7/02/19 Space Balls...

[texasdave]

Today is International UFO Day, and Brian O'Grady got a jump on the celebration last night, sending 2 moonshots over the wall. According to the article, there are two International UFO Days - June 24, and July 2. Just take the whole week then. O'Grady set a club record last night with his 5th multi-homer game on the season. As a team, Louisville has had 18 such explosions this year. Better buy some more baseballs. The Bats had an excellent chance for a 3-game winning streak, no-hitting their opponent for 6 innings. And then Brad Markey happened. And let's not forget Jesus Reyes. It ended in a 7-6 defeat.

Tejay Antone takes the mound tonight, dragging his 7.94 ERA along with him. Antone was having an excellent season down in AA, but AAA must taste like liver and onions to him. The league is hitting .396 against Antone, albeit in just 2 starts. The Law of Averages says Tejay is due for a good game. I am betting on the Law of Averages tonight. Cha-Ching!

Sudden Sal Romano got an unexpected first start of the season, and it could not possibly have gone better. 4 innings, 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 walks. No nothing, including no win. Sal is one of my favorites. Tristan 'Shout' Archer came off the IL yesterday and pitched a scoreless 9th.

Fun Stat: Anthony Bass is the club leader in saves with 9. He gone. Ian Krol is second on the club with 5. He gone. Jimmy Herget is third with 2. He gone. The current save leader on Louisville has 1 save. O-N-E.

What happened to Odrisamer Despaigne you ask? He hooked up with the Charlotte Knights. In a swing role now, Despaigne has a 0.74 WHIP, and a 1.89 ERA. The Cuban native seems to be Havana good time with the Knights.

How long before Alex Blandino is up, and Kyle Farmer is down? Farmer has performed well, but he probably doesn't make the club if Blandino is healthy in spring training. I suppose as long as Barnhart is iffy, Farmer's spot is secure.

[JaxRed]

Today is International UFO Day, and Brian O'Grady got a jump on the celebration last night, sending 2 moonshots over the wall. According to the article, there are two International UFO Days - June 24, and July 2. Just take the whole week then. O'Grady set a club record last night with his 5th multi-homer game on the season. As a team, Louisville has had 18 such explosions this year. Better buy some more baseballs. The Bats had an excellent chance for a 3-game winning streak, no-hitting their opponent for 6 innings. And then Brad Markey happened. And let's not forget Jesus Reyes. It ended in a 7-6 defeat.

Tejay Antone takes the mound tonight, dragging his 7.94 ERA along with him. Antone was having an excellent season down in AA, but AAA must taste like liver and onions to him. The league is hitting .396 against Antone, albeit in just 2 starts. The Law of Averages says Tejay is due for a good game. I am betting on the Law of Averages tonight. Cha-Ching!

Sudden Sal Romano got an unexpected first start of the season, and it could not possibly have gone better. 4 innings, 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 walks. No nothing, including no win. Sal is one of my favorites. Tristan 'Shout' Archer came off the IL yesterday and pitched a scoreless 9th.

Fun Stat: Anthony Bass is the club leader in saves with 9. He gone. Ian Krol is second on the club with 5. He gone. Jimmy Herget is third with 2. He gone. The current save leader on Louisville has 1 save. O-N-E.

What happened to Odrisamer Despaigne you ask? He hooked up with the Charlotte Knights. In a swing role now, Despaigne has a 0.74 WHIP, and a 1.89 ERA. The Cuban native seems to be Havana good time with the Knights.

How long before Alex Blandino is up, and Kyle Farmer is down? Farmer has performed well, but he probably doesn't make the club if Blandino is healthy in spring training. I suppose as long as Barnhart is iffy, Farmer's spot is secure.

I think the opposite. I never expected Blandino to sniff the roster. What I would like to see is if Blandino can work on that knucker. A guy who can eat innings with a knuckler when not playing infield would be very valuable.

[JCM11]

How long before Alex Blandino is up, and Kyle Farmer is down? Farmer has performed well, but he probably doesn't make the club if Blandino is healthy in spring training. I suppose as long as Barnhart is iffy, Farmer's spot is secure.

Farmer is the only guy besides Casali who can catch on the MLB roster right now. If Blandino replaces anyone it should be Peraza.

[texasdave]

Chattanooga shut out the Jumbo Shrimp last night 5-0. Packy rebounded from his worst start of the year last time out, to no-hit Jacksonville for the first 4.2 innings. Naughton eventually pitched shutout baseball into the 7th.

