Batter's Box Interactive Magazine

It's my great pleasure to introduce a regular pinch-hitter in this space, someone already familiar to regular BB readers: John Neary. John has been doing minor-league updates at Batter's Box off and on the last little while, as well as providing excellent insight on threads related to prospects and draftees; he'll be providing minor-league updates more regularly from this point onwards. Take it away, John!

In the Minors

Syracuse at Buffalo, postponed

Syracuse was beating Buffalo 3-0 after three innings when the rain began in earnest. The pitching (Evan Thomas) and defence (Simon Pond?) may have been counterfeits, but the three-run homer (Josh Phelps) was the real deal.

New Haven 6 at Altoona 1

New Haven and Altoona took a scoreless game into the seventh inning. With one run already in and the bases loaded, Russ Adams broke the game open with a three-run double, and Shawn Fagan followed with a two-run homer. David Bush got the win with a 6 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K outing. Before his promotion to New Haven last month, Bush had allowed 18 walks in 112 professional innings; in his first 32.2 innings in AA ball, he allowed 14. I don't know whether he started nibbling or just had a bit of a wild spell, but in any case it's nice to see that "0 BB" in his pitching line. Adams finished 1 for 5 with the double, John-Ford Griffin was 1 for 3 with a walk, Guillermo Quiroz was 1 for 4 with a double, and Alexis Rios didn't reach base in four appearances.

Dunedin at Clearwater, postponed

Greensboro 0 at Charleston 1 (10 innings)

Not to be outdone, Charleston and Greensboro took a scoreless game into the bottom of the tenth inning, when Zeph Zinsman (.216) hit an unlikely double and came around to score on a similarly unlikely single by Eric Rico (.205). Ismael Ramirez gave up 3 hits and 4 walks (with 4 strikeouts) in five scoreless innings. Felix Romero and eventual winner Ramon Mora pitched effectively in relief.

Auburn 7-6 at Mahoning Valley 3-2

Back on June 28, Auburn beat Mahoning Valley 9-6 to run their record to an absurd 11-1, but the Scrappers won the next four games of that five-game set. Auburn settled some of those old scores yesterday by sweeping a twin-bill. Kurt Isenberg, Shaun Marcum, Justin James, Danny Core, and Bubbie Buzachero combined for a 14 IP, 13 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 1 BB, 14 K, 1 HR line in the two games. Aaron Hill went 3 for 8 (all singles), and Vito Chiaravolloti went 4 for 7 with two home runs and a walk. Ladies and gentlemen, your New York-Penn League home run leader plays for the Auburn Doubledays, and his name is Vito Chiaravolloti. In fact, if Vito had one more hit, he'd be leading his league in all three Triple Crown categories, but as things stand Hill edges him in batting average, .369 to .365

Burlington 6 at Pulaski 1

And yet, somehow, life goes on.

Posted by Jordan on Wednesday, July 23 2003 @ 03:52 AM EDT.

In the Minors | 11 comments | Create New Account

The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.

Pistol - Wednesday, July 23 2003 @ 03:56 PM EDT (#96670) #

Big Vito is probably the biggest surprise of the class of 2003 (relative to draft position). I know at one time he had an absurd amount of walks and now he's also hitting for power and average.

Maybe he cracks the top 10 prospect list next year.

Pistol - Wednesday, July 23 2003 @ 03:57 PM EDT (#96671) #

Big Vito in Auburn: .365 /.465 /.615

_John Neary - Wednesday, July 23 2003 @ 04:24 PM EDT (#96672) #

Incidentally, I believe that I misspelled Vito's name. MLB.com spells it "Chiaravalloti," while I was using BA's "Chiaravolloti." Maybe we can all just stick with "Vito."

I am reasonably excited about him, but we have to be careful -- Jason Perry had even more ridiculous stats last year in Medicine Hat when he was a year younger than Vito is now. Vito is older than GQ and Lexi, and he's only two months younger than Russ Adams. If the Jays think he has any chance of being more than an Auburn crowd-pleaser, they'll need to move him up quickly.

Gitz - Wednesday, July 23 2003 @ 04:36 PM EDT (#96673) #

Good work, John. Perhaps I should flank you with an A's minor-league report, since half of them will wind up on the Blue Jays at some point.

