Thru games of Saturday, the combined winning percentage of .560 for the Astros minor league affiliates was the best in baseball. The Cleveland Indians’ organization and their .551 winning percentage ranked second.
Team Results
29-19, 2nd–PCL American South, 1.5 games behind of Albuquerque.
The Express took 3 of 4 at home against the Las Vegas 51’s at the outset of the week but then found the high desert air in Albuquerque not quite so agreeable. After winning the opener of the series against the Isotopes, RR dropped the next two with the series finale to be played on Monday.
Maximum Overdrive
RHP Jason Hirsh. With another excellent start during the week, the Cal Lutheran-ex now has an 0.50 ERA and an 0.90 WHIP over his last 5 games (35.2 IP).
RHP Jared Gothreaux. Goat just might be putting things together as he works his way back from last year’s elbow surgery. He’s got a 2.84 ERA over his last 4 games. His last start on Friday was especially impressive as he went six scoreless frames while giving up just three hits at hitter-friendly Isotope Stadium in Albuquerque.
INF Royce Huffman. Started out the season by hitting just .180 (9-50). Since April 22, however, Huff has hit .333 (38-114) and has 25 RBIs in that 31-game stretch. The TCU-ex is at .287/.364/.457 for the year.
C Hector Gimenez. Has a seven-game hitting streak in which he’s batting .370 (10-27).
RHP Brandon Puffer. Allowed just one run on four hits and one walk over his last eight games (10.1 IP), notching three saves in the process.
OF Charlton Jimerson. What a friggin’ roller coaster ride this is. Before Sunday’s contest, CJ had 12 whiffs in 24 ABs for the week and a stupefying 23 strikeouts in 43 ABs over his last 11 games. So what did he do on Sunday in the thin air of Albuquerque with the wind blowing out to LF? 4 hits, 3 longballs, and 4 RBIs. Oh, BTW, he now has a 7-game hitting streak in which he’s batting .379 (11-29). The former Miami Hurricane is currently .303/.330/.572 for the season.
Stuck in Neutral
No one we’d care to discuss.
Broke Down/Under Repair
SS Jesse Garcia. On DL with a broken hand that will keep him out until August.
LHP Mark McLemore. Also on DL as a result of suffering from soreness in that surgically-repaired shoulder.
Among the PCL Leaders
- Jimerson is still top dog in triples (5) and extra-base hits (29). He’s tied for 6th in home runs (10), tied for 4th in SBs (13), tied for 5th in doubles (14), and tied for 5th in runs scored (35).
- Jimerson’s 79 strikeouts leads the league by a whopping margin: in 2nd place are two players with just 49 apiece. His strikeout total also leads all of minor league baseball.
- OF Luke Scott ranks 5th with 11 longballs.
- Scott is 2nd in walks with 34.
- 2B Brooks Conrad is tied for 1st place in RBIs with 39, 2nd in doubles with 16, 2nd with 28 extra-base hits, and tied for 3rd with 37 runs scored.
- RHP Chris Sampson is 8th in ERA (2.64) and 2nd in WHIP (0.95).
- Sampson is also tied for the PCL lead in wins with seven.
- Hirsh is 10th in ERA (2.88), 10th in WHIP (1.18) and tied for 10th in strikeouts (45).
- RHP Travis Driskill is tied for 10th in saves with five.
Miscellany
- Best of times, worst of times: LHP Phil Barzilla threw a one-hitter at the Dell Diamond on Tuesday, but then followed that up by getting scorched for 10 runs (six earned) on seven hits and five walks in pitcher-unfriendly Albuquerque on Sunday.
- That Sunday game at Isotope Stadium featured a total of ten home runs, seven by the Express. That’s a franchise record for most HRs in a game.
- More on that Sunday slugfest: the Express lost the game by a 14-13 score to the Isotopes despite leading 10-4 after four innings. RR scored runs in each of the first seven frames.
