Minor League Games 5/20/19

[Tom Servo]

With the Reds off day not much to do other than see what the farm is up to. The Bats also have an off day (just like the Reds most days, ba-dum-tss)

Lookouts game starts in about fifteen minutes, Tony Santillan is still looking for his first W of the season.

Tortugas just finished game 1 of a double header, winning 4-3 in 7 innings. Jonathan India has a single, Jose Garcia has a double, Hendrik Clementina has a 2 run HR, and Stuart Fairchild is 3-3 with a double and a HR. We'll see if he plays in game 2 but at the moment he's got his OPS all the way up to .707. Not an impressive number in of itself, but as recently as May 3rd his OPS was .370. He's been on fire this month.

Dragons are scoreless after 1 inning, Jhon De Jesus is on the mound.

[Tom Servo]

Chattanooga takes a 2-0 advantage in the first thanks to a two out walk by Taylor Trammell followed by a 2 run HR by Ibandel Isabel.

[Tom Servo]

Jose Garcia leads off Game 2 for the Tortugas with a solo HR. That's his 3rd of the season so far, he's already reached half of his 2018 total.

[Tom Servo]

Tortugas lead 3-1 in the middle 5th. Jose Garcia is a triple away from hitting for the cycle. He'll probably only have one more chance at it though unless the game is tied after 7 since it's a 7 inning game.

[BillDoran]

Tortugas lead 3-1 in the middle 5th. Jose Garcia is a triple away from hitting for the cycle. He'll probably only have one more chance at it though unless the game is tied after 7 since it's a 7 inning game.

A lot to like in Garcia. He's a 6'2" SS and his offensive numbers are up across the board from last year. Walks are up, strike outs down, ISO up; slash line up, up, up. More than holding his own in A+ as a 21-year-old.

[Bourgeois Zee]

I didn't realize how good Garcia's numbers were this season.

100 PAs or so, so SSS, but .286/ .349/ .480/ .828 would go a long way to making me feel better about the SS spot long-term.

_________

Good to see Santillan pitch relatively well.

Still struggling with command.

I suspect part of that is the push and pull of Ks and K/9 and BBs and BB/9.

___________

A nearly full complement of Also-Ran All-Stars has dominated the early-season minor league stats page for the Reds.

In AAA, Dan Longhi, Josh VanMeter, Brian O'Grady, and Aristides Aquino have all put up monster numbers.

In Chattanooga, Brantley Bell found his power, and Chris Okey has suddenly found a league average-ish bat.

Daytona has Drew Mount hitting and running relatively wild.

How much of this is early season noise and how much is a swing plane change? More importantly, how much can be repeated at higher levels?

Suddenly having four AAA guys who can hit and play multiple positions would go a long way to creating at least a good bench moving into next season.

_______________

Does anyone know anything about Andrew Jordan? He's pitched one game this season. Pre-season, he was among my picks to click. Obviously, it's difficult to get news out of minor league parks, but for legitimate prospects, there should be something said.

_______________

Speaking of pitching, Packy Naughton and Cory Thompson should probably move up to AA. Both are older for their league (23 and 24 respectively) and have had success both limiting opposing baserunners and racking up Ks. Doing that in the Florida Humidity League is fine, but I'd like to see what's there in a more offensive league. (Not that Chattanooga is more offensive than Florida. Not at all. Really. Florida is the most offensive state in the union.)

_______________

Dayton is bad. Really, really bad. The newly-renamed and much, much cooler-sounding but unfortunately 23-year-old Shard Monroe and 3B Juan Martinez are the only regulars hitting over league average.

_________________

The Dayton pitching is worse. Those pitching peripherals are remarkable. The staff as a whole is averaging 10.2 K/9! And 4.6 BB/9. And 9.5 H/9.

Louisville's staff is in a similar boat. Lots of Ks. Lots of BBs.

Chattanooga's staff has lots of BBs, so they're halfway there.

Only Daytona has good BB numbers. (And they're superior, at 2.6 BB/9 as a staff.)

That's what happens when you grab live arms and hope to teach them how to throw strikes, I guess.

