Team Results
80-56, 1st–PCL American South, 10 games ahead of Oklahoma.
The Express wrapped up the division title with a 4-3 week. In the first round of the PCL playoffs, RR will take on the winner of the American North. The current leader of that division is Nashville, against whom Round Rock is 8-4 this season.
Maximum Overdrive
INF Joe McEwing. Batting .372 (48-129) over his last 32 games and is .307/.344/.440 on the year.
INF Brooks Conrad. Has a .346 batting average (9-26) with five yacks and 11 runs driven in over his last seven games. Currently .262/.325/.513 for the season.
RHP Ezequiel Astacio. Three consecutive W’s added to his record as a result of an 0.90 ERA and 1.15 WHIP over his last three starts.
Stuck in Neutral
UTIL Eric Bruntlett. Batting just .219 (16-73) in the 22 games since being demoted.
Broke Down/Under Repair
1B Royce Huffman. On DL with the hand injury.
Among the PCL Leaders
- Conrad is 1st in extra-base hits (72), 1st in triples (15), tied for 1st in doubles (37), tied for 10th in homers (20), 7th in RBIs (85) and 2nd in runs scored (90).
- INF Cody Ransom is tied for 7th with 21 home runs.
- OF Charlton Jimerson is 10th in extra-base hits (50), tied for 9th in triples (6), and 6th in SBs (28).
- RHP Travis Driskill (14) is tied for 7th in saves and RHP Roberto Giron (13) is tied for 10th.
- RHP Jared Gothreaux has given up the 7th-most gopher balls (19).
Miscellany
- One and counting: Jimerson whiffed seven times during the week and with 183 strikeouts on the year is just one K away from etching his name in the PCL record book.
- RR hurlers are second in the 16-team PCL with a collective 3.80 ERA.
Team Results
33-30, 3rd (2nd half)–Texas League South, 3.5 games behind Midland. (74-58, Overall)
Frisco came to Corpus Christi at the beginning of the week red-hot having won 19 of its previous 23 games. But the Hooks cooled ’em off by taking three of the four games. CC then hit the road for a crucial 4-game series with Midland but dropped the first two games on Saturday and Sunday and finished 3-3 on the week.
Maximum Overdrive
RHP Juan Gutierrez. Has thrown nine shutout innings with just two hits allowed over three starts since coming back from the DL after missing six weeks with the fatigued arm. In his latest start on Wednesday versus that smokin’ Frisco club, he was on a 4 inning/60-pitch count limit and ended up tossing 4 frames (throwing 62 pitches) of no-hit ball. Guti’s 3.19 ERA on the year would rank 3rd in the Texas League had he enough innings to qualify. He’s about 10 innings shy of the necessary amount and unlikely to make that up by season’s end.
RHP Chad Reineke. Since being moved to the bullpen, the Miami of Ohio-ex has a 2.18 ERA and 0.82 WHIP in 20.2 IP.
RHP Chance Douglass. Notched a 1.71 ERA and an 0.86 WHIP over his last three starts (21 IP).
3B Mark Saccomanno. Batting .308 (28-91) with eight longballs, three triples, three doubles and 25 RBIs over his last 25 games. Had a 5-RBI game in the loss to the RockHounds on Sunday. Has .235/.293/.493 numbers for all of ’06.
C Brian Peterson. Batting .333 (20-60) in the 18 games since joining the Hooks.
OF Tike Redman. Batting .338 (25-74) in his 20 games as a Hook with a .443 OBP and 15 runs scored. The negative side of the ledger shows just three extra-base hits and only five RBIs.
Stuck in Neutral
LHP Carlos Hernandez. Blasted for 13 runs on 13 hits and 10 walks in his first 9.2 innings of work for the Hooks.
RHP Ronnie Martinez. Slapped around to the tune of an 8.72 ERA and 1.98 WHIP over his last five starts.
Broke Down/Under Repair
Nobody.
Among the Texas League Leaders
- 2B Jonny Ash (.323) is 5th in batting average while OF Josh Anderson (.312) is 9th.
- OF Hunter Pence is 4th in homers (28), tied for 5th in RBIs (94), 5th in slugging (.549), 4th in OPS (.911) and 2nd in triples (
. - INF Josh Bonifay is tied for 7th in longballs with 19.
- Ash is tied for 10th in triples with 5.
- Pence (92) and Anderson (83) are 3rd and 6th, respectively, in runs scored.
- Anderson leads in steals (42) but has also been thrown out the most times (13).
- Douglass is 1st in WHIP (1.20), 3rd in ERA (3.32), tied for 10th in strikeouts (98), and leads the league with two shutouts.
- RHP Josh Miller is tied for 9th in ERA (4.25), tied for 8th in WHIP (1.37) and tied with Douglass for 10th in strikeouts.