Team Results
29-20, 1st–Texas League South, 2.5 games ahead of Midland.
The Hooks started the week on a strong note with a 3-game sweep of the Wichita Wranglers by a combined score of 22-7. CC the turned around and got swept themselves in a 4-game series by the Tulsa Drillers by a combined 26-10 score.
Maximum Overdrive
RHP Chance Douglass. Throw out his first start of the season (when he gave up seven runs in just two innings) and the Amarillo native actually has some pretty good looking numbers: just 42 hits allowed in 48 IP with an ERA of 3.00. That ERA would be good enough to rank 4th in the Texas League.
RHP Juan Gutierrez. Has a 1.42 ERA over his last three starts, allowing just 11 hits in 19 IP while whiffing 21. His most recent start last Wednesday was his best of the season as the 40-man roster member hurled seven scoreless while K’ing nine.
RHP Jailen Peguero. Now has made nine straight scoreless appearances, notching six saves and a win in those ballgames. His ERA and WHIP for the year is 0.70 and 0.97, respectively, with 31 strikeouts in 25.2 IP.
C/1B J.R. House. The ex-Pirate, who had an 18-game hitting streak to start the season, is currently on a 12-gamer in which he’s hitting .426 (20-47). He’s had a pair of 4-hit games during the latest streak and has driven in 10 runs. Currently at .347/.397/.505 for the year.
As far as his throwing out runners, both steal attempts against him during the week were successful. That means he’s now failed to throw out 24 of the last 26 baserunners against him.
2B Jonny Ash. A nine game hitting streak is impressive. A nine-game hitting streak sandwiched around a three and half week injury layoff is damned impressive. The Stanford-ex is hitting .531 (17-32) during his 9-gamer, which started back on April 25 and was interrupted after five games when Ash went on the DL with the sprained left wrist. The 23-year old infielder has hits in each of the four games he’s played in since returning on Thursday. Currently at .346/.404/.420 for the season.
OF Jorge Cortes. Going 2-32 to start the season, the 25-year old former Pirates’ farmhand in the 32 games since is batting .356 (42-118).
Stuck in Neutral
OF Josh Anderson. Since peaking at .350 on May 13, Anderson is batting just .207 (12-58) over his last 14 games. He’s even worse over his last his last seven games with a .138 BA (4-29). The slump has extended to his running game as the 23-year old outfielder has only been successful on three of six recent SB attempts.
OF Hunter Pence. Pence’s slump has paralleled Anderson’s. Hunter plateaued at .340 on May 13 but is hitting just .179 (10-56) in his last 15 games. He’s driven in just 5 runs over that stretch.
INF Josh Bonifay. Another Hooks player who’s lost air on the batting average over the last two and half weeks. Cam’s son is hitting just .180 (9-50) over his last 15 games.
Broke Down/Under Repair
3B Mark Saccomanno. On DL with broken wrist. Currently rehabbing in extended spring training.
LHP Blake Allen. Placed on DL Saturday with a strained left shoulder.
Among the Texas League Leaders
- House (1st), SS Ben Zobrist (5th at .320), and Anderson (9th at .308) are all in the top ten in BA.
- Pence still leads the league in homers (13) and extra-base hits (29), but has slipped to 3rd in RBIs (39). He’s tied for 2nd in triples (4).
- Pence (5th at .940), House (7th at .902) and Zobrist (9th at .890) are all in the top ten in OPS.
- Bonifay is 6th with 33 RBIs and 9th in longballs with eight.
- Zobrist (17) and House (14) are 2nd and tied for 5th, respectively, in two-baggers.
- House is tied for 7th in RBIs with 32.
- Pence (38), Anderson (35), and Zobrist (35) occupy three of the top five spots in runs scored.
- Zobrist remains 3rd in walks (31) and is 4th in OBP (.421).
- Anderson is still in second place in steals with 14 (he’s been caught 6 times).
