Season in Review – Greeneville Astros
Record: 25-43 (.368)
Hitting: .252/.330/.365 36HR 566K 228BB 69SB 30CS 58GIDP
Pitching: 5.16ERA 1.49WHIP 53HR 550K 236BB
Offensive Leaders
Jordan Scott – G/PA/AB/R/H/3B(tie)/AVG/TB(tie)/Sac
Chase Davidson – 2B/HR(11)/RBI/K(5-way-tie)/OBP/SLG/TB(tie)
Josh Magee – SB/CS/SF
Jose Monzon – BB/K(5-way-tie)
… others with 51 K’s were Rivera, Ovando & Moon
Pitching Leaders
Tyson Perez – GS(tie)/IP/K/BF(tie)
Chris Lee – GS(tie)/BB(tie)
Ricardo Batista – BB(tie)/WP/BF(tie)
Jamaine Cotton – W-L
Luis Ordosgoitti – ERA(4.50)/WHIP
Scott Zuloaga – G
Matison Smith – GF/Sv (tie w/Dando & Shewey)
As the season progresses
June: 2-8 (.200)
July: 13-17 (.433)
August: 10-18 (.357)
Outfield
June LF: Scott; CF: Monzon; RF: Wright
July LF: Scott(Wright); CF: Monzon(Scott/Sosa); RF: Ovando(Wright)
August LF: Scott; CF: Monzon; RF: Ovando
Garen Wright got some June/July starts while Ariel Ovando was injured, but fell off the radar in late July (injured? released?). Jordan Scott spent much of June with Lexington filling in for an injured Daniel Adamson before the Greeneville season started. The 19-year-old hit well enough (.337/.388/.423) to get a late promotion to Tri-City for the last few games of their season. The OF story, though, was 17-year-old Ariel Ovando, who hit .235/.283/.365 with 51K in 170AB in his pro debut. He also fielded his position well and had 6 OF assists. Jose Monzon started reasonably well (.281/.395/.313 in June), but slumped to .213 in July and .156 in August, finishing in a dead heat with Mario Mendoza at .200/.327/.253. Like Ovando, he had 51K in 170AB. Speedy Ruben Sosa split time between CF & 2B, swiping 12 of 15 bases in 39 games before a late-season call-up to Lexington.
Infield
June 1B: Davidson; 2B: Magee; 3B: Rivera; SS: Todd
July 1B: Wierzbicki(Sanchez) 2B: Magee/Sosa; 3B: Rivera; SS: Todd/Moon
August 1B: Wierzbicki/Sanchez 2B: Magee; 3B: Rivera; SS: Moon
Alex Todd is “Exhibit A” on why stats do not matter in the low minors. After tearing it up at a .159/.287/.215 rate and committing 13 errors in 31 games at SS, he was jumped all the way to Lancaster in early August. Chan Moon took over full time at that point. Having started the season 0-for-June, his bat came alive with regular playing time. His .256/.315/.366 line in 23 August games (committing only 4 errors) raised the 20-year-old Korean’s season totals to .207/.302/.293. 21-year-old Chase Davidson dominated from the start (.371/.452/.857 in June) and only cooled off slightly as the season progressed. An excess of corner infielders moved him to full-time DH before his August promotion to Tri City, but he still led the team by a wide margin with 11 HR (Jesse Wierzbicki’s 5 HR was second) and 44 RBI (to Jordon Scott’s 31). Wierzbicki also went 0-for-June in limited playing time, but was steady at about .280/.380/.470 the rest of the way. 19-year-old Ronald Sanchez is in his third year as a pro having spent the past two years in Kissimmee. His .167/.259/.181 line actually represents an improvement over 2010, but one XBH (a double) in 82 PA’s does not bode well. Darwin Rivera committed 30 errors in 57 games at 3B while hitting .224/.275/.327 in his US debut. He is obviously someone the Astros are pushing. Josh Magee had the celebrated consecutive-hit-streak in August that pushed his final line to .283/.346/.364 after hitting only .133 in June and .232 in July. He settled in as the regular at 2B and made steady improvements in all aspects of his game compared to 2010. Jean Batista joined from GCL in late August, getting a few games at each infield position and hitting .333/.348/.533 in 46 PA’s.
Catcher
June Alvarez/Genoves
July Alvarez(Genoves)
August Alvarez/Genoves
Luis Alvarez was coming back from an injury that cost him most of 2009 and all of 2010. In his delayed repeat of the Appy League, he put up pretty similar numbers … .271/.353/.376 compared to .271/.340/.396 in 2009. He also threw out 14 of 43 would-be base-stealers. Ernesto Genoves saw some time at DH and hit a respectable .280/.375/.464 for the year, but he tailed off badly at the end. He was hitting over .370 through the end of July before finishing with a .172/.273/.276 August line. Cristian Moronta also saw limited time behind the dish.
Rotation
June Perdomo/Lee/Ordosgoitti/Batista/Perez
July Lee/Ordosgoitti/Batista/Perez/Cotton
August Lee/Batista/Perez/Houser/Ramirez
Jose Perdomo was coming off a stellar 2010 season in the GCL, but was lost for the season after only 5 starts. Jamaine Cotton came out of the bullpen to take his spot in the rotation and pitched well enough to be called up to Tri-City in early August. Luis Ordosgoitti went down at the end of July, returning after rehab for a couple of appearances out of the bullpen at the end of the season. Adrian Houser and Francis Ramirez were moved up from the GCL to fill out the August rotation. Ramirez posted a 2.89 ERA and a 0.75 WHIP for the month. For the season both Ordosgoitti (42:7) and Perez (49:13) had solid K:BB ratios, while Lee & Batista (each 47:34) struggled with control. Of the group, only Perez is out of his teens, though, so there is plenty of time for these guys to develop.
Bullpen – by IP
June Cotton/Smith/Del Rio/Meiners/Propst/Quintero/Jones/Shewey
July Dando/Del Rio/Propst/Quintero/Meiners/Smith/Martin/Shewey/Jones/Zuloaga
August Meiners/Del Rio/Smith/Dando/Jones/Propst/Martin/Ordosgoitti/Quintero/Shewey/Zuloaga
Jeremiah Meiners finished with a 2.90 ERA, a 1.09 WHIP and a 42:10 K:BB ratio in 40+ innings before getting a late-season call-up to Lancaster. At 22, he dominated the NYP league and clearly needed to be challenged. Closer was by committee with Matison Smith, Zach Dando & Paris Shewey all ending up with 3 saves, though Shewey added a 1-5 record, a 9.82 ERA and a 1.91 WHIP. Mark Jones & Steve Martin also finished several games, as there were no apparent roles and 10 different relievers all got regular work. However, none were teenagers and apart from Meiners, only undrafted free agent Matison Smith stood out statistically with a 2.65 ERA and a 45:9 K:BB ratio in 34 IP.
In sum: This was another pretty bad team, but at least to my unpracticed eye, there seems to be some signs of life. Some of the teens are still genuine prospects (Ovando, Scott, Magee, J.Batista, R.Batista, Houser, Ramirez, Ordosgoitti) and some of the older guys were pushed to higher levels to see how they respond (Todd, Davidson, Sosa, Meiners, Cotton). I have to repeat the caveat, though … stats, especially poor stats, are pretty meaningless at this level.