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Alberto Mineo and Gabriel Moreno had big games on Wednesday, both homered leading their teams to wins. Patrick Murphy was dealing. Elsewhere the Bisons pitchers gave up five home runs and Buffalo unsurprisingly lost. Dunedin split a pair as their offense went cold. Ryan Noda ended the second game in the ninth with a walk off grand slam scoring a designated runner and two walks.

Gwinnett 6 Buffalo 2

Gwinnett hit five home runs, three off Jacob Waguespack and one each off Francisco Rios and Dusty Isaacs. Waguespack did pitch seven innings and only conceded five hits, its just that three of them were home runs.

Buffalo just had six hits, one each by six hitters. The two runs came from an Alford single and doubles by Gurriel and Biggio.


Reading 3 New Hampshire 9

Patrick Murphy doesn't need much run support but he got it on Wednesday. Murphy pitched seven innings with just a solo home run on the board. He had ten K's and one walk. In total he allowed three hits. Over his last four starts Murphy has pitched 28 innings, with 32 K and 4 walks. His WHIP in those four games is .57. Despite his injury record Murphy is still 23, until next month. He should see AAA shortly after his birthday. Ty Tice pitched the ninth and his ERA is 1.69. Tice is still just 22 years old until the 4th of July. Tice's WHIP is .88 and he has 17 K's in 16 innings.

The offense was led by Alberto Mineo who had four hits including a home run. Mineo drove in five runs and threw out a runner. Brock Lundquist was 2-4 with a double and had moved his average up to .238. Lundquist was hitting .111 less than a month ago. His promotion to AA to start the season seemed aggressive and it has taken Lunquist some time to find his feet. His OPS in May is 955. If he can keep that going he will be fine. Speaking of slow starts, Kevin Smith who homered and singled. One game does not a season make, here's hoping. Vinny Capra had three hits, including a triple. His was another aggressive promotion but his OPS is now .787, not bad for a 22 year old in AA.


Jupiter 5 Dunedin 1 - game one

Jupiter 4 Dunedin 8 - game two, nine innings

Game one was tied at one until the sixth. Joey Murray didn't take the loss but he didn't pitch well. In 4.1 innings he had nine base runners, six hits and three walks. The loss went to Matt Shannon, he was charged with four runs. On the hitting side, Cal Stevenson and Kevin Vicuna had two hits each out of the total of seven for Dunedin.

In game two, Turner Larkins pitched like Murray in game one, with plenty of base runners. In five innings he had ten men on base. While Murray escaped, Larkins gave up three runs. Dunedin trailed 4-1 headed to the bottom of the seventh when Jupiter let them back into the game. Kacey Clemens doubled, Norberto Obeso singled him home. Then three walks and a hit batter brought in two more runs to tie the game. In the eighth and ninth the Jays bunted the designated runner on second over to third and then the next hitter walked. Jupiter intentionally walked the next hitter to load the bases with one out. In the eighth the Jays could not score the run so in the ninth Ryan Noda took matters into his own hands and hit a grand slam. That made it five RBI for Noda. Clemens had two hits off the friendlier pitching in the FSL.


West Michigan 6 Lansing 7

A four pitch bases loaded walk by Rafael Lantigua gave the Lugnuts a walk off win. Lantigua had a two run, two RBI day and added a triple to his walk. Gabriel Moreno made his debut and homered in his first at-bat. He added a triple and a single and had three RBI. Moreno also threw out two base runners on steal attempts. Ryan Gold, Jake Brodt and Hunter Steinmetz had two hits each. Reggie Pruitt went 0-3 and his batting average is now down to .270.

Troy Miller had a rough start, he walked five in 3.2 innings and added four hits. The bullpen was good until the usually reliable Jackson Rees walked the leadoff hitter in the ninth, followed by a bunt single. After the runners moved up on an out a run scored on a sac fly and a second run scored on the same play on a throwing error by Reggie Pruitt. Rees "vultured" the win when Lantigua walked.


3 Stars

3rd star: Gabriel Moreno

2nd star: Patrick Murphy

1st star: Alberto Mineo


Boxes

Catchers Dig the Long Ball | 21 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
scottt - Thursday, May 16 2019 @ 07:24 AM EDT (#374146) #
We talked about the lack of pitching at AAA but while the Bisons have the 4th highest ERA in the IL, they also have the 3rd lowest OPS. They are dead last in HRs--29, the Stripers have the highest with 65. They also have the 2nd lowest fielding percentage in the league.


Mike Green - Thursday, May 16 2019 @ 08:17 AM EDT (#374147) #
Cal Stevenson seems to have made the adjustment to the FSL after the 3 level jump.  Last night, he went 3-7 including two doubles and walked in the doubleheader.  After a poor April, he's hitting .317/.391/.439 in May.  He's leading off for Dunedin, and is going to have to work on his base-stealing.  He is 2 out of 6 in that department this year, after going 21/1 in Rookie Ball last year. 
hypobole - Thursday, May 16 2019 @ 10:57 AM EDT (#374148) #
IL hitting seems to be much better than pitching.

