Batter's Box Interactive Magazine - Affiliates Have Hitting, Some Need Pitching

Affiliates Have Hitting, Some Need Pitching

All of the affiliates had the lumber going on Thursday. The only team not to record double digits in hits were the Lugnuts who had nine, three of them and two triples for Kevin Ahrens. Justin Jackson was back to help the offense get going. New Hampshire had fourteen hits with most of the hitters contributing. Syracuse and Dunedin had twelve and ten hits respectively but both lost due to poor pitching.

Pawtucket 9 Syracuse 3

Syracuse scored first, in the first, when Joe Inglett led off with a walk, Wayne Lydon hit a ground rule double and Russ Adams singled in a run. Kane Davis got through the first three innings without difficulty but surrendered a two run home run in the fourth. The Chiefs tied the game in the fourth with the same cast, Inglett singled, Lydon bunted him over, Coats singled and an Adams ground out scored the run. Pawtucket got to Davis for two more runs in the sixth and another in the seventh and the score was 5-2. Jordan DeJong and Mike MacDonald each allowed two runs to make it 9-3 final. The Chiefs had scored a consolation run in the eighth when Curtis Thigpen singled and Pedro Lopez doubled him home.

The Chiefs had twelve hits, Lopez had three and Luna and Coats had two hits each.

Reading 4 New Hampshire 14

The Fisher Cats scored early and often, scoring in six of their eight innings. New Hampshire's first run came thanks to three singles by Anthony Hatch, Josh Kreuzer and Eric Kratz. Travis Snider hit a two run home run in the third to make it 3-0. Kreuzer and Kratz started things off in the fourth, Kreuzer singled and Kratz doubled him home. Chris Gutierrez, Scott Campbell and Ryan Patterson each doubled in a run and it was 7-0. Another double from Hatch in the sixth drove in a run and Aaron Mathews hit a three run home run in the seventh. Patterson added a solo home run in the eighth. Campbell and Mathews drove in runs also in the eighth.

AJ Wideman usually allows plenty of baserunners but in this game he was less generous. In 5.1 innings he gave up six hits and only one walk. He did give up two runs. Kyle Yates and Seth Overbey mopped up.

The Fisher Cats had fourteen hits, six players had two. Travis Snider was 1-5 with a walk and four K's.

New Hampshire had a tough start to the season and in particular the hitters were slow to get off the mark other than Campbell, Mathews and Patterson. Recently Hatch, Kreuzer and Gutierrez have been hitting and that has led to better results for the team.

Lakeland 7 Dunedin 2

Robert Ray started and gave up four runs in three innings and the Jays couldn't catch up. The Jays got two in the fourth with back to back triples from Sean Shoffit and Luis Sanchez. Dunedin had baserunners in every inning but other than the fourth they couldn't get anyone across the plate.

The Jays had ten hits, David Smith and Brian Dopirak had two each.

Wisconsin 2 Lansing 6

Justin Jackson returned from injury and immediately had an impact by singling in his first at-bat. Kevin Ahrens followed with another single and Darin Mastroianni hit a three run home run. Kyle Ginley had been dominant this season but he gave up a two run home run in the second. The Lugnuts got those two back in the bottom of the second, Moises Sierra singled, Ahrens tripled him in and Mastroianni singled in Ahrens and it was 5-2. Ahrens tripled again in the seventh and scored on a sac fly.

Ginley pitched six innings and gave up two runs on seven hits. Ginley recorded six K's and his ERA "jumped" to 1.24. Tim Collins made his 2008 debut in relief. Lugnut Fan mentioned Collins pitching in an exhibition game last week. Collins had a nervous first inning, putting two men on, but struck out the side in the eighth.

Lansing had nine hits, Ahrens was 3-4 with 2 triples, and three runs scored. Mastroianni was 2-4 with 4 RBI's.

3 star selection

3rd star - Josh Kreuzer
2nd star - Darin Mastroianni
1st star - Kevin Ahrens

Posted by Gerry on Thursday, May 01 2008 @ 10:55 PM EDT.

Affiliates Have Hitting, Some Need Pitching | 14 comments | Create New Account

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

Ryeguy - Thursday, May 01 2008 @ 11:12 PM EDT (#184183) #

Anyone else worrying that Snider with all these strikeouts might turn out to be another Adam Dunn? Assuming he can make it to the majors of course..

braden - Thursday, May 01 2008 @ 11:44 PM EDT (#184185) #

I think most people here would be thrilled if Snider became the "next Adam Dunn". Four straight 40 HR seasons, an OPS+ of 130.....I'll take it.

It should be noted that though Snider did K in four ABs tonight, his one hit was his first AA HR.

braden - Thursday, May 01 2008 @ 11:46 PM EDT (#184187) #

Whoops, sorry, Gerry. Now I see that you did mention he went deep.

