Team Results
64-38, 1st–PCL American South, 13 games ahead of New Orleans.
With Memphis and Omaha on the agenda (the two clubs share the worst record in the PCL along with Fresno), an above .500 week was pretty much a given for the Express. And despite all the games being on the road, everything held true to form as RR put together a 5-3 week (which included a Saturday doubleheader).
Maximum Overdrive
RHP Jason Hirsh. His ouchy shoulder sure didn’t hinder his pitching as Jason gave up exactly zero runs on five hits over 11 innings in his two starts during the week. So that makes 41.1 innings in a row without giving up an earned run. Over his last 15 games (97.2 IP), Hirsh has a 1.01 ERA and 1.00 WHIP.
Stuck in Neutral
OF Charlton Jimerson. Very slight signs of life this past week but is still hitting just .127 (13-102) over his last 31 contests.
Broke Down/Under Repair
Nobody.
Among the PCL Leaders
- 2B Brooks Conrad is 1st in extra-base hits (54), 1st in triples (12) and tied for 1st in doubles (30).
- Jimerson is tied for 4th in extra-base hits (42), tied for 4th in triples (6), and is 6th in SBs (23).
- Jimerson’s league-leading strikeout total is now at 145.
- 1B Royce Huffman is tied for 6th in doubles (24) and is 8th in walks (48).
- Hirsh (2.08) and RHP Chris Sampson (2.62) are 2nd and 6th, respectively, in ERA.
- Sampson (0.98) and Hirsh (1.11) are 3rd and 5th, respectively, in WHIP.
- Hirsh leads in wins while Sampson is tied for 2nd.
- Hirsh remains 4th in strikeouts (106) but also has the 7th-most walks (49).
- RHP Travis Driskill (14) is 5th in saves and RHP Roberto Giron (12) is tied for 6th.
Miscellany
- Although we wondered about that 131-pitch count outing for Hirsh in late June, three weeks does certainly seem like a long time to associate that with his recent shoulder tenderness.
- LHP Wandy Rodriguez went five scoreless on Saturday in his first start for the Express.
- And speaking of recently-demoted Astros, CF Jason Lane had a homer (#1) and 6 RBIs in Sunday’s game. He’s batting .300 (12-40) with 11 RBIs in 11 games since exiting the major league scene. The longball, though, was just his second extra-base hit.
Team Results
18-12, T1st (2nd half)–Texas League South, 1.5 games ahead of Midland. (59-40, Overall)
The Hooks split the six games played during the week. On Sunday, CC kicked off a 9-game road trip with a win over co-division leader San Antonio.
Maximum Overdrive
OF Hunter Pence. Has hits in 18 of his last 20 games, batting .363 (29-80) over that stretch. Also has driven in runs in eight consecutive games.
Stuck in Neutral
Nobody we’d care to discuss.
Broke Down/Under Repair
RHP Juan Gutierrez. On DL with a tired arm.
Among the Texas League Leaders
- C J.R. House (.329), 2B Jonny Ash (.321), OF Jorge Cortes (.316) and OF Josh Anderson (.311) are 1st, 4th, 6th and 9th, respectively, in batting average.
- Pence is 2nd in homers (22), 2nd in RBIs (75), 2nd in slugging (.567), 4th in OPS (.927) and tied for 1st in triples (7).
- INF Josh Bonifay is tied for 10th in longballs with 13.
- House is tied for 5th in RBIs with 66.
- Cortes is tied for 6th in doubles with 28.
- Pence (68) and Anderson (64) remain in the top ten in runs scored.
- Cortes is 8th in OBP at .386 while House is 10th at .381.
- Anderson leads in steals (33) but has also been thrown out the most times (12).
- RHP Chance Douglass (3.25) and Gutierrez (3.51) are 3rd and 7th, respectively, in ERA.
- Douglass (1.26) and Gutierrez (1.34) are 4th and 10th, respectively, in WHIP.
- RHP Paul Estrada is 2nd in the TL with 107 strikeouts while Guti (95) ranks 4th.
- Estrada is 7th with 9 saves.
Miscellany
- LHP Josh Muecke threw his best outing of season with four perfect innings of relief on Wednesday and then followed that up with a pretty good (6 IP 7 H 3 R 3 ER 2 W 4 K) spot start on Sunday against the Missions.
