I think it's time to keep a closer eye on Jimmy Paredes. The guy has two more hits tonight and has that average up to .286, 9 HRs and slugging close to .440. The most interesting item about him is his OBP has gone up to over .320, might not seem like much but he has improved and with his speed that might be the missing piece to becoming a legit prospect.
Nothing of note for OKC as they got pummeled 7-1 by Iowa. Wladimir Sutil scored the only run. Brad Hennessey allowed 5 runs on 7 hits (2 2-run homers), walked 1, and fanned 2. Corpus took a wild one over Frisco by a score of 9-8. J.D. Martinez opened the scoring with a solo homer in the 2nd, his 10th. Chris Wallace had a 3-run homer in the 3rd, his 4th with Corpus, and 18th overall. However, T.J. Steele had the biggest hit of the night, a 2-run homer in the top of the 9th to break a 7-7 tie. That was his 7th blast of the season. Jimmy Paredes doubled twice, scored twice, and had an RBI. He's raised his average to .285 with this recent hotstreak. Dallas Keuchel had a rough night, as he allowed 6 runs on 5 hits in 5 1/3, fanning 5. Arcenio Leon allowed a 3-run homer that not only tied the game at 6, he allowed 2 runners he inherited from Keuchel to score. Keuchel was charged with Tommy Mendonca and Jose Ruiz, and Leon was charged with the man he served, Jonathan Greene. Lancaster took care of High Desert 13-7. David Flores and Adam Bailey finished 4-5 with a homer and 4 RBI between them. They both scored 3 times, but Flores had 3 doubles to go with his homer. Bailey had a 3-run homer in the 3rd, his 2nd as a Jethawk and 18th overall, and Flores' homer was a 2-run shot in the 2nd. It was his 7th with Lancaster and 11th overall. Jose Cisnero had a bare minimum quality start, allowing 9 hits, walking 2, and striking out 11. Lexington was doubled up by Savannah, falling 4-2. The Sand Gnats scored 2 in the top of the 7th to take a 3-1 lead. Ben Heath had a solo homer in the 2nd. Delino DeShields had an RBI single. Ruben Alaniz allowed 1 run on 5 hits in 6, walking 1 and striking out 5. However, Gabriel Garcia would allow 3 runs, 2 of them earned, in his 3 innings of relief to get the loss. Tri-City mounted a successful rally to tie their game with Batavia at 3 with 3 in the top of the 9th. Matt Duffy had an RBI triple and Bubby Williams smacked a 2-run homer, his 2nd of the season, for the tie. Unfortunately, the VCs walked off 4-3 losers in a WTF ending. Juri Perez went 4 1/3, allowing 6 hits, 3 runs (2 earned), walked 1, and fanned 5. In the bottom of the 9th, Mitchell Lambson caught Garrett Wittels, he of the 56-game hitting streak at Florida International, between 3rd and home. Duffy threw the ball away, allowing Wittels to scamper home, and that unearned run was charged to Ebert Rosario. Greeneville was blanked 7-0 by Elizabethton. Ariel Ovando was back in the lineup tonight. Playing right field, he went 1-4. The Appy Astros were held to 4 hits. Luis Ordosgoitti allowed 4 runs (2 earned) on 7 hits in 6 innings, walking 1 and striking out 6. He falls to 1-2 with a 2.48 ERA on the year and now holds a 29:3 K:BB ratio in 29 innings. His WHIP is 1. A scouting report on this guy would be much appreciated. I think Ordosgoitti is good enough to be in Lexington next season, but the trio of Tropeano, Dufek, and Hallock will probably block him. The Gulf Coasters got pounded 9-1 by the Marlins. Tanner Bushue made his first rehab appearance and got shelled to the tune of 5 runs on 6 hits, fanning 3 in 1 inning pitched. He pitched to 3 batters in the 2nd and failed to get them out. Jarrod McKinney went 2-3 with the lone RBI. Fernando Abad was also rehabbing, throwing a perfect 3rd, striking out 1. The Academy lost 2-1 to the Yankees' 2nd squad. Franny Polanco had the only RBI. Agapito Barrios allowed 1 run on 5 hits in 6, striking out 5. Samil De Los Santos got the loss, as Andres Feliz inherited the bases loaded in the top of the 9th and walked in a run that was charged to De Los Santos.
[rquoter]Now that the Astros have signed their 34th-round pick, outfielder Dustin Kellogg, Heck said the Astros are still targeting four more players, including Springer and Armstrong. The two remaining players are high school picks with whom Heck said the club is prepared to get aggressive in getting them signed. The Astros have signed 32 of 50 Draft picks, including eight of the first 10.[/rquoter]
I'd venture to say that the two high schoolers that Wade is making a push to try to get them to sign are Stubblefield (14) and Flamion (25).
Word on the street is that Granger seems insulted by being drafted in the 42nd round. Apparently he feels that his performance this season warranted a selection at least 20 rounds earlier. He screams primadonna in the making.... I may have found his Twitter account (@PaPaGranger) and discovered this nugget from June 14. Subber10 chimed in with this on TCB.
