Batter's Box Interactive Magazine - Minor League Update: April 14

Rain-outs once again limited the field for the Three Star Selection. Thanks to Banks and Co. in Dunedin, there were plenty of worthy candidates.

Syracuse, New Hampshire, and Charleston could not get their games in yesterday. The Alley Cats played a few innings before postponing, while the other two teams didn’t even get started. Fortunately, the weather didn’t stop Dunedin from playing its Double-Dip against the Sarasota Red Sox.

Game 1: Dunedin 5, Sarasota 4 (7 innings)

The D-Jays came from behind to beat the SaraSox in the first game of the double-header. Down 2-0 in the fourth inning, right fielder Ron Davenport tripled and scored on a single by DH Vito Chiaravalotti. After Sarasota scored another run in the top half of the fifth, Dunedin tied the game 3-3 in the bottom half, when Jayce Tingler walked with one out, Carlo Cota doubled Tingler to third, Jayce scored on a Davenport fielder’s choice, and Vito drove Davenport in with a double. In the bottom of the sixth, the D-Jays would get all the remaining runs they would need, on a two-run home run off the bat of third baseman Raul Tablado, scoring Scott Dragicevich (who had walked). Righty Jamie Vermilyea, who allowed a solo homer to Ian Cronkhite in the seventh, finished the game and got the victory, to go 1-0. Vermilyea’s line: 2 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 1 HR, 0 BB, 3 K. Starter Neomar Flores (5 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 1 HR, 0 BB, 2 K) pitched decently in his first start of the year.
Boxscore
Game log

Game 2: Dunedin 4, Sarasota 1 (7 innings)

Josh Banks (4 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 0 HR, 1 BB, 7 K) erased the memory of last week’s Dunedin debut, while the D-Jay offense came through with timely hitting, for the sweep of the twin-billing against Boston’s Single-A affiliate. Andy Torres got his second win in relief, pitching two shoutout innings (2 H, 0 BB, 2 K) and Bubbie Buzachero (1 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K) finished the game in the seventh, despite allowing an unearned run. Dunedin scored their first run in the second, on Vito’s third homer of the season. They scored two more in the fifth as Davenport doubled in Tingler, and would eventually score himself on a passed ball. First baseman Erik Kratz scored the D-Jays’ fourth run, in the sixth, as Brad Hassey singled him in.
Boxscore
Game log

Three Star Selection

Our Third Star: Jayce Tingler (4 AB, 2 R, 3 H, 2B, 3 BB, HBP)
Our Second Star: Vito Chiravalotti (4 AB, 1 R, 3 H, 2B, HR, 3 RBI, 2 BB)
Our First Star: Josh Banks (4 IP, 7 SO, 1 BB, O ER)
Honourable Mention: Ron Davenport (7 AB, 3 R, 2 H, 3B, 2B, 2 RBI) and Raul Tablado (game-breaking home run)

Links of the Day

- Allen Lessels, Union-Leader, has the story on Dustin McGowan, phenom pitcher and one-time basketball prospect

- Here is the the release for the new 2-year P&D deal between the Jays and Syracuse. We should be hearing more on that front soon.

- If there are any additional relevant links, please share!

What’s in store for today?

Francisco Rosario starts against the Tampa Yankees today (facing the infamous TBA), while the other three Jays affiliates try to resume play... Your guess is as good as mine for the double header pitching matchups.

Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, April 14 2004 @ 09:13 AM EDT.

Minor League Update: April 14 | 44 comments | Create New Account

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

_Jordan - Wednesday, April 14 2004 @ 09:36 AM EDT (#72484) #

Thanks, Steve! Jayce Tingler's doubleheader line: 4 AB, 2 R, 3 H, 3 BB, 1 HBP. I'm liking this guy more every day. What else is there to say about Big Vito? He's picked up right where he left off last year in Auburn. I'm currently adopting a more wait-and-see approach to Tablado, whose terrific first few games are tempered by his recent track record (.258/.328/.423, 17/47 BB/K in 182 AB as a 21-year-old in Dunedin, his best season to date). But he was a high-school pick in 2000, and they can take a while to develop. Banks' return to dominance after a rough debut is very encouraging.

