Team Results
57-33, 1st–PCL American South, 11 games ahead of Albuquerque.
A very fine 6-1 week as the pitching (particularly the starting pitching) continues to carry this ballclub. It could very easily have been 7-0 but the Express lost a heartbreaker on Saturday as the bully failed to slam the door as Nashville scored 4 runs after two outs in the top of the 9th and went on to claim the 5-4 victory. RR has now won 21 of its last 26 games with the hurlers dishing out a 2.48 ERA over that span. Their 57-33 record is the best in the PCL and the 2nd-best in all of AAA.
Maximum Overdrive
RHP Jason Hirsh. Upped his record to 10-2 with six scoreless innings on Wednesday and extended his streak to 30.1 innings without giving up an earned run. The big man now has a 1.14 ERA and 1.02 WHIP over his last 13 games (86.2 IP).
RHP Chris Sampson. Two more excellent starts should have resulted in two more wins for the ex-shortstop but since it was his game the bullpen blew on Saturday he was only able to claim the one, putting his record at 10-1. Lowered his ERA to 2.55 and his WHIP to an ever so cool 0.97 on the season.
LHP Mark McLemore. With four scoreless frames on Wednesday, the Oregon State-ex hasn’t allowed an earned run over his last 13.2 IP. He’s managed to do that despite handing out 10 free passes during that period.
RHP Roberto Giron. Has picked up nine saves over a 15 game stretch, yielding just one run on 11 hits in 23 IP with a 20:4 strikeout to walk ratio.
Stuck in Neutral
OF Charlton Jimerson. Fallen flat on his keister with a batting average of just .101 (7-69) over his last 21 contests. CJ is hitless over his last 30 at-bats with 15 whiffs.
Broke Down/Under Repair
Nobody.
Among the PCL Leaders
- OF Luke Scott ranks 1st in longballs (20), 2nd in RBIs (63), 3rd in walks (52), 6th in slugging (.541), 7th in OPS (.941) and is tied for 2nd in runs scored (63).
- 2B Brooks Conrad is 1st in extra-base hits (46) and tied for 3rd in doubles (25).
- Jimerson is 4th in extra-base hits (39), tied for 7th in triples (5), tied for 7th in home runs (15), and tied for 2nd in SBs (23).
- Jimerson’s league-leading strikeout total is now at 131, which is 39 more than any other player in the PCL.
- 1B Royce Huffman is 5th in doubles (24).
- Hirsh (2.28), RHP Chris Baker (2.36), and Sampson are 4th, 5th and 8th, respectively, in ERA.
- Sampson, Hirsh (1.14) and Baker (1.18) are 4th, 5th and 7th, respectively, in WHIP.
- Hirsh and Sampson are tied for 1st in wins while Baker is tied for 5th.
- Hirsh is 4th in strikeouts (99) but also has the 6th-most walks (45) and the 7th-most plunks (7).
- RHP Travis Driskill (12) is still 5th in saves and Giron (10) is 6th.
Miscellany
- Hirsh started for the USA squad in Sunday’s Futures Game and pitched a scoreless inning, allowing one hit.
Quoting
Hirsh on his rough spring training and early season:
“I was trying to do too much and impress too many people by trying to live up to the hype. Even though if you asked me in February if I felt the pressure, I would adamantly deny it. But I think in the back of my mind there was definitely some pressure on myself to perform. I just had to go back to doing what I do best, going there and throwing strikes, getting guys out and competing.”
Team Results
13-4, 1st (2nd half)–Texas League South, 3.5 games ahead of San Antonio. (54-32, Overall)
A 5-2 week as the Hooks continue to run roughshod over the rest of the Texas League. The Hooks’ 54-32 overall record is the best in the TL this season and the 2nd-best in all of AA.
Maximum Overdrive
RHP Mitch Talbot. With two more excellent starts during the week, now has a 1.99 ERA and 1.08 WHIP over his last seven games.
RHP Chance Douglass. Has put together a 2.52 ERA and a 1.14 WHIP over his last 17 games. Cranked it up even further over his last three starts, allowing just one run on 17 hits in 23 IP while recording a 25:5 strikeout to walk ratio. Buried in those three games was a 20-inning scoreless streak.
RHP Dave Rollandini. Has given up only one run over his last 15.1 innings of work (12 games).
OF Jorge Cortes. Batting .350 (90-257) over his last 68 games.
Stuck in Neutral
Nobody we’d care to discuss.
