Stories of the Night Jordan Lyles 2, Shelby Miller 0 What a night for Fernando Martinez. Ditto for Jose Cisnero. I don't have to write about Lancaster because they were rained out. Lexington walks off as winners for once. Dayan Diaz is nails. Recap Jordan Lyles once again got the better of Shelby Miller as OKC bludgeoned Memphis by a score of 11-3. Lyles went 7 innings, allowing 2 runs on 3 hits (2-run homer), did not walk a batter, and struck out 7. He induced 10 groundouts and 1 fly out, and also smacked a 2-run double in the 6th. The Redhawks actually found themselves down 2-0 after the 1st inning courtesy of a Ryan Jackson homer, but it was all OKC after that. Fernando Martinez went 2-5 with 2 homers; a 2-run homer in the 5th, and a grand slam in the 8th to finish off a dominating offensive display. Should Brian Bogusevic be looking over his shoulder a bit? Angel Sanchez went 3-5 with a solo homer, of all things, that put OKC on the board in the 4th inning. He also scored 3 times. The recently demoted Brian Bixler played left field and went 4-5 with an RBI single. And finally, Brett Wallace went 3-5 with a run scored. Another top pitching prospect for NW Arkansas was defeated by Corpus Christi tonight; the Hooks put Noel Arguelles to the sword in a 12-2 romp. OK, 7 of those runs came in the 9th. It was a scoreless game until the 3rd, when T.J. Steele hit a sac fly and Chris Wallace hit a 2-run double. Jake Goebbert went 2-4 with 2 doubles and 3 RBIs. Brandon Barnes finished 3-5 with a 2-run double of his own and scored twice. Who leads the Hooks in RBIs? Jose Martinez, that's who. He had an RBI single in the 5th to bring that total to 11. Austin Wates added a 2-run single to extend his 7-game hitting streak to open the season. Jose Cisnero was stellar tonight; in 6 scoreless innings, he allowed 3 hits, walked 2, and struck out 7. He also had a wild pitch, but that didn't affect the proceedings much. What stood out is that he walked only 2 batters tonight and was on top of his game. Jonathan Singleton had the night off, if you were wondering. Lancaster was rained out. They will make up this game with Lake Elsinore as part of a doubleheader on May 11. Why it won't be made up tomorrow, I'll probably never know. Lexington finally found themselves walking off winners, as an Alex Todd solo homer ensured that it would happen, by a score of 6-5 over Kannapolis in 11 innings. Todd finished 3-6 and scored twice. He looks like he's got the edge over Jimmy Howick at short in the early stages of the season. The Legends scored 5 in the 6th to take a 5-3 lead. Zach Johnson hit a sac fly scoring Delino DeShields. The next batter, Matt Duffy, hit a 2-run single scoring Todd and Jordan Scott. And finally, Justin Gominsky hit a line-drive RBI single that sent Tyler Burnett home. Gominsky finished 2-5. Jordan Scott failed to get a hit for the first time this season. He did draw 2 walks, though. Duffy had a nice bounceback game, going 3-5 with the 2-run single. However, Murilo Gouvea was unable to hold the lead in the 8th as he served up a solo homer to Leighton Pangilinan and committed an error trying to pick off Keenyn Walker at 2nd, resulting in Rangel Ravelo scoring the tying run. He denied Jonas Dufek from getting the win. Dufek went 5 innings, allowing 2 runs on 6 hits, didn't walk a man, and struck out 6. Instead, the win went to Dayan Diaz, who was untouchable in 3 scoreless innings of relief. He allowed 1 hit, walked 1, and fanned 5.
