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Minor League Update Mills Channels the Good Doctor
A strong day on the farm featured three wins and a dominating pitching performance in Las Vegas.


Tacoma 0    Las Vegas 4

Brad Mills has had a rough start to the season.  Some rough starts and some rough luck led to an 0-7 record for the guy who looked like he might crack the Jays roster out of Spring Training.  Well, things broke right for Mills today as he went seven scoreless frames allowing just four hits while striking out eleven.  Bryan Bullington finished things up with two shutout innings for his first save.

At the plate, Jason Lane doubled twice and Aaron Mathews drove in two with a single.  Neither J.P. Arencibia nor Travis Snider played.  Snider's still nursing a sore back.



Reading 2    New Hampshire 4

Man, strong pitching sure was a theme in the organization on Sunday.  Brandon Magee started for the Fisher Cats and pitched well in going six innings and allowing two runs on seven hits and two walks.  Danny Farquhar threw a scoreless, two-strikeout 8th while Bubbie Buzachero picked up his second save with a scoreless ninth.

The usual suspects were at work on the offensive side as Brian Dopirak and Adam Calderone each homered.  David Cooper went 2-for-4 with a double and a run scored while Brad Emaus was 1-for-3 with a walk.  Finally, Bryan Kervin was 2-for-3 with a double and a triple.



Dunedin was rained out



West Michigan 5    Lansing 4  (Game One)

Josh Wells had kind of a weird start for Lansing.  The just-turned-22 year-old gave up five runs (four earned) on eight hits and three walks in just 4.1 innings but also managed to strike out eight.  Frank Gailey picked him up with 2.2 perfect innings with four strikeouts.

Tyler Pastornicky had a nice day at the plate with his second straight two-hit effort including a double and two RBI.  Catcher A.J. Jimenez was the only other Lugnut with two hits and also picked up an RBI.



West Michigan 0    Lansing 2  (Game Two)

The Lugnuts got their revenge in the later-in-the-afternoon-cap with a 2-0 shutout despite only recording four hits.  Luckily, two of them went for homers as Johermyn Chavez and Jonathan Talley both went deep in the bottom of the fith. 

Starter Jonas Cuotto was strong but denied the victory as he only managed four innings of five hit, five strikeout ball.  Yorman Mayora picked up the win with two innings of two-hit ball while Matthew Daly recorded his tenth save with a one-hit ninth.



Three Stars:

3rd Star:  Tyler Pastornicky; 2-for-4, R, 2B, 2 RBI
2nd Star:  Bryan Kervin; 2-for-3, R, 2B, 3B
1st Star:  Brad Mills; 7 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 11 K
Posted by braden on Sunday, June 07 2009 @ 09:42 PM EDT.
Mills Channels the Good Doctor | 18 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
Mike Green - Sunday, June 07 2009 @ 10:51 PM EDT (#200950) #
It is safe to ignore W/L records, and hit rates, for Las Vegas pitchers. Mills has walked a few too many so far this season, but otherwise has pitched well.  He now has 18 high minors starts under his belt, and could very well be useful to the  big club by the All-Star break.
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ayjackson - Sunday, June 07 2009 @ 11:25 PM EDT (#200951) #

I hate to see Mills shortchanged - it looks like tonight was his 13th start of the year at AAA, which would make a total of 19 high minor starts.  (MILB's stat line hasn't updated yet, though his "last 10 games" line has updated.

Cecil has 31 high minor starts and should probably be up again once "super 2" issues have been resolved.

Zip might also be ready by the end of the year, but they might be watching his innings.

I imagine the rotation could have quite the lefty tilt to it by year's end if Litsch, Marcum and McGowan remain AWOL.  I'm not impressed by Janssen thus far, and the Scott Richmond experiment is wearing thin.  The next inning Tallet pitches will match his career high for innings pitched in a season.

I'd feel a little better about this team's ability to hang with the Bigs in the AL East if I had an idea who the hell would be toeing the rubber. 

Suppose the post AS Break rotation is Doc, Romero, Cecil, Mills, Purcey - could we nickname the lefties the Earps?  Wyatt, James, Morgan and Virgil?

Just some midnight ramblings.  As you were.

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greenfrog - Sunday, June 07 2009 @ 11:27 PM EDT (#200952) #
What happened to the Jays' positional prospects? Cooper, Arencibia, Ahrens, Campbell, Jackson, Tolisano...most of them are doing poorly, although a couple have picked it up a bit after a miserable start. Dopirak (and, to a lesser extent) Chavez have hit well, and I'm sure I'm missing a few prospects, but things haven't exactly unfolded according to plan in '09.
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Richard S.S. - Monday, June 08 2009 @ 04:36 AM EDT (#200956) #
Brad Mills is a very good pitcher who's ready for the Bigs.  Of that, there's no doubt, just when, is what matters.  Pitching in the Hitter's Heaven division of AAA and suffering through less than adequate defense should account for some of his numbers.  My question is: How does Fabio Castro produce such superior  numbers in comparison: http://www.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?t=t_ibp&did=milb&cid=400 ?
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Pistol - Monday, June 08 2009 @ 09:35 AM EDT (#200957) #
So much for slot.

It'll be interesting to see if this influences who the Jays take tomorrow.  It sounds like there'll be players who they certainly would have passed on before that they might take now - maybe James Paxton?