- RHP Matt Albers (2.13) again ranks second in ERA.
- RHP Paul Estrada (1.09) is first in WHIP while Albers is 2nd at 1.14.
- Five of the top 11 spots on the strikeout list are Hooks’ pitchers. Estrada is tied for the league-lead with 62. Gutierrez (4th at 58), RHP Mitch Talbot (tied for 5th with 50), RHP Josh Miller (tied for 9th with 47) and Albers (11th with 45) round out the list.
- Miller is tied for the lead in wins with six and Albers is 3rd with five.
- Peguero is 3rd in saves with 12.
Miscellany
- With Ash still out and some other players being under the weather with the flu, C Kevin Davidson started at 2B in Tuesday’s games. Davidson had only played a handful of games at any position other than catcher during his 5-year professional career, and before Tuesday those were all in the outfield.
- Zobrist played 3B on Sunday, his second appearance at that position this season.
Team Results
21-28, 4th–Carolina League Southern, 12 games behind Kinston.
The Avalanche went 3-4 on the week which is about par for the club this season. Unfortunately for future ticket sales, one of the losses occurred on Saturday night before the largest home crowd of the season. More unfortunate for the players was that their play in that game was pretty sloppy and onhand to see the mess was Houston Astros President Tal Smith. According to local press reports, he held a closed door meeting with the players after the game.
Maximum Overdrive
RHP Ryan Thompson. Last six appearances out of the pen have all been scoreless ones. Allowed just nine baserunners (seven hits, two hits) during that 11.1-inning span. Has an 0.98 WHIP and 2.48 ERA for the season with a 28:5 strikeout to walk ratio in 32.2 IP.
RHP Rodrigo Escobar. Seven straight scoreless appearances for the 23-year old Columbian reliever covering 10 innings of work. He’s allowed just 2 hits during that stretch while notching three saves. On the season, Rodrigo has a 2.55 ERA and 1.09 WHIP with 30 whiffs in 24.2 IP.
LHP Enyelbert Soto. Another of the Avalanche relievers with a hot hand, Soto has eight straight scoreless appearances covering 10.2 IP. The 23-year old Venezuelan lefty has whiffed 26 in 22.1 IP (though he’s also issued 10 walks).
LHP Jeff Wigdahl. Make it four Salem relievers with a scoreless streak. 23-year old Wigdahl has gone six games (6.1 IP) without giving up a run. The St. Mary’s (San Antonio) alum has allowed just two hits in that time while striking out ten. The problem for Wigdahl during his professional career has been control: coming into 2006 he had issued 54 walks in 104 IP since being drafted in the 23rd round in 2004. The lefty’s already handed out 10 walks in 17.1 IP this season (although just two during the recent scoreless streak).
RHP Felipe Paulino. The month of May remains very kind to Senor Paulino. He now has a 2.55 ERA over his last 6 starts with 30 hits allowed in 35.1 IP.
RHP Ronnie Martinez. Although a tender shoulder caused him to be held back in extended spring training for the first month of the season, the 22-year old Dominican player has been impressive in four starts split between Lexington and Salem: just seven hits and four walks allowed in 13 IP with 15 whiffs.
RHP Evan Englebrook. Now used as a tandem starter piggybacking with Martinez, the former 8th-rounder (2004) has allowed just one earned run over his last two games (10 IP).
2B Drew Sutton. Batting .389 (14-36) over his last 10 games with nine RBIs. The Baylor-ex has shown some impressive pop during the hot streak with with three doubles and four homers. The leadoff man leads the club in longballs with seven for the season. Currently at .250/.347/.441 for the year.
DH Mario Garza. In limited playing time often involving PH appearances, Garza has managed to drive in 13 runs over his last 12 games and is hitting .333 (10-30) during that period.
