7/4/19 soundgarden

[texasdave]

Louisville has righted the ship, maybe. Winners of 4 of their past 5, the Bats are playing good baseball. They are off until Thursday July 11 for the All-Star break.

Lucas Sims it the lone Louisville pitcher to make the All-Star roster. Sims (5.24) has wobbled lately. Showing that sometimes the won/loss record is a bit misleading, in 5 starts during the month of June, Lucas compiled a 7.54 ERA, yet did not lose a start. Sims began the year on a serious strike out jag, averaging 14.8 Ks per 9 innings. Since then he has fallen off a bit, but is still fanning a very healthy 11.2/9.

Aristides Aquino and Josh VanMeter are the position players that will represent the I.L. in the ASG. The Notorious One will be on the outside looking in.

The club record (Cincinnati Reds' edition) for home runs will certainly fall in 2019. It stands at 25. Brian O'Grady (20), Aristides Aquino (19) and Josh VanMeter (14) all have good to excellent chances of topping that number. O'Grady became just the 10th Bat to reach 20 homers. The other nine are: Mike Hessman, Wladmir Balentien, Kevin Barker (twice), Joey Votto, Brandon Larson (twice), Kevin Witt, Adam Dunn, Brooks Kieschnik, Mike Bell. Interestingly enough, only 2 of the 10 players have gone on to have sustained major league success. Balentien has had a stellar career over in Japan, hitting 270 home runs there, and counting. He knocked 60 baseballs over the fence in 2013, when he was MVP of the league.

47 players have stepped to the plate for Louisville thus far in 2019.

With all the big sticks that Louisville has had this year, it's diminutive Christian Colon that has drawn the most walks with 36.

[texasdave]

Chattanooga is treading water here in the second half of the season at 7-7 after last night's smackdown. They will face the Generals of Jackson on this patriotic holiday.

Scott Moss will try his best to make opposing hitters salute his offerings today. Moss (3.51) has really never had a bad season in the minors as his career ERA of 3.43 would suggest. And, apparently, he knows how to win ballgames, as evidenced by an overall 36-14 won/loss record shows. Whatever the reason, when Moss starts, his team stands a good chance of winning the game. He has had a bit of trouble with walking batters in 2019, but is improving month to month. His BB/9 has dropped from 9.0 in April to 5.7 in May to 4.0 in June. That is a positive trend.

Ty Boyles, pitcher, is 3 for 4 with the bat, including 2 doubles.

Tyler Jay made his 2019 debut last night. Meh. In 2014, Tyler made the US Collegiate National team. Then Jay was the 6th overall pick in 2015. So, he must have some talent. Coincidentally, Jay played in Chattanooga last season as a farmhand of the Twinkies.

I am not saying that he is or is not hurt, but TJ Friedl was taken out of the game on Monday night (first day back from the IL), and has not played a lick for the past two games.

Alfredo Rodriguez had his 10-game hitting streak snapped last night, going 0-5.

Brantley Bell is free falling, 1 for his last 21.

[texasdave]

Daytona got back to their winning ways last night, going extra innings to do so, 5-4. The Tortugas head out on the road and will face the Mets High-A ball team for 4 games. After this series, I expect St. Lucie will have some 'splaining to do.

Wennington Romero has been around forever it seems, but is just 21. He sports a 4.43 ERA. Peripherally speaking, Romero has struck out 24 and walked a meager 7 batters in 22.1 innings. However, the long ball has bitten him, 5 of them altogether.

Diomar Lopez must be pitching in some bad random variation pattern. He has 19 Ks, 4 BBs and has not given up a home run. That would work out to very good FIP. Yet, his ERA is 4.30. Who knows. Fangraphs says this about him:

Diomar throws really hard for his size and has been up to 97 in my looks at him this spring. His control needs to improve significantly, but he’s a solid relief prospect.

He is just 22. The Reds dumped, err, traded Matt Wisler to the Padres for him.

Since coming back from Extended Spring Training, John Ghyzel has been pitching well: 7 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 9 K. Ghyzel converted 19 of 22 save opportunities last season for Dayton.

Andy Sugilio upped his hitting string to 9 