Reiver Sanmartin will try to emulate, if not duplicate, Packy's effort. The South American southpaw will be making just his third start for the Lookouts. While Sanmartin came over in the Sonny Gray deal, he originally signed with the Texas Rangers. His stuff reads as ordinary, but he makes up for it with excellent control. He has a minor league career BB/9 of just 1.4. It seems likely that eventually he becomes Reiver the Reliever.

Scott Moss is 4th in the league in strikeouts with 92. He is striking out 11.1 batters for every 9 innings of work. That is impressive for a starter.

Saves must be the kiss of death. Joel Kuhnel leads the club in saves with 10. He gone. Alex Powers is second. He gone. Juan Martinez is the current club leader in saves with 3. T-H-R-E-E.

Alfredo Rodriguez keeps rolling along at about a .300/.700 BA/OPS clip. Nice to see. If, before season began, you gave Alfredo's OPS plus .002 versus Taylor Trammell's OPS, you would gotten zero takers. But, here on the second of July, that's where things stand (.702-.700). Baseball is a funny game.

Jose Siri whacked two out of the park yesterday. Shape of things to come? Hopefully.

Mitch Nay was named Southern League Hitter of the week.

[texasdave]

Daytona got back on the smiling side of the scoreboard last night with a 9-3 harpooning of the Tampa Tarpons. Do they harpoon Tarpons? I guess they could. These fish grow to 8 feet in length, and can weigh up to 300 pounds. They have adipose eyelids. That means transparent, which strikes me as pointless in many a way. That's their problem. Megalops, of which Tarpons are one, are considered one of the great saltwater game fishes. They are prized not only because of their great size, but also because of the fight they put up and their spectacular leaping ability. They are bony fish and their meat is not desirable, so most are released after they are caught. Numerous tournaments around the year are focused on catching tarpon. And, now, back to baseball.

Jared Solomon will start tonight for the 'Tugas. Jared started the year with Dayton and compiled a 3.43 ERA. With Daytona it is 3.48. For the year, his ERA is 3.45. For his minor league career it is 3.58. Consistent. Snooping around, it would appear that Solomon has fairly generic stuff - low 90s fastball. Inconsistent breaking pitches.

Andy Cox has given up 1 run in 16 appearances. His ERA is 0.52.

Bryson Brigman failed to reach base on Monday, which makes Hendrik Clementina the current league leader with 18 straight games in which he reached base. Yay!

Andy Sugilio cranked out 4 hits last night, and has embarked upon a 7-game hitting streak (11-29 .379).

Tonight is Nascar Night in preparation for the Daytona Coke Zero 400. Chase (what a great name for a Nascar driver) Elliott will do a meet and greet, and sign autographs for youngsters 14 and under.

[texasdave]

Dayton salvaged the final game of the South Bend series, 6-2. They are home for the miniest of mini-series, 2 games versus Bowling Green, before heading back out onto the road.

James Marinan (5.28) is tonight's starting pitcher. For some reason, Marinan's K/9 is way down this year. Coming into the season, he had fanned 8.2/9. This season that rate has dropped to 5.5/9. There has been a corresponding drop in his BB/9 rate as well, 4.7/9 to 3.1/9. Maybe a new pitching philosophy?

Personal boring story: We only get back to Cincinnati once every couple of years, and we always drive past the Corvette Museum in Bowling Green. Well, we decided on one trip to stop, and check it out. We go to drive into it, and it was closed. It seems that the a giant sinkhole swallowed an 8-pack of Corvettes. Here is the story for the disbelievers among us: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...khole/5417171/

Brian Rey is hitting a torrid .348 in the second half of the season.

A couple more Dragons' hitters are coming alive in the second half - Miguel Hernandez (.316) and Bren Spillane (.318).

[Bourgeois Zee]

I think the opposite. I never expected Blandino to sniff the roster. What I would like to see is if Blandino can work on that knucker. A guy who can eat innings with a knuckler when not playing infield would be very valuable.

That is an intriguing idea and remarkably unorthodox.

[texasdave]

Billings Mustangs have their first winning streak of 2019, thanks to last night's 9-7 win over Great Falls. Will they make it 3 in a row tonight? The bats have been rampaging the past 2 games - 24 runs on 35 hits.

They have their staff ace going for them in the person of Miguel Medrano. Medrano (2.08) has been solid or better in all three of his 2019 starts. My money is on a 3-bagger, especially since the opposing pitcher has a double-digit ERA.