Broke Down/Under Repair
RHP Juan Gutierrez. A tired arm has him on the DL with the initial projection being that he’d miss a couple of starts. We’d expect the organization to be very cautious with one of its best pitching prospects and so it wouldn’t surprise us if he ends up being out a month.
Among the Texas League Leaders
- C J.R. House (.338), SS Ben Zobrist (.328), Cortes (.318) and OF Josh Anderson (.310) all remain in the top ten in batting average.
- OF Hunter Pence is tied for 1st in homers with 20 while INF Josh Bonifay is tied for 7th with 13.
- Pence (.553), House (.495) and Bonifay (.490) are 3rd, 8th and 9th, respectively, in slugging.
- Zobrist (.902), Pence (.900) and House (.890) are 5th, 6th and 9th, respectively, in OPS.
- Pence is 2nd in RBIs with 63 while House is 5th with 58 and Bonifay 8th with 51.
- Zobrist is tied for 4th with 25 doubles.
- Pence (61), Zobrist (56), Anderson (56), and House (53) are all in the top ten in runs scored.
- Zobrist is 1st in walks and 2nd in OBP.
- House is 7th in OBP at .395 while Cortes is 8th at .391.
- Anderson is tied for 1st in steals with 27 but has also been thrown out the most times with 12.
- Five Hooks’ pitchers claim spots in the top ten in ERA: Matt Albers (1.98), Douglass (3.09), Talbot (3.39), Gutierrez (3.51), and RHP Josh Miller (3.57).
- Douglass (1.19) and Albers (1.20) are 1st and 3rd, respectively, in WHIP.
- RHP Paul Estrada is 2nd in the TL with 99 strikeouts while Talbot (96), Guti (95) and Albers (84) are also in the top ten.
- Albers is atop the leaderboard in wins.
- Estrada is tied for 8th with 5 saves.
Miscellany
- Anderson had four SBs in Thursday’s game after being in a slump on the basepaths, having been caught in four straight steal attempts entering the game.
- Cortes’ on-base streak ended at 55 games on Saturday night while his hit streak ended at 27 games last Monday.
- Not very often do you see double digits in strikeouts in a game by a reliever but that’s what Monte Mansfield accomplished in Tuesday’s game versus Frisco as he whiffed 10 RoughRiders in just four innings of work.
- Pence hit cleanup for the USA squad and had an RBI single in three trips to the plate in Sunday’s Futures Game.
Quoting
Astros director of player development Ricky Bennett talking about Albers:
“We always knew he had the stuff. He’s done the work between starts and this is his reward. He’s throwing the ball well and putting up good numbers, and I think he’s on his way to the big leagues. It’s been encouraging to watch him grow up and mature as a person and pitcher.”
And Bennett on Estrada:
“He’s a guy that always had good stuff. He played in winter ball in Venezuela for (special assistant) Al Pedrique, and Al pitched him late in games as the setup guy. He started to throw the ball pretty good there. We brought him to minicamp, and he did a nice job and had a good spring. He’s got a good split, a good breaking ball, an average to plus fastball and he competes.”
Team Results
9-7, 3rd (2nd Half)–Carolina League Southern, 1 game behind Myrtle Beach. (41-45, Overall)
Salem is doing it assbackwards. The Avs went 5-0 on the recent road trip which ended on Friday. A sixth game against Wilmington was suspended by rain with Salem up 8-0 (and will be finished later this month). The Avalanche then returned to Salem and lost their game on Saturday to extend their home losing streak to six games. A win on Sunday busted that streak and enabled the club to finish the week with a very fine 5-1 record.
Maximum Overdrive
LHP Troy Patton. Now 4-0 over his last four starts with a 1.08 ERA and 0.96 WHIP during that stretch.
RHP Ronnie Martinez. Has a 1.76 ERA over his last six starts (41 IP).
Stuck in Neutral
Nobody we’d care to discuss.
Broke Down/Under Repair
3B Billy Hart. On DL with a broken wrist.
Among the Carolina League Leaders
- OF Beau Torbert is 1st in batting average at .313.
- OF Francisco Caraballo and 1B/3B/DH Neil Sellers are still both tied for 1st in doubles with 23 while SS Edwin Maysonet is tied for 6th with 21 and Torbert is tied for 9th with 20.
- C Lou Santangelo (10) is tied for 6th in longballs while 2B Drew Sutton (9) is 10th.
- Santangelo is tied for 3rd with 4 triples.
- Sutton is 4th in walks with 48.