Chris Johnson is probably the worst defensive third baseman in the league, so if Paredes is worse than that I would be shocked. I like an infield of Paredes, Villar, Alutve and Hinze in another 2-3 years. Wallace and Johnson are not the answers.
Greeneville is 3 outs away from being on the wrong end of a perfect game. They trail Elizabethton 6-0.
Scratch that, they're about to be no-hit, as they did have baserunners. Two reached on catcher's interference in the 4th and Garen Wright reached on an error.
OKC got an RBI triple from Collin DeLome, who came home on a sac fly from Robinson Cancel 1 batter later, but those were the only runs they got in a 5-2 loss to Iowa. Oswaldo Navarro and Tommy Manzella had 2 hits apiece. Sergio Perez, the loser, allowed 3 runs on 6 hits (1 2-run homer) in 4 1/3, walking 3 and striking out 3. Corpus dealt Frisco's Robert Erlin his first loss in AA, as they came out on top 4-2. Jason Bourgeois continued his rehab assigment with the Hooks, going 2-5, scoring a run, and stealing 2nd as the leadoff man and center fielder. Balanced effort, as J.D. Martinez, Kody Hinze, Emerson Frostad, and Brandon Wikoff chipped in 1 RBI each. T.J. Steele went 3-4, doubled twice, scored twice, and stole his 16th base of the season. Xavier Cedeno, the winner, went 5, allowing 2 runs on 4 hits (1 solo homer), walking 2, and fanning 8. Lake Elsinore jumped Lancaster for 9 runs in the 1st on the way to absolutely mauling the Jethawks 14-2. Zach Grimmett only got 1 out, as he allowed 5 hits and 7 runs and walked 2. Andrew Simunic and Adam Bailey got the RBIs for Lancaster. Lexington got 2 solo homers from Bryce Lane, but it wasn't enough as they lost 4-2 to Hagerstown. Luis Cruz took the loss, going 6 1/3, allowing 4 runs (3 earned) on 8 hits (1 solo homer and a 2-run homer), walking 1 and fanning 5. Tri-City welcomed the New York-Penn League's best team, Staten Island, to Troy, New York. And their welcoming committee was headed by Jonas Dufek, who proceeded to hold the Yankees to 2 hits in 6 shutout innings. He walked 2 and struck out 4 as the ValleyCats won 5-3. Zach Johnson had a 3-run homer in the 6th, his 2nd. Bubby Williams homered for the 2nd time in as many games, as he cranked a solo shot in the 7th. Miles Hamblin added an RBI single. Travis Smink served up a 3-run homer in the 8th, but Mitchell Lambson shut the door for a 5-out save, his 2nd. Greeneville earned the unfortunate distinction of being the first team in the organization to be no-hit, as they lost 6-0 to Elizabethton. Yes, the Twins' pitchers' lines may read 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, but the Appy Astros somehow managed 3 baserunners, including a 1st and 2nd situation after 2 straight catcher's interference calls. Ricardo Batista allowed 4 runs (3 earned) on 5 hits, walking 1 and striking out 6. The Gulf Coasters were blanked 7-0 by the Cardinals. Javaris Reynolds had 2 of the 3 hits, and he also stole his 7th base of the year. Freddy Tiburcio went 5 innings, allowing 3 runs (2 earned) on 7 hits, walking 2 and striking out 5. The Academy walked off 8-7 winners over the Cardinals as Teoscar Hernandez delivered the winning single. Marlon Avea had 2 RBI from drawing 2 bases-loaded walks. The recent signee, Frederick Serrano, had an RBI HBP, his first ever, with the bases loaded. He also scored a run, and drew 3 walks. Mesac Laguna and Andru Sierra each had an RBI. Ambiorix De Leon allowed 3 runs on 5 hits in 5 innings, striking out 2. Jhonny Arias got the win in relief, allowing 1 run on 2 hits in 2 innings, walking 1 and fanning 1.
lol... sounds great! :grin: Lots of "worsts" and "lasts" in that there breakdown. Obviously, record isn't of much importance in the minors, particular at the upper levels, but it isn't totally insignificant either. There is some correlation between record and talent level. The sad thing is that I think this is a marginal overall improvement compared to some point from a couple of years ago as hard as that is to believe since you can't be much worse.
I really like Javaris Reynolds. He looks like he's snapping out of his funk a bit. Remember when he struck out in 5 of his first 7 at-bats, or something like that? Appears to me that he's not as undisciplined as I initially thought. His BB:K ratio now stands at 11:15 in 88 at-bats. That translates to a 15% walk rate and a 20.5% strikeout rate. Yeah, the 20.5% isn't pretty, but the 15% shows to me that he's quite patient for an 18-year-old. He's also been stricken with horrendous luck, as he owns a measly .224 BABIP. Here's his triple slash line to this point: .178/.341/.192 The two most likely scenarios for him next year will either be repeating the GCL or making the journey to Greeneville. Bonus: Found this blog on the ValleyCats, written by a season-ticket holder. Check it out at http://tcvfan.mlblogs.com/ . Love his in-depth observations on the guys up there. I can't say that I disagree with many things he's noticed about the guys, because he's the one with the bird's-eye view. Take this view on Jonas Dufek's start last night. (First entry)
