Mike McDade struck out three times in four trips.

Lansing - scheduled day off

Three Stars!
3. Tyler Pastornicky - HR, sac bunt
2. Adam Calderone - 2-4, 3B, 2 RBIs
1. Sean Henn - 4 1/3 IP in relef, 2 base-runners, 0ER, 4 Ks


Links
Florida State League
John Tolisano, Dunedin
.429/.529/.929, 6-for-14, 1 2B, 0 3B, 2 HR, 2 RBI, 6 R, 3 BB, 3 K, 1 SB
John Tolisano, whom the Blue Jays nabbed in the second round of the 2007 Draft, is working on his finest pro season at the plate. He's never hit above .250, even going back to his Gulf Coast League campaign the year he was drafted, but his performance this week puts his season average at .309, up from .262 on June 1. He singled, walked and scored a run Monday, and he was 3-for-4 with a homer and two runs scored on Wednesday. In the last game before the All-Star break, on Thursday, Tolisano went yard again and chipped in a double.


Okay, as we've been doing all season on Mondays, let's catch up with one of the affiliates! This is our second look at Dunedin - cOPS and cERA represent change in OPS and ERA since the last update, which is a very quick and dirty way of looking at how these guys' numbers have improved or otherwise in the intervening time period. Note: the change stats weren't calculated for players who missed significant time, either before the first update or between updates.

Hitters

The last time we chatted, Travis d'Arnaud was the only real prospect with an OPS over .850. A month and a bit later, John Tolisano and Mike McDade have gone on hot streaks to join him in that club. Both guys are striking out at a high rate (26% for both), but both also have youth on their side - they're 21, with Tolisano about seven months older. Given their respective positions (2B and 1B) and Tolisano's higher walk rate (11% to 6%), I'd say John's performance is more impressive, though McDade is still a guy to watch.

Welinton Ramirez has also been hot and has shown good power with a near-.200 ISO. His plate discipline rates are even worse than McDade's, though.

Tyler Pastornicky has seen his OPS slip a little, but a .100 ISO, near 1:1 K:BB ratio (with both around 15%) and 16:6 SB:CS mark are still quite impressive for a 20-year-old shortstop in high-A, and on the whole Pastornicky's offensive numbers are slightly better than they were last year while he was at Lansing.

Others of note: Yan Gomes has cooled considerably, while Kevin Ahrens was demoted to Lansing. Everyone's favourite D-Jay, Adeiny Hechavarria, has been underwhelming, but I really think it's far too early to jump to any conclusions with him. Positives with Hech's numbers include a good amount of power (.117 ISO) and 5 SBs without any CS. But let's just all agree to wait until he has this season under his belt, okay?


Player POS G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI TB BB SO SB CS OBP SLG AVG OPS E cOPS
Shawn Bowman 3B 4 13 3 6 4 0 0 1 10 0 4 0 1 .462 .769 .462 1.231 1
Jon Del Campo 2B 6 17 3 7 4 0 0 1 11 0 2 0 0 .412 .647 .412 1.059 2
John Tolisano 2B 37 136 29 42 9 2 4 18 67 17 40 4 2 .381 .493 .309 .873 11
Michael McDade 1B 56 217 32 64 13 1 12 37 115 14 61 2 0 .339 .530 .295 .869 5 +.267
Travis d'Arnaud C 35 130 24 39 11 0 5 27 65 12 21 2 1 .354 .500 .300 .854 0 -.055
Welinton Ramirez OF 55 182 27 50 13 1 7 31 86 12 62 6 2 .330 .473 .275 .803 4 +.202
Justin Jackson SS 5 13 2 4 1 0 0 0 5 2 4 0 0 .400 .385 .308 .785 1
Jon Talley C 26 89 16 24 9 0 2 21 39 10 28 0 0 .343 .438 .270 .782 0
Al Quintana 3B 14 48 7 13 4 0 1 7 20 5 10 0 0 .352 .417 .271 .769 1
Danny Perales OF 40 148 15 38 6 2 6 16 66 6 26 6 0 .288 .446 .257 .734 1 -.104
Tyler Pastornicky SS 52 198 34 52 12 0 3 20 73 27 34 16 6 .350 .369 .263 .718 8 -.037
Edwin Encarnacion 3B 3 10 2 1 0 0 1 1 4 2 3 0 0 .308 .400 .100 .708 0
Yan Gomes C 31 104 12 28 11 0 0 16 39 4 26 0 0 .315 .375 .269 .690 2 -.152
Justin McClanahan 2B 26 79 11 19 2 3 1 9 30 7 23 1 0 .307 .380 .241 .687 4
Brad McElroy CF 17 65 9 16 5 0 0 10 21 8 13 4 0 .338 .323 .246 .661 0
Raul Barron 2B 33 122 13 31 6 0 2 12 43 9 19 9 3 .306 .352 .254 .658 6 -.276
Sean Shoffit CF 31 116 12 27 4 3 2 11 43 8 34 9 0 .282 .371 .233 .653 1
Adeiny Hechavarria SS 27 111 16 26 7 3 0 6 39 4 18 5 0 .261 .351 .234 .612 7
Brian Van Kirk OF 51 185 19 40 5 2 1 21 52 14 48 1 0 .266 .281 .216 .547 1 +.022
Kevin Ahrens 3B 24 90 12 16 5 1 1 6 26 6 17 1 0 .235 .289 .178 .524 2
Matt Liuzza C 2 8 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 1 0 .111 .000 .000 .111 0