- Though Anderson was perfectly healthy, Pence lined up in CF for three games during the week.
- Ben Zobrist has a .359 BA and a .468 OBP in his first 11 games at the AAA level (Durham, International League) while Mitch Talbot has given up just 2 runs in 13 IP for Montgomery of the Southern League. Obsessing, no?
- Anderson has swiped 11 straight bases without getting caught.
Team Results
17-11, 1st (2nd Half)–Carolina League Southern, 1 games ahead of Myrtle Beach. (49-49, Overall)
Can we actually call the Avalanche torrid? A 6-1 week is all the more impressive considering every single game was on the road for the…ahem…first place club. Not only do they lead the Southern division, the Avs have the best second-half record in all of the Carolina League. Salem now has a 13-2 record on the road but are just 4-9 at home since win/loss records were reset in mid-June. They’ll have to improve on the latter as they begin a week-long homestand on Monday. It may depend on the pitching, which carried the club this past week as the hurlers put up a 1.58 ERA.
Maximum Overdrive
LHP Troy Patton. Although he’s now officially a CC Hook, Patton polished off his Carolina League career with a 6-0 record over his last six starts with a 1.22 ERA and 0.89 WHIP over that span.
RHP Tip Fairchild. Looks like he’s gonna rip through the Carolina League the same way he did the South Atlantic League. Has allowed just two earned runs over his last two starts (13 IP).
C Lou Santangelo. Maybe increased playing time is the ticket for Lou. Having played in all but three of Salem’s 20 games this month, he’s suddenly done the near-impossible: cut down on his strikeouts. His 7 whiffs in 58 ABs so far in July sure as heck beats the 78 K’s in 200 ABs over the first three months of the season. And with that increased ability to put bat on ball, we’ve seen increased production elsewhere. Such as the .345 BA (20-58) and 17 RBIs over the last 16 games. Best of all is the seven longballs during that span, including the three-yack game Saturday night.
Stuck in Neutral
RHP Rodrigo Escobar. Has been removed from the closer’s role after allowing 15 runs on 22 hits and 13 walks in his last 11 IP (10 games). Avs’ manager Jim Pankovits is going with a closer by committee approach instead.
Broke Down/Under Repair
C Jeff Mackor. Has missed 17 games with an oblique injury.
Among the Carolina League Leaders
- OF Beau Torbert is 3rd in batting average at .315.
- 1B/3B/DH Neil Sellers (27) and OF Francisco Caraballo (26) are #1 and #3 in doubles while SS Edwin Maysonet is tied for 7th with 23.
- Santangelo is tied for the league lead in homers with 15, tied for 3rd in triples with 4, 2nd in slugging at .508, and 8th in OPS at .822.
- 2B Drew Sutton is tied for 8th in longballs with 11, 5th in walks with 52, and tied for 9th in swipes with 19.
- Caraballo (92), Santangelo (85) and OF Ervin Alcantara (80) remain in the top ten in strikeouts.
- RHP Jimmy Barthmaier (94) is 4th in strikeouts but also leads the league in walks (50).
- RHP Felipe Paulino has the 7th-most free passes (43).
- Escobar is 2nd in saves (17).
Miscellany
- The Avalanche set a franchise record by winning 10 straight games on the road before seeing it come to an end on Thursday, Salem’s only loss during the week.
- Salem lost their first five games against the Frederick Keys this season but have gone 8-3 since against the Orioles’ farm club (including a three-game sweep this week).
- Paulino (6 IP 2 H 0 R 0 ER 0 W 7 K) and Barthmaier (6 IP 3 H 1 R 1 ER 1 W 7 K) each turned in one of their better starts of the year during the week.
Quoting
Salem pitching coach Stan Boroski talking about Paulino:
“When you watch him throw, he is very stiff and mechanical in some of his actions and he can get out of whack fairly easily. He has the tendency to kind of fly open–his front shoulder, his front hip, his front leg all kind of fly open and that causes the arm to drag. When that happens, he can’t get his hand out front where he needs to in order to get the ball down in the zone. He works very hard on it. The guy does towel drills every day over and over and over. He’s getting that straightened out and he’s a lot better now than he was in the beginning of the year.”
Manager Jim Pankovits on recently called-up German Melendez (originally Houston property who the Reds released after just two appearances with their Dayton farm club earlier this season after signing as a six-year minor league free agent):
“(He’s) the real deal. He’s a big league prospect.”