OF Frankie Caraballo. Again going through one of his hot phases, Caraballo is batting .313 (10-32) over his last seven games. Seven of those hits have been for extra bases, with five doubles and two homers. Those two deep flies both occurred in Saturday’s game and gave the 22-year old outfielder five longballs for the season. Remember that his other three dingers happened in back-to-back-to-back games in week #3 of the season.
Stuck in Neutral
1B/3B/DH Neil Sellers. With his hot start now becoming a dim memory, the 3rd-year player is batting just .150 (16-107) over his last 33 games.
OF Matt Cunningham. Remains in a season-long funk with a .141 BA (11-78) for the year.
1B Scott Robinson. Seeming to have a tremendous ceiling coming out of San Diego’s Rancho Bernardo HS (and a year at Palomar JC), Robinson has been a huge disappointment with just 14 longballs and a career .267 BA in three professional seasons prior to 2006. And he’s not turning things around this season. Though he spent a big chunk of 2005 with the Avalanche, Scott is no closer to solving Carolina League pitching. He’s batting just .169 (12-71) over his last 19 games with just 3 extra-base hits over that span. For the season, his BA has fallen to .230 and his slugging is an anemic .333.
Unless Robinson has a dramatic resurgence in the next couple of weeks, a fairly obvious move for the Astros at the midway point of the season would be a promotion of Ole Sheldon from Lexington to man first base for the Avalanche.
RHP Jimmy Barthmaier. Although he gave up just 2 earned runs in his most recent start, the Georgia native walked 5 more batters. Over his last six starts (29 IP), Barthmaier has issued 19 walks and 3 plunks.
Broke Down/Under Repair
OF Beau Torbert. Though he hasn’t been DL’d, has missed the last 4 games with a leg problem (tightness).
Among the Carolina League Leaders
- Torbert is 3rd in batting average (.329).
- Sellers (tied for 1st with 16), Caraballo (tied for 3rd with 14), and Torbert (tied for 9th with 12) are all in the top ten in doubles.
- Sutton is tied for 3rd in the league in going yard.
- Sellers is tied for 9th in walks with 23.
- C Lou Santangelo (3rd with 54), OF Ervin Alcantara (tied for 4th with 52) and Caraballo (8th with 45) are all in the top ten in strikeouts.
- Englebrook and his 2.53 ERA ranks 8th.
- Englebrook (tied for 5th at 1.06) and RHP Chad Reineke (9th at 1.11) continue to rank among the league leaders in WHIP.
- LHP Troy Patton (53), Reineke (52), and Barthmaier (49) are all in the top ten in the CL in strikeouts.
- Escobar is 4th with seven saves.
- Barthmaier again tops the circuit with 29 walks. Paulino is tied for 4th with 24.
- Paulino has surrendered seven gophers which is tied for 2nd-most in the league.
Miscellany
- The Avalanche scored four runs in the bottom of the 8th on Sunday to pull out a 4-3 win over the Potomac Nationals. Amazingly, they scored those four runs with just one base hit and that was a single. Three walks, two HBPs and an error contributed to the Salem scoring.
- Salem is 7-3 against the Nationals this season but just 14-25 against the rest of the league.
- Former ‘stro Pedro Astacio made a rehab start for Potomac on Friday night against Salem. The Avs touched him up for 3 hits but no runs over three frames.
- With the latest occurring Friday night, the Avalanche have now been shut out six times this season.
Team Results
30-19, 2nd–SAL Northern, 0.5 games behind Delmarva.
The Legends had a pretty darn good week, going 5-2 and splitting the first two games of the series with division rival Delmarva. Games 3 and 4 of the series with the first place Shorebirds are Monday and Tuesday.
Maximum Overdrive
RHP Tip Fairchild. Went seven scoreless innings on Wednesday, giving him a 1.89 ERA over his last 7 starts with a 39:8 strikeout to walk ratio in 47.2 IP during that period.
RHP Raymar Diaz. Another excellent start during the week lowers his ERA to 1.89 over his last 10 games with 39 whiffs in 33.1 IP.