- RHP Paul Estrada is 2nd in the TL with 129 strikeouts while Guti (103) is 7th.
- Estrada is 4th with 15 saves.
Miscellany
- Greg Rajan of the CC Callet-Times reports that Reineke, who was not one of the Astros’ minor leaguers shown on the preliminary roster for the Arizona Fall League, is nonetheless being considered by the organization as a possibility to pitch in that league.
- A rough week pitching-wise inflated things a bit but the Hooks are still 1st in the 8-team Texas League with a 3.93 team ERA.
Team Results
42-20, 1st (2nd Half)–Carolina League Southern, 8 games ahead of Myrtle Beach. (74-58, Overall)
The hottest team in baseball went 6-0 on the week and extended the win streak to 12 straight. The magic number for clinching the second-half Southern division stands at just one. All six of the wins were on the road to up Salem’s incredible road record in the second half to 27-5. The 12-game winning streak is only the second time that’s been done in the Carolina League since 1982 and just the 10th time overall in the 62-year history of the CL.
Both the offense and the pitching was on fire during the week. The Avalanche scored an average of 7.3 runs a game, far above their season average of 4.1 runs a game. But it was the guys on the mound who really shone, tossing two shutouts and compiling a 1.33 ERA over the six games.
Maximum Overdrive
OF Beau Torbert. Has a .394 BA (26-66) over his last 18 games with 18 runs driven in. His current numbers on the year are .309/.350/.413.
1B/3B/DH Neil Sellers. Batting .369 (24-65) over his last 15 games. Has belted nine two-baggers over his last 11 games. Currently .275/.352/.388 on the season.
RHP Jimmy Barthmaier. Has progessively gotten better since mid-July. The 22-year old Georgia native has a 1.61 ERA and 1.07 WHIP over his last nine starts. Better yet, he’s notched wins in each of his last six starts and has a 1.18 ERA over that span. And topping even that, he hasn’t allowed a run over his last 19 innings.
LHP Jeff Wigdahl. Has an 0.59 ERA over his last 30.2 innings which includes an ongoing scoreless streak of 19 IP.
RHP Rory Shortell. Garnered wins in each of his last three starts. Might have something to do with the 2.41 ERA he’s put up over that stretch. With 100 IP on the season, he’s a handful of innings away from making the league’s top ten in ERA. His 3.24 ERA would currently rank 6th in the Carolina League if he did qualify.
RHP Felipe Paulino. Mimicking Shortell with three wins in his latest three starts, putting up a 1.89 ERA and 1.00 WHIP to achieve it.
RHP Tip Fairchild. Picked up W’s in his latest two starts by allowing a total of just one run on eight hits and no walks over 14 IP. His GO/FO ratio for the two games was 3.71.
RHP Evan Englebrook. The Shippensburg University-ex has a 1.31 ERA over his latest 20.2 innings of work with a 26:6 strikeout to walk ratio over that period. Similar to Shortell, he lacks just a few innings from qualifying for the top ten in ERA. His 3.33 mark would rank him 7th-best in the league. Both he and Shortell would both rank in the top ten in WHIP as well.
LHP Enyelbert Soto. The 24-year old Venezuelan has an 0.88 ERA and a 1.17 WHIP over his last 19 games (30.2 IP).
SS Edwin Maysonet. The slick-fielding infielder out of Puerto Rico is batting at a .424 clip (14-33) over his last 11 games. Racheted it up even further of late as he’s 8-13 over his last 4 games with 4 doubles, 2 homers and 8 RBIs.
Stuck in Neutral
C Lou Santangelo. Batting only .125 (5-40) in his last 10 games.
Broke Down/Under Repair
RHP Robert Stiehl. On DL with a broken left fibula and out the remainder of the season.
Among the Carolina League Leaders
- Torbert is 2nd in batting average at .309, tied for 6th with 31 two-baggers and tied for 7th with 66 runs scored.
- OF Frankie Caraballo is 1st in extra-base hits (56), 2nd in doubles (38), tied for 10th in yacks (14), tied for 7th in slugging (.451) and 10th in RBIs (65).
- Sellers is 1st in doubles with 39.
- Santangelo is 2nd in homers with 18, tied for 9th in triples with 5, and 3rd in slugging at .474.
- INF Drew Sutton is tied with Caraballo for 10th in longballs, 8th in OBP (.362) and 10th in OPS (.789).
- Maysonnet is tied with Torbert for 6th in doubles.
- Caraballo (118), Santangelo (110) and OF Ervin Alcantara (100) remain in the top ten in strikeouts.
- Barthmaier is 8th in ERA (3.70), 1st in strikeouts (132), and tied for 2nd in wins (11) but also leads the league in walks (67).
- RHP Felipe Paulino has the 6th-most free passes (56).
- RHP Rodrigo Escobar remains 3rd in saves (17).
