Batter's Box Interactive Magazine - Quiroz Beaned but Affiliates Sweep

The Jays took 4 of 4 contests last night. Lansing and Auburn had the night off for the all-star break. Quiroz incurs the wrath of the baseball gods and Miguel Negron makes his case to stay on the 40 man.

Syracuse 7, Buffalo 5

The Skychiefs won this one thanks to back-to-back-to-back home runs from Chad Mottola, his second of the game, Jason Alfaro and Justin Singleton. Guillermo Quiroz was 1 for 3 before taking a pitch off the helmet in the 8th. He stayed on the ground for about a minute but at least was able to walk off the field under his own power. Somebody cut this kid a break.

Zach Jackson started and gave up all 5 runs on 7 hits and 3 walks in 5.1 innings. On the bright side, he did strike out 7. Jason Arnold had a strong outing in relief and the Gronk-Whiteside tandem was nearly automatic.

Box score

Norwich 3, New Hampshire 8

Miguel Negron is completely baffling. Sometimes he looks like a bust and other times he's absolutely unstoppable. Last night was one of his good nights. In 5 plate appearances, Negron hit 2 homers, doubled and walked twice. David Purcey had a pretty solid night himself. He once again walked too many (5) but struck out 6 and allowed only 2 hits in 5.2 shutout innings.

With an 8-1 lead, Tracy Thorpe spiced things up a bit in the 9th. He allowed a single, hit a pair of batters, and walked home 2 runs before getting the hook. With a five run lead and the tying run on deck, Jesse Carlson got two quick outs for the save.

Box score

Lakeland 2, Dunedin 7

All the scoring was finished after the second inning in this one. Ricky Romero got some more valuable experience under his belt. He gave up 2 runs on 3 hits, a wild pitch, a balk, and 2 strikeouts in 3 innings. The Jays took the early lead in with 4 runs in the bottom of the first and added 3 more in the second and the bullpen held on from there.

Brian Reed went 3 shutout innings for the win while Brad Mumma and Milton Tavarez shut out the Tigers over the final three innings.

Box score

Pulaski 5, Princeton 3

The Jays trailed this one until they busted out with a 5 run 8th. Greg Badger singled home the first run, Jacob Butler doubled home the next and Jesus Gonzalez put the icing on the cake with a 3 run shot. Heliezer Aguilar went 3 for 3 to raise his average to .326 on the year. Dennis Bigley got the start, allowing 2 runs in 5 innings and Rafael Perez got his 3rd save with 2 shutout innings.

Box score

The Three Stars!!!

Third Star: Jesus Gonzalez - 2 for 4 with the game winning HR.
Second Star: Chad Mottola - 2 for 3 with 2 HR.
First Star: Miguel Negron - 3 for 3 with 2 HR's, a double and 2 walks.

Posted by Ryan01 on Wednesday, August 24 2005 @ 11:39 AM EDT.

Quiroz Beaned but Affiliates Sweep | 7 comments | Create New Account

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Ryan01 - Wednesday, August 24 2005 @ 11:57 AM EDT (#126444) #

In the NYPL all-star game the Doubleday reps had a good showing:

Brian Bormaster was 2 for 2
Ryan Patterson was 1 for 3
Cory Patton went 1 for 2
Jermy Acey was 0 for 2

Gerry - Wednesday, August 24 2005 @ 12:05 PM EDT (#126445) #

I was at the Syracuse game last night, impressive power display by the good guys. Chad Mottola, in particular, hit the ball hard every time up, his two home runs were not cheap, they were tagged.

I know there is some talk in the game thread about using Quiroz to backup Zaun in September. Per Marty Pevey Quiroz is still not in full game shape and he is a little slow. Last night he threw out one runner stealing and bounced another throw into centre field. He had one good line drive hit, but in general he is not in top form at the plate.

Zach Jackson has been pushed fast to AAA. For a scouting report, he is similar to Gustavo Chacin, he is obviously a lefty, has a 88-89 fastball, and a 84-85 cutter that can move quite a lot into right handers. His change up is not as advanced as Chacin's, but that is to be expected given Jackson is only a year from the draft. Zach was making sure to not leave any balls in the middle of the plate last night and he did a good job of that until the sixth. The home plate umpire did not give Zach any calls on the outside corner to righties but Zach battled through that well. At one stage, in the fourth inning, Zach threw 10 straight balls, eight of which were fastballs just on the outside corner. I am not sure if he was trying to hit the corner, or if he was trying to get the umpire to actually call one.

I was surprised to see Zach had given up more hits than IP because through five innings he had not been hit hard, just four hits, a bloop, a swinging bunt, a ball that bounced in front of the plate and then over third, and one solid hit. Just like Chacin, the hitters were not getting good wood on the ball. All that ended in the sixth however as Zach left some pitches up and thay were hammered. Like Batista, the final hitter he faced was down in the count 0-2 before tripling to the gap in right field.

Overall I was impressed, Zach needs to refine his location, and work on his off speed pitches, but by mid 2006 he should be close.

The Quiroz beaning was on a 95 mph fastball, but Q looked to be OK and was probably removed as a caution.

Mike Green - Wednesday, August 24 2005 @ 12:13 PM EDT (#126446) #

Wes Stone is quietly having a nice little Rookie League entry into pro ball for an 11th round pick. He is getting on base enough for a middle infielder, and has at this stage a little pop. He doesn't turn 19 until next April. I wonder if he'll be ticketed for Auburn or Lansing next year.

Pistol - Wednesday, August 24 2005 @ 12:16 PM EDT (#126449) #

I went to the NH game last night. Purcey was pretty impressive. He got a lot of swinging strikes, got some popups, and broke a few bats (one of which stuck in the ground like a javelin). The two hits were solid singles, and there was one long fly ball to the track in center early on, but no one on Norwich hit a ball all that hard off Purcey all night.

Obviously the walks, and high pitch counts are the concern, and he had a lot of those last night. When he missed he almost always missed inside (to RHs) and usually low.

Unfortunately the stadium's radar gun wasn't accurate so I have no idea what his velocity was. The scouts weren't using guns last night either (but they all had stopwatches).

sweat - Wednesday, August 24 2005 @ 01:46 PM EDT (#126464) #

I'm glad that Quiroz was OK, 95mph heat is nothing to sneeze at, even with a helmet. Last week I was pitching and a ball got aways from me and hit an opposing player in the cheek. Thankfully no teeth were lost, although he did have a big gash on the inside of his mouth(must have spat out a cup of blood).
I top out at 75mph, so i can only imagine what a 95mph fastball could do.

Nick - Wednesday, August 24 2005 @ 11:05 PM EDT (#126518) #

Syracuse is tied at 10 with Buffalo in the 11th. Sounds like a wild one.

David Paul - Thursday, August 25 2005 @ 01:53 AM EDT (#126534) #

Minor pet peeve: how many professional baseball playing Gronkiewicz's are there? Why does MILB have to list Lee as "Gronkiewicz, L" so that when you glance at the boxscore it looks as though he took the loss. As it is, he just blew the save tonight.

Quiroz Beaned but Affiliates Sweep | 7 comments | Create New Account

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