None of the starting pitchers you are familiar with at the top of the prospect chart pitched tonight. In each case these are the "Other Guys" - the ones who might have some talent but do their work in the shadow of more attention grabbing individuals.Still, in 3 of 4 outings, the Jays farm hands prevailed.
Tonight's starter for Las Vegas was Aaron Laffey. The guy who was supposed to be the fallback plan, but that turned out to be Jesse Chavez instead, so Laffey becomes the other Guy.I'll pause while you assume he probably gave up 5 runs or so in a completely unimpressive 7 innings. Which is what he did. For the sixth tine in nine games, he pretty much sucked. Nothing of note happened in relief, unless you wish to note Chad Beck's control issues continue.
At the top of the line-up, Anthony Gose was 3/5 with a double (he's riding an 8 game winning streak during which he's managed a 1.079 OPS) and Adam Lind homered for the 3rd time in five Las Vegas games, but the real star was Travis d'Arnaud. The #1 prospect He had two solo-shot homers in 4 at bats, and is hitting .357 in the last 10 games with 7 homers. Kid has found his stride.
Yohan Pino never does well when called upon to fill in at AAA, and he's clearly too old to be even a sleeper at AA, but boy can he be a life saver for the Fisher Cats. The 28 year old Venezuelan RH has stumbled only once in 8 AA starts, and was looking to rebound from that stumble on Thursday. In his other seven starts, oh by the way, his ERA is a well deserved 2.35
On Thursday he turned in 7 innings and allowed 2 earned runs. Fernando Hernandez came on and pitched two shutout innings, allowing 2 hits.
Offensively, Ryan Goins continues to climb the ranks of the hitting leaders in the EL, going 3/5. Sean Ochinko likes the cooking in AA, going 2/4 with two doubles, meanwhile veteran infielder Brian Bocock shows his contempt for AA pitching by also going 3/5, including a two-run double.
Starter Sean Nolin, a prospect but still an “other guy” compared to the praise offered for Wojo and Stilson, was uncharacteristically wild on Thursday, in a game delayed by rain. He notched a season high 4 walks in 5.1 IP, but worked around 7 baserunners to allow a single earned run. Relievers Dayton Martze and rehabbing Stephen Marek allowed a run apiece to let the Hammerheads tie the score before the D-Jays rallied in the bottom of the 8th.
For the hitters, Jon Talley continues to roll, going 2/3 with a walk, but the straw in this game was Marcus Knecht, who's rebounding from a horrific April to post a terrific May (.912 OPS so far). He went 2/2 with a double and a home run and drew two walks.
The D-Jays have still not lost more than 2 in a row.
the Other Guy for the Lugnuts was Dave Rollins. As is his habit, he pitched 5 solid innings, gave up a single earned run, a struck out 4. Three relievers combined for 4 shutout innings after Rollins left the game.
Offensively, Chris Hawkins and Andy Burns each had three hits, one of Burns was a double KC Hobson was 1/2 but had 3 walks. Speaking of Burns, 60% of his hits in 2012 have been of the multi-base variety. His OPS over the last 10 games is 1.092 and other than an somewhat elevated K rate, shows no weakness in his game through 41 games.
Third Star: Sean Ochinko
Second Star: Marcus Knecht
First Star: Travis d'Arnaud
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20120525015955928