It was a high-scoring night on the farm (mostly for the opponents), as 61 runs were scored between the four games.
Las Vegas 7 at Reno 8
When I first saw this box-score, I saw "Beam (S, 3)" and thought the 51s had won. But T.J. Beam (if that's even the right Beam) is no longer a Jays farm-hand, and the 51s actually lost this one, despite making it close. Zach Jackson allowed 3 runs in 3 innings for Vegas, and Sean Henn followed with some terrible relief work, allowing 4 runs in 2 2/3. The 51s tied it in the 8th inning, but David Purcey allowed a solo homer to Christopher Rahl in the bottom half, and that was it.
Chris "The Eagle" Aguila singled, tripled, and drove in 2, Brett Wallace singled, doubled and K'ed twice in five trips, The BIg Lubanski hit a 2-run bomb, and J.P. Arencibia doubled and struck out twice.
New Britain 9 at New Hampshire 10
The Fisher Cats jumped out to a 2-0 lead before they recorded an out, as Darin Mastroianni singled and Callix Crabbe followed with his 3rd homer of the season. But after a quick first two innings, the wheels came off for Bobby Bell, as he allowed three home runs in the 3rd inning to give New Britain a 5-2 lead. New Britain would pad its run total with single runs in the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th, but New Hampshire was mounting a furious charge in the meantime - they started slowly with a run in the 5th, added 2 more in the 6th, and things reached a breaking point in the 7th as the Cats exploded for 5 runs. The damage was done mostly by consecutive 2-RBI hits - a single by Brian Jeroloman, and a triple by Mastroianni.
Mastroianni was 3-4 with a walk and 4 RBI, Eric Thames had a single and SF in 5 trips, Brad Emaus went 0-4 with a walk and 3 Ks, David Cooper went 2-5 with a K, and Jeroloman had 2 singles and 2 Ks. Dan Farquhar walked 1 and K'ed 3 in the 9th for his 7th save. Bell ended with a line of 8 hits and 1 walk in 4 innings, 6 runs (3 earned) allowed, and 4 Ks.
Tampa 12 at Dunedin 2
Tampa scored two runs early off Henderson Alvarez, and that was more than enough for Daniel Kapala, whoever that is. The Baby Yankees kept adding on to their lead to turn this one into a laugher, and Alvarez had the worst start of his season, allowing 9 hits and a walk in just 3 1/3 innings. He allowed 8 runs, though only 4 were earned, and struck out none. On the positive side, he kept getting ground balls, with 7 GB outs to only 3 fly outs. Chad "Casey" Beck was pretty good in relief, going 3 innings while allowing just 1 run and striking out 4. Of note offensively, Dan Perales had a single and a double, and Sean Shoffitt had 3 singles. Tyler Pastornicky was 0-4 and committed his 5th error of the season.
Fort Wayne 9 at Lansing 4
The offense overcame a shaky start by Dennis Tepera (6 innings, 7 runs on 11 base-runners) to keep the Nuts close through 5, but Tepera allowed 2 more in his last inning of work, and the hitters just couldn't muster enough. Fort Wayne tacked on 2 more runs off Scott Gracey in the 7th to put this one out of reach. Casey "Chad" Beck was good in relief with 2 perfect innings, but it was too little, too late.
Ryan Goins had the best day at the plate with a single, double and walk. Sean Och"oc"inko doubled and walked, A.J. Jimenez singled and SFed, Eric Eiland singled, and Ryan Schimpf and Chris Hopkins each stole a couple of bags.
Three Stars!
3. Ryan Goins - 3 times on base
2. The Becks (Casey and Chad) - solid relief
1. Darin Mastroianni - 3-4, BB, 4 RBIs
News Round-up
And finally, last week we checked in with Lansing's stats-to-date, so let's do the same with Dunedin this week.