Fernando Martinez is still just 23. This was his career path: Age 17: A-Ball, A-Advanced Age 18: AA (missed time) Age 19: AA (missed time) Age 20: AAA, MLB Age 21: AAA, MLB Age 22: AAA, MLB The Mets are freaking insane. What if instead, he played a full season worth of plate appearances at each level? He would still have the scary injury history, most likely. But, his career path would be normal and he would probably still be crushing the ball (if not even moreso) right now and would be a top 20 prospect in baseball. Instead, his development curve has been wild and rushed and nobody thinks of him as a prospect anymore, despite the fact that he's actually a bit on the young side for AAA. Disappointing and disgusting, but hopefully he can get his career back on track and become a starting corner outfielder for the Astros.
I like the talent Fernando Martinez can bring to the table. He should be pushing for a major league roster spot this year.
Is cosart hurt? I noticed that he was scratched from his previous start but couldnt find a reason online.
I'm hoping to see him in Corpus by July. However, the Corpus manager is known to give everyone a day off, regardless of fatigue level. So, expect him to sit in favor of T.J. Steele at random times.
He had a blister. He has been known to have blisters at times the past few years, nothing new, nothing to worry about.
That coach is horrible...I don't like seeing our top prospect, Singleton, get benched for Kody Hinze.
Stories of the Night OKC on a tear!!! Austin Wates' hit streak over; Brett Oberholtzer struggles in Corpus Christi loss George Springer. That is all. Nick Tropeano looking to get on the fast track?? Recap OKC, down 3-0 to Memphis after 4 innings, scored 4 unanswered to rally for the 4-3 victory. Brian Bixler was 2-3 with a solo homer in the 5th that put the Redhawks on the board. Scott Moore, pinch-hitting for Henry Sosa, hit the game-tying 2-run homer. After Justin Ruggiano doubled in the 9th inning, he came around to score on an error as Mike Hessman reached 1st safely. Henry Sosa pitched 5 innings, allowing 3 runs (2 earned) on 6 hits, walking 1 and striking out 5. The bullpen was fantastic, pitching 4 hitless innings, allowing only 1 walk, and struck out 6. Sergio Perez struck out 2 in his 2 perfect innings. Xavier Cedeno got the win by pitching a perfect 8th, striking out 2. And Jose Valdez walked a batter in the 9th, but closed the door rather quickly by getting Cedric Hunter to ground out to end the game. He got the save and also struck out 2. Injury news: Brett Wallace left in the 3rd with an oblique strain. Brett Oberholtzer's rough start to the season continued tonight as Corpus fell to NW Arkansas 9-7. In 4 1/3, he allowed 7 runs (6 earned) on 9 hits (3-run homer and a solo homer) and struck out 2. Brandon Barnes went 2-4 with 2 RBI doubles. Jake Goebbert went 2-5 with an RBI single and scored twice. Jose Martinez had 2 sacrifice flies. Oberholtzer escaped without a decision as the Hooks tied the game at 7 after the 5th inning. Unfortunately, Jonnathan Aristil served up a tiebreaking solo homer to Christian Colon the very next inning. The Naturals added an additional run off of Arcenio Leon in the 8th, and that was the ballgame. Too bad, because Aristil pitched rather well despite getting tagged with the loss. A cold night in Lancaster wasn't enough to silence the Jethawks bats, as Jio Mier, Erik Castro, and George Springer went deep in a 4-1 victory over Lake Elsinore. The homers accounted for 50% of the Jethawks hits (they had 6). Read as: they constituted the entire offense for Lancaster tonight. Mier led off the bottom of the 1st with his homer. After a Rafael Valenzuela single, Springer sent one out to left for his 2nd homer of the year. Castro swatted his 2nd in as many nights in the 5th. Bobby Doran turned in a terrific start, throwing 7 shutout innings, allowing 7 hits and fanning 7. I didn't want to put this part in because it would have come off as me being a real killjoy, but I made a promise to recap everything, whether good or bad. Well, here goes: Springer also dropped a ball in the 9th that would have ended the game and would have preserved the shutout. Instead, it went down as an error charged to him and an unearned run for Jorge De Leon. Other than that, I eagerly await George Springer's promotion to Corpus Christi, but not the random days off that he'll be getting once he's there. Also, Domingo Santana should be coming off the DL