I'm really looking forward to Rosario's performance against the mini-Yankees; if he remains dominant, he'll be in Double-A as soon as the weather warms up.

_Ryan Day - Wednesday, April 14 2004 @ 09:55 AM EDT (#72485) #

Tablado got off to a hot start last year, didn't he? I remember looking at box scores in April and thinking "Wow, this guy looks good!" I think he was even playing shortstop then. Needless to say, it didn't last.

Mike Green - Wednesday, April 14 2004 @ 10:00 AM EDT (#72486) #

It's early days yet, but it looks like Big Vito might be travelling with Rosario to Manchester. After 17 ABs, he's .471/.630/1.118. Obviously, he's not going to keep this up, but he'll probably be at .320/.440/.600 or something in mid-May and given his age, I'm eager to see how he will do against more advanced competition.

_Steve Z - Wednesday, April 14 2004 @ 10:14 AM EDT (#72487) #

How'd I miss Tingler's HBP? Anyways, Tingler stands at .429/.552/.571 (6 BB, 0 SO, 1 HBP, 21 AB) for the season so far.

Pistol - Wednesday, April 14 2004 @ 11:00 AM EDT (#72488) #

Jayce Tingler's doubleheader line: 4 AB, 2 R, 3 H, 3 BB, 1 HBP

What, he could reach base only 7 out of 8 times? Slacker.

Craig B - Wednesday, April 14 2004 @ 11:51 AM EDT (#72489) #

facing the infamous TBA

The good news is that TBA is something like 1923-2774 in his career with a 5.52 ERA. Dunedin have got a good shot against this guy.

Thomas - Wednesday, April 14 2004 @ 01:25 PM EDT (#72490) #

What's Vito like, in terms of physical build?

Tingler's a Tyner-clone, if I remember, except he's like 5'9, and not 6'1.

_Jordan - Wednesday, April 14 2004 @ 01:40 PM EDT (#72491) #

At last report, Vito was 6'3", 220 lbs. I wouldn't like to see him add much more weight than that.

Mike Green - Wednesday, April 14 2004 @ 01:40 PM EDT (#72492) #

http://www.sports-wired.com/players/profile.asp?Name=CGIHJ
Vito's 6'3", 220. COMN.

Mike Green - Wednesday, April 14 2004 @ 01:41 PM EDT (#72493) #

Jordan, I swear I nosed you at the tape! Da Box needs video review...

_Ryan01 - Wednesday, April 14 2004 @ 01:48 PM EDT (#72494) #

http://images.google.ca/images?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=vito+chiaravalloti&spell=1
Tingler's actually closer to 5'-7" standing on a chair and 160lbs soaking wet. But his plate discipline is miles ahead of Tyner's.

Vito's was an all-state swimmer in high school so you know a lot of that weight is pure muscle. COMN for some pictures of Vito.

_Ryan01 - Wednesday, April 14 2004 @ 01:51 PM EDT (#72495) #

Does anyone know if it's the minor injury Vito had in spring that's keeping him at DH or is he really just that bad defensively?

_Jordan - Wednesday, April 14 2004 @ 01:56 PM EDT (#72496) #

Ryan, I would guess it's the injury; Vito's not Keith Hernandez at first base, but he's not all that bad either. Unless the organization has already decided he has no position (unlikely, I would think, for such a good athlete at such a young age), he's probably DHing to protect his health.

Thanks for the pix; I suspect that if Vito makes it to the big leagues, the Toronto sports scene is going to have a new heartthrob.

_Sneeps - Wednesday, April 14 2004 @ 01:59 PM EDT (#72497) #

Is anyone else having problems trying to listen to the Skychiefs broadcast over the internet?

Maybe they were rained out again...

_Jordan - Wednesday, April 14 2004 @ 02:04 PM EDT (#72498) #

It's sunny here in Ottawa, so unless the field was drenched (quite possible, since it just poured here yesterday), they should be playing.

