Batter's Box Interactive Magazine - Hot Weather Means Hot Bats

All of the affiliates hit well on Friday. It looked like it was going to be a four win night until the Lansing bullpen blew up good. Josh Thole and Andy LaRoche helped the Bisons to an extra inning win. Ryan Schimpf led New Hampshire to a come from behind win. Dunedin had lots of hitting including Derrick Chung. Dwight Smith had three hits for the Lugnuts.

Louisville 3 Buffalo 4 - 11 innings

The Bisons knock out 15 hits but it took an Andy LaRoche double in the eleventh to get the win. Josh Thole singled in front of the LaRoche double, Thole was 3-4 on the night with two walks and a home run. LaRoche and Luis Jimenez had three hits each. Anthony Gose, Jim Negrych and Moises Sierra had one hit each.

The starter was Edgar Gonzalez who went five innings. Four relievers backed him up. Louisville's top prospect was speedster Billy Hamilton was 0-5 and now has batting average under .200.

Reading 5 New Hampshire 8

New Hampshire trailed 4-0 and 5-2 before staging a big comeback. Brad Glenn hit a two run home run in the fourth. Ryan Schimpf had an RBI triple as part of a two run sixth. The big blow was four runs in the seventh, Schimpf got it going with an RBI double but four consecutive walks put an end to the fightin' Phils.

Ricardo Nanita, Schimpf and Adam Loewen had two hits each. Tyson Brummett started but only went three innings, Chorye Spoone went four strong innings for the win.

Brevard County 4 Dunedin 11

Sixteen hits for the Jays. Derrick Chung was 3-5, Peter Mooney, AJ Jimenez, KC Hobson, Matt Newman and Nick Baligod had two hits each. Marcus Knecht had a home run.

Scott Copeland pitched six innings for the win.

Wisconsin 10 Lansing 8 - 10 innings

Lansing were victimized by a bullpen meltdown. They led 8-2 in the eighth but Wisconsin scored one in the eighth, five in the ninth and two in the tenth. Tucker Donahue and Chuck Ghysels were the fire starters. They ruined a good start from Javier Avendano who gave up two runs in five innings.

Dwight Smith Jr. continued his hot hitting going 3-5. Carlos Ramirez and Gustavo Pierre had two hits each.

Three Stars

#3 - Derrick Chung

#2 - Ryan Schimpf

#1 - Josh Thole

Boxes

Posted by Gerry on Saturday, May 04 2013 @ 09:21 AM EDT.

Hot Weather Means Hot Bats | 12 comments | Create New Account

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

JB21 - Saturday, May 04 2013 @ 09:27 AM EDT (#271474) #

Okay, I'm on board. Free Josh Thole.

John Northey - Saturday, May 04 2013 @ 10:09 AM EDT (#271476) #

Thole is up to 379/446/591. Over his last 9 games he is hitting an even 400. Btw, B-R now has game logs for the minors back to 2008. Gotta love it.

LouisvilleJayFan - Saturday, May 04 2013 @ 10:42 AM EDT (#271478) #

C'mon guys we have to remember Thole is putting up those numbers in Las Vegas, oh wait...

I get a chance to see Buffalo a couple of times next weekend when they visit Louisville. I'm kind of selfishly hoping Thole will still be around.

#2JBrumfield - Saturday, May 04 2013 @ 06:33 PM EDT (#271502) #

Thole needed to go 5-for-4 with six grand slams in order to get a call-up. Who did he piss off in the organization? Oh well, at least Blanco crushed that double today. That can only mean good things in the future. Anyways, MLive.com has a feature on Roberto Osuna.

John Northey - Saturday, May 04 2013 @ 07:46 PM EDT (#271503) #

Seems like the Jays really want to keep Thole as an emergency backup but Blanco is just such a, well, blank when it comes to offense and unlikely to ever do much and JPA has to be getting exhausted with the workload (last 10 before today was 206/206/353) that something needs to be done. Thole would need to be in the minors for 140+ days to add a year before free agency, so that can't be a reason (if he was at 40-50 days I could see it). He clearly is too good for AAA, and showed enough in the majors in the past (85 OPS+ but 90+ his first 3 years before a horrid year last year). Having him in AAA to start made some sense - he had a horrid 2012 (64 OPS+) and the Jays had to see if he could hit any better than Blanco. I suspect that question has been answered. He bats left so a semi-platoon can be done easily with JPA DHing sometimes perhaps (when EE needs a day off, put Lind at 1B).

stevieboy22 - Saturday, May 04 2013 @ 09:02 PM EDT (#271505) #

I think were getting close to to the point where we can wonder if Gibbons is on the hot seat. The team has 8 games left until the next off day... I would guess if they go 1 and 7 there is some pretty big restructuring...

I would also guess that if does get to the point where AA pulls the trigger, the first phone call he makes is to Manny Acta...

Richard S.S. - Sunday, May 05 2013 @ 11:14 AM EDT (#271522) #

A.A. will lose his job before Gibbons loses his. If you fire the manager it does nothing, offense still sucks, pitching issues will still exist. The same applies to the Coaches, they can advise, but changes must be made by the players.

The only changes A.A. can make this early in the season: replace Blanco with Thole, which could be an issue with Dickey; replace Izturis or DeRosa with Negrych and add Sierra.

hypobole - Sunday, May 05 2013 @ 01:04 PM EDT (#271528) #

Richard, what is it you think hitting and pitching coaches do?

China fan - Sunday, May 05 2013 @ 02:04 PM EDT (#271537) #

"....Thole needed to go 5-for-4 with six grand slams in order to get a call-up. Who did he piss off in the organization?...."

Given that the Jays handed him a $2.5-million contract, it's safe to assume that they don't intend to leave him in the minors for the whole season, or even half the season. I'd expect him to be promoted fairly soon. Whether it's this week or next week or the week after, it's not going to make a huge difference. He's going to play 1 or 2 games per week, which suggests perhaps 1 or 2 extra hits per week for the Jays if all goes well.

Cynicalguy - Sunday, May 05 2013 @ 04:54 PM EDT (#271545) #

Interesting bit from that Osuna interview:

"Q. What has been your most memorable baseball moment?
A. The first time I ever pitched as a professional in Mexico. It felt really great, amazing. I felt just like a little kid."

He WAS a little kid when he played in that league :p

John Northey - Sunday, May 05 2013 @ 07:09 PM EDT (#271549) #

Heh. It is all a matter of perspective. My 7 year old has talked more than once about when she was a little girl, meaning when she was 3 or 4. Everything is viewed through the lens of our lifetimes however long or short it has been so far.

Richard S.S. - Monday, May 06 2013 @ 06:16 AM EDT (#271567) #

Hitting Coaches and Pitching Coach do nothing without a responsive person needing advise. Then they mention what they've seen of the player and advise and suggest things to do. After that it's up to the player to do something. What do coaches do? Nothing without compliance.

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