Team Results
32-23, 1st–PCL American South, 0.5 games ahead of Albuquerque.
It’s been a frustrating time for the Express. Prior to Saturday night, the E-Train had lost six of their previous seven games and all were by one run. RR did pick up back-to-back wins on Saturday and Sunday to salvage a 3-4 week.
Maximum Overdrive
OF Luke Scott. Gone on a real HR tear with seven longballs over his last 11 games. He’s hitting .343 (12-35) over his last eight games with 14 RBIs. It should be noted that four of the yacks and 11 of his runs driven in came in two games at the hitter-friendly Isotope Stadium in Albuquerque. Presently resides at .279/.395/.547 for the year.
RHP Jason Hirsh. His latest two starts were respectable though a tad shaky due to control problems. Jason has a 1.17 ERA over his last 7 games (46.2 IP).
INF Royce Huffman. Huff has hit .326 (46-141) with 31 RBIs over his last 38 games.
RHP Chris Baker. The Oklahoma City University alum has given up a total of just 2 runs in his two starts since replacing Chris Sampson in the Express rotation. He notched a win on Sunday to put his record at 6-1 for the year and lowered his ERA to 1.71 and his WHIP to 1.15. Baker turns 29 in August and was acquired from the Rangers in a minor league deal back in April. He was originally a 29th-round pick of the Blue Jays in 1999. Somewhat telling, he has spent all or parts of the last five seasons in AAA (including 2006) but has yet to see major league service time.
SS Wade Robinson. A career .266 hitter in his three previous minor league seasons, the Louisiana Tech-ex has somehow managed to bat .351 (13-37) since being called up from A-ball where more often than not he was sitting on the Avalanche bench. Has just one extra-base hit this season in 86 ABs.
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. On DL with soreness in his surgically-repaired shoulder.
Among the PCL Leaders
- Scott ranks 2nd with 15 longballs. He’s tied for 5th in RBIs with 41, 3rd in walks with 36, 10th in slugging, and 8th in OPS.
- OF Charlton Jimerson tops the chart in extra-base hits with 32. He’s tied for 2nd in triples (5), tied for 8th in home runs (10), tied for 4th in SBs (15), and 4th in doubles (17).
- Jimerson’s 86 strikeouts leads his nearest PCL “competitor” by a margin of 31.
- Brooks Conrad is 3rd in RBIs (43), tied for 2nd in doubles (18), 2nd in extra-base hits (31), and tied with teammate Scott for 3rd in runs scored (40).
- Huffman is tied for 6th in doubles (15).
- Baker leads the league in ERA and is 6th in WHIP.
- Hirsh is 10th in ERA (2.94) and 9th in strikeouts (55). He also has the 5th-most walks (30) and is 3rd in plunks (7).
Miscellany
- The day after hitting 3 home runs in a game, Jimerson whiffed four times in the game last Monday. That’s his 7th golden sombrero of the season.
- Conrad has been at 3B for the last 15 games (and 16 of the last 17) as the organization tries to increase his versatility despite a less than powerful throwing arm.
- C Hector Gimenez couldn’t pick up a hit in a PH appearance on Tuesday and saw his eight-game hitting streak get blown up.
Team Results
31-25, 1st–Texas League South, 0.5 games ahead of Midland.
The Hooks have got to be taking a deep sigh a relief that they won’t play Tulsa again until August. CC went 2-5 for the week and are just 2-9 over their last 11 games. And the Drillers are the main culprit, going 7-0 against Corpus Christi during that stretch. Not only did they take all seven games from the Hooks, the Northern Division club outscored ’em by a collective tally of 50-16. No mas!
Maximum Overdrive
RHP Chance Douglass. With another good start during the week, the 22-year old righty has lowered his 2006 ERA to 3.99. His ERA in his last 10 games is just 2.98.
RHP Juan Gutierrez. Has a 1.36 ERA over his last five starts with just 19 hits allowed in 33 IP while whiffing 33. Now has a 3.57 ERA for the season with a 1.24 WHIP.
RHP Jailen Peguero. The Dominican reliever has now pitched in eleven straight games without giving up an earned run, yielding just seven hits in 16 innings of work. He’s lowered his ERA and WHIP for the year to 0.61 and 0.94, respectively.
C/1B J.R. House. Saw his 17-game hitting streak go down the drain on Saturday night. Hit at a .418 (28-67) pace during the streak with 16 runs driven in. Currently at .346/.393/.498 for the year.
On the defensive side, finished up May having thrown out just 3 of 31 would-be base-stealers during the month. He’s 0 for 2 to kick off June.
OF Hunter Pence. Broke out of his slump by hitting .333 (9-27) for the week with seven RBIs in seven games. Went yard in three straight games to give him 16 longballs for the year. Currently at .299/.352/.607 on the season.
