Random Observations
Deck McGuire has reeled off four straight good starts. In those four starts he has pitched 25 innings and allowed 14 hits. He has 23 K's also. If the Jays needed a starter not named Biagini, it would likely be Sam Gaviglio or Deck McGuire if the promotion was based on performance. Ryan Borucki has been up and down and Chris Rowley has allowed plenty of baserunners.
Dwight Smith had three hits, his second three hit game in five days. His batting average is on the rise after a slow start and he did have two hits in his major league start. He is battling with Alford and Pompey but he is hanging in.
The Bisons haven't suffered much with Pompey and Alford in Toronto. Ian Parmley and Roemen Fields each had two hits today. The Bisons will have five outfielders when Pompey and Alford return.
On a related note will Jason Leblebijian ever get a major league call-up? He too had three hits in the Bisons game.
Ben Badler from Baseball America was at todays Fisher Cat game and was impressed by the defense of Bo Bichette. At this stage there seems to be quite a bit of optimism that Bo can be a major league shortstop. After Badler commented, Bo made an error in the ninth.
Cavan Biggio has cooled off. His batting average is down to .283 and his home run outburst has cooled too.
Jon Harris's WHIP is 1.58. Last year he struggled through the first half of the season and then reportedly went back to how he pitched in college. I am not sure which approach he is using this year but it doesn't seem to be helping.
Kirby Snead was recently promoted to New Hampshire and today pitched 2.1 hitless innings with two walks. Snead is a tough, low angle lefty. In Dunedin he gave up three hits in eight innings. He is hard to hit but he still walks too many.
Bradley Jones raked in Lansing for the first half of 2017, was promoted to Dunedin where he struggled and then was injured. He is off to a slow start this year although he has hits in three straight games to raise his average by 30 points. However he has struck out 46 times in 121 at-bats. Yikes!
DJ Davis had a good start to 2018 and was hitting .359 two weeks ago. His average now is down to .258. Cancel the promotion.
Josh Palacios had three hits today and is hitting .302. However his OPS is just .760, he dosn't have a lot of extra base hits or walks. Both need to improve.
Brock Lundquist had hamate bone surgery in the off-season. With that it would be understandable if he got off to a slow start. Today Lundquist hit two home runs to give him six on the season.
Chavez Young and Reggie Pruitt were the two speedsters assigned to Lansing at the start of the year. Over the first month their fortunes have diverged. On Wednesday they converged. Young had two hits to keep his average high at .316. Pruitt had three hits and two RBI. His average is still low at .228 but he is showing signs of life.
Buffalo
The Bisons won 7-0 on the back of a strong eight innings by Deck McGuire. Dwight Smith and Jason Lebelbijian each had three hits.
New Hampshire
New Hampshire lost 7-1 as they were held to just four hits. Jon Harris gave up two runs in five innings. Andrew Case gave up five in the ninth.
Dunedin
Dunedin have had a slow start to 2018 but they had a nice 6-2 win. Taylor Saucedo had his second straight strong start. Both runs he allowed were unearned. He went eight innings with four hits allowed. He had just three K's. The Jays hitters had 13 hits with every hitter notching at least one. Josh Palacios had three hits, Brad Jones and Alberto Mineo had two each.
Lansing
Lansing trailed 4-0 as Maximo Castillo had a very average start. Colton Laws has a high ERA but pitched four shutout innings in this game. Brock Lundquist hit two home runs.
3 Stars
3rd star: Taylor Saucedo
2nd star: Brock Lundquist
1st star: Deck McGuire