- Caraballo (3rd at 80), Santangelo (4th at 79), and OF Ervin Alcantara (10th at 72) remain fixtures among the whiff leaders.
- Patton (88) and RHP Jimmy Barthmaier (81) are 2nd and 5th, respectively, in strikeouts.
- RHP Rodrigo Escobar has a league-leading 17 saves.
- Barthmaier (46) leads the league in walks.
Miscellany
- Torbert had another game where he stood out defensively. On Monday night versus Wilmington, the leftfielder made a sparkling catch in the 9th inning to rob the Blue Rocks’ player of at least a double and help preserve the 6-5 win for the Avalanche. Earlier in the game he had a thrown a runner out at home plate.
- Torbert picked up another outfield assist Thursday, throwing out a runner at home. That gave him five assists in a span of seven games, the last three of which all nailed runners at the plate.
- That suspended game will be completed in Salem on July 24 because the Avs do not make another trip to Wilmington this season.
- RHP Rory Shortell will get the spot start on Monday in lieu of just-promoted Chad Reineke. New Avalanche Tip Fairchild had originally been reported to make the start but he now apparently will make his Carolina League debut on Thursday.
- Salem is now 21-25 on the road this season, pretty darn impressive considering how badly this club struggled away from Salem Memorial Stadium in the very early portion of the year.
Team Results
7-11, 6th (2nd half)–SAL Northern, 6 games behind Lakewood. (51-36, Overall)
The Legends went 4-3 on the week though it would have looked even better if not for a discouraging loss on Sunday to West Virginia. The Legends were up 8-0 after one inning, but the offense and the pitching then hit the snooze button. The Power scored twelve runs over the next seven innings while the Lex batters, who had six hits in that first inning, managed just two hits the rest of the way as West Virginia snaps the Legends’ four game win streak.
Maximum Overdrive
RHP Tip Fairchild. Said adios to the South Atlantic League with another heckuva performance on Wednesday (7 IP 5 H 1 R 1 ER 1 W 8 K). He exited with a 1.66 ERA and 1.00 WHIP along with a 98:19 strikeout to walk ratio in 108.2 IP. Not on many radar screens entering 2006, Tip was been the most outstanding performer of any of the 2005 draftees..
RHP Raymar Diaz. Struck out the first six batters he faced on Saturday night on his way to seven shutout innings (he ended up with a total of nine whiffs while walking just one). Has a 2.29 ERA and 1.12 WHIP over his last 18 games with 91 whiffs in 82.2 IP.
RHP Brad James. The Prosper native (it’s north of Dallas) has a very tidy 1.32 ERA over his last 27.1 innings of work, culminating in that near no-hitter on Friday night in which his only blemish was a homer coming with one out in the 9th inning.
RHP German Melendez. Stretched the scoreless streak this week to 11.2 innings (8 games). The ex-catcher lowered his ERA and WHIP for the season to 0.94 and a very sick 0.59 in the process. Has whiffed 37 in 28.2 innings of work in this his second season on the mound.
Stuck in Neutral
OF Mitch Einertson. Bumping along with a .161 BA (24-149) over his last 43 games. And things are getting worse instead of better as he’s hitting just .086 (3-35) in his last 12 games. The power numbers aren’t there either as Mitch has now gone 23 straight games without hitting a home run.
Broke Down/Under Repair
2B Eric King. Missed 13 straight games with a concussion but reportedly has resumed working out.
RHP Brandon Stricklen. On DL with an arm problem.
RHP Levi Romero. On DL with triceps tendinitis.
C J.R. Towles. Placed on DL this past week with an injured right knee. He was quoted in the Lexington Herald-Leader as saying he hurt the knee about a month ago (though he doesn’t remember how), but that it had recently gotten worse. Looked to be breaking out of his slump, having gone 5-10 in the three games prior to going on the DL.
Among the SAL Leaders
- Batting average: Towles is 9th in BA at .314.
- Slugging: Towles (.519) is 6th.
- OPS: Towles at .906 ranks 7th.
- ERA: Diaz is 4th at 2.41.
- WHIP: Diaz is 10th at 1.14.
- Strikeouts: Diaz is 4th with 98.
- Saves: Stricklen is tied for 10th with nine.
Miscellany
- LHP Brian Bogusevic made his first start back with Lexington on Thursday after being on the DL for seven weeks and then making three rehab appearances at Tri-City. His performance wasn’t necessarily anything to write home about (4 IP 4 H 2 R 2 ER 3 W 4 K). Then again, perhaps it was considering his last start for Lex back on May 4 involved facing seven hitters and not retiring a one while giving up three home runs.