Pitchers

Joel Carreno has great strikeout (10.8 per 9) and walk (2.5 per 9) rates, but he's allowed a fair number of hits. That can be attributed to an unlucky .429 BABIP, and Carreno's 2.68 FIP says he's been fantastic this year. Joel is 23, though, so let's temper our excitement until we see continued success at higher levels.

Henderson Alvarez has continued to pitch well this year, riding his formula of ground balls (51%) and fantastic control (1.6 BB/9) to a 3.59 FIP. He could use a few more strikeouts. Dunedin's third starter Chuck Huggins also has good-looking stats on the surface, but a closer examination reveals a couple of warning flags: a .258 BABIP, and a very high fly ball percentage (50%) which is accompanied by an abnormally low HR/FB % of 2.4. Perhaps his struggles at AA shouldn't have been such a surprise.

Ryan Page had been a regular member of the rotation when last we examined Dunedin's roster, but he's become the odd man out as a number of rehabbers have come through. In the bullpen, Alan Farina and Frank Gailey have great numbers, but we don't really start talking about minor league relievers at this level, and for good reason.

Player W L ERA G GS CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR HB BB SO WHIP HLD GF cERA
Joel Carreno 3 3 4.32 13 12 0 0 0 66.2 77 36 32 4 3 19 83 1.44 0 1 -0.24
Andrew Liebel 5 5 5.85 12 12 0 0 0 60.0 71 46 39 4 7 30 39 1.68 0 0 +1.68
Chuck Huggins 5 0 2.30 10 10 0 0 0 58.2 44 19 15 3 2 16 47 1.02 0 0 +0.69
Henderson Alvarez 5 2 2.78 11 11 0 0 0 58.1 64 26 18 4 1 11 40 1.29 0 0 +1.15
Chad Beck 2 1 4.35 21 2 0 0 0 39.1 42 21 19 1 0 12 33 1.37 4 2
Ryan Page 1 4 5.40 7 6 0 0 0 36.2 43 23 22 2 0 13 14 1.53 0 0
Frank Gailey 4 1 2.21 21 0 0 0 0 36.2 35 9 9 1 1 3 38 1.04 5 5
Alan Farina 0 1 1.53 27 0 0 0 2 29.1 16 7 5 0 0 10 37 0.89 10 11
Matthew Daly 0 1 4.10 26 0 0 0 15 26.1 29 15 12 1 1 7 30 1.37 0 23
Dumas Garcia 2 1 1.88 14 0 0 0 0 24.0 15 7 5 0 1 11 21 1.08 1 4
Boomer Potts 3 0 0.43 16 0 0 0 1 21.0 14 1 1 0 0 7 19 1.00 2 6
Kenny Rodriguez 3 1 7.20 5 3 0 0 0 20.0 30 18 16 4 1 10 17 2.00 0 0
Jesse Litsch 1 1 1.80 2 2 0 0 0 15.0 9 3 3 1 1 4 10 0.87 0 0
Ross Buckwalter 0 2 4.50 9 0 0 0 0 12.0 14 6 6 0 2 2 7 1.33 2 2
Daniel DeLucia 2 1 5.25 9 1 0 0 0 12.0 20 9 7 1 0 8 11 2.33 0 2
B.J. LaMura 0 0 3.48 9 0 0 0 0 10.1 8 4 4 0 1 9 13 1.65 3 1
Scott Richmond 1 0 1.59 1 1 0 0 0 5.2 4 2 1 0 0 2 2 1.06 0 0
Shawn Griffith 0 0 2.25 4 0 0 0 0 4.0 3 1 1 1 0 1 4 1.00 1 3
Brian Tallet 0 0 0.00 1 1 0 0 0 4.0 2 0 0 0 0 1 3 0.75 0 0
Juan Hernandez 0 0 6.00 2 0 0 0 0 3.0 3 2 2 0 0 3 3 2.00 0 1

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