Rochester 7 Buffalo 6
Trenton 2 New Hampshire 8
Fort Myers 0 Dunedin 3
West Michigan 3 Lansing 7
Tri-City 13 Vancouver 12 - 11 innings
GCL Phillies 2 GCL Jays 7
Here are some things I noted from Thursdays games:
TJ Zeuch pitched five innings, was charged with two runs, one earned, but didn't strike out anyone. He did have ten ground ball outs to no fly balls. After he left Brock Stewart came in and gave up five runs.
Anthony Alford was 0-3 with two K's. Alford has only a few games left to find some form after his layoff. Alford doesn't want a call-up when he is not in peak form.
Thomas Hatch had eleven K's in seven innings for New Hampshire. Hatch is 24, turning 25 next month. While age is less important for pitchers, Hatch needs to be in AAA to start next season.
Josh Palacios and Riley Adams homered. For Adams it was his tenth home run in AA, if he was there for a full season he could have close to 15. Adams is tied with Forrest Wall for the highest wRC+ on the team. That is good for a catcher. Look for all the catching prospects to move up a level next season.
Simeon Woods Richardson pitched five shutout innings. He finishes with a 2.54 ERA. Another new Jay, Kyle Johnston, who hasn't started well with the Jays, pitched a clean inning. His ERA is over 10.
Demi Orimoloye had a disappointing July after a great June. August started slow but he has picked up some steam over the last ten days. He finished the season with a 2-4 including a double.
Many Dunedin hitters had good seasons with the bat. Alejandro Kirk, Logan Warmoth, Cal Stevenson, Ryan Noda, Christian Williams and Cullen Large all had wOBA's over 350. Only Kirk and Noda ended the season in Dunedin. Williams had that wOBA despite striking out 35% of the time. Kirk only K'd 11%, he walked more than he K'd.
Among the pitchers, Nate Pearson and Joey Murray led the starting pitchers in xFIP. Among the remaining pitchers SWR had an xFIP of 2.87, Maximo Castillo 3.37, and Josh Winkowski 3.85. Dany Jimenez and William Ouellette led the relievers.
Every Lansing starting hitter picked up a hit, Gabriel Moreno had two. Griffin Conine hit his 21st home run. He also struck out three times so that new approach is not quite locked in yet.
Will Robertson went 4-5 and hit his fourth home run. Robertson started slowly but has hit well over the last six weeks. Since the all-star break he is hitting .300 with an OPS over 800. As I noted in previous updates, draft experts noted that Robertson had some swing tendencies that were taught by his college coach but that needed to be eliminated for the pro game. Robertson seems to be progressing in that regard.
Jose Zepeda has not had a good season in the GCL. But he finished well. He hit his first home run of the season in the final game, added a double and drove in four. He finished with a .225 BA and a 730 OPS but he has that home run to give him hope.
Kendall Williams has gone under the radar a little bit but he has been pitching very well in Florida. In this game he went four innings and struck out four. He finishes his season with a 1.13 ERA and has 19 K's in 16 innings. I assume he will follow the Kloffenstein plan and pitch in Vancouver next season at age 19.
Jackxarel Lebron got some notoriety earlier in the season because of his name and his ERA. He conceded six runs in his debut and had an ERA of infinity after that appearance. He settled down and pitched well in his next four games, but then on August 23rd he again surrendered six runs without recording an out. On Thursday he pitched 2.1 shutout innings. In total Jackxarel pitched in seven games. In two of those games he gave up 12 runs without recording an out. In the other five he gave up one run in 10.1 innings with seven K's. He would definitely be the pitcher with the most extremes for the Jays in 2019.
With some teams winding down I thought I would look at some stats. In Bluefield, the leading hitters by wOBA were Ryan Sloniger, Justin Ammons, Davis Schneider and Spencer Horwitz. They are all in their 20's and none of them will likely be on top 30 lists this off-season. However each of them has a chance to get onto the Lansing roster for 2020 and make a name for themselves there.
In the GCL, the hitting leaders were Orelvis Martinez, Yhon Perez (who I discussed yesterday), Alberto Rodriguez and Jose Rivas. Martinez is 17, the others 18. In the DSL Adrian Montero was the standout hitter at age 17.
On the pitching side in Bluefield, Luis Quinones led in xFIP and K%. He was promoted. Second in K% was 23 year old Adams Cuevas who was also promoted. His numbers were not as good in Vancouver. Alejandro Melean was the best of the teenagers with a 25% K% but his xFIP was 4.85. It was not a strong year for pitching in Bluefield.
In the GCL, Kendall Williams and Michael Dominguez stood out in the K% rankings with 31% and 30% respectively. In xFIP Dominguez fared better with a 2.91, Williams was at 3.41. But the leader among the starters, in a small sample, was Sam Robberse from the Netherlands with a 2.63 xFIP. 17 year old Jiorgeny Casimiri had a 3.01 xFIP and a 24% K%. Casimiri was the second Duth player signed by the Jays. The two best stat pitchers in the DSL were 17 year olds Winder Garcia and Edgar Castro. Garcia put up a 3.16 xFIP and a 27% K rate. Castro had a 2.78 xFIP and a 26% K rate.
3 Stars
3rd star: Simeon Woods Richardson
2nd star: Will Robertson
1st star: Thomas Hatch
