What are everyone's thoughts on Bushue and Houser? Former high round picks that haven't made as much noice as Folty and Co.
Bushue? Meh. Nice to see him healthy, but he'll need to dominate the NYPL to return to the prospect conversation.
George Springer, cf, Astros: The Minor League Player of the Year race is going to be interesting, with Byron Buxton, Miguel Sano, Maikel Franco, Taijuan Walker and Archie Bradley among a group of solid contenders for the award. But Triple-A Oklahoma City’s Springer is making a pretty strong case for being the frontrunner with two months of the season to go. Springer homered again at Round Rock on Wednesday, moving into second place in the minors with his 26th home run overall. (Hickory’s Ryan Rua leads all the minors with 28.) The home run was Springer’s fifth in the past four games and extended his now 13-game hitting streak. He still strikes out a lot (nine times in 33 at-bats this month), but Springer has also drawn seven walks in that time. Combine those walks with his .417 average since his promotion to Triple-A and you get an extremely healthy .525 OBP. And of course, when Springer reaches base, he’s more dangerous than your average slugger. He has 28 steals in 34 attempts this year. http://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/prospect-notebook-henry-urrutia-goes-five-for-five/
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Just met Mankind (Mick Foley) but no mr. Socko! <a href="http://t.co/OMBSyTCDc9">pic.twitter.com/OMBSyTCDc9</a></p>— Jordan Jankowski (@JJ_Jankowski33) <a href="https://twitter.com/JJ_Jankowski33/statuses/355464266893111296">July 11, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Ok. Headache tonight, and I'd like to sleep early for once. Who wants to recap tonight? Oh, I see you're all tripping over yourselves for this.
Thursday's Headliners Recap NOLA 11, OKC 0 It has been a rough start in OKC for Jake Buchanan. Giving up 5ER/5R, Buc was still able to go 7IP while only giving up 8 hits and a walk. A fourth inning 2-run shot was the only big damage he gave up, but he did sit down 8 on strike outs. Runs aside, this appeared to be a good start for JB, and hopefully we can see his numbers go down in OKC soon. Jose Valdez pitched an inning and a third and did his usual suck-ass-ness: SIX RUNS with three of those earned and five hits while walking two. He created more damage in his inning and a third than JB did all night... I've seen enough of the former big leaguer. Rhiner Cruz pitched a "perfect" 2/3 inning. As you can imagine in a shut out, it was a quiet night hitting. Springer, Grossman and Gonzales had the only hits (all singles), and Springer was erased on the base paths with a caught stealing. Let's just hope that the Springer show and Co. pick it up in the next game. Frisco 2, CC 5 A low scoring game early on with a few lead changes, the Hooks were able to score late when it mattered and take the game. Ruben Alaniz gave a strong 6 and a third giving up 2 and fanning 4 to pick up his fifth win. Andrew Robinson and and Jorge De Leon both pitched an inning and a third with JDL getting his fourth save on the season. Rene Hernandez (batting .296 on the year) was the stud of the night going 3 for 4, knocking in a run, and being a homer short of the cycle. Michael Burgess had a couple of hits and RBI. Zach Johnson, Jiovanni Mier, Raoul Torrez, Preston Tucker, and Enrique Hernandez all had a hit a piece with Hernandez hitting a solo shot in the seventh. Empire Island 7, Lancaster 1 Welp... at least they were the first to score! Telvin Nash hit his 15th homer on the year in the second to have the Jethawks only run. Matt Duffy did go 4 for 4 with all singles, and MP Cokinos had an 0 for 5er with no strike outs. For a team having 10 hits, it must be hard to only have one run in your own, tiny ballpark, but so be at. Fontana drew a walk on the night and appears to be his old self having 13 free passes in the last 10 games. He has struggled after a hot start, but appears to be himself again. A call up to AA may be in his grasp if Villar gets the call by years end to move the cards around. The gloves would not help the bats as they would have 3 errors on the night. Thomas Shirley dropped to 0-4 on the year while pitching 6 innings giving up 4R/2ER. Cameron Lamb pitched 1.1 innings, giving up 3R/1ER, and Theron Geith pitched a perfect 1.2 with a K. Bowling Green 4, Quad Cities 3 (12) Nothing stings more than dropping a low scoring extra inning game, but that was the case Thursday night. Vincent Velasquez was only able to go 5 while giving up 3ER/3R and giving up 5 hits and 3 walks while fanning 5. He gave up a solo shot in the third, but had a decent start outside of that. VV gave up more than 2 runs for the