OF Jorge Cortes. Batting .355 (49-138) over his last 38 games.
Stuck in Neutral
OF Josh Anderson. Showed signs of life during the week but is still batting just .221 (19-86) over his last 21 games.
Broke Down/Under Repair
LHP Blake Allen. On DL with a strained left shoulder.
Among the Texas League Leaders
- House is 1st in batting average while SS Ben Zobrist 7th at .316.
- Pence still leads the league in homers (16). He’s 2nd in RBIs (46) and is tied for 2nd in extra-base hits (33) and triples (4).
- Pence (3rd at .960), House (8th at .890) and Zobrist (10th at .874) are all in the top ten in OPS.
- House is 6th in RBIs with 38.
- inf Josh Bonifay is tied for 7th with 35 RBIs and tied for 10th in longballs with eight.
- Zobrist (19) and House (16) are 2nd and tied for 7th, respectively, in two-baggers.
- Pence (43), Zobrist (42) and Anderson (37) occupy three of the top six spots in runs scored.
- Zobrist remains 3rd in walks (35) and 4th in OBP (.418).
- Cortes is 10th in OBP (.396).
- Anderson is 2nd in steals with 17.
- RHP Matt Albers (2.39) still ranks second in ERA while Gutierrez has moved into the 10th spot.
- Albers and Gutierrez are tied for 5th in WHIP while Douglass ranks 8th at 1.26.
- Guti leads the league in strikeouts with 70 while RHP Paul Estrada is tied for 2nd with 67 and RHP Mitch Talbot is tied for 7th with 52.
- RHP Josh Miller is tied for the lead in wins with six.
- Peguero is still 3rd in saves with 12.
Miscellany
- 2B Jonny Ash had an 11-game hitting streak snapped in the second game of a DH on Wednesday. He hit .526 (20-38) during the streak.
- 3B Mark Saccomanno came off the DL on Friday to see his initial action of the season. After going 3-6 in his first two games, the Baylor-ex went hitless on Sunday.
Quoting
Zobrist on working with the soon-to-depart replacement umps this season:
?My game is trying to be patient and make sure I wait for one pitch that gives me the best chance to get a hit,? he said. ?It was a little more difficult (with amateur umpires). They have been a little more inconsistent.?
Team Results
26-31, 4th–Carolina League Southern, 13.5 games behind Kinston.
The Avalanche went 5-3 in one of their better weeks of the season. All the games were on the road making it even more impressive. The key to their success was finding another team more offensively-challenged than they were, in this case Wilmington. Salem took four of five games from the Blue Rocks, who bring up the rear of the Carolina League with a .239 BA.
Maximum Overdrive
RHP Rodrigo Escobar. The Avalanche closer has notched six saves in his last 10 games, allowing just six hits while K’ing 17 in 14.2 innings of work during that period.
LHP Jeff Wigdahl. In his last nine appearances out of the pen (11 IP), has allowed just three hits and two walks while whiffing 15.
2B Drew Sutton. Slowed down a bit over the past week, but is still batting .365 (23-63) with five doubles and five homers over his last 18 games.
1B/DH Mario Garza. The 25-year old Garza saw more consistent playing time during the week as a result of his bat continuing to warm up. Has driven in 17 runs in his last 17 games while batting .348 (16-46).
Stuck in Neutral
OF Ervin Alcantara. The 25-year old out of San Pedro de Macoris who bats second in the Avalanche lineup is hitting just .200 (22-110) over his last 28 games to drop his BA for the season to .240.
Broke Down/Under Repair
Nobody.
Among the Carolina League Leaders
- OF Beau Torbert remains 3rd in batting average (.329).
- 1B/3B/DH Neil Sellers and OF Francisco Caraballo are tied for 3rd in doubles with 16 while Torbert is tied for 8th with 13.
- Sutton is tied for 5th in the league with eight yacks. He’s tied for 7th in walks with 26.
- C Lou Santangelo (3rd with 59), Alcantara (6th with 55) and Caraballo (7th with 54) remain in the top ten in strikeouts.
- RHPs Chad Reineke (1.10) and Evan Englebrook (1.16) rank 6th and 9th, respectively, in WHIP.
- LHP Troy Patton (63), RHP Jimmy Barthmaier (63), and Reineke (57) are all in the top ten in the CL in strikeouts.
- Escobar is tied for the league-lead with 10 saves.
- Barthmaier again claims the top spot with 32 walks while RHP Felipe Paulino is tied for 5th with 27.
- Paulino has surrendered eight gophers which is tied for 2nd-most in the league.