RHP Sean Walker. Another member of the starting rotation doing well of late, Drew Sutton’s Baylor teammate (and Mark Saccomanno’s, for that matter) has a 2.49 ERA over his last four starts. He did walk six in his last outing on Sunday (despite having issued just nine free passes in 47.1 previous innings this season) but managed to wriggle out with only one run scoring over 5 IP.
RHP Sammy Gervacio. All the earned runs surrendered this season by the 21-year old Venezuelan came in just one appearance (one IP) back on May 17. The reliever’s thrown 8.2 scoreless frames since then, whiffing 14 in the process while giving up just 3 hits and 2 walks. For the year, he has a 1.17 ERA and 0.98 WHIP and has whiffed 39 in 30.2 IP.
RHP Brandon Stricklen. Seven straight scoreless appearances for the Texas Southern-ex with just two hits allowed in nine innings of work.
1B Mark Ori. Had a huge day on Wednesday when he blasted two doubles and two longballs on his way to a six-RBI day. Now has a .378 BA (31-82) over his last 24 games with 14 extra-base hits, including six homers. He’s also driven in 21 runs during that span. Currently at .302/.399/.543 for the season.
OF Ryan Reed. When you don’t get consistent playing time, it’s hard to get comfortable at the plate. It’s even harder to put together a hitting streak, but that’s what this 21st-rounder (2004) has managed to do. The Legends have played 16 times since May 12 and the 22-year old Louisiana native has played in just nine of those games. But he has hits in all nine and is batting .459 (17-37) over that stretch with five doubles, two longballs and 11 RBIs.
OF Josh Flores. Batting .316 (18-57) over his last 15 games with 13 runs scored and six SBs.
C J.R. Towles. Has a 7-game hitting streak going on in which he’s batting .370 (10-27).
Stuck in Neutral
C Eric Cavers. Three more appearances behind the plate for the backup catcher, three more passed balls. That gives the Franklin Pierce College-ex (it’s in New Hampshire, which if you’re a student of presidential history you might already have guessed) 13 PBs in 17 starts behind the plate this season. And it’s not like he makes up for his defensive lapses with strong offense: he entered 2006 with a .218 career BA and is hitting just .190 this season.
LHP Scott Sarver. Continues to struggle with a 13.50 ERA in his last five appearances, giving up 16 hits and 5 walks in just 6.2 innings of work.
Broke Down/Under Repair
3B Koby Clemens. Out with dislocated finger and will not rejoin the club until at least June 5th.
LHP Brian Bogusevic. Placed on the DL on May 8th with an inflamed left elbow. It’s been three and half weeks since his last appearance in a game.
Among the SAL Leaders
- Batting average: 1B Ole Sheldon (1st at .378) and Towles (3rd at .341) remain in the SAL top ten.
- OBP: Sheldon is 2nd in the league at .480 while Towles is 8th at .416.
- Slugging: Ori (.543), Towles (.541) and Sheldon (.538) rank 7th, 8th and 9th, respectively.
- OPS: Sheldon (1.018), Towles (.956) and Ori (.942) rank 4th, 8th and 9th, respectively.
- Doubles: Sheldon is tied for 2nd with 17.
- RBIs: OF Eli Iorg is 10th with 34.
- ERA: Fairchild and Diaz are tied for 7th at 2.23.
- WHIP: Fairchild is 14th at 1.10 while Diaz ranks 16th at 1.19.
- Wins: Fairchild is tied for 1st with 6 victories while Diaz and RHP Levi Romero are tied for 2nd with 5 apiece.
- Saves: Stricklen is tied for 6th with six.
Quoting
Roving instructor (and a pretty fair catcher in his day) Russ Nixon on Towles:
“He’s got all of the qualities and the talent to really go far in this game,” Nixon said. “I look for him to be a front-line big-league catcher in the not too (distant) future.”