first time in 8 starts last night which shows how fantastic he truly has been this season. Michael Lambson pitched 3 innings of solid, scoreless relief while Juan Minaya picked up the loss on a not too shabby 4 inning appearance giving up 1ER. The bats were not able to come through, but there was plenty of traffic. With 8 hits and 10 walks on the night, the team left 16 on base by the end of the night. Rio Ruiz went 2 for 5 on the night with a double, RBI, and a walk. This gives him 7 RBI in the past ten games with 8 walks along side them to produce an OPS over 1.100 for those games. So nice to see him turn it around. Correa was 1 for 4 with a walk and a couple of strike outs and scored a run. LET's PLAY TWO! Game 1 Tri-City 4, Mahoning Valley 1 (8) 4 hits. 4 runs. 1 win. Anthony Kemp led the way going 1-4 with a couple of RBI and a double (which would be the GAME WINNING DOUBLE). There isn't too much else to report offensively, but Kemp will stay in the spot light for providing a walk off. Adrian Houser is showing why he got such a high pick in the draft (second round). Going 5 and a third, he allowed one unearned run which was on his own throwing error, but only gave up a hit and a couple of walks while sitting down 4 on strikeouts. That is 17 straight scoreless for the second rounder, and he is looking in great form. Richard Rodriguez picked up the win on 2 innings of scoreless relief. It was Rodriguez's third relief victory on the year, and he has struck out 16 in just over 11 innings. He has only walked one and has yet to give up a run on the year. Game 2 Tri-City 1, Mahoning Valley 1 (7) James Ramsey woke up for this double header, had his Wheaties, and then decided that he was going to have the only RBI of the game and 40% of the game's hits. Thank you, James. D'Andre Toney had the teams other hit. Tanner Bushue went to work. 6 innings of no run baseball where he gave up 2 hits and stuck out 5 to drop his ERA to 2.38 on the year. He is slowly looking like the prospect he was supposed to be, but keep in mind that he is 22. Andrew Walter picked up his first save on the year in a perfect 7th while striking out 2. Greenville 4, Princeton 1 The heart of the order provided all of the hitting with each Brett Phillips, Brian Holberton, Edwin Gomez, and Ariel Ovando all having 1 hit a piece. Holberton had a couple of runs scored, an RBI and the only XBH for the Astros, but it would prove to be enough by games end. Frederick Tiburcio went 6 innings and gave up 1R/0ER, fanned 5, walked 3, and only allowed 2 hits. He has an ERA of .86 and has given up 1 run in two starts and shut outs in the other 3. He will be a name worth keeping an eye on as the season continues. Jordan Mills picked up his first save of the season while striking out three over 3 innings pitched and only walking 1. GCL Astros 5, GCL Tigers 7 No one had more than one hit on the night. When the bottom 5 in your lineup strike out for a combined 12 times, it is hard to think that you are going to walk away with a victory. Alex Gonzalez and Luis Reynoso both connected for homers, but it would not prove to be enough. Emanuel Chavez gave up 4ER/4R while striking out 10 in 5 and a third. DSL Astros Postponed due to rain. Hopefully this is a good substitution for ol' Tellit!
Ha! Misspoke. Inland Empire. I do, though, think they should consider the name change with geographical considerations aside.
Also, Greeneville, Tennessee prides itself on being the only "Greeneville" in the country. It was named for Nathanael Greene, a Revolutionary War general.
What? Nearly every all star makes his debut at a younger age than Springer is now. If they don't its because there's somebody of note blocking them (which isn't the case here). Even within this organization (which has been deliberate with all prospects), Berkman, Pence, and Castro all made their debuts earlier and younger than Springer is now. (Edit: pence was older. The Astros were too slow in advancing him as well) If he struggles, he can be sent back down. There's no literature that says any young player that's brought up has to succeed right away or he's doomed.
Also, Berkman should have been up MUCH sooner... But had some guys blocking him on a playoff team. He could be approaching 500 career HR's with those 2+ extra years he spent dominating the minors.
Berkman was drafted in 1997 and made it up in 1999. He did not lose 2+ seasons to the minors while the team was holding him back. He only had one full minor league season. He struggled that first partial season in the majors. I think you are unrealistic.
Berkman has a total of 57 minor league HRs, 30 of which came in his only full year in the minors. He's got 366 major league HRs. Maybe he's closing in on 400, but probably not 500.
