Minor League Updates Thursdsay 4/25/2013

Louisville is at home tonight. Chad Reineke on the mound. He has pitched two scoreless innings. Bats went 1-2-3 in the first but Soto and Hessman have started off the second with Bats2Bats singles. Nothing comes of it. 0-0 after two.
Chad Reineke's ERA is now 0.51 after these three scoreless frames (and counting) tonight. Hamilton smokes one that the Gwinnett left fielder catches running into the wall at the 375 sign. Inning over. No score through three.
Reineke streak was in serious danger until Billy Hamilton guns a runner down at the plate to end the threat. Soto with a walk to lead things off in the home half of the fourth. In the fifth Hamilton simply outruns a ball hit into the gap and makes a fine backhanded grab. Nice.
I am pretty certain I hear Wooing in Louisville. Phipps reaches first on a single to lead off the fifth. Poor throw on a pickoff attempt sends Phipps to second. Grounder to short and Phipps moves up 90 feet. Runner on third with one out. Yes. Wooing is spreading from stadium to stadium. Phipps is stranded as Reineke and Hamilton strike out. Yep. Strikeouts are the same as any other out.
Reineke has hurled six scoreless frames. Bats need to get him a run.
Gwinnett threatens in the seventh, putting two on with one out. Batter interference for out number two. Fly ball ends the rally. Reineke with seven shutout innings.
Donald and Phipps walk with one out. Got to get one home. Wirfin Obispo on in relief. A fly ball and strike out later and it is nothing nothing on to the eighth.
Curtis Partch will pitch the eighth. Reineke's final numbers are: 7IP 5H 0R 0ER 1BB 4K (0.42 ERA) Partch pitches a scoreless inning. He is 6'5". 238 pounds.
Big mistake. They walked Billy Hamilton to start the bottom half of the eighth. First pitch he takes off and steals second without a thow. 14 for 15 on stolen base attempts. The only time he was caught, I am pretty sure, was when he was picked off and opted to take off for second. Hamilton worries the crud out of Obispo and forces him to balk. Hamilton on third with one out. Infield in. Grounder right at the shortstop. Hamilton is called out but argues that he touched the plate with his hand. He won't win that argument. Two outs, runner on first. Wild pitch moves HRod into scoring position. Soto whiffs. On to the ninth.
Gwinnett gets on the scoreboard. A bunt single, a passed ball, a one-out single. 1-0. Still batting. A balk (the ball fell out of the hand of Partch while he was in the stretch position) and a wild pitch and the runner is at third. Walk. Partch limits the damage with a K and a liner to Burriss at short. Need one for some free baseball. Bats go without even a whimper in the ninth.

Louisville loses 1-0.

Reds' farm team's records:
Louisville - 10-10
Pensacola - 9-10
Bakersfield - 5-15
Dayton 6-13

Pensacola scoreless early. LaMarre with a single and a steal. Bryson Smith with a single. Now hitting .346. OPS is up over .950. Ray Chang with a single, hitting over .400. Ryan Dennick on the mound for P'Cola. Ronald Torreyes is 1-1 with a double. Tennessee leads 1-0 after two innings of play.
El Raton making a serious bid for MiPOTD. In two trips to the plate he has doubled, tripled and scored a run. Smokies lead 2-0.
Blue Fish churning out those zeroes once again. They trail 2-0 after four. Lutz and Lohman with doubles. Brodie Greene with a single. But the Wahoo can't string those hits together and are shut out through five. Torreyes has added a base on balls. Tucker Barnhart with a leadoff double and is left standing on third as Pensacola batters fail to get him around.
Dennick is finished for the night: 6IP 5H 2R 2ER 2BB 4K. Loek Van Mil will pitch the seventh. LaMarre starts the eight with a double. Two outs later he is on third. A wild pitch gets Pensacola on the scoreboard. Travis Mattair walks and is on first with two down. 2-1 Pensacola trails.
Torreyes with a single, double, triple and a walk. Pensacola goes quietly in the ninth.

Pensacola loses 2-1.