Assistant GM Ricky Bennett talking about Patton:
“He’s really starting to learn how to pitch,” Bennett said. “He was throwing his fastball to both sides of the plate and he really did a nice job pitching inside. He’s reading hitters and understanding what he wants to do and how to get hitters out, and that’s huge for him in his developmental process.”
Potomac Nationals’ first baseman Luke Montz after Patton one-hit his club in his final Carolina League start on Wednesday:
“(He) was pitching a fastball most of the time with a curveball and changeup. The lefty keeps you off-balance. He took it to us. It wasn’t just his first-pitch fastball.”
Team Results
11-19, T7th (2nd half)–SAL Northern, 10 games behind Lakewood. (55-44, Overall)
The Legends went 1-5 on the week, including losing the last five. Key hitters are on the DL (Towles), slumping (Ori), in Salem (Sheldon) or continuing to struggle in sophomore campaigns (Clemens, Flores, Iorg). With all that, the Lex offense is even worse than that of the big club. Exhibit A of the Legends’ offensive ineptitude is the paltry .209 BA through the first 30 games of the season’s second half. Exhibit B is Lexington having scored just six runs over the last four games, with all but one of those runs scoring as a result of errors by the opposition. Exhibit C is having a guy with a 1-9 record and 6.69 ERA shutting the Legends down for 5.2 innings in one of the games of Saturday’s doubleheader.
Maximum Overdrive
RHP Brad James. Two excellent starts during the week gives the 22-year old righty an 0.81 ERA and 1.02 WHIP over his last eight games (44.1 IP).
RHP Raymar Diaz. Now a Salem Avalanche, he wrapped up his South Atlantic League career with a 2.24 ERA and 1.26 WHIP over his last 20 games with 100 whiffs in 92.1 IP.
Stuck in Neutral
1B Mark Ori. No joy in Slumpville as the Northwestern-ex is “hitting” just .191 (18-94) over his last 23 games. The atypical power surge he was displaying earlier in the season has evaporated as he had just three extra-base hits (all doubles) in those 23 games with his last dinger leaving the park back on June 18.
RHP Sean Walker. The former 24th-rounder (2005) has been pretty stinky of late with a 5.90 ERA and 1.69 WHIP over his last six starts.
Broke Down/Under Repair
RHP Levi Romero. On DL with triceps tendinitis.
C J.R. Towles. Supposedly will be activated shortly but only for DH duty as the Astros want to give his injured right knee more time to heal before sticking him back behind the plate.
Among the SAL Leaders
- RBIs: OF Eli Iorg is tied for 10th with 56.
Miscellany
- C Jose Lopez had six PBs in his first 17 games for the Legends.
- And speaking of Lex catchers, David Kady actually got a base hit on Saturday to make him 1-11 at the plate this season.
- RHP Ryan McKeller returned on Wednesday after 3+ months on the inactive list. He gave up a run in 2.2 innings of relief, and followed that up with a one-run/three inning relief outing on Friday.
- While the offense has been sucking, the defense has been no great shakes of late either. Lex had four errors in Wednesday’s game and followed that up with five miscues on Thursday. INF Mike Thompson was responsible for five of ’em and had seven errors on the week (at least in part as a result of playing some games out of position at 1B and 2B).
- LHP Brian Bogusevic started Wednesday’s game but with rain shutting the game down early he only went one inning.
- 2nd round pick RHP Sergio Perez is to be activated today.
Team Results
21-12, 1st–NYP Stedler, 1.5 games ahead of Oneonta.
The V-Cats went 5-2 on the week and have now won 12 of their last 15 games. Pitching remains this club’s calling card as the team ranks third in the 14-team NY-P League with a 2.94 ERA. The starting pitching remains particularly effective with a 1.68 ERA over the last 17 games.
Maximum Overdrive
LHP Chris Salamida. With five scoreless frames in Sunday’s start, the Troy area native (that’s where TRC plays their home games) has given up just two earned runs in 27.1 IP. Even stingier is the one earned run allowed in his last 21 innings.
LHP Cory Lapinski. Another four inning scoreless/hitless performance extends Lapinski’s scoreless streak to 17.2 innings. Moreover, he’s allowed just 4 measly hits during that stretch while striking out 20.
