At what point is it OK to think he might be better than Jon Singleton? Abreu at least has some track record to think he may not be dog s**t all season
Objectively... you don't have very many reasons other than hope to believe Loperfido is better than Singelton. Last season Singleton crushed AAA pitching. He had a .289 avg, .409 OBP, .976 OPS, and 22 HRS in 82 games. Loperfido hasn't come close to those numbers in AAA. He is just the new shiny toy around here like Dirden was last spring.
I think 3 IP , 7 hits, 6 runs, 1 walk, 1 hr. Not great. Hopefully just getting the kinks out. A LOT OF KINKS.
Whitley sat 97-98 with his fastball today. Gave up a HR on a 1-2 curveball that was just barely in the zone. Seems like a good debut for him. Dubin was up to 96 on his fastball. I think his injury was worse so maybe he’ll pick up that 1-2 mph to get back to the 98-99 he was throwing at his peak.
Is there honestly any hope for Whitley anymore? I mean I guess there could be some hope if he stays healthy maybe?
As long as he’s still in the organization, there’s hope. But the odds are EXTREMELY low at this point that he becomes a good big league pitcher. Very few guys with his injury history and track record end up panning out.
Luis Baez hit his second home run of the year for Asheville in their 12-5 win over Winston-Salem. Jose Guedez allowed a hit, walked four, and struck out seven in 4.2 innings.