sometime next week. The lowlight belonged to Telvin Nash, who went 0-2 with a walk and 2 strikeouts. Nick Tropeano is a pretty good pitcher, if you haven't heard. After blowing away Hagerstown in his season debut out of the bullpen, he took the mound against Kannapolis as the starter tonight and was just as dominant as he was in relief, throwing 6 shutout innings, allowing 4 hits, walking 2, and striking out 8. The bad news was... the Lexington offense was blanked by Intimidators starter Kevin Vance for 6 innings as well. Tropeano was relieved by Nathan Pettus in the 7th. He got Keenyn Walker to ground out, then Mark Haddow broke a scoreless tie by going deep. Bummer. Lexington fell 3-1 as an Alex Todd sac fly in the 8th was the lone run for them tonight. The Legends were held to 5 hits; Roberto Pena had the only extra-base hit, a double in the 7th. Delino DeShields scored the only run; he went 1-3, drew a walk, stole his 5th base, and struck out twice. Pettus took the loss; he finished the game, allowed all 3 Kannapolis runs (2 earned) on 4 hits (Haddow-ed). He walked 1 and struck out 2. Eh, not that mad. Tropeano hasn't missed a beat since becoming a professional and is gunning for a midseason promotion. Where, I don't know, but I feel like he will more than hold his own in Lancaster.
I was checking Fernando Martinez's career path, and It's remarkable how poorly he was handed. They kept promoting him, even before he was having success at his current level. He's was at AA, which is effectively where many major league ready prospects are, by 18 years old, with only 345 professional plate appearences. If he was an american he would have still been in high school, and they had him in AA, he was in the bigs by 20, despite only having minor success at the higher levels. He could end up being the steal of the offseason if he can shake that injury bug.
I doubt that Springer moves to CC this year. I think you are more likely to see Tropeano in AA than Springer. Springer has 9 strikeouts to only 10 hits. Lets not get ahead of ourselves.
Springer will be turning 23 this year, and was just paid the highest bonus of any Astros draft pick. If he continues to hit at hitter friendly Lancaster, the Astros HAVE to promote him to higher level competition ASAP.
It will be a huge story if Springer does not make Corpus at least by this year. He is already old for his current level. Heck he isn't exactly young even for Corpus Christi. If you wait until next year to promote, then another year for OKC, then he is on the Bogusevic plan at that point.
They've already skipped a level with him, and isn't really hitting impressively at hitter friendly Lancaster. .278/.333/.500 is all he is hitting. There is zero reason to rush him. If he starts dominating Lancaster, you make the move, but right now he is only off to a decent start and still showing a lot of swing and miss.
He isn't old for A+ ball, average age is about 23, while Springer is 22. Why do you assume it is another year to OKC, or that he will even play in OKC at all? Would you say Hunter Pence was too slowly brought along? Bogey was a pitcher for 3 years before becoming an OF. He was starting over at 24.
Pence and Springer are on totally different tracks. Pence spent an entire season dominating low A ball while the Astros were trying to figure out what they had (or if they had something special). Springer is already being considered "special" (and by that, I just mean somebody who can hit MLB pitching... nothing more or less)... now he just has to hold his own at each level. My expectation would be for him to advance to AA at some point this season, and then start next year either at AA or AAA with the expectation to be in the big leagues by the end of the season. Anything less would be a set-back. If he's not in the big leagues by 23, I'd be suprised. This is why I really hope the front office picks a YOUNG YOUNG YOUNG position player with the first overall pick. We don't need a pitcher who's arm is about as best as its going to be right now in his college years.
That average age is taking into consideration all of the non-prospects down there. The average age for big time prospects in High A ball is 19-20, with an occasional outlier like Gary Brown for the Giants. Go look at Baseball America's top 100 prospects and you will find very few that have an ETA in the majors that will put them past 23 years old. If Springer is not in the majors by the end of 2013, it will be surprising.