Jerry D'Andrea can strike people out. That much we know. This is his second year in the organization, and his K/9 is 13.0. For the Mustangs this year, it is even better at 15.3. Anyone striking out hitters at that rate has a chance.

Okay, this is ridiculous. Edwin Yon, over his last 6 games, has 26 at-bats. He has 10 hits, and 15 strikeouts. That works out to a BABIP of .900.

Quincy McAfee has fanned a microscopic 3 times in 39 plate appearances. Quincy McAfee has not played since 6/27.

Tonight's opponent are the Great Falls Voyagers. How did they get the name Voyagers? What is up with that? At one time, the team was the Great Falls Electrics, due to the hydroelectric power generated there. Shaky, but okay. In August 1950 Nicholas "Nick" Mariana, the general manager of the Great Falls Electrics, saw two spinning objects approaching at a seemingly high speed. Mariana recorded 16 seconds of footage of the unidentified flying objects at Legion Park. This became known as the Mariana UFO Incident. At 11:25 am on August 15, 1950, Nick Mariana, the general manager of the Great Falls Electrics minor-league baseball team, and his nineteen-year-old secretary, Virginia Raunig, were inspecting the empty Legion Stadium baseball field before a game. Ooh la la. To make a long story short, the Air Force got involved, stated that it was a 'reflection', and returned the film. However, controversy soon arose when Mariana claimed that the first thirty-five frames of his film - which he said most clearly showed the UFOs as rotating disks - were missing!!!!!!

[texasdave]

Greeneville Reds are slumping, losers of 4 consecutive. Allan Cerda was named Appalachian League Hitter of the Week.

Graham Ashcraft draws the starting assignment. Ashcraft (4.00) was excellent in his last outing, 5 scoreless innings. He has walked one batter over the course of his 2 starts. Ashcraft is a hard-throwing righty out of Mississippi State. He was born in Huntsville, Alabama, and has probably heard a good UFO story or two while growing up there.

Michael Bono's career is off to a staggering start. He was drafted in 2017, but did not pitch that year. He threw all of 4.1 innings in 2018. He is now on the Restricted List here in 2019. It is probably for the best, he walked 13 batters in those 4.1 innings. He is so obscure that I imagine Bruce Berenyi hasn't heard of him.

Where is Rece Hinds? He hasn't played in over a week. The owner of the best raw power of any prep player in this year’s class, Hinds was ranked as the No. 39 prospect available. It's hard to show off that power, when you're glued to the bench.

Allan Cerda must have some thunder in his stick. He has belted 4 home runs over his last 6 games.

[texasdave]

It was not a good day for the DSL-Reds, as they fall 11-5.

Four pitchers combined to give up 12 hits, 8 walks and 2 hit-by-pitches.

Jose Acosta tripled and walked. He is hitting .404. Today was his first game played in a week.

Darlin Guzman cracked his 9th double on the year. He is batting .337.

Danny Vellojin singled twice, tripled and stole a base (5). He is batting .371.

Junior Melo singled and doubled. He is batting .308.

Junior Tamares singled, and threw a runner out at home. He is batting .323.

[texasdave]

Louisville leads 2-0 as they bat in the 3rd.

Tejay Antone is unscored upon so far. Law of Averages.

Josh VanMeter has been involved in both runs. He singled in the first and came home on an Aquino double. In the 3rd, VanMeter singled home Christian Colon.

[texasdave]

After 2 and a half innings, Chattanooga leads 3-1.

Taylor Trammell with a 2-run jack (5).

- - - Updated - - -

Daytona is in a scoreless affair as they bat in the home half of the third.

Jared Solomon has not allowed a hit over the first third of the contest.

[texasdave]

Dayton trails 2-0 after 3.

James Marinan lasted just 2.1 innings. He allowed 3 hits, 2 walks and was charged with both runs. Moises Nova has taken the reins.

[texasdave]

Greeneville is behind he woodshed on the receiving end. They trail Johnson City 10-2 in the third, with JC still batting.

Graham Ashcraft faced 7 batters in the third, and did not retire a single one. That's gonna leave a mark. His ERA jumped to 11.45. Ouch!

[texasdave]

Chattanooga is making this one a laugher. They scored 5 times in the fourth. They lead now 8-3.

Michael Beltre (1) hit a solo shot. Ibandel Isabel smacked a bases-loaded big fly (20).