Miscellany
- Frederick’s Radhames Liz, who you might remember as whiffing 13 in just 5 innings on his way to a combined no-hitter against the Avalanche back on April 12th, is 3-0 with a 1.13 ERA in three starts against Salem this season
- Salem was shut out for the 7th time this season in Tuesday’s 6-0 loss to the Frederick Keys.
- The Avs are just 3-7 against the Keys this season.
- Salem is 9-5 over their last 14 road games, quite a turnaround for a club that started the year 3-14 in games away from Salem Memorial Stadium.
- Santangelo missed 4 games over the weekend (including Saturday’s doubleheader) to get married.
- .153-hitting OF Matt Cunningham has been plunked almost as many times this season (10) as he has base hits (15).
- Backup C Jeff Mackor had to start all the weekend contests with Santangelo being unavailable and was outstanding, driving in seven of the 18 runs scored by Salem in the four games.
- Torbert returned to action on Saturday after missing 10 straight games with muscle tightness in his leg.
- SS Edwin Maysonet had two home runs in last Monday’s game, a bit of a feat for the defensive whiz who had just one homer on the season entering the game and just 17 longballs in his previous three professional seasons.
Team Results
34-21, 1st–SAL Northern, 1.5 games ahead of Delmarva.
The Legends were 4-2 as they started off the week by splitting the final two games of the series with second place Delmarva (and splitting the 4-game series itself as well). Lexington then traveled to Hagerstown and took three of four from the last place Suns.
Maximum Overdrive
RHP Tip Fairchild. Two more excellent starts during the week (including a seven-inning three-hit shutout on Sunday) gives him a 1.78 ERA over his last nine starts. On the year, the Maine native is 7-3 with a 2.08 ERA with just 63 hits allowed in 73.2 IP and a 64:15 strikeout to walk ratio.
RHP Sean Walker. 3-1 with a 2.30 ERA over his last five starts.
RHP German Melendez. The ex-catcher has a 1.59 ERA and 0.62 WHIP in the eight games (11.1 IP) since being re-signed after being released by the Reds.
RHP Sammy Gervacio. Lowered his ERA for the year to 1.06 with 3.1 scoreless frames of relief on Thursday. The 4th-year pro with the 2.07 career ERA (entering 2006) has now made five straight scoreless appearances (12 IP).
RHP Brandon Stricklen. Nine straight scoreless appearances for the Legends’ closer with just four hits and two hits allowed in 12 IP, notching five saves in the process.
C J.R. Towles. Extended his hitting streak to nine games in the opener of the doubleheader on Sunday before seeing it snapped in the nightcap when he went hitless in a PH appearance. Blasted at a .441 pace (15-34) during the streak with three doubles, four yacks and 10 runs driven in. The third-year pro has already set career highs for longballs (six) and RBIs (27) while batting .357/.426/.580 for the season.
1B Mark Ori. Batting .366 (37-101) over his last 30 games with 17 extra-base hits and 24 RBIs.
Stuck in Neutral
OF Mitch Einertson. Just a .146 BA (7-48) over his last 13 games.
C Eric Cavers. No passed balls during the week but is hitless in his last 18 at-bats to drop his average on the season to .162.
LHP Scott Sarver. Continues to fan the fire with a 13.50 ERA in his last seven appearances, giving up an incredible 23 hits (including five gophers) and five walks in just 8.2 IP.
Broke Down/Under Repair
3B Koby Clemens. Gee, we might have heard something about him being re-activated this coming week.
LHP Brian Bogusevic. Placed on the DL on May 8th with an inflamed left elbow. Four and a half weeks and counting since his last appearance in a game.
Among the SAL Leaders
- Batting average: 1B Ole Sheldon (.373) and Towles are #1 and #2, respectively.
- OBP: Sheldon remains 2nd in the league at .477 while Towles is 8th.
- Slugging: Towles, Sheldon (.547) and Ori (.533) rank 4th, 6th and 7th, respectively.
- OPS: Sheldon (1.024) and Towles (1.006) rank 4th and 5th, respectively.
- Doubles: Sheldon is 2nd with 19.
- Runs scored: Sheldon is tied for 7th with 39.
- ERA: Fairchild is 5th-best in the circuit.
- WHIP: Fairchild is tied for 8th at 1.06.
- Strikeouts: Fairchild is 10th with 64.
- Wins: Fairchild is tied for 1st with 7 victories.
- Saves: Stricklen is tied for 5th with eight.
Miscellany
- Tony Piazza is on the roster for the Suns. Yes, he is a catcher. No, he’s not related.
- OF Eli Iorg is still struggling at the plate with only three home runs and a .231 BA but remains extremely efficient with the hits he does get, driving in a club-leading 36 runs on 41 base hits.
- OF Ryan Reed had a 9-game hitting streak snapped last Monday.