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Orelvis Martinez had a big night and has stepped up to another level in July. Breyvic Valera and Kevin Smith starred for Buffalo while Alejandro Kirk scuffles. New Hampshire had a nice comeback win thanks to Kevin Vicuna's first home run of the season. Vancouver took the only loss for the affiliates as CJ Van Eck struggled.

Lehigh Valley 3 Buffalo 4

New Hampshire 5 Hartford 2

Vancouver 6 Hillsboro 12

Dunedin 15 Clearwater 10 - 10 innings

FCL Yankees 7 FCL Blue Jays 12


This is what I noted from yesterday's games.


Breyvic Valera and Kevin Smith led the offense from the top two spots. Each had three hits, Valera scored two and Smith drove in two. Christian Colon homered. Alejandro Kirk was 0-5 and is hitting .243 in AAA. It looks like he still needs more time in AAA.

Zach Logue went five innings. He gave up two earned runs but had just two strikeouts.


With New Hampshire trailing 2-1 in the eighth, Kevin Vicuna hit a three run home run to make it 4-2. It was his first home run of the year. Demi Orimoloye followed with his first home run of the season to make it 5-2. Austin Martin was 2-4 with a walk and Jordan Groshans 1-3 with two walks and two runs scored. Vinny Capra was hitless.

Reilly Hovis, the recently signed free agent, pitched five innings with just an unearned run on his record. Martin, playing short, made two throwing errors, Groshans, playing third, also made a throwing error. Four relievers followed Hovis.


It was the bad CJ Van Eyk who showed up on Friday. He gave up six runs in the second inning and nine in total over 3.1 innings.

The C's did have eleven hits themselves. Ryan Gold had three. Tanner Morris and Eric Rivera had two each.


The Dunedin pitching was not good. Alejandro Melean started and gave up six of the runs. The best pitching for the Jays was by Gabriel Ponce who held Clearwater off in the ninth to give the Jays a chance to win it in the tenth. He also pitched the tenth. The D Jays trailed 10-8 headed to the ninth. They scored two to tie and five more in the tenth.

Orelvis Martinez hit his twelfth home run. He hit it off Anton Kuznetsov who was born in Moscow. Martinez also doubled twice, singled and walked twice. Martinez is now hitting .282. In July he is hitting .383 with an OPS of 1.354. It seems he is hitting the next level and is turning into the hitter we expected him to be. Dasan Brown was 2-4 with a walk. Addison Barger had a quiet night until he homered in the tenth.


Twelve runs with eight hits for the FCL Jays. They also walked eleven times and the Yankees made two errors. Rikelin De Castro had a hit to get his average above .200. He also walked twice. Jose Rivas was 2-2 and is hitting well but at 20 he is a little older and repeating in the complex league. Darlin Guzman, who just arrived from Cincinnati, homered in two at bats. Cesar Ayala struck out seven in three innings but also gave up four runs, including two home runs. Sounds like a Robbie Ray type pitcher. Will Robertson had three at-bats in a rehab assignment.

Three Stars

Third Star - Breyvic Valera

Second Star - Kevin Vicuna

First Star - Orelvis Martinez


Boxes

Orelvis Hits His Stride | 13 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
bpoz - Saturday, July 17 2021 @ 10:40 AM EDT (#402673) #
We have now completed 60 minor league games. I remember Gerry mentioning that in the 2nd 30 game stretch we should judge more critically. I agree.

O Martinez has done great in some parts of his game. But K % is going up.
eldarion - Saturday, July 17 2021 @ 02:13 PM EDT (#402683) #
At this point, is Orelvis the breakout prospect of the Jays’ minor league season?
uglyone - Saturday, July 17 2021 @ 02:15 PM EDT (#402684) #
Still give that title to Moreno, but Orelvis is giving him a run.
greenfrog - Saturday, July 17 2021 @ 02:46 PM EDT (#402687) #
Some breakout prospect candidates for 2021: Manoah, Moreno, Orelvis, Samad, Smith, Lopez, Capra
Gerry - Saturday, July 17 2021 @ 05:19 PM EDT (#402695) #
Samad Taylor is back in the NH lineup tonight at DH.
hypobole - Saturday, July 17 2021 @ 07:02 PM EDT (#402699) #
I'd add Leo Jimenez to the list of positive performers. Was even starting to show a bit of doubles power prior to his injury.

Among the real position prospects, can't think of one who is doing very poorly with the bat. All seem either good or meh. The pitchers though, range from injured to worrisome to "is this guy even a prospect any more?".
Kelekin - Saturday, July 17 2021 @ 08:29 PM EDT (#402701) #
Yep, very fair assessments. Our pitchers in the low minors have been incredibly worrisome. In Dunedin, the only starter looking decent is Robberse. In Vancouver, you have Schultz and Fraze who are both 23.

What would you say are some surprises this year? For me, it's a significant boost in OBP across the organization. I am not sure if this is up across the minors, but even some of our hitters doing very poorly still have good OBPs (Britton, for example, is below the Mendoza line with a .376 OBP).
John Northey - Saturday, July 17 2021 @ 09:43 PM EDT (#402702) #
Low A SouthWest (Dunedin) has a league ERA of 4.59 this year (yikes) 7.9 H/9 5.2 BB/9 10.9 SO/9 0.8 HR/9
The Florida State League (where Dunedin was before this) had an ERA in 2019 of 3.45, 8.2 H/9 3.1 BB/9 8.6 SO/9 0.6 HR/9.

I'd say things changed a LOT. 1 more run per team per game, 2 more K's, 2 more walks, HR's up 33%, but hits down a bit.  So more walks, more home runs (same parks mostly) and more K's.  Jays ERA is 5.58, worst in the league

Vancouver (now A+) plays in a league with an ERA of 4.60, 4.4 BB/9 10.6 K/9 0.9 HR/9 8.0 H/9 - Vancouver themselves have a 4.80 ERA.
Their old league (A- which is Dunedin's new level) had an ERA in 2019 of 3.97, 8.2 H/9 3.9 BB/9 9.2 K/9 0.6 HR/9

No question offense is WAY up thanks to more walks and more HR's.  I suspect robo umps have something to do with that as a more strict strike zone would hurt wild kids who umps might say 'screw it' and give a few strikes to in a blowout, or just to speed a game along.  I suspect we'll have a few years of this until teams and kids learn how vital it is to be following the rulebook with the strike zone.  In the long run it should cut down walks at higher levels as you'll weed out the super wild kids quicker.  Hopefully.
Spifficus - Saturday, July 17 2021 @ 11:25 PM EDT (#402703) #
Martinez sure is pressing his case: another 2 HR tonight so far.
Cynicalguy - Sunday, July 18 2021 @ 12:13 AM EDT (#402705) #
Make that 3 HR for Orelvis today.
Glevin - Sunday, July 18 2021 @ 12:15 AM EDT (#402706) #
I think that's 7 HR's this week. Super impressive.
Spifficus - Sunday, July 18 2021 @ 12:15 AM EDT (#402707) #
I'm starting to think he may be in a bit of a groove - 4 for 5 with 3hr, and it's still not quite over.
#2JBrumfield - Monday, July 19 2021 @ 12:27 AM EDT (#402763) #
It was the bad CJ Van Eyk who showed up on Friday.

In fairness, he was victimized by two infield singles and Eric Rivera missing a catch at the warning track that cleared the bases with two out so he could have been out of that inning with just one run allowed and not six.
Orelvis Hits His Stride | 13 comments | Create New Account
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