Batter's Box Interactive Magazine - Stay Hot Dwight Smith

Another sweep for the affiliates who have all been playing better recently. Dwight Smith drove in the tying run and scored the winning run in a tight 2-1 win over the Phillies. Taylor Cole was again excellent. The Lugnuts trailed 4-1 headed to the bottom of the ninth and pulled out the win. Sean Nolin was strong and Darin Mastroianni supported him with a couple of doubles in the Bisons win. Mike McDade homered in his first at-bat of the year, Michael Crouse had three hits and Scott Copeland pitched seven shutout innings for the Fisher Cats. Some of the pitchers had a touch of Morrow-itis. Nolin walked four and Jairo Labourt allowed eleven base runners in four innings.

Louisville 2 Buffalo 6

Sean Nolin had a bit of Morrow in him, he walked four in 6.1 innings. The Bats only had one hit and Nolin protected his shutout. Nolin's ERA is now 1.96. Austin Bibens-Dirkx gave up the two runs.

The Bisons scored four runs in the fourth, three doubles were the big blows. They came from Darin Mastroianni, Dan Johnson and Kevin Pillar. Mastroianni doubled and scored again in the fifth and Eric Kratz homered in the sixth. Mastro and Jared Goedert had two hits each.

Reading 0 New Hampshire 5

Scott Copeland had his best AA start, seven shutout innings with just four hits allowed.

The Fisher Cats got off to a fast start with a three spot in the first. Fresh off his Friday heroics Jon Berti singled to lead off. Andy Burns drove him in with a single and then Mike McDade, in his first game of the year, homered in his first at-bat. Michael Crouse led all hitters with three hits and two runs scored. Crouse doubled twice to lead off innings. Jonathon Jones drove him in twice, one on a squeeze play.

Dunedin 2 Clearwater 1

The Phillies scored first off Taylor Cole but he was able to limit the damage to one run. Cole pitched six innings, gave up five hits and K'd 8 Phillies. Three relievers were perfect over the last three innings, and that gave the hitters a chance to come back.

The come back started in the fifth, Dwight Smith singled to drive in Michael Reeves. Smith then doubled to lead off the eighth and Dalton Pompey drove him in. Smith and Reeves had two hits each.

Bowling Green 4 Lansing 5

The Lugnuts were down 4-1 headed to the bottom of the ninth. Ian Parmley worked the dreaded lead-off walk and Dickie Thon followed with a single. Jason Leblebijian drove in both to make it a one run game. Matt Dean walked, Dawel Lugo singled in the tying run and Derrick Loveless singled in the winner. Lansing had only six hits, four of them in the last inning.

The Lugnuts pitchers dodged trouble all day, the Hot Rods left 14 men on base. Jairo Labourt pitched four shutout innings to start but he had 11 baserunners in 4 innings. Alberto Tirado had four hits against and four walks but only gave up two runs in his four innings.

3 Stars

3rd star: (tie) Sean Nolin, Scott Copeland and Taylor Cole

2nd star: Michael Crouse

1st star: Dwight Smith

Boxes

Posted by Gerry on Saturday, April 26 2014 @ 09:27 PM EDT.

Stay Hot Dwight Smith | 14 comments | Create New Account

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

Maldoff - Sunday, April 27 2014 @ 02:41 PM EDT (#285358) #

The young pitchers in Lansing have really struggled so far this year. Hopefully just issues with cold weather, but not inspiring so far.

Richard S.S. - Sunday, April 27 2014 @ 02:50 PM EDT (#285360) #

Blue Jays have an interesting Starting Mix in their Minor Systems. Ignoring Short-Season Teams as they are too far away seems appropriate. In Lansing: Kendall Graveman and Jeremy Gabryszwski are doing well. In Dunedin: Matt Boyd, Taylor Cole, Daniel Norris, Ben White and Jesse Hernandez are doing well. In New Hampshire: Deck McGuire, Aaron Sanchez and Casey Lawrence are doing well. In Buffalo: Sean Nolin, Liam Hendricks and Marcus Stroman are doing well.

Now this is taking small side size stuff to extremes, but early Starter success in April is worth a mention. Why? These are most likely the Pitchers to be called up or used in trades over the next 2 - 2.5 years.

I have trouble evaluating Relievers in the Minors. And Hitters - I'm interested in POWER as so little of it is showing in the minors. Your are a HR hitter early or you are not a HR hitter, just someone who got lucky.

