Juan Bello @ Greenville: 5 IP, 4 H, ER, BB, 8 K The one run came on a solo homer. Walker Janek hit his 5th home run of the season for the Tourists.
Jose Guedez finished off Asheville's 3-2 win with four nice innings. He allowed a run on a solo homer, two other hits, walked two, and struck out five. Guedez has thrown a total of 132 innings in Asheville over the last two seasons (he missed the second half of last season due to an injury) and has turned in some solid numbers, going 7-9 with a save and a 4.02 ERA. Perhaps most impressive is that Guedez has allowed just one home run in 69 total innings at home, which again, is a launching pad. Pitching in Asheville certainly hasn't fazed him as he has a 2.93 home ERA this season and turned in a 3.35 ERA before getting hurt last year. A sizable red flag, however, is the dip in his strikeout rate. It's right around 8 per 9 innings, which is fine, but well below the double digits he posted in his first three seasons. He has probably learned how to get outs without having to rely on strikeouts. As someone who signed late, I think he's done enough to move up to Corpus later this year.
Signs of life from Luis Baez; he’s got a 5 game hitting streak with 8 hits in that span including a HR, 2 triples and a double.
FCL squad is playing a doubleheader with the Marlins today. The second game is in progress... Wilton Lara has gone deep in both games. Miguel Palma homered in the first game. Jose Varela got the start in game 1 and he walked 1 and struck out 7 over 4 no-hit, scoreless innings. Juan Sierra hit his 2nd homer of the season in game 2. When he first signed in 2023, Ben Badler from Baseball America singled Sierra out as a sleeper and he's turned in some good numbers in the complex leagues so far.
Sami Manzueta drove in 4 for the DSL Blue team today with a two-run homer and a two-run double. Manzueta, who is looking to get himself back on track after going 3-32 to close out June, now has two home runs this season. Kevin Alvarez went 2-3 with an RBI single as the Blue team won 8-4 over the Royals' Ventura team. Santiago Martinez, who had 3 RBI yesterday, added two more hits. Martinez is a 17-year-old infielder from Venezuela who signed at the beginning of the current IFA period. He's played every infield position except 1B so far; 8 of his 15 appearances have been at shortstop.
Zach Cole homered again (11) for Corpus Christi. The Hooks just finished yesterday's game with a 5-4 win; the game was suspended due to rain.
Tayler Scott is back... he signed a minor league deal today and will be reporting to Sugar Land. Chas McCormick will be starting a rehab assignment with Sugar Land today.
I saw Taylor Scott pitching well for the Dodgers and for a minute I said to self "why the hell'd we let him go?"
Miguel Ullola @ Round Rock: 5 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 6 K; the two runs came on a homer. Trey Dombroski vs. San Antonio: 5 IP, 2 H, 2 BB, 3 K
They have some simliarities... both have questions about the hit tool. Melton is more disciplined, although that's probably a 45-50 on the 20-80 scale vs. a 35-40. One of the knocks on Melton is that even though he hits the ball hard, a lot of them end up on the ground. Cole has the louder tools and is the better athlete (although Melton is a pretty good athlete himself). I think Cole is probably one of the 5 best athletes in the system. His bat-to-ball skills are markedly worse than Melton's, however.