- After giving up runs in four straight games, RHP Sammy Gervacio finally righted his ship with two scoreless innings on Wednesday and another two scoreless frames on Saturday. He notched saves in both games, giving him eight saves on the year.
Quoting
Bogusevic, on his 1st start at Lexington after returning from injury rehab at TRC:
“Physically, I feel good. Now it’s just a matter of getting back mechanically and everything else.”
Bogusevic relied on his changeup in that outing, noting:
“I didn’t have command of the fastball, and the slider wasn’t really where I wanted it to be.”
Diaz on what’s been working for him of late which is…um…pretty much everything:
“The fastball was good. And the breaking ball, split finger, change-up. They’ve been pretty good the last few starts.”
Pitching coach Charley Taylor after Diaz’s latest start:
“Raymar is giving us quality start after quality start, so I really wasn’t surprised. Command is a big key, and he made a lot of good pitches with his fastball.”
Team Results
11-9, 2nd–NYP Stedler, 2.5 games behind Oneonta.
The ValleyCats go 4-3 on the week.
Maximum Overdrive
RHP Cesar Mayora. Already working on his second stint with the ValleyCats this season after an intervening four appearances at Greeneville. The 22-year old has allowed just one earned run on 10 hits in 15.2 combined innings between the two clubs, whiffing 17 in the process. The 6’2″ 185-lb Venezuelan righty put up pretty decent numbers at Greeneville in 2005 in his first season stateside after two years in the VSL. The 43:8 strikeout to walk ratio in 34 IP was particularly tasty.
LHP Cory Lapinski. Had an extremely impressive outing in the 18-inning marathon loss to Oneonta on Friday night, working seven scoreless out of the bullpen while allowing just three singles. Has a 1.88 ERA in the early going with 15 strikeouts in 14.2 innings. You would expect him to be doing well since he is repeating the league after being drafted in the 11th round last season (ahead of Tip Fairchild) out of Illinois Wesleyan, where he led all D-III pitchers in 2005 with an average of 16 strikeouts per nine innings. Was incredibly wild last year for the V-Cats with 38 walks in just 33 IP. With 8 walks already this season, those control problems obviously remain an issue.
LHP David Qualben. This year’s 7th-round pick didn’t allow a run in his first 16 innings as a professional until the string was broken on Sunday when he gave up a solo shot in the 5th inning in his start against Williamsport. The southpaw out of D-II Pace University (it’s in the NYC area) has been pretty darn stingy with the hits as well, yielding just 8 base knocks in 18 IP. The 20-year old has a primo pickoff move and has nabbed four runners over his first four starts, including the same Williamsport player twice on Sunday (in the 2nd and again in the 5th inning).
Stuck in Neutral
Nobody we’d care to discuss.
Miscellany
- 3B Chris Johnson, a 4th-round pick this year out of Stetson, wore the heavy collar in that 18-inning game as he went 0-7 at the plate.
- The V-Cats have shown some speed in the early going. TRC is second in the league with 32 SBs (out of 41 attempts, good for a 78% success rate).
Team Results
10-9, 2nd–Appy West, 2 games behind Elizabethton.
The G-Astros also go 4-3 as all six affiliates combine for a superb 28-13 week. The Greeneville hurlers did their part by racking up a 2.57 ERA for the week and now rank first in the Appy League in that category at 3.02 on the season.
Maximum Overdrive
SS Ronald Ramirez. Not to be confused with teammate and fellow middle infielder Reinaldo Ramirez, Ronald went 2-13 with six strikeouts in his first three games this season. Since then, however, the 20-year old Colombian has a .400 BA (18-45) in 11 games and is really thumpin’ the ball with nine of those hits going for extra bases. He’s also driven in 10 runs during that stretch and is now tied for the club lead with 12 RBIs. This is all rather atypical for a guy who hit for a collective .248 BA during three seasons in the VSL.
Stuck in Neutral
Nobody we’d care to discuss.
Miscellany
- 3B Brandon Caipen stole a total of five bases in back to back games on Wednesday and Thursday and had a total of 8 SBs in a seven-game stretch. All that’s rather interesting given Caipen had just six steals in 55 games this past season at Youngstown State.
- Like the V-Cats, the G-Astros have demonstrated some team speed as the club leads the Appy in SBs with 28 (out of 38 attempts, good for a 74% success rate).