Miscellany
- Primary reason for the 12-game winning streak: the Salem starting pitchers. The starters have compiled a 1.30 ERA during the streak.
- The bully has allowed just one run over their last 18 innings of work.
- With all the fine pitching during the week, Salem lowered its ERA on the season to 3.38. That’s good enough for 1st place in the 8-team Carolina League.
- Caraballo has 10 RBIs over the last nine games.
Quoting
Assistant GM Ricky Bennett on Barthmaier:
“Early in the year, he was getting ahead of a lot of hitters and wasn’t making pitches to put hitters away. He’s really throwing the ball well. (In a recent start) he was 91 to 94 (mph) consistently with good stuff.”
Team Results
26-37, 6th (2nd half)–SAL Northern, 17.5 games behind Lakewood. (70-62, Overall)
A 3-4 week for the Legends that saw the club score 3 runs or less in five of the games. Not surprisingly, their record in those five games was just 1-4.
Maximum Overdrive
RHP Brad James. Has an 0.79 ERA and 1.06 WHIP over his last 14 games (80 IP). He also hasn’t allowed an earned run in his last 14 innings.
LHP Brian Bogusevic. Is the Tulane-ex finally showing some of the talent which resulted in his being drafted in the 1st round last year? Mebbe. Bogusevic has a 2.20 ERA and 1.10 WHIP over his last 3 starts (16.1 IP). Not much of an extended stretch over which to get excited about, but if he keeps it up over his final start or two then he’ll have something nice to build on going into next season.
LHP Chris Blazek. The reliever hasn’t allowed an earned run over his last 17.1 IP. Over his last 14 games (28.2 IP), has an 0.31 ERA and 1.08 WHIP.
Stuck in Neutral
OF Mitch Einertson. Batting just .167 (46-275) over his last 80 games and an even worse .138 (11-80) over his last 24 games.
Broke Down/Under Repair
RHP Levi Romero. On DL and out for season with triceps tendinitis.
RHP Brandon Stricklen. On DL and out for season with partially torn labrum.
SS Tommy Manzella. Has been out with a left knee contusion since fouling a ball off that area in the game a week ago Friday.
Among the SAL Leaders
- OF Eli Iorg is 5th with 83 RBIs, tied for 8th with 15 HRs and is 6th with 39 SBs.
- RHP Garrett Murdy is 9th with a 3.23 ERA.
Miscellany
- Lexington’s 3.62 team ERA is good for 5th in the 16-team SAL.
Quoting
Bennett on Iorg’s early season struggles:
“Eli was putting so much pressure on himself to hit .300 and go to the next level (that) he was swinging at everything.”
Team Results
40-24, 1st–NYP Stedler, 5 games ahead of Oneonta.
The ValleyCats rode some some superb pitching to go 5-1 on the week. With 11 games left to play (Sunday’s rainout versus Vermont will not be made up), Tri-City’s magic number for clinching the Stedler division title is seven.
Maximum Overdrive
LHP Chris Salamida. His latest outing was a six inning scoreless appearance Friday night to pick up the victory over Lowell. The W gave Salamida his ninth straight win and extended his scoreless streak to 17 frames.
LHP David Qualben. Has a 1.46 ERA and 0.93 WHIP in has last four starts (24.2 IP). And the man with the superb pickoff move has nabbed baserunners in each of those four starts and in one of those games he erased two. The southpaw has erased 10 in his 12 starts this season, twice nabbing a pair of runners in the same game.
RHP Bryan Hallberg. Qualben’s teammate at Pace University has a 1.95 ERA and 1.01 WHIP over his last five starts.
LHP Victor Garate. Extended his scoreless streak to 19.1 innings while over his last 22.2 IP he’s yielded just seven hits and has a 38:10 strikeout to walk ratio.
LHP Cory Lapinski. Wild Child hasn’t allowed any runs over his last 8.1 IP despite surrendering nine walks (but has issued just one BB in his last 5 innings). On the year, last year’s 11th-round pick has been almost untouchable in terms of opposing bats with a mere 12 hits given up in 34.1 frames. Of course, part of the reason is that hitters have little to swing at as evidenced by the 28 walks. Lapinski has done a good job of limiting the damage and has a 2.10 ERA on the year.
UTIL Eric Taylor. Blistering the ball at a .444 pace (16-36) during his current 9-game hitting streak. The 30th-round pick out of UCLA hasn’t shown much ability to drive in runs with just 17 RBIs in 58 games this season.
OF Jordan Parraz. Batting .378 (34-90) over his last 26 games and like Taylor is currently on a 9-game hitting streak. Parraz has drawn 32 walks this season (second on the team) versus just 12 last year for Tri-City. His .343/.439/.507 numbers on the season look awfully darn sweet, though it woulda been a bit nicer had he put them up last season in his first exposure to the NY-Penn.
Stuck in Neutral
Nobody we’d care to discuss.
