I guess SRF will be winning the "live arm" award this year.

Really nice line by CDJ. Likely moving to Dunedin after first half ends.

Joel Pineiro?

Shi Davidi reports on twitter that Matt Boyd has been promoted to Buffalo and will make the start tomorrow.

SS Sterling Guzman, a 2014 IFA signed for a $70,000 bonus, turned 17 in February and is of to a nice start with an .847 OPS in 44 ABs.  early yet for sure, but anyone know anything about him?

great to hear on boyd. hopefully his intro to AAA goes better than his intro to AA did, because if it does, he'll move up quickly on the callup list.

Yeah, Boyd has a Jekyll-Hyde trend going post promotion.

On the Boyd promotion and how to assess his future: I wonder if Buffalo has the reverse problem that Las Vegas used to have, i.e. its pitching statistics are artificially deflated for some reason, whereas the Las Vegas pitching statistics were always artificially inflated by the PCL and home-park factors.  In both cases, the pitching statistics aren't entirely trustworthy, though for different reasons.  Of the 23 pitchers who have thrown a pitch for the Bisons this year, 16 have an ERA of 3.35 or better.  Peripherals help a little, but don't tell the whole story either.  It's quite difficult to judge which Buffalo pitchers with gaudy statistics are actually likely to do well in the majors, and which are just a mirage.

If there is some artificial deflation going on, it could be difficult to evaluate whether Boyd will be ready for the majors later this year.

FIP is your friend. milb ERA is not very useful.

In 2013-2015, Boyd's pre-promotion FIP's have been 1.84, 2.49, and 2.72. His post-promotion FIP's have been 4.54, 2.94 and TBD.

Only 24IP total in 2013. His FIP has been really good 2014-15 all levels.

The International League has been the more offensively challenged Triple-A circuit for several years. Run rates, batting averages, homer rates and walk rates are all lower in the IL than either the Pacific Coast League or Mexican League.

Only Columbus, Durham and Rochester played home games in ballparks that favor hitters in terms of home run rates and run rates. Of these, the Clippers' Huntington Park is the most hitter-friendly park in the IL, with Durham Bulls Athletic Park a close second.

In 2014, Coca-Cola Fields in Buffalo was as close to a neutral park as you can get.

Run 1.015  HR 0.977  Hits 0.958

"Scranton is the most [extreme] pitchers' park I've ever played at in my life. We had a four-game series there and you can crush balls that you think would get over the fence or down in the gap, but outfielders get under them. They said it was because there's a hill right behind the fence and the air will roll down the hill and blow everything in. It is 100 percent a pitchers' park."

http://www.milb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20140203&content_id=66858162&fext=.jsp&vkey=news_milb

and pompey with another dinger today already. noice.

Interesting or uninteresting names:

The Angels released Zach Stewart so he could have a chance to play baseball in South Korea.
The Yankees DFA'ed Esmil Rogers.

The Yankees outrighted Esmil Rogers.

The Orioles released Everth Cabrera.