Thursday 6/07/2012 Minor League Updates

[texasdave]

Louisville is at Syracuse tonight. Not sure who will be the home team. Sean Gallagher will do the pitching. First pitch 7:00 EDT.

Ugly, ugly numbers:
Louisville is 18-43. That works out to a winning percentage of .295. Over 162 games that would work out to 48 wins. Can't anyone here play this game? Okay, I stole that line. They have scored 206 runs and given up 284. They have been a little unlucky as their pythag works out to a 22-39 record.

[RedlegJake]

LOL. Pythag has them at 22-39? Who'd have thunk that would be a major improvement? Louisville is bad bad, almost 62 Mets funny bad. I feel sorry for Villareal pitching for that muck heap of a team. He's about the only arm worth mentioning. If Soto would heat up it would help - and Gathright might help playing his little ol' AAAA heart out. You know, on defense they aren't half bad - some really good gloves but man they cannot hit at all.

[dougdirt]

Dayton game is free tonight if you are interested in watching - http://www.whiotv.com/s/weather/7weathernow/

[mace]

Swell. Louisville scored 8 runs tonight (won 8-2). That oughta take them through the middle of next week.

Rhinehart homered. Gathright, Harris, Soto and Costanzo all had two hits. In fact, every spot but the pitcher's had a hit. Gallagher got the win. Jordan Smith closed with two scoreless innings.

[mace]

Pensacola put up 5 in the sixth and leads 5-2 in the eighth. Big hit was a 3-run double by Yordanys Perez. Andrew Means (.365) has a couple singles. Tim Crabbe walked and struck out 6 in 5 IP.

[mace]

Single by Waldrop, walks to Perez and Brandon Dailey, and a walkoff single by Kurt Muller wins it for Dayton in the 11th, 4-3.

It was Muller's second hit. Waldrop, O'Shea and Selsky also had two. Buckley had three, including a couple doubles. He's coming around. Cole Green (3 IP), Carlos Contreras (2 IP) and James Allen (1 IP) gave the Dragons six innings of shutout relief.

[mace]

Slidin' B led off the Bakersfield first with a single, and you wouldn't believe what he did next. Well, I guess you would. No. 68. Then he took third on a fly ball to right and scored on a ground out. 1-0 Bakers.

[mace]

Joseph nailed it down for Pensacola with a 1.1-inning save, 5-2. He's obviously much better than Aroldis Chapman.

[Vottomatic]

Originally Posted by mace

Joseph nailed it down for Pensacola with a 1.1-inning save, 5-2. He's obviously much better than Aroldis Chapman.

Yeah. The Pensacola Pistol > Cuban Missile

[RedlegJake]

Bakersfield vs Visalia
Visalia Top 1
Josh SMith Pitching

Freeman ground out 6-3
LaPensee singles to right then Griffin flies out to right. 2 down.
LaPensee steals 2d but Borchering pops out to Vasquez at third.

Bakersfield.
Billy Blaze leads off with a single and waits a pitch before stealing second, his 68th.
Lohman flies to right and Billy tags and goes to third.
Bryson Smith grounds out 4-3 with Hamilton scoring.
Mattair strikes out looking.
1-0 Blaze end of 1

Visalia Top 2nd
Weber flies tp Mathews playing left field.
Broxton singles up the middle
Bell flies out to Smith in center. 2 down.
Broxton runs but Viscioso pops up and guns a strike to Lohman nailing him at second. 3 down.

Bakersfield bottom 2
D'Anna laces a line drive but its right at RF LaPensee
Vasquez lofts fly to LaPensee for the second out.
Jaren Mathews times a pitch and smacks it right up the middle for a single, then steals second.
All for naught, though as Viscioso strikes out swinging.
1-0 Blaze end of 2.
Meo is supposed to be a strikeout pitcher but so far he only has Mattair and Viscioso as victims. The Blaze are hitting him. Curveballer Smith is keeping the Rawhide off balance so far.
This game features a few Blaze just getting started. This is Viciosa's 3rd game, and only the 15th for D'Anna and Mathews, and the 11th for Niko Vasquez. Josh Smith is trying to improve his 4.27 ERA. His big curveball is getting him K's but he's also been hittable so far - right at a hit and a K an inning. This is his 12th start. With Lutz out and Vidal promoted, 2nd baseman Devin Lohman is the man the team relies on for power, 2nd on the team in homers (8). Theo Bowe, Bryson SMith and Billy Hamilton have been hitting for average and high OBP too. Vicioso has a hot start but in just 2 games its hard to draw much inference from his numbers.

The Blaze continues to win despite promotions of Tony Cingrani and Dave Vidal and the injury to Donald Lutz. A deep lineup and solid pitching staff has the Blaze in first place and the distinction of being easily the best minor league franchise so far this season for the parent Reds.

Visalia top 3
Smith gets "Rip" Van Winkle to fly out to James Ewing in RF. Ewing can also play 2nd base. 1 down.
Groff hits a grounder to third that Vasquez can't get to first in time, ball gets away from D'Anna, error on throw. Groff takes second.
Smith gets Freeman to ground to second, Groff going to 3rd. 2 down
LaPensee fans on a big Smith hammer curveball.
1-0 Blaze

Blaze Bottom 3
Easy inning for Rawhide as Ewing, Hamilton and Lohman all ground out. 4-3, 4-3, 5-3
1-0 Blaze end of 3.

[RedlegJake]

Visalia top 4
Smith gets Griffin swinging. 1 down.
Borchering pops out to Lohman. 2 down.
Weber grounds out 6-3. Easy 1-2-3 inning.
Smith has been steadily pitching better after 2 rocky starts at the beginning of the year.