Original Ryan - Sunday, April 27 2014 @ 03:21 PM EDT (#285362) #

And Hitters - I'm interested in POWER as so little of it is showing in the minors. Your are a HR hitter early or you are not a HR hitter, just someone who got lucky.
It's common for players to develop power as they mature, with doubles eventually turning into home runs. Shawn Green hit just one home run in his first professional season, and then hit four the following year. He went on to hit over 300 home runs in the majors. Jayson Werth didn't hit many home runs early on in his minor league career, either. Alex Rios hit a grand total of seven home runs in his first four minor league seasons. Those guys just got bigger and stronger with time. It had nothing to do with luck.

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Original Ryan - Sunday, April 27 2014 @ 03:22 PM EDT (#285363) #

And sorry for messing up the italics tag.

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ayjackson - Sunday, April 27 2014 @ 03:29 PM EDT (#285364) #

Mike Crouse is inching towards a .900 OPS today in AA action. Pretty impressive given it's his first stint there. Usually we see more struggle from our better hitters in their first month or so at AA. That would give us Crouse, Pompey and Smith as outfield prospects that weren't too high on our radar twelve months ago.

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JB21 - Sunday, April 27 2014 @ 03:56 PM EDT (#285368) #

Fixed?

Hodgie - Sunday, April 27 2014 @ 04:22 PM EDT (#285372) #

Crouse is extremely interesting to me. A 23 year old prospect long in physical tools but raw, his two greatest issues to date have been health and contact rate with K%s that would have made a young Travis Snider blush. That said, he has started the year healthy and with the conclusion of today's game he is now sporting the best BB% and K% rates of his minor league career. I for one will be very interested in seeing if Crouse can sustain this start and whether the improved contact is simply a sample size aberration or an improving skill that has come with experience.

Richard S.S. - Sunday, April 27 2014 @ 04:28 PM EDT (#285374) #

No apologies necessary Original Ryan, stuff like than happens. I need to post on my iPhone to get on this site. My computer shows a reply box but nothing else around it.

I always thought players who were ready to go,110%, game one usually turn out well. Not everybody handles cold weather well.

Not every prospect moves as fast as one would like. As long as they figure it out, we should be happy. Generally when they figure it out, they move faster, even to the Majors.

Hodgie - Sunday, April 27 2014 @ 04:36 PM EDT (#285375) #

While I am dreaming on toolsy Canadian outfielders, the Dalton Pompey show continues in Dunedin. His line today, a modest 3-4 with 6 total bases pushing his OPS up to .918. Not bad for a 21 year old raw CF that is also a perfect 12 for 12 stealing bases.

greenfrog - Sunday, April 27 2014 @ 08:08 PM EDT (#285383) #

I'm pretty pomped about his season so far.

Richard S.S. - Monday, April 28 2014 @ 01:25 AM EDT (#285393) #

I'm more encouraged by the development of our prospects after reading this: www.mlbtraderumors.com/2014/04/luhnow-on-appel-bullpen-shifts.html
If you click through to Fox Sports' Ken Rosenthal you can read about Mark Appel's struggles. Look how far he's behind his fellow High Schoolers from 2009, or his 2012 fellow third year University pals. He's already 22 and still nowhere close to the Majors.

85bluejay - Monday, April 28 2014 @ 09:44 AM EDT (#285399) #

After an impressive spring, John Stilson has really struggled in the early going - I'm worried about potential arm problems, this is a guy who had arm problems in his draft year - does anyone have a reading of his velocity?

I know that Liam Hendriks has gotten hit hard in his brief ML career, but I would like to see him get another shot - looking like a good pickup.

Griffin Murphy is 23, if the jays are going to keep him in the pen, he needs to get challenged at Dunedin - I'd like to see him reach AA by season's end

uglyone - Monday, April 28 2014 @ 08:04 PM EDT (#285423) #

ya Hodgie I've had a bit of a mancrush on Crouse's upside for a while now. I remember getting into arguments about him vs. Knecht. 5 tool package with Crouse, but he still has to figure out the most important tool - making better contact (his small sample K% improvement this year is encouraging tho). it's nice to see his latent power starting to come out at least.

Hodgie - Monday, April 28 2014 @ 08:37 PM EDT (#285425) #

Aaron Sanchez with a nice performance tonight against Gary Sanchez and the Trenton Thunder. His line:

6 2/3IP 5H 0R 2BB 6K 10-0 GB/FO

Chris Mellen from Baseball Prospectus was at the game and reported Sanchez was 91-96 with his fastball with lots of late life, curve was crisp with good break. Reported the change-up was firm to start but movement improved as the game progressed.

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