Batter's Box Interactive Magazine

Once again Vancouver were the only winners and they needed a big eighth inning rally to take the lead. Yosver Zulueta did not pitch well. The other three games were all close affairs.

Buffalo 3 Rochester 6

Portland 3 New Hampshire 1

Tri-City 4 Vancouver 5

Tampa 2 Dunedin 1 - 11 innings

Three Stars

Third Star - Angel Miranda, 5 shutout innings

Second Star - Cade Doughty

First Star - Cam Eden

Boxes

NOTES

Yosver Zulueta had a good first start but hit a speed bump on Friday. Rochester scored four runs in the second inning. Six hitters in a row had exit velocities of 90mph or higher. Then the lead off hitter in the third hit a 109 mph home run. He was charged with five runs in his three innings.

Nate Pearson was dealing, 14 pitches, 10 strikes, FB up to 100 mph and three strikeouts on the curve.

Cam Eden, a surprise addition to the AAA roster, had four hits, one a double. His exit velocities were 94, 98, 101 and 99mph.

Cade Doughty has made the best start of the 2022 draftees. He had two doubles on Friday. He is hitting .333 with an OPS of 967.

Alex De Jesus came over in the Mitch White trade and had a disappointing 2022. He had three hits on Thursday and had a pinch hit double on Friday. He is hitting .364.

Ryan Jennings was the Jays 4th round selection in last years draft. He pitched in relief in 2022 but started for Dunedin on Friday. He went three innings, striking out seven. 50 pitches for Jennings and 10 whiffs. His fastball averaged 94 and he added a cutter, a 4 seam, a slider and a curve. Some scouts thought Jennings would end up a reliever but starting gets him regular work and he does have three pitches.

Posted by Gerry on Friday, April 14 2023 @ 09:32 PM EDT.

Zulueta Gets Rocked | 3 comments | Create New Account

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John Northey - Friday, April 14 2023 @ 11:13 PM EDT (#427745) #

So the rush is on for when Pearson will get his shot this year. 6 games, 6 1/3 IP 4 H 2 R/ER 0 HR 4 BB 14 SO. A bit high on the walks vs IP but the K's, oh those K's. I expect him to stay down a couple more weeks at least since Pop is pitching very well so to add him you'd have to release someone - Bass doing the worst, followed by Richards. No rush at this point really so give him time.

Lukes didn't play tonight but is at 350/458/550 overall in AAA. Otto Lopez not looking quite ready though at 216/293/324. For fun on the pitching you have Casey Lawrence being himself. 13 IP 0 BB 17 SO but 4 HR given up leading to a 5.54 ERA. 5 pitchers have over 15 K/9 IP in Pearson (an insane 19.89), Bard, Jay Jackson, Hayden Juenger, and Bowden Francis. Francis has the most IP of them at 7 with only Pearson walking more than 2 so far out of that group.

I figure right now the Jays feel zero rush with the minor leaguers. Nice to see Lukes hitting well in case an OF or Belt gets hurt. Hopefully he gets another shot and actually is allowed to bat this time. The emergency catcher (Rob Brantly) also is hitting well (333/500/476) which never hurts to see. Btw, Gabby Moreno is down to 229/222/314 now - he might have needed more AAA time.

Kelekin - Saturday, April 15 2023 @ 04:26 AM EDT (#427746) #

I'd personally still love to see Lukes as the 26th man. Seeing Luplow mostly deployed as a pinch runner for Kirk indicates we may as well get someone with speed in that role.

Re: Lopez, he started off very slow last year too before ending the year on a tear. I think Lopez has very little left to prove at AAA, but is really blocked this year. With Whit likely gone, and Biggio heading into Arb 3, I could see him hopefully getting a shot next year if he isn't traded.

Mylegacy - Saturday, April 15 2023 @ 03:30 PM EDT (#427766) #

The way Belt is playing he needs to be replaced by Suspenders... sigh...

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