The Hitters
Raul Barron has been great, though he's a 24-year-old at A-ball. Still, if he keeps hitting like this, give him a promotion, let's see what can do at higher levels. We all know Travis d'Arnaud has had an excellent Blue Jays debut, his current DL stint notwithstanding. There are no major flaws in Travis' offensive stats; if you want to nitpick you could say his walk rate is low, but then again his strike-out rate is also very low, so it could just be that he's making too much contact against this level of pitching to really work on that part of his game. Tyler Pastornicky has been very good, especially considering his age, and he's even shown a bit of power, leading the team with 7 doubles. John Tolisano, Mike McDade and Welinton Ramirez have all struggled, while Kevin Ahrens and Justin Jackson haven't had enough plate appearances to draw any meaningful conclusions (not that the other guys have either, really).
The Pitchers
Henderson Alvarez had a terrible start tonight, and that raised his ERA to.... 1.63. He has been fantastic aside from tonight, though his strike-out rate is low. He is a ground-ball pitcher, of course, but you still want to see good K rates out of those guys, especially at the lower levels. But Alvarez is young, so we're just nit-picking here. Chuck Huggins has also been excellent, with a 1.03 WHIP and 24:4 K:BB in 22 innings. Joel Carreno has a great 34:5 K:BB ratio in 25 innings, though he's also given up 36 hits. Andrew Liebel doesn't have great peripherals despite his 4.07 ERA, and Ryan Page has been downright awful. Nobody in the bullpen is worth mentioning; guys have to really dominate this level out of the pen to be considered prospects.
Las Vegas 7 at Reno 8
When I first saw this box-score, I saw "Beam (S, 3)" and thought the 51s had won. But T.J. Beam (if that's even the right Beam) is no longer a Jays farm-hand, and the 51s actually lost this one, despite making it close. Zach Jackson allowed 3 runs in 3 innings for Vegas, and Sean Henn followed with some terrible relief work, allowing 4 runs in 2 2/3. The 51s tied it in the 8th inning, but David Purcey allowed a solo homer to Christopher Rahl in the bottom half, and that was it.
Chris "The Eagle" Aguila singled, tripled, and drove in 2, Brett Wallace singled, doubled and K'ed twice in five trips, The BIg Lubanski hit a 2-run bomb, and J.P. Arencibia doubled and struck out twice.
New Britain 9 at New Hampshire 10
The Fisher Cats jumped out to a 2-0 lead before they recorded an out, as Darin Mastroianni singled and Callix Crabbe followed with his 3rd homer of the season. But after a quick first two innings, the wheels came off for Bobby Bell, as he allowed three home runs in the 3rd inning to give New Britain a 5-2 lead. New Britain would pad its run total with single runs in the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th, but New Hampshire was mounting a furious charge in the meantime - they started slowly with a run in the 5th, added 2 more in the 6th, and things reached a breaking point in the 7th as the Cats exploded for 5 runs. The damage was done mostly by consecutive 2-RBI hits - a single by Brian Jeroloman, and a triple by Mastroianni.
Mastroianni was 3-4 with a walk and 4 RBI, Eric Thames had a single and SF in 5 trips, Brad Emaus went 0-4 with a walk and 3 Ks, David Cooper went 2-5 with a K, and Jeroloman had 2 singles and 2 Ks. Dan Farquhar walked 1 and K'ed 3 in the 9th for his 7th save. Bell ended with a line of 8 hits and 1 walk in 4 innings, 6 runs (3 earned) allowed, and 4 Ks.
Tampa 12 at Dunedin 2
Tampa scored two runs early off Henderson Alvarez, and that was more than enough for Daniel Kapala, whoever that is. The Baby Yankees kept adding on to their lead to turn this one into a laugher, and Alvarez had the worst start of his season, allowing 9 hits and a walk in just 3 1/3 innings. He allowed 8 runs, though only 4 were earned, and struck out none. On the positive side, he kept getting ground balls, with 7 GB outs to only 3 fly outs. Chad "Casey" Beck was pretty good in relief, going 3 innings while allowing just 1 run and striking out 4. Of note offensively, Dan Perales had a single and a double, and Sean Shoffitt had 3 singles. Tyler Pastornicky was 0-4 and committed his 5th error of the season.