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Mike Green - Monday, June 08 2009 @ 09:46 AM EDT (#200958) #
Is that all it took to reject slot?  Refusing currency adjustment payments when the loonie is edging up towards par? I guess that it's better late than never.
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FisherCat - Monday, June 08 2009 @ 09:54 AM EDT (#200960) #

I was in attendance for yesterday afternoon's tilt in NH for the F-Cats game.  After a 4 pitch walk by Magee to start the game I figured it was going to be a looooong game, but he actually pitched rather decently.  A couple of the early hits were seeing eye singles that I think Scutaro or J-Mac get to, but Luis Sanchez seemed too slow-of-foot to track down.  I normally add 3 or 4 mph to the radar readings at the Merch so I'd say Magee hit 93 a couple of times but was more in the 89-91 range consistantly.

Farquhar however, he was straight out sizzling.  He has the liveliest arm I've seen in NH since Brandon League.  He hit 95 consistently and hit 98mph 2 or 3 times.  He even hit 95 from his submarine delivery!  All this is without my 3 or 4 MPH add-on mind you!

Hopefully Mr. Emaus comes around as the hit he got was a gift dribbler that the 3rd basemen let roll only to see it hit the 3B bag fair.

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Mike Green - Monday, June 08 2009 @ 11:39 AM EDT (#200963) #
Thanks, FC.
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jerjapan - Monday, June 08 2009 @ 12:03 PM EDT (#200964) #

Farquhar however, he was straight out sizzling.  He has the liveliest arm I've seen in NH since Brandon League.  He hit 95 consistently and hit 98mph 2 or 3 times.  He even hit 95 from his submarine delivery!  All this is without my 3 or 4 MPH add-on mind you!

Wow.  Farquhar's numbers have been great so far, it's excellent to hear similarly positive info from the ballpark.  He strikes me as the kind of relief prospect who could tear through the minors and have an impact on the bigs by the end of this year ...

I'd love to see Dopirak getting DH at-bats at the big league level sometime this year as well. 

 

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FisherCat - Monday, June 08 2009 @ 02:32 PM EDT (#200967) #
Also Dopirak's HR was a quality shot as it was just to the right of the batter's eye in virtually straight away CF.  Although it's merely 400ft to CF, the wall is at least 10ft tall and in the 3 dozen or so games that I've attended since 2006, there has been less than a handful of balls hit for homers out there.  That total also includes the batting practice and All-Star HR derbys I've seen.  That said, I still think Dopirak's swing is rather long and the higher quality pitching and advance scouting he encounters are sure to exploit it.
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metafour - Monday, June 08 2009 @ 03:57 PM EDT (#200968) #
It sounds like there'll be players who they certainly would have passed on before that they might take now - maybe James Paxton?

Paxton is going to be lucky to get slot @ #20 the way he has pitched this year.  Nothing against the kid, but if he wants over slot @ #20 I wouldn't touch him period.  You're talking about a kid who put up a near 6 ERA this year and was hit hard all year, including a bevy of HRs allowed.  To me he's not even worthy of the #20 pick anymore.
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Mike Green - Monday, June 08 2009 @ 04:27 PM EDT (#200969) #
FWIW, BA's latest mock draft has Chad Jenkins at #20.
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metafour - Monday, June 08 2009 @ 04:43 PM EDT (#200970) #
Thats not really a mock draft, its more or less an activity of who THEY'D pick if they were drafting for each team...which obviously isn't the same as who they think each team will ultimately take.

I've kind of stopped looking at the mock drafts as theres so many names being thrown around its pointless to keep track.  A lot of the mocks I see just like to more or less plug in a college player for us, some of which dont even make much sense to me(ie: Mayo continually claiming we're in on collegiate catcher Tony Sanchez).  The most legit mock should be Callis' final mock tomorrow (which I assume he's doing again), but even that may not be very accurate.

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Mike Green - Monday, June 08 2009 @ 05:05 PM EDT (#200971) #
It would be cool if both Purke (due to money issues) and Jenkins were available at #20.  Purke, Purcey, Purkey...can't pitchers be named something distinctive like Obama, Ignatieff or Merkel, so I can keep them straight?

Purke does have a repertoire that I (and most others) like.  Do you feel like playing the arm health lottery?

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Ducey - Monday, June 08 2009 @ 05:27 PM EDT (#200972) #

Are we ever not playing the arm health lottery?

Speaking of which, one time super prospect Brian Bullington seems to be doing all right.  A 3.86 ERA, 35 hits, 34K in 30 IP with 4 walks.  Just one Ernie in his last 10 or so innings pitched.

I'm guessing he doesn't throw the same as he was prior to labrum surgery, but maybe he stil makes it in the bullpen?

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Mike Green - Monday, June 08 2009 @ 08:26 PM EDT (#200973) #
Purke's build (tall and thin) might not be the best, and in this case, the arm health lottery ticket apparently costs $7 million rather than 1/2 that or less.
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Pistol - Monday, June 08 2009 @ 10:39 PM EDT (#200974) #
For what it's worth, at 20 I would be in favor of the following college (or higher) players, and probably in this order:
  • Crow
  • Leake
  • Gibson
  • Jenkins
  • Paxton
  • Tim Wheeler
Chances are the Jays will have at least 2 of those 6 available.  It'll be interesting to see if they would consider Crow or Gibson or Paxton at their pick as they'd probably have to go over slot for any of those three.

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ayjackson - Monday, June 08 2009 @ 11:57 PM EDT (#200976) #
Pistol, do you think Crow has a chance to be there?  I think Scheppers maybe, but not Crow.
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