Nope -- according to the Sportsline scoreboard (COMN), it's scoreless in the second.

_Jordan - Wednesday, April 14 2004 @ 02:05 PM EDT (#72499) #

http://www.sportsline.com/mlb/minors/scoreboard
COMN!

_Rob - Wednesday, April 14 2004 @ 02:10 PM EDT (#72500) #

http://www.wfbl.com/wfbl_-_skychiefs.htm
I just opened the radio and it's working fine. COMN if you don't have the link.

_Sneeps - Wednesday, April 14 2004 @ 02:13 PM EDT (#72501) #

It's working now... must have been just technical difficulties on their end.

_MatO - Wednesday, April 14 2004 @ 02:14 PM EDT (#72502) #

Thanks for the Vito pictures. I don't know why but I've always thought of him as hitting from the left side until I saw the pictures.

Gerry - Wednesday, April 14 2004 @ 02:15 PM EDT (#72503) #

I see Syracuse has the early lead. Anyone know what happened?

_Cristian - Wednesday, April 14 2004 @ 02:17 PM EDT (#72504) #

According to WFBL, Mike Nakamura is now on the Syracuse roster. Apparently to make room, Bruce Chen was put on the DL with a chronic case of sucking.

Craig B - Wednesday, April 14 2004 @ 02:24 PM EDT (#72505) #

Wow. Vito looks like a righthanded Shawn Green with a bit more beef on him.

_Rob - Wednesday, April 14 2004 @ 02:25 PM EDT (#72506) #

It's working now... must have been just technical difficulties on their end.

They broadcast dead air during commercials. Maybe you heard that. Happened to me yesterday. :)

_Jordan - Wednesday, April 14 2004 @ 02:36 PM EDT (#72507) #

http://www.sportsnetwork.com/default.asp?c=sportsnetwork&page=minorbase/index.htm
COMN for a better minor-league baseball scores site; click on the league you want to visit in the left-hand column. It's now 5-0 Chiefs in the 4th; IIRC, David Bush was the scheduled starter.

Check out the starer for Ottawa in the twinbill. Yes, it's that Sean Bergman.

Gerry - Wednesday, April 14 2004 @ 02:44 PM EDT (#72508) #

Charleston won their first game 7-0, with 15 hits.

_ainge_fan - Wednesday, April 14 2004 @ 03:18 PM EDT (#72509) #

Tingler's been pretty solid, to say the least. Of course, having a strike zone the size of a soda cracker has to help him out. Has anyway seen him - this year or last? Does he make solid contact or does he slap and spray? I'd be curious to hear anyone's report.
I wonder also, if he's always played the OF. I imagine if he played second base, he'd be Aaron Hill's complement at AA.
Does anyone want to hazard a guess at what his season total of strikeouts will be? It has always been strikingly low. I'll go with 32. I'm guessing that it'll pick up a bit if/when he gets promoted, maybe 16-20 through the early part of August (when I guess he'll get a promotion after posting a .393OBP), but will get punched out about 2 times a week after that.

_Flip - Wednesday, April 14 2004 @ 03:19 PM EDT (#72510) #

I don't know why, but I was under the same impression as MatO. I pictured Vito as batting from the left side.

Gerry - Wednesday, April 14 2004 @ 03:25 PM EDT (#72511) #

Skychiefs win game 1 7-2, Bush pitches a complete game. Rios had a 2 run double; Adams also had an rbi double.

Craig B - Wednesday, April 14 2004 @ 03:34 PM EDT (#72512) #

I wonder also, if he's always played the OF.

Tingler played the OF throughout his entire career at Missouri. He was seen as an outstanding defensive outfielder.

In 287 plate appearances in his senior year at Mizzou, Tingler struck out nine times. He had 48 walks and was hit by 14 pitches. If you have 150% more HBPs than Ks, you're doing something right.

He's not making a lot of "solid contact", though, because if he did he would have at least a little extra-base power. But he has none at all. That's Tingler's biggest obstacle - he has to be able to hit doubles to be any kind of a threat, and he's just never done that.