ChicagoJaysFan - Thursday, May 01 2008 @ 11:59 PM EDT (#184189) #

I think most people here would be thrilled if Snider became the "next Adam Dunn". Four straight 40 HR seasons, an OPS+ of 130.....I'll take it.

I concur on the value of Dunn and will go one step further ... I don't know if he's been included in any of the stories on likely HOFers, but with ~240 HR before turning 28, Dunn is probably a good bet for making the hall, as long as 500 dingers remains an automatic entry.

Yes - I know he's 28 and no 28 year-old is a good bet for the HOF, but he's almost as solid as a 28-year old can be.

I know the K is generally less productive than putting the ball in play, but the negative value associated with it gets over-emphasized (i.e. being the most consistent batter to strike out in the league is more than compensated by being the most consistent HR threat in baseball over a 4-year span).

ayjackson - Friday, May 02 2008 @ 12:27 AM EDT (#184192) #

Kevin Ahrens is riding a nice hot streak that has seen him hit .351 over the past 10 games. His OPS is up to .850 on the season. If Jackson and Ahrens can maintain these numbers, they'll be banging down the doors to the top 100 lists next winter.

ayjackson - Friday, May 02 2008 @ 12:38 AM EDT (#184193) #

Measured by OPS, Justin Jackson is the top teenage hitter in the Midwest League. Kevin Ahrens is third, a couple of ticks behind Andrew Lambo. Lambo turns 20 in August though, whereas Ahrens just turned 19 last week.

Anders - Friday, May 02 2008 @ 01:50 AM EDT (#184195) #

I think its waaaaay too early to start panicking about Travis Snider, I mean really. He's been injured, and he's a teenager and its been 8 games or what have you.

rtcaino - Friday, May 02 2008 @ 03:19 AM EDT (#184197) #

I wouldn't say I am worried about his AA performance. It is said that AA is the biggest test, and I imagine it would be especially hard without having achieved sustained success at high A.

If anything, I found it curious that he would get called up so soon. He spent the whole of last year in the Mid West league, and only had 66 PA's at Dunedin. And in Dunedin, while he performed well, he was far from dominant:

.279/.333/.557/.891
BB/K 5/22

My personal sense of the situation was that he would have benefited from some more time in that league to make adjustments and achieve a higher level of performance. Rather than make those same adjustments in AA, which as mentioned, is considered to be a difficult leap as is.

Of course, I am no expert, and would be very interested to hear some other opinions on the timing of his call up.

Gerry - Friday, May 02 2008 @ 09:09 AM EDT (#184202) #

Kevin Gray of the Union Leader catches up with Travis Snider in this story which includes a video interview.

In the story Snider says "I'd say it's been a tough transition, but I don't think it's necessarily the league. It's been more of a personal thing, just the slump I've been in, I'm just trying to grind every day, get in those cages and work on things." Snider added "I started tailoring my swing to protect my elbow. When I got up here, I developed a real bad uppercut. I'm fouling balls off because I'm still trying to develop that swing path through the zone."

It confirms what I have been saying for several weeks now, Snider's struggles are related to bad habits in his swing, not to the level or the pitchers in AA.

MatO - Friday, May 02 2008 @ 09:17 AM EDT (#184203) #

Snider had a lot of success in the AFL against simlar competition to that in AA. What disturbs me is that his elbow seems to be bothering his swing. If so, he needs to be shut down.

timpinder - Friday, May 02 2008 @ 10:50 AM EDT (#184208) #

Has anyone heard about what the Jays plan to do with Snider? Is he the DH of the future, destined to do nothing but swing like Butler in KC, or is it just the injury that's keeping him off the field?

I'm very excited about the kids in Lansing. 2011-2013 looked like it might be a tough time, and the farm wasn't looking great. Now the Jays have CF, RF, and 2B locked up for several years, LF and DH/1B look promising (Lind and Snider), and Ahrens and Jackson have looked very good at 3B and SS in Lansing. The Jays are deep at C (Collins, Diaz, Thigpen, Arencibia, Joroloman), their pitching looks good long-term, and Burnett is going to bring in some more prospects, whether it's by trade or free-agent compensation.

MatO - Friday, May 02 2008 @ 11:01 AM EDT (#184209) #

I think the plan was for Snider to play the OF but the injury has sidelined that. The long term plan would probalbly be LF where he would be no more than adequate but with an above-average arm for a left fielder.

Mike Green - Friday, May 02 2008 @ 09:05 PM EDT (#184254) #

Davis Romero continued his comeback with 4 innings of shutout ball, with 6 strikeouts, in Syracuse tonight.

China fan - Friday, May 02 2008 @ 10:50 PM EDT (#184258) #

Davis Romero's strong comeback is extremely encouraging. It's intriguing to see that he's been slotted into the role of a starter at Syracuse, even with a limited pitch count. Does he have potential to be a starter in the majors, or do the Jays see him exclusively as a reliever if he makes it to the big team?

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