_DS - Wednesday, July 23 2003 @ 04:51 PM EDT (#96674) #

Why don't we just give Vito a nickname? How about "The Don"?

Craig B - Wednesday, July 23 2003 @ 04:55 PM EDT (#96675) #

John, I know that the two are just one rung apart, but the level of competition in Rookie ball is not nearly as good as in Short-Season A ball.

Rookie ball is populated with 18-year old kids; a very healthy chunk of Short-Season A players are high draft picks with college experience.

That said, I hope Vito is in Dunedin next year.

_Jordan - Wednesday, July 23 2003 @ 05:23 PM EDT (#96676) #

Here's the latest lines for New Haven's two big rotation guns, recently promoted from A-Ball:

David Bush (turns 24 in November)
4-1, 2.79, 7 GS, 38 IP, 34 H, 12 ER, 14 BB, 34 K, 3 HR, 20.4% KBF
Dustin McGowan (turns 22 next March)
4-0, 4.08, 7 GS, 35 IP, 37 H, 16 ER, 6 BB, 33 K, 1 HR, 21.8% KBF

Despite his higher ERA, McGowan has actually pitched a little better at AA to this point, although no conclusions should be drawn based on fewer than 40 innings. It's easy to forget how young McGowan is, but it's also easy to forget how little pro experience Bush has -- he's only been pitching profesionally for about a year. I am so looking forward to the day these guys wear Toronto uniforms. The good Lord willing, it won't be too long.

_John Neary - Wednesday, July 23 2003 @ 06:22 PM EDT (#96677) #

Craig,

I agree that the jump from rookie ball to short-season should not be brushed off. That being said, Perry hit .425/.508/.802 in Medicine Hat last year. Vito's hitting .365/.465/.615 right now, and he's a year (well, about nine months) older than Perry was. I'm not sure which line is more impressive after adjusting for age and level.

So I decided to look it up on BP.

Jason Perry's MjEQA last year was .267. Vito's this year is .245. Of course, I'm not entirely comfortable translating stats across seven levels.

Gitz, what do you think of Joe Blanton?

John

_Ken - Thursday, July 24 2003 @ 04:17 AM EDT (#96678) #

Just going back to Jordan's post on Bush and McGowan, you gotta like the start that Dustin has made at AA, he's improved his control, which is very encouraging. However i will only get really excited if he maintains the control for the rest of the year. His walk totals weren't all that impressive in Dunedin.
Bush whilst being a couple of years older, does have less experience as a starter, and his control has been amazing so far this year.

On Vito if thats what we're calling him, i don't think that we can get too excited about him. Rookie league numbers while impressive are not a good prediction of future performance. Yes the numbers are damn good but the competition is probably the same standard if not worse than some of the college ball Vito played earlier this year.
The interesting thing is when are the organisation going to promote the Auburn team because they are clearly way too good for the NY-Penn league. Unfortunatly i think we will see the same thing as last year. The best of the Rookie ball players will head to dunedin next year and the rest to Chaleston in Low A ball.
I am of the frame of mind that thinks that challenging some of them now is a better idea.

_Ken - Thursday, July 24 2003 @ 06:54 AM EDT (#96679) #

btw guys, i can't remember off the top of my had, where can i find the career stats for someone in the minors? like McGowan........

For some reason i seem to remeber that his performance has improved with each step up the ladder in the minors, and considering his age relative to his competition at the moment he is SUCH an interesting prospect.

_John Neary - Thursday, July 24 2003 @ 11:05 AM EDT (#96680) #

Ken: You can find minor-league (and college) stats at www.sports-wired.com. The record-keeping isn't perfect -- minor league home runs allowed aren't always available -- but this is the best site I know of.

You're spot on in your analysis of McGowan:

Year  Level    IP      $H    $BB    $K    $HR
2000  Rookie   25    0.325  0.198  0.151  0.016
2001  Low-A    67    0.322  0.160  0.261  0.003
2002  Low-A   148.1  0.345  0.091  0.252  0.015
2003  High-A   75.2  0.279  0.080  0.210  0.003
2003  AA       35.1  0.339  0.040  0.221  0.007

In 2000, McGowan was walking one out of every five batters; he's cut that down to one in 25. The other rates haven't changed much, not like they needed to.

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