Among the NY-P Leaders
- Parraz is 2nd in batting average, 1st in OBP, 2nd in slugging, 1st in OPS, tied for 9th in home runs (5), tied for 5th in doubles (16), 2nd in SBs (21), and 3rd in runs scored (39).
- Taylor is tied for 10th in BA (.300), 10th in OBP (.373), tied with Parraz for 5th in doubles, and is 7th in runs scored (34).
- ERA: Salamida (0.74) and Qualben (1.81) are 1st and 3rd, respectively.
- WHIP: Salamida (0.95) ranks 6th while Qualben (0.99) ranks 10th.
- Strikeouts: Garate is 9th with 57.
- Wins: Salamida is top dog.
- Walks: Lapinski is tied for 3rd-most with 28.
- Saves: Garate is tied for 8th with 8.
Miscellany
- TRC hurlers tossed three shutouts during the week, giving them nine blankings for the season (second in the league behind Brooklyn). The team ERA improved to 3.01 which is good for 3rd in the 14-team league.
- RHP Bud Norris struck out a franchise record 13 hitters in just five innings of work in his start on Saturday night. After giving up a single and double to lead off the the 1st inning, Norris retired 13 of the next 16 batters he faced via the whiff. At one point, he struck out nine in a row.
- 8th-rounder OF Jimmy Van Ostrand hit a grand slam Tuesday night, thereby doubling his RBI total for the season.
- The V-Cats have hit 19 home runs in August, the highest monthly total for any team in the NY-Penn this season. Despite a slow start in that department (no longballs were hit until game #13), the club now leads the league with 30 yacks.
- Continuing race to the bottom: SS Tim Torres has just four hits in his last 42 at-bats while OF Nick Moresi (3rd-rounder) has just five hits in his last 48 ABs.
- Moresi at .176 on the year has the lowest batting average in the league (minimum of 172 plate appearances).
- Three more pickoffs during the week increases the V-Cat hurlers’ season total to 37 in 64 games (33 by LHPs).
Quoting
Manager Gregg Langbehn on the difference between this season and last for Parraz:
“The biggest thing is his consistency and plate discipline, and his walks show that. He’s got the tools, it’s just a matter of staying consistent.”
Team Results
32-32, 3rd–Appy West, 7.5 games behind Elizabethton.
Holy crap, after a tremendous 5-1 week the G-Astros actually have made it to .500. And with this week’s final three games of the season at home versus Kingsport, they have a decent shot at finishing on the plus side. Greeneville has a 4-2 record this season versus the baby Mets.
Maximum Overdrive
LHP Sergio Severino. Has a 1.04 ERA and an 0.81 WHIP over his last 6 starts (34.2 IP), whiffing 59 in the process.
RHP Carlos Ladeuth. The Columbian reliever is working on a string of 20 straight innings in which he hasn’t given up an earned run. Has a nifty 0.70 WHIP over that stretch with 17 punchouts.
RHP Reid Kelly. Has two wins and two saves over his last four outings, a span of 7.2 innings in which he hasn’t been scored on while allowing just three baserunners and striking out seven. The 19-year old out of Scottsdale was signed in May as a DFE, having been taken in the 33rd round in 2005.
LHP Antony Bello. The 20-year old southpaw has a 1.37 ERA over his last four appearances (19.2 IP), accomplishing that despite the less than sterling 1.47 WHIP over that period.
Stuck in Neutral
SS Timmy Johnson. Went 0-5 at the plate and made one one error in the two games he played in during the week (giving him 19 miscues in 26 ballgames). With the batting average currently at .103, can he finish the season above the “Johnson line”?
Among the Appy Leaders
- INF Ronald Ramirez is tied for 9th in batting average (.314) and is 2nd in doubles (20).
- C Ralphie Henriquez is 9th with 36 RBIs.
- 3B Brandon Caipen is tied for 4th in SBs with 13 and tied for 7th with 38 runs scored.
- INF Reinaldo Ramirez is tied for 1st in triples (5) and tied for 8th in swipes (11).
- 1B Cirilo Cruz (74), Henriquez (54), OF Andy Darnell (50) and OF Allen Langdon (49) are all in the top ten in being struck out.
- LHP Polin Trinidad is 3rd in ERA (1.96), 2nd in WHIP (0.90) and 5th in strikeouts (63).
- Severino is 6th in ERA (2.90), 6th in WHIP (1.13), 1st in strikeouts (90) and has issued the 3rd-most walks (27).
- RHP Santo Luis is 3rd with 10 saves.
Miscellany
- As was noted previously, Trinidad and Ronald Ramirez were selected to the end of year Appy League All-Star team to give the G-Astros two of the sixteen slots on the squad.
- Greeneville’s team ERA of 3.26 remains the best in the 10-team Appy League. The Danville Braves are a distant second with a 3.64 ERA.