If Tingler pulls it all together perfectly, I think he'll have John Cangelosi's career, with a better glove. That would be quite an accomplishment, and Cangelosi was a very useful player in the right circumstances - particularly if he'd been better with the leather.

_Steve Z - Wednesday, April 14 2004 @ 03:43 PM EDT (#72513) #

he has to be able to hit doubles to be any kind of a threat, and he's just never done that.

He hit one last night and is tied with Tablado for the team lead (3). Now, let's see if he can keep it up...

_MatO - Wednesday, April 14 2004 @ 03:46 PM EDT (#72514) #

I was thinking of Tingler's upside as maybe Brett Butler, but maybe my memory of Butler isn't very good. He might have had more pop.

_Jordan - Wednesday, April 14 2004 @ 03:53 PM EDT (#72515) #

The Skychiefs didn't need to beat Ottawa; the Lynx did that nicely all by themsleves. Ottawa made six errors, including four by the shortstop, Eddy Garabito. Jorge Sequea had a very nice game, two hits, a walk and three runs scored. Bush gave a solid performance: 7 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 Ks. A whole lot of flyball outs, though.

The Chiefs are doing something interesting, by the way: three of the organization's top prospects (Gross, Quiroz and Adams) are batting 7th, 8th and 9th, respectively. I assume this is to keep the pressure off them and allow them to develop without getting too uptight about carrying the offence. Alex Rios, on the other hand, is batting third. Take that for what you will.

_Steve Z - Wednesday, April 14 2004 @ 03:59 PM EDT (#72516) #

I'm sure Paul Godfrey is following Tingler's progress closely.

Of course, one day when Mr. Godfrey has passed the baton to someone else as Jays prez, Bob Elliott will chime in that "World Series MVP Jayce Tingler was drafted by Paul Godfrey, no longer with the ball club..."

Pistol - Wednesday, April 14 2004 @ 04:00 PM EDT (#72517) #

I don't know why but I've always thought of him as hitting from the left side until I saw the pictures.

I always assumed Vito was left handed too.

The Chiefs are doing something interesting, by the way: three of the organization's top prospects (Gross, Quiroz and Adams) are batting 7th, 8th and 9th, respectively. I assume this is to keep the pressure off them and allow them to develop without getting too uptight about carrying the offence. Alex Rios, on the other hand, is batting third. Take that for what you will.

It struck me as odd when I saw Adams at the bottom of the order. You'd think the team would want them to get as many ABs as possible. They're going to miss out on a handful of ABs each week with that alignment.

Craig B - Wednesday, April 14 2004 @ 04:08 PM EDT (#72518) #

I was thinking of Tingler's upside as maybe Brett Butler

No, Tingler doesn't have anything like that kind of power. When Butler was a star, he was getting 40+ extra-base hits a year, a good portion of those homers and triples. I'm not saying Tingler can't do that, but even he blossoms into a good major leaguer he's not likely to do that. If a guy has a 0.1% chance of being Brett Butler and a 5% chance of being John Cangelosi, I would call Cangelosi his upside.

Still, Tingler's power progress is encouraging, and it's good to remember that a position player's power is usually his very last tool to develop. Tingler XBH% (as a percentage of hits) went:

Freshman - 4.8%
Sophomore - 17.3%
Junior - 14.9%
Senior - 17.6%
Pulaski - 23.4%

He had one double in his five hits at Auburn, and had a double among his three hits yesterday. I'm not asking that he develop home run power, and the Jays won't either. But if he can't hit the ball to the gaps, high-level pitchers are going to bust him something awful, his walks will plummet, and he won't be able to get the necessary offensive game going. To hit .300 at the major-league level like Brett Butler did, you need to be able to smack the ball enough to get some hitter's counts.

Craig B - Wednesday, April 14 2004 @ 04:10 PM EDT (#72519) #

Oh, one thing more. If Tingler can hit doubles at Dunedin, he can hit them anywhere. The FSL murders power numbers.