Fort Wayne 9 at Lansing 4
The offense overcame a shaky start by Dennis Tepera (6 innings, 7 runs on 11 base-runners) to keep the Nuts close through 5, but Tepera allowed 2 more in his last inning of work, and the hitters just couldn't muster enough. Fort Wayne tacked on 2 more runs off Scott Gracey in the 7th to put this one out of reach. Casey "Chad" Beck was good in relief with 2 perfect innings, but it was too little, too late.
Ryan Goins had the best day at the plate with a single, double and walk. Sean Och"oc"inko doubled and walked, A.J. Jimenez singled and SFed, Eric Eiland singled, and Ryan Schimpf and Chris Hopkins each stole a couple of bags.
Three Stars!
3. Ryan Goins - 3 times on base
2. The Becks (Casey and Chad) - solid relief
1. Darin Mastroianni - 3-4, BB, 4 RBIs
News Round-up
- The Fisher Cats have promotions the next three nights: tomorrow is the Magnet Schedule Giveaway! Wednesday is Reading Night! And Thursday is U.S. Cellular Most Improved Student Night! (With fireworks!) Check 'em out if you're in the area.
- MILB.com announced their Pitchers and Hitters of the Week. No Jays, but some familiar names on the list: Chris Tillman, who threw a no-hitter last week, Mike Stanton, who had an absolutely unbelievable week by homering 6 times and reaching base 13 OTHER times, nine via the walk, and Mike Hessman, the minors' active home run leader, who added four more to bring his career total up to 319.
- Aroldis Chapman had a rough night
And finally, last week we checked in with Lansing's stats-to-date, so let's do the same with Dunedin this week.
The Hitters
Raul Barron has been great, though he's a 24-year-old at A-ball. Still, if he keeps hitting like this, give him a promotion, let's see what can do at higher levels. We all know Travis d'Arnaud has had an excellent Blue Jays debut, his current DL stint notwithstanding. There are no major flaws in Travis' offensive stats; if you want to nitpick you could say his walk rate is low, but then again his strike-out rate is also very low, so it could just be that he's making too much contact against this level of pitching to really work on that part of his game. Tyler Pastornicky has been very good, especially considering his age, and he's even shown a bit of power, leading the team with 7 doubles. John Tolisano, Mike McDade and Welinton Ramirez have all struggled, while Kevin Ahrens and Justin Jackson haven't had enough plate appearances to draw any meaningful conclusions (not that the other guys have either, really).
| Individual Stats (Batting) (click column headers to sort) | |||||||||||||||||||
| Player | POS | G | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | TB | BB | SO | SB | CS | OBP | SLG | AVG | OPS | E |
| Shawn Bowman | 3B | 3 | 11 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | .455 | .727 | .455 | 1.182 | 1 |
| Raul Barron | 2B | 19 | 65 | 9 | 22 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 33 | 9 | 6 | 8 | 1 | .427 | .508 | .338 | .934 | 4 |
| Jon Del Campo | 2B | 5 | 13 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .385 | .538 | .385 | .923 | 2 |
| Travis d'Arnaud | C | 16 | 64 | 10 | 21 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 13 | 35 | 4 | 7 | 1 | 0 | .362 | .547 | .328 | .909 | 0 |
| Yan Gomes | C | 15 | 50 | 7 | 16 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 23 | 4 | 8 | 0 | 0 | .382 | .460 | .320 | .842 | 2 |
| Dan Perales | OF | 20 | 78 | 7 | 23 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 14 | 42 | 1 | 12 | 2 | 0 | .300 | .538 | .295 | .838 | 1 |
| Justin Jackson | SS | 5 | 13 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | .400 | .385 | .308 | .785 | 1 |
| TylerPastornicky | SS | 22 | 88 | 16 | 24 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 11 | 34 | 14 | 16 | 7 | 2 | .369 | .386 | .273 | .755 | 5 |
| Al Quintana | 3B | 3 | 12 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | .333 | .417 | .333 | .750 | 1 |
| Sean Shoffit | CF | 12 | 43 | 6 | 10 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 16 | 5 | 16 | 3 | 0 | .313 | .372 | .233 | .685 | 0 |