LHP David Qualben. Just 3 earned runs allowed on 17 hits in the Brooklyn native’s first 28 innings of work as a professional.
LHP Victor Garate. A relatively decent FB for a southpaw (low-90’s) coupled with a deceptive delivery means mucho whiffs for this 21-year old product of the Venezuelan Academy. The 5th-year pro struck out an incredible 53 batters in 32 IP at Greeneville last season and is off to a similar pace this year. Garate pitched a perfect three innings in his most recent outing, K’ing eight batters in the process. Over his last 10 IP, he’s allowed just one hit while whiffing 18. He’s struck out 37 in 23.2 IP on the year for TRC. Control is a problem as evidenced by the 26 walks last season in those 32 innings. Walks have come down dramatically this year but a bit more work is needed in that area.
Stuck in Neutral
Nobody we’d care to discuss.
Among the NY-P Leaders
- BA: OF Jordan Parraz ranks 3rd in the league at .352.
- OBP: Parraz is 1st at .461.
- SLG: Parraz is 4th at .524.
- OPS: Parraz leads at .985.
- Doubles: INF Eric Taylor (9), SS Tim Torres (
, and Parraz ( are all in the top ten. - SB: Parraz is tied for 7th with 8 while Torres is tied for 10th with 7.
- ERA: Salamida (0.66) and Qualben (0.96) and Salamida (0.81) are 2nd and 3rd, respectively.
- WHIP: Qualben (0.86) and Salamida (0.88) rank 2nd and 5th, respectively.
- Strikeouts: Garate is tied for 2nd with 37 while Lapinski is tied for 10th with 28.
Miscellany
- Lapinski, Ori and Bogusevic all played their HS ball in Illinois and were named after their senior seasons to the 2002 All-State team by the high school coaches association. Interestingly, Ori was named to the squad as a pitcher while Lapinski and Bogusevic were selected as outfielders. The latter two of course were two-way players in college.
- Two more runners nabbed during the week give TRC pitchers 22 pickoffs in 33 games (20 by southpaws).
Team Results
14-18, 3rd–Appy West, 9 games behind Elizabethton.
A 2-5 week was primarily courtesy of streaking Elizabethton as the first place Twins swept a three-game series from the G-Astros. The starting pitching delivered some solid numbers (1.85 ERA) over the seven-day stretch but was let down by the bully (5.19 ERA) and some lousy defense (12 errors).
Maximum Overdrive
LHP Polin Trinidad. Five near-perfect innings in Friday’s start extends his string of not giving up an earned run to 31.2 innings. Over that stretch, Trinidad has whiffed 32 while allowing just 17 baserunners.
LHP Antony Bello. This year’s 21st-round draft pick has an 0.86 ERA and an 0.90 WHIP over his last six outings, the last three of which were starts. The 20-year old played his collegiate ball at Nova Southeastern U, a D-II school that’s in the same conference as 2006 National Champions U of Tampa and 2005 National Champions Florida Southern which means he competed against both 2nd-round pick Perez and Tri-City’s Kyle DeYoung (a 31st-rounder this year). Perez played at Tampa while DeYoung was on the Florida Southern squad.
Stuck in Neutral
SS Timmy Johnson. Booted a ball in Sunday’s game to give him 10 errors in just 15 games this season. His plate misadventures continue with an .068 batting average and an incredible 15 strikeouts versus just 3 hits. Don’t think it’s too early to say that this former 7th round pick is looking like one of the major busts of the Astros’ 2005 draft.
Among the Appy Leaders
- INF Ronald Ramirez is tops in batting average (.367), slugging (.571), OPS (.992) and doubles (12). He’s second in OBP at .421 and tied for 8th in RBIs with 18.
- 3B Brandon Caipen is 10th in OBP at .399 and tied for 4th in SBs with 8.
- 1B Cirilo Cruz has gone down swinging (or looking, as they case may be) the most (37) but has also drawn the 4th-most walks (18).
- Trinidad leads the league in ERA (0.25) and WHIP (0.61). He’s tied for 1st in strikeouts (34).
- RHP Ryan Mitchell is 7th in WHIP at 1.11 and 9th in ERA at 2.84.
Miscellany
- Greeneville leads the 10-team Appalachian League with a team ERA of 3.35.