Bakersfield bottom 4.
Smith reaches on an error by the second baseman.
pickoff throw goes wild, Smith goes to second.
Mattair grounds out 5-3. Wrong side of infield Smith can't advance. 1 down
D'Anna grounds out 4-3 with Smith moving to third.
Niko V strikes out lowering his already ridiculously low average and ending the inning.
End of 4 Blaze 1-0

[RedlegJake]

Smith was June 4th Cal League Pitcher of the Week. He already possesses a major league curve - what he needs is command and consistency.

Visalia top 5
Broxton singles off Smith straight up the middle to lead off
Smith walks the next batter. 1st and second. no outs.
Smith gets next batter to hit into a 1-5 force. Runners on first and second. 1 out.
Smith induces a fly ball to left for out 2, runners holding.
Finally Josh gets a 4-3 ground out to squirm out of the jam and end the inning.

Blaze bottom 5
Jaren Mathews pops out to short.
Viscioso grounds out 5-3 for the second out.
Ewing tattoos the ball but right at RF LaPensee for the third out.
end of 5 Blaze 1-0.

[RedlegJake]

Visalia top 6
Smith gets a bunt ground out 1-3
Griffin grounds out 5-3
The scoreless skein snaps as Smith allows a long homer to Bobby Borchering tying the game 1-1
Smith gets the last batter to fly out to Bryson Smith in center.

Smith has now pitched a season high 6 innings - 1 other start he went 6-1/3, 5 times total in 12 starts he's pitched 6 innings. His last start he blanked Modesto for 6 innings.
He is pitching better and better as the season goes on. Final line for SMith 6 innings, 5 hits, 1 ER, 1 Walk, 2Ks

Blaze bottom 6.
Hamilton pops out to the shortstop. 1 down
Lohman works a walk then Bryson Smith singles, Lohman holds at second.
Double steal. Lohman to third, Smith to second.
Visalia walks Travis Mattair to load the bases, 1 down.
D'Anna strikes out looking.
Niko Vasquez continues his futility streak popping up to the first baseman. 3 down.
End 6 tie game 1-1.

Love to see these guys hit the ball. This is the Cal League after all. 70 year old Sam Lynn Ballpark has seen enough close games - how about turning this into a blowout guys? For Josh Smith's benefit this IS the stadium where Don Drysdale began his career - Smith can only hope his is as illustrious.

[RedlegJake]

You have to wonder how long a guy like Niko Vasquez is stuck with? In a hitter's league he is hitting below .180 now, he has never hit at any level. I just wonder how long they stick with a guy before they decide. Mejia-Brean, Rosa, Rahier and others coming in the pipeline, plus Mattair and Christian already on the roster.

Back to the Game
Visalia Top 7: Smith is replaced with Wolford. Pitch count continues to limit Smith to 6 innings.

Wolford gets Broxton to fly to center, then he gives up a long double and walks Rip Van Winkle.
Griffey Sr goes to lefty Chris Joyce replacing Wolford.
The lefty gets a flyball and 3-1 ground out to do his job. Joyce has been pitching better as the season progresses, too. He got roughed up in his first few appearances. He's done the job in 6 of his last 7 outings.
Still 1-1, bottom of 7

Blaze Bottom of 7
Haven't looked much like a Blaze so far tonight. More like a Smoulder maybe.

Jaren Mathews will leadoff as the Blaze try to regain the lead. Mathews came from Rutgers and has more power than he's displayed since he popped some eyes in the AZL(1.017 OPS 7 homers 100AB). A lot of scouts liked Mathews coming out of college and felt his bat would play with power to all fields. He's still trying to get some traction under his minor league start.
Billy Hamilton would be the fourth batter if they can get someone on.

Mathews draws a walk then surprises by stealing 2nd base. Griffey Sr has this team very aggressive.
Viscioso strikes out swinging. So, the steal is as good as a sacrifice its just that Jaren did it himself.
Now Ewing walks. 1st and 2nd 1 out.
That's it for Anthony Meo - the Rawhide bring in Anthony Cooper.
Billy Blazes grounds into force out. A double play for any other batter he beats the throw to first as Mathews goes to third. You know what comes next, number 69 as Billy steals second.
Men on second and third and Devin Lohman comes through with a big clutch single!!! Mathews scores. Hamilton scores.
3-1 Blaze. Billy ran the Blaze into that second run and by avoiding the DP the whole inning really.
Bryson Smith is struck numb by Hamilton's speed I guess because he just stands there looking at strike three.
End of 7 Blaze lead 3-1.

Visalia top 8
Well, Brooks Pinckard on for the Blaze. Wish we had a few more runs lead is all I'm saying. Pinckard's ERA is like twelve to the hundredth power something. A guy named Pinckard should make sure he's very, very good.

LaPensee hits an infield single
Pinckard gets Griffin to bang into a DP 6-4-3
Then he walks Borchering who homered earlier and Visciosa gives up a passed ball letting Borchering go to 2nd
Pinckard strikes out the last batter swinging. Whew Brooks!

Bakersfield Bottom 8
Shuhster replace Cooper for Visalia

Mattair swings through strike three.
D"Anna flies out to center
Vasquez walks actually reaching base but Mathews fans looking for the 3rd out.
End 8 3-1 Blaze.

Visalia top 9 for the game
Brian Pearl in to lock it down
He gets the first batter to ground out to D'Anna unassisted
Pearl like that so he repeats it with the second batter. D'Anna unassisted.
Then he nails down the save by fanning the last batter in the game.

BLAZE WIN 3-1!

You might go back and look - Billy Hamilton's speed was the sole reason Bakersfield scored all three of those runs. Stole three bases, outran a double play ball and made himself a force to win the game with a lone single.