Friday 8/3/2012 Minor League Updates

[membengal]

Hamilton 1 for 2 so far tonight for Pensacola, and made good use of the 1 hit...swiping 2nd and 3rd.

Pensacola up 2-1 in the 3rd. Chad Rogers pitching for Pensacola.

[membengal]

In the 4th, with runners at 2nd and 3rd, Hamilton singles to drive one in. 3-1 Pensacola.

[membengal]

Hamilton then promptly steals 2nd, for his third SB of the night.

[membengal]

Elsewhere, Louisville down 3-1 in the 9th.

[membengal]

Dayton up 4-0 in the 6th. 2 rbis for Yorman, and 2 rbis for Buckley.

[mace]

Vidal with his second HR in as many nights. Also a 2B. It's 5-3 Pensacola in the seventh.

Sharky for the night: 5 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 2 K. Nice AA debut.

[mace]

Carlos Sanchez and Matt Lentz have homered for Billings, which leads 4-2 in the fourth. Drew Cisco has fanned 3 in 3 IP.

[mace]

Dragons win 5-1. Stalin Gerson threw six shutout innings and Carlos Gonzalez, who's also a pretty good left fielder, pitched the final three, with 5 K. Juan Perez had a couple singles.

[membengal]

Yay! A regular with the updates. Thanks Mace, I don't have the patience to do what you and others do so well. Much appreciated.

[camisadelgolf]

That was Lentz' 1st career homer. He's really starting to come on. Over the past month, including his 2 PAs tonight, and in those 8.5 games, he's hitting .310/.310/.621 with 1 homer, 2 triples, 2 doubles.

[mace]

Thanks, mem, but I'm pretty spotty and I'm afraid I'm not long for this evening. (Up at 3 a.m. this morning to take my daughter to the airport.)

So that this post is not totally uninformative, I'll mention that Louisville lost 3-1 in spite of a pretty good start from Pedro Villarreal and two hits from the still-kicking Chris Valaika.

And the Bambinos trail 8-4 after five. Brent Peterson, who has had quite a few hits lately (not Call Me Maybe, however, thankfully), has added a couple.

[membengal]

Hamilton walks in the 9th, but before he can steal, a single moves him to 3rd.

[mace]

Not sure why Bryson Smith had to pinch-hit for Donald Lutz. But he's 2-2 (.342) with 3 RBIs and Pensacola's now up 8-4 in the 9th.

[Scrap Irony]

Man, has Bryson Smith hit really well this season. In his professional career, Smith has a line of .330/ .400/ .480. That's monstrous, especially for a CF. 11 HR in under 450 ABs? Certainly one to watch.

[mace]

Pensacola won 8-5. It wasn't one of the better relief efforts for Josh Ravin or Curtis Partch.

Billings won 6-4. Jimmy Moran got the save. Lentz, the former Kentucky football player, went 3-5. Amaral, Vincej and Mejias-Brean all had two hits, M-B's extending his hitting streak to a very impressive 20 games.

The AZL Reds were crushed, 15-5. Jose Ortiz is hitting .444. The pitchers shall remain nameless.

Bakersfield rolled, 5-1. Theo Bowe keeps dispelling the fluke theory regarding his sudden hitting, going 3-5 to raise his average to .343. He also stole his 43rd base since joining the Blaze. Ryan Wright went 2-4 with a 2B in his California League debut. Devin Lohman and Dominic D'Anna each had two hits, with a 2B. Tanner Robles got the win, with shutout relief from Michael Griffin, Blaine Howell and Andrew Brackman.

[NeilHamburger]

Hamilton now hitting .284 (good) with a .404 OBP (excellent) since his promotion in a pitchers league. If he keeps this up for the rest of the year do you start him in AAA next year, with a potential callup midseason if he keeps hitting and getting on base?

[dougdirt]

Hamilton now hitting .284 (good) with a .404 OBP (excellent) since his promotion in a pitchers league. If he keeps this up for the rest of the year do you start him in AAA next year, with a potential callup midseason if he keeps hitting and getting on base?

No. In normal circumstances, yes. But you aren't going to have both him and Didi at the same level at the same time unless you are moving Hamilton to another position, which they have said they aren't planning on doing in the minors. So I would bet that unless Didi gets traded in the winter, Hamilton finds himself back in Pensacola to start the year.

[Scrap Irony]

Hamilton now hitting .284 (good) with a .404 OBP (excellent) since his promotion in a pitchers league. If he keeps this up for the rest of the year do you start him in AAA next year, with a potential callup midseason if he keeps hitting and getting on base?

Yes. Hamilton is a difference-maker prospect. You move others around to get him where he needs to be. A half-season in a pitcher's league and an extreme pitcher's park (seemingly) without damaging his confidence is key. He can work on stealing bases against veteran pitchers who hold runners better at AAA than at AA. He can work on defense at the better field. He's also closer to Cincinnati, for whatever that means.

If Cincinati plans to keep Gregorius, he can move to 2B to learn versatility. Or he can move all around the infield.

The problem is what it does for Gregorius' development. There are three options here:

1) Trade either DiDi Gregorius or Zack Cozart for something else you need.
2) Put Gregorius on the major league roster as a back-up middle infielder/ part-time starter, a la Paul Janish in 2010. (A LH/RH semi-platoon may work to both player's advantage, though I think it's a waste of talent.) This would save money and provide cheap talent for the major league roster.
3) Play both Hamilton and Gregorius in AAA together.