Ick.

______________

In following minor league ball for awhile now, I've seen some odd career stat lines, but one of the oddest I've seen belongs to Valentin Martinez. Only once in his career has he had more than 100 ABs. Still only 22. But he's played a tiny amount of games across three leagues-- and, oddly, hit pretty well. As a catcher. Based only on his stats, you'd think they'd give him more of an opportunity somewhere. Just to see.

[Alabama]

I didn't realize how good Garcia's numbers were this season.

100 PAs or so, so SSS, but .286/ .349/ .480/ .828 would go a long way to making me feel better about the SS spot long-term.

_________

Good to see Santillan pitch relatively well.

Still struggling with command.

I suspect part of that is the push and pull of Ks and K/9 and BBs and BB/9.

___________

A nearly full complement of Also-Ran All-Stars has dominated the early-season minor league stats page for the Reds.

In AAA, Dan Longhi, Josh VanMeter, Brian O'Grady, and Aristides Aquino have all put up monster numbers.

In Chattanooga, Brantley Bell found his power, and Chris Okey has suddenly found a league average-ish bat.

Daytona has Drew Mount hitting and running relatively wild.

How much of this is early season noise and how much is a swing plane change? More importantly, how much can be repeated at higher levels?

Suddenly having four AAA guys who can hit and play multiple positions would go a long way to creating at least a good bench moving into next season.

_______________

Does anyone know anything about Andrew Jordan? He's pitched one game this season. Pre-season, he was among my picks to click. Obviously, it's difficult to get news out of minor league parks, but for legitimate prospects, there should be something said.

_______________

Speaking of pitching, Packy Naughton and Cory Thompson should probably move up to AA. Both are older for their league (23 and 24 respectively) and have had success both limiting opposing baserunners and racking up Ks. Doing that in the Florida Humidity League is fine, but I'd like to see what's there in a more offensive league. (Not that Chattanooga is more offensive than Florida. Not at all. Really. Florida is the most offensive state in the union.)

_______________

Dayton is bad. Really, really bad. The newly-renamed and much, much cooler-sounding but unfortunately 23-year-old Shard Monroe and 3B Juan Martinez are the only regulars hitting over league average.

_________________

The Dayton pitching is worse. Those pitching peripherals are remarkable. The staff as a whole is averaging 10.2 K/9! And 4.6 BB/9. And 9.5 H/9.

Louisville's staff is in a similar boat. Lots of Ks. Lots of BBs.

Chattanooga's staff has lots of BBs, so they're halfway there.

Only Daytona has good BB numbers. (And they're superior, at 2.6 BB/9 as a staff.)

That's what happens when you grab live arms and hope to teach them how to throw strikes, I guess.

Ick.

______________

In following minor league ball for awhile now, I've seen some odd career stat lines, but one of the oddest I've seen belongs to Valentin Martinez. Only once in his career has he had more than 100 ABs. Still only 22. But he's played a tiny amount of games across three leagues-- and, oddly, hit pretty well. As a catcher. Based only on his stats, you'd think they'd give him more of an opportunity somewhere. Just to see.

Pretty good stuff here. I’ll add India is playing pretty well. Or at least starting too.
Trammell has been a pretty big disappointment for me. He’s walking and that’s about the only positive. He’s hitting for zero power and never seems to have monster games. His standard line is 1 for 4 with a walk.

[BillDoran]

A nearly full complement of Also-Ran All-Stars has dominated the early-season minor league stats page for the Reds.

In AAA, Dan Longhi, Josh VanMeter, Brian O'Grady, and Aristides Aquino have all put up monster numbers.

....

How much of this is early season noise and how much is a swing plane change? More importantly, how much can be repeated at higher levels?

Suddenly having four AAA guys who can hit and play multiple positions would go a long way to creating at least a good bench moving into next season.

My first thought was the AAA baseball is newly juiced. But even by league-adjusted standards, VanMeter (188 wRC+), Aquino (177) and O'Grady (163) stand out. All three have an OPS over 1.000, an OBP over .400 and an ISO over .300. Wild numbers in Louisville.