_Jordan - Wednesday, April 14 2004 @ 04:14 PM EDT (#72520) #

Cangelosi is a reasonable comp for Tingler, and it's true that while John showed little power, he still had more than Jayce. Cangelosi's minor-league career (a remarkable 2,992 at-bats over 12 different seasons) produced a measly .370 slugging percentage. That included 115 doubles, 28 triples, and 19 home runs in 854 games -- barely enough power to jumpstart a car battery. Tingler, though, hit just one home run in four entire years of college, and poked another in Pulaksi last year. His three doubles so far are a good start, but he has very little pop on his CV.

Cangelosi, though, wasn't the batter that Tingler appears to be. Cangelosi mustered a .295 career minor-league average, and hit just .250 in the big leagues; his career minor-league BB/K was 559/412 BB/K. In four years of college, Tingler's batting averages were .342, .304, .346 and .395, and his OBP never went below .454; his career college BB/K rate BB was 168/59 in 784 ABs, and in limited low-level pro action, it's 56/14.

Cangelosi was drafted out of high school, so their numbers aren't directly comparable, and Craig's point about needing basic power just to continue hitting singles at the higher levels is correct. But I'm inclined to think Tingler is Cangelosi's superior with the bat in every category but power. Jayce's profile is pretty unique, and I'm not sure if I can think of another player to whom his model conforms.

_Jordan - Wednesday, April 14 2004 @ 04:16 PM EDT (#72521) #

There, Craig beat me to it.

Pepper Moffatt - Wednesday, April 14 2004 @ 04:16 PM EDT (#72522) #

http://economics.about.com
How about F.P. Santangelo with a few more singles?

_JohnnyS99 - Wednesday, April 14 2004 @ 04:41 PM EDT (#72523) #

http://fanhome.com
Wow, I just read, Frasor was called up and Douglas demoted??

_Fozzy - Wednesday, April 14 2004 @ 05:21 PM EDT (#72524) #

Wow, I just read, Frasor was called up and Douglas demoted??

Wow, that's kinda outta left field, especially with Hentgen not performing overly well as of late. As weird as it sounds, and I'll prolly get flamed for it, I'd rather send Hentgen down for a few starts and try to work out his arm and call up either Miller or have Douglass try to take them 5 innings til the pen can take over. The pen seems to be the strong suit so far, why they're sending down someone who can give you 3-5 innings (especially with yesterday's very solid outing) is kinda weird, unless they're trying to get Towers some pen work before the fifth spot opens up.

On the plus side, Frasor seemed to be lighting up the AAA batters, and from what I've read on this site, he really didn't seem to need any more time there. For all people were blasting the Werth trade (DL'd already) around the baseball community, it could end up being a steal for us.

Pepper Moffatt - Wednesday, April 14 2004 @ 05:26 PM EDT (#72525) #

http://economics.about.com
I created a new thread about the moves made in the last 24 hours.

_Ryan01 - Wednesday, April 14 2004 @ 05:28 PM EDT (#72526) #

http://www.rotoworld.com/content/playernews.asp?sport=MLB
COMN for the Frasor/Douglass transaction.

You can't send Hentgen down to the minors, he ran out of options about a decade ago. Frasor's shown some great stuff at times along with some command problems. As long as he keeps the control in check, he should be fine. It's a shame for Douglass after his strong outing but the decision was made beforehand as he would have had to be put on waivers 4 or 5 days ago.

_ainge_fan - Wednesday, April 14 2004 @ 07:37 PM EDT (#72527) #

Craig- I understand your points about Tingler, and would still be curious to hear reports from people who've seen him. Is there a rule of thumb "%XBH" or SLG% that is seen as as a good indicator for light-hitting hitters? A minor league version of a power "Mendoza line"? 20%...25%? 35-40% seems light a pretty good rate for a good hitter to me, while my guess is that hovering around 50% is pretty uncommonly good.
I'm looking forward to seeing Frasor in action - sounds like his fastball will be about the best one in the pen.

Minor League Update: April 14 | 44 comments | Create New Account

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