The games take second fiddle to the player news today, let’s start our trip around the farm in Salem.
Salem
The Avs took an 8-4 loss last night. Pankovits had this to say about starter Joel Santo
“In his last two or three outings he’s pitched pretty well,” Pankovits said. “He fell behind but he’s been able to make some pitches to put people away. Tonight he wasn’t able to do that.
“Even though he has a good arm and he’s able to throw in the low 90s, you’ve still got to be able to command your pitches.”
Erick Abreu will start Thursday’s game for Polin Trinidad who was called up to Corpus Christi. Sergio Severino will join the Avs from Lexington.
Corpus Christi
Brad James suffered his first defeat of the month of May as the Hooks lost their forth straight game and their seventh out of their last eight.
Greg Rajan, beat writer for the Corpus Christi Caller, has a nice piece on Brian Bogusevic and expectations. Some of the highlights:
Brian B on the development process:
“It’s hard — it really is hard,” Bogusevic said of the lack of results. “But there’s so much talk (from) the coaching staff and (roving instructors) about how it’s a long process and it’s about the method and not the results. But you want to see results — everybody wants to see results. It is kind of a hard thing to handle, but you really have to buy into the system and trust it. If you have a plan, you’re sticking to it and you’re progressing within that plan, (then) you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing.”
Pitching Coach Stan Boroski:
I know sometimes the results may not point that out, but as you’re watching him and how he goes about his business, he’s starting to figure out that he doesn’t have to overdo things. Just because he’s a level higher than he was most of the year last year, pitching is still pitching and if he does what he has to do, the results will start taking care of themselves.”
Ricky Bennett:
“Is he where he needs to be? No — none of our guys are,” Astros farm director Ricky Bennett said. “But he’s working hard and he’s making progress. For guys who convert themselves exclusively to pitching, it takes a couple of years for them to really feel like they know how to pitch and know what it takes to get their body physically ready to pitch.
Round Rock
Chad Reineke pitched 7 shut out innings and Round Rock won 5-1. Fernando Nieve pitched the final two innings. He gave up the run in the 9th on two hits and a walk but still earned the save.
Round Rock will be getting some pitching help as Jorge Sosa was signed to a minor league deal by the Astros and assigned to the Express.
“In my opinion, we’ve got a big league pitching coach in (Class AAA) in Burt Hooton,” general manager Ed Wade said. “I think Burt really helped Tim Byrdak. We just thought if we had a chance to get an experienced arm like Jorge’s, we thought we’d do that. No strings attached. We’ll see what kind of progress he makes.”
Lexington had the night off.