| Brad McElroy | CF | 9 | 32 | 4 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 0 | .342 | .281 | .219 | .623 | 0 |
| Jon Talley | C | 6 | 21 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | .238 | .381 | .238 | .619 | 0 |
| John Tolisano | 2B | 11 | 40 | 7 | 10 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 12 | 5 | 13 | 0 | 1 | .319 | .300 | .250 | .619 | 4 |
| Michael McDade | 1B | 20 | 75 | 6 | 16 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 25 | 6 | 27 | 0 | 0 | .268 | .333 | .213 | .602 | 2 |
| Welinton Ramirez | OF | 21 | 65 | 11 | 13 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 20 | 7 | 28 | 2 | 1 | .293 | .308 | .200 | .601 | 0 |
| Brian Van Kirk | OF | 23 | 91 | 8 | 20 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 13 | 26 | 3 | 26 | 1 | 0 | .240 | .286 | .220 | .525 | 0 |
| Justin McClanahan | 2B | 13 | 46 | 4 | 9 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 11 | 2 | 14 | 1 | 0 | .224 | .239 | .196 | .464 | 2 |
| Kevin Ahrens | 3B | 5 | 18 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | .190 | .111 | .111 | .302 | 0 |
The Pitchers
Henderson Alvarez had a terrible start tonight, and that raised his ERA to.... 1.63. He has been fantastic aside from tonight, though his strike-out rate is low. He is a ground-ball pitcher, of course, but you still want to see good K rates out of those guys, especially at the lower levels. But Alvarez is young, so we're just nit-picking here. Chuck Huggins has also been excellent, with a 1.03 WHIP and 24:4 K:BB in 22 innings. Joel Carreno has a great 34:5 K:BB ratio in 25 innings, though he's also given up 36 hits. Andrew Liebel doesn't have great peripherals despite his 4.07 ERA, and Ryan Page has been downright awful. Nobody in the bullpen is worth mentioning; guys have to really dominate this level out of the pen to be considered prospects.
| Player | W | L | ERA | G | GS | CG | SHO | SV | IP | H | R | ER | HR | HB | BB | SO | WHIP | HLD | GF |
| Henderson Alvarez | 3 | 1 | 1.63 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 27.2 | 27 | 11 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 14 | 1.16 | 0 | 0 |
| Joel Carreno | 1 | 2 | 4.56 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 25.2 | 36 | 15 | 13 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 34 | 1.60 | 0 | 0 |
| Andrew Liebel | 1 | 3 | 4.07 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 24.1 | 26 | 14 | 11 | 0 | 1 | 11 | 14 | 1.52 | 0 | 0 |
| Ryan Page | 1 | 2 | 7.33 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 23.1 | 32 | 20 | 19 | 1 | 0 | 10 | 8 | 1.80 | 0 | 0 |
| Charles Huggins | 2 | 0 | 1.61 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 22.1 | 19 | 7 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 24 | 1.03 | 0 | 0 |
| Chad Beck | 0 | 1 | 6.75 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14.2 | 25 | 12 | 11 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 11 | 2.05 | 0 | 1 |
| Frank Gailey | 1 | 0 | 1.26 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14.1 | 14 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 13 | 1.12 | 1 | 3 |
| Boomer Potts | 2 | 0 | 0.73 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 12.1 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 10 | 1.05 | 1 | 3 |
| Daniel DeLucia | 2 | 1 | 5.56 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11.1 | 18 | 9 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 11 | 2.12 | 0 | 2 |
| Matthew Daly | 0 | 0 | 3.27 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 11.0 | 11 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 1.00 | 0 | 10 |
| Alan Farina | 0 | 0 | 3.72 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9.2 | 9 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 10 | 1.66 | 3 | 4 |
| B.J. LaMura | 0 | 0 | 2.89 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9.1 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 11 | 1.50 | 3 | 1 |
| Dumas Garcia | 1 | 0 | 1.29 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7.0 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 1.00 | 0 | 0 |