244/319/418 in MLB is 97 wRC+. 274/321/419 is 87 wRC+ in the IL.
Mike Green - Thursday, May 16 2019 @ 11:03 AM EDT (#374149) #
Looks like it is all BABIP, hypobole.  Perhaps IL fielding is a lot worse than MLB fielding; clubs are probably more inclined to experiment with players out of position at triple A so that may be a part of the lesser range issue. 
Maldoff - Thursday, May 16 2019 @ 11:08 AM EDT (#374150) #
Part of the reason hitting is ahead this year is that AAA is now using the MLB baseball

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2019/05/06/baseball-minor-league-home-runs-triple-a/1118862001/
GabrielSyme - Thursday, May 16 2019 @ 11:18 AM EDT (#374151) #
Stevenson's improvement also looks almost-entirely BABIP-related, although his season BABIP is still underwhelming. Given his profile, I'd want to see better contact ability for him to move into the realm of genuine prospects.
Mike Green - Thursday, May 16 2019 @ 11:41 AM EDT (#374152) #
Stevenson has the lowest K rate (17.6%) on the club for players with over 25 PAs.  It's not a great K rate, but it's very good. 

Anyways, he's going to be 23 in September.  He needs to have a great K rate, and to get his LD rate back up, in order to have a shot.  Brett Butler is my template for him, and when Butler was just about to turn 23, he was dominating the Sally League and on his way up to the FSL where he did the same thing just after he turned 23. 
Mike Green - Thursday, May 16 2019 @ 02:20 PM EDT (#374155) #
Stevenson's hold on the lowest K rate in Dunedin is gone.  Alejandro Kirk had his 26th PA in Dunedin today this season with 3 strikeouts. So far today, Kirk has doubled, walked and thrown out two runners. 
PeterG - Thursday, May 16 2019 @ 02:23 PM EDT (#374156) #
Graham Spraker twirling another gem in Dundedin so far today, giving up no runs and only 2 hits through 5. Alejando Kirk has doubled and thrown out 2 baserunners attempting to steal second.
pubster - Thursday, May 16 2019 @ 03:27 PM EDT (#374159) #
Buffalo's offence should get a bit better with the addition of Teoscar.
Shoeless Joe - Thursday, May 16 2019 @ 03:43 PM EDT (#374161) #
I agree that time was up for Teoscar to figure it out on the major league level, but who is going to play the OF with Urena being called up? McKinney, Davis and Grichuk with Drury mixed in? This outfield situation is really depressing, and I am usually an optimist.
Mike Green - Thursday, May 16 2019 @ 03:47 PM EDT (#374162) #
Presumably, Shoeless, they are going to give time to Gurriel Jr. (preferably) or Biggio in the big-league outfield sometime soon.  They need a centerfielder  For the time being, I wish that Montoyo would just leave Jonathan Davis there and see if he hits given consistent work. 
Shoeless Joe - Thursday, May 16 2019 @ 03:54 PM EDT (#374163) #
Mike, I agree that Jonathan Davis should be given some burn in CF, as he looks at least like an average fielder for the position which is a rarity on this team post Pillar.

I was reading an article from Gregor Chisholm where I got the impression that it will be a while before we see Gurriel Jr. back in Toronto. As for Biggio, I just kinda wish he was called up now over Urena.
uglyone - Thursday, May 16 2019 @ 04:13 PM EDT (#374166) #
Kirk will vault into our top 5 at this rate.

And so long Teoscar.
uglyone - Thursday, May 16 2019 @ 04:19 PM EDT (#374168) #
Early season surprise Vinny Capra just keeps going. Elite bb/k rates, hits for average, and seems to be showing great speed on the basepaths. No power yet or even projected, but he's a guy performing legit well at AA at 22yrs old, which makes him an legit interesting prospect if he keeps it up for much longer.
hypobole - Thursday, May 16 2019 @ 04:31 PM EDT (#374170) #
Was just looking at Capra's FG page - his 5% SwStr% is best in the EL.
scottt - Thursday, May 16 2019 @ 07:06 PM EDT (#374173) #
Speaking of Davis, with all of the prospects who won a job in spring training graduating, the mlb top 30 now ends with:

21 Samad Taylor
22 Ryand Noda
23 Yennsy Diaz
24 Alejandro Kirk
25 Cal Stevenson
26 Juan De Paula
27 Kevin Vicuna
28 Riley Adams
29 Santiago Espinal
30 Jonathan Davis

They think his arm is fringy for center.


GabrielSyme - Thursday, May 16 2019 @ 07:25 PM EDT (#374176) #
MLB's rankings always lag the rest of the industry. Kirk is vastly underrated here, and Adams probably deserves to be higher as well. They still have Murphy below Hector Perez, which is pretty odd given their respective performance.
hypobole - Thursday, May 16 2019 @ 08:04 PM EDT (#374177) #
My ongoing Alen Hanson watch. He's now on a 5 game error streak - 4 with Buffalo, plus his last Jays game. I'm positive this amuses me far more than it amuses Bobby Meacham.
bpoz - Thursday, May 16 2019 @ 08:05 PM EDT (#374178) #
S Wymer is having a very slow start to this year in Lansing.
scottt - Friday, May 17 2019 @ 07:28 AM EDT (#374182) #
Rankings don't just reflect ceilings.
At catcher, we  have:
18. Gabriel Moreno "all the ingredients are there for Moreno to develop into a big league backup, perhaps even a regular."

20. Reese McGuire "While it's unlikely that McGuire will ever hit enough to achieve an everyday role in the big leagues, he has the type of profile teams covet in a defensive-minded backup"

24. Alejandro Kirk "Kirk will need to make a slew of improvements to stay behind the plate, but there are some scouts who believe he'll do just that, viewing him as a potential bat-first regular."

28. Riley Adams " Those defensive chops could make Adams a backup catcher at the highest level, and any additional progress at the plate could thrust him into consideration for an everyday role."

So Moreno should reach and has a chance to hit enough. McGuire is already good enough to be a backup but does not hit enough. Kirk can hit, but it's not clear if he can be a catcher. Adams needs to keep improving on both offense and defense.


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