Tuesday 8/07/2012 Minor League Updates..

[texasdave]

Louisville have their XBH bats working tonight. Gregorius with a triple. Costanzo two doubles. Soto, Rhinehart and Rodriguez have doubled as well. Bats lead 5-2. Nick Masset started. He gave up a single, walk and two runs in 1.2 innings. Todd Redmond has come on and pitched very well. 4.1 scoreless innings pitched so far. He has fanned five.

[texasdave]

Pensacola leads 1-0 in the middle of the fourth. Wirfin Obispo has fanned five in 3.2 innings. He has given up two hits and walked one. A Fellhauer walk combined with a Mills double and a passed ball have produced the only Wahoo tally. Mills double is their only hit.

[texasdave]

Dayton is in a rain-delay with one out in the bottom of the second. They trail 1-0. Terry has singled for the Dragons only hit. Wes Mugarian is on the mound tonight.

[texasdave]

Tucker Barnhart with a walk and a now a 2-run blast. Pensacola leads 3-0. Andy Means pinch hit for Beau Mills. Not sure if anything is up with that. Obispo mowing them down. Seven Ks in five innings. Sliding Billy reached somehow and has added a stolen base.

[texasdave]

Louisville hangs on 5-3. Nice job by Redmond. Hoover strikes out two in one inning of work to earn the save.

[texasdave]

Lutz with a three-run jack. Pensacola up 6 zip after 7.5. Wirfin Obispo works an excellent seven innings. He strikes out eight. Barnhart and Brodie Greene with two hits on the evening.

I wonder what Obispo's future is with the Reds. He seems to be overmatching AA hitters.

[mace]

I wonder what Obispo's future is with the Reds. He seems to be overmatching AA hitters.

Obispo's last four starts (he has only started 5 games): 23 IP, 9 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 6 BB, 31 K, 1.17 ERA.

Pensacola won 6-1.

[Superdude]

Obispo's last four starts (he has only started 5 games): 23 IP, 9 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 6 BB, 31 K, 1.17 ERA.

Obispo's had such a strange career. How and why did he end up in Japan after being in the Reds org. a while back? Unless I'm mistaking him for someone else, he had good raw stuff a long time ago. Anyone have any idea what he's looking like these days?

[camisadelgolf]

Obispo's had such a strange career. How and why did he end up in Japan after being in the Reds org. a while back? Unless I'm mistaking him for someone else, he had good raw stuff a long time ago. Anyone have any idea what he's looking like these days?

He did well in the Dominican Summer League and was looking like a good prospect. However, he was busted for marrying foreigners for money and lost his visa. Since he wasn't allowed back in the States, he played professional ball in Japan, where he battled with injuries.

edit:
I just found some more info on him from Doug Gray.

Obispo is a bit of an urban legend in some Reds prospect circles after he dominated the Dominican Summer League after a conversion to the mound from shortstop. He was, however, caught up in a marriage scandal that left him unable to obtain a work visa to enter the US and eventually wound up in Japan where he pitched for several years before finally being able to obtain a work visa when the Reds signed him this past offseason. Obispo throws a fastball, change up and slider. His fastball seems to work, in my limited time seeing him, in the 89-93 MPH range while touching 94. The pitch is a little straight, but he seems to hide the ball well with what I can best describe as, interesting mechanics that seem to have a little bit of violence to them. His change up shows some solid late tumble on it. The slider has short break to it, and could work well at the bottom of the strikezone, but the break isn’t sharp enough for it to do much if it isn’t at the bottom of the zone. At best, it is an average pitch and is only a pitch that should be thrown in the lower half of the strikezone and is thrown in the mid 80’s.

[texasdave]

Billings has outhit Great Falls 4 to 1 through three but there is no score. Dan Langfield struck out 6 Great Falls batters in 2.2 innings but then was taken out. Zachary Vincej is 2 for 2 and now hitting .426. Look out Gary Redus. Pigott and Lentz with one hit each.

[mace]

Daniel Renken got socked with 5 in the first. Bakersfield trails 5-0 after two.

[mace]

Juan Silva's HR puts Dayton up 5-4 heading into the bottom of the ninth, with Carlos Contreras looking for the save. After the rain delay, Carlos Gonzalez pitched 3.2 excellent innings. Joe Terry is 3-4 with a couple doubles.

[texasdave]

Bullpen collapse for Dayton. Dennhardt gives up three in the bottom of the seventh, Gonzalez one in the bottom of the ninth and Muhammad one in the bottom of the tenth. A 4-1 lead turns into a 6-5 loss for the Dragons.

[texasdave]

Bakersfield gets pounded early and often. Trailing 10-1, the Blaze rally for five meaningless runs in the bottom of the ninth but it is not nearly enough. 10-6 final. Lots of base knocks for Bakersfield on Taco Tuesday. Mattair with three (a home run shy of a cycle). Wright had a single and a double, as did Duran and Muller. Lohman with two singles. Every Blaze pitcher that took the ball gave up runs.

Travis Mattair has five multi-hit games in his last six, raising his average to .269. Juan Duran with three consecutive multi-hit contests.

[texasdave]

Billings falls 5-2. Vincej with three hits, now hitting .429. Daniel Pigott with two hits. Robert Maddox smacked his tenth home run. Carlos Ramos surrendered four earned runs in 1.1 innings, raising his ERA to 9.77. Langfield, Becker and Moran all pitched well.