Buffalo
Buffalo have cooled off a lot since their hot start, losing all three over the weekend. The pitching has gone off the boil a little and the hitting, in particular at the top of the order, has gone quiet. Brett Oberholtzerdid OK on Friday night but only pitched four innings. Three relievers gave up runs with Chad Girodo taking the loss. In Sunday's game one Matt Latos was very hittable, in 4.2 innings he gave up eight hits and two walks. Luis Santos pitched well for four innings in game two but John Stilson took the loss in a 1-0 game.
The best hitter over the weekend was Roemon Fields who was 5-7 in three games. Jason Leblebijian had two hits on Friday but was 0-6 on Sunday. Christian Lopes is hitting .211 in May, Rowdy Tellez .243 and Dwight Smith Jr. .217. Those top of the order bats need to heat up.
New Hampshire
The Fisher Cats are having a poor start to 2017. Their ERA is worst in the league and their hitting is 9th of 12 teams. In terms of pitching and ERA two starters are doing well, Conner Greene's ERA is 3.27 and Francisco Rios is at 3.93. The other three starters, Jon Harris, Sean Reid-Foley and Shane Dawson all have ERA's over five. From a WHIP perspective Dawson has a decent WHIP but six home runs allowed push up his ERA. Meanwhile Rios has a WHIP of 1.55 but has kept his ERA under four. The best pitcher on the roster has been Chris Rowley with his .66WHIP and 1.59 ERA. The bullpen has been a weak spot. Other than Rowley eleven relievers have pitched for the Fisher Cats and eight of them have ERA's over five. The three exceptions are Dusty Isaacs, Blake McFarland and Carlos Ramirez. Both McFarland and Ramirez have DL time and low innings pitched.
New Hampshire's hitters are not so hot, of the eight hitters with at least 90 at-bats, only Anthony Alford has an OPS over .750. One hitter is heating up, Richard Urena has had four consecutive two hit games and has moved his average up from .173 to .211 in four days. Over the weekend Ryan McBroom hit his fifth home run, Alford hit his third. Jon Harris was one of the hittable pitchers, ten hits over six innings, with just one K.
Dunedin
Dunedin were 2-0 at the weekend, taking Mothers Day off. On Friday Ryan Borucki continued his slow return from injury. In this game he threw 59 pitches over four innings before leaving. Borucki racked up five more strikeouts and now has 36 in 29.2 innings. Borucki shut out Daytona over his four innings. Among the starters Borucki and Jordan Romano are the only two with more K's than IP. All the starters have good K:BB ratios other than Angel Perdomo. TJ Zeuch leads in WHIP at 1.11, Perdomo is the worst at 1.70. Three relievers have WHIP's under one, Ryan Cook, Daniel Young and Justin Shafer are in the 0.9's.
Cavan Biggio had a nice weekend, he was 2-3 with a walk on Friday and he followed that up with three walks on Saturday. Max Pentecost had one hit and two walks over two games, Dan Jansen had two hits and a walk. Andrew Guillotte led the offense with three hits. On the around the nest podcast the Dunedin broadcaster picked Guillotte as one of his hitters of the month of April. Jansen was the other one. Guillotte is hitting .267 with an OPS of 720.
Lansing
Lansing lost both their weekend games. Vlad Guerrero went 0-4 on Saturday ending his streak of 29 straight games reaching base. He did deliver a sac fly to help contribute. Bo Bichette had three hits on Saturday. Bichette's OPS is 60 points better than Vlad Jr. He is one year older. Brad Jones is in between them with a 970 OPS. Jake Thomas is the fourth teammate with an OPS over 950. Thomas has 18 hits and 29 walks. Unfortunately hitters who walk a lot in the lower levels do not walk as much against better pitchers, hitting gets you to the major leagues, walking doesn't. Now Thomas is hitting .321, keep that up in high A and in AA and you are a serious prospect.
The Lugnut pitchers were hit around some. Patrick Murphy allowed five hits and four walks over 5.2 innings on Friday and Denis Diaz gave up three hits and three walks in three innings. Diaz was an injury replacement and hasn't measured up the Midwest League yet. His ERA is jumbo sized, 7.47. Zach Jackson has been pitching well out of the bullpen. He has a WHIP under one and more K's than innings pitched. He could move up mid-season.
Three Stars
Third Star - Cavan Biggio
Second Star -Roemon Fields
First Star - Richard Urena