Dayton's Beau Amaral and Zach Vincej lead off the bottom of the first with singles. Jeff Gelalich brings home Amaral with a sac fly. 1-0 Dayton after one. Sal Romano dealing for the Dragons. Nothing doing in the second for either team. Dragons hang a five-spot in the third. Valor singled and Amaral left the park. Gelalich singled and stole second. Winker doubled him home. Arias singled home Winker and then proceeded to steal second and third. Joe Hudson walked. Robert Ramirez singled home run number five of the inning. 6-0 Dragons through three. Sal Romano hangs his fourth goose egg on the scoreboard. Dayton reprises the first inning. Amaral, now 3-3, singles, Vincej singles, Gelalich hits a sac fly. Seth Mejias-Brean doubles to add another run. Dragons up 8-0. Gelalich with four sac flies in 19 games.
Sal Romano gives up three singles and a run in the fifth and that will be all for him. 5IP 6H 1R 1ER 2BB 3K.
Joel Bender pitches a scoreless sixth. 8-1 Dayton. Peoria adds a run in the seventh off Bender. 8-2. Dayton tacks on three more. Winker walks, moves to second and third on wild pitches, scores on an Arias single, Hudson doubles home Arias, Ramirez doubles home Hudson. 11-2 Dayton. Bender surrenders three in the eighth on a walk, double and home run. Alejandro Chacin pitches a scoreless ninth.

Dayton wins 11-5.

Pathetic hitting for the AAA - AA teams.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tony Cloninger

Pathetic hitting for the AAA - AA teams.

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Hard to argue that one tonight. Louisville shut down. Pensacola's one run in eight innings comes courtesy of a wild pitch.

Dayton got all of the hitting skill for the night apparently. They have 11 and are still threatening.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tony Cloninger

Pathetic hitting for the AAA - AA teams.

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Reds don't seem to have much offense in the minors at all. What has happened to the skill of hitting? It seems that all the scouts are looking for is someone who is 6'5", 230lbs, and can hit the ball 500 feet. Where is the guy that strikes out only 40 times in 500 at bats. The Rod Carew & Pete Rose type hitters.

Louisville team batting average is .203 and dead last in their league. Pensacola team BA is .211 and dead last in their league. Bakersfield team BA
is .239 and second to last in their league. Billy Hamilton is hitting .211. Donald Lutz is hitting .208. Henry Rodriguez is hitting .205. Denis Phipps
is hitting .233. Louisville has only one player hitting above .246 (Felix Perez). Pensacola has 3 players hitting above .236. 1 of those is hitting above .320, but he was recently demoted from Louisville where he was hitting .191.

This is definitely a sorry state of affairs for the Reds minor league teams and for the Reds themselves who depend on their minor league players to fill holes in the major league roster. It also makes trades nearly impossible with little to offer other teams.

Bakersfield putting a few runs on the board but not nearly enough. They have scored three runs through seven but trail 7-3. Kyle Waldrop and Marquez Smith have solo jacks. Juan Silverio has rapped out two more hits and scored a run. Chris Berset has two knocks and a ribbie. Juan Perez and Joe Terry have singled.

Tanner Robles came into the contest with an ERA over 10 and leaves the same way.
4IP 7H 6R 4ER 4BB 2K. Ugly. Pat Doyle has given up a run in his two innings on the mound. Doyle pitches to two batters in the seventh before giving way to Kyle McMyne. McMyne allowed three hits, three walks, struck out nobody and yet, somehow, allowed no runs. Talk about living on the edge.

Bakersfield decides three runs is enough for one evening's work. They fall 9-3.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 40YrRedsFan

Reds don't seem to have much offense in the minors at all. What has happened to the skill of hitting? It seems that all the scouts are looking for is someone who is 6'5", 230lbs, and can hit the ball 500 feet. Where is the guy that strikes out only 40 times in 500 at bats. The Rod Carew & Pete Rose type hitters.

Louisville team batting average is .203 and dead last in their league. Pensacola team BA is .211 and dead last in their league. Bakersfield team BA
is .239 and second to last in their league. Billy Hamilton is hitting .211. Donald Lutz is hitting .208. Henry Rodriguez is hitting .205. Denis Phipps
is hitting .233. Louisville has only one player hitting above .246 (Felix Perez). Pensacola has 3 players hitting above .236. 1 of those is hitting above .320, but he was recently demoted from Louisville where he was hitting .191.

This is definitely a sorry state of affairs for the Reds minor league teams and for the Reds themselves who depend on their minor league players to fill holes in the major league roster. It also makes trades nearly impossible with little to offer other teams.

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The minor league season is exactly three weeks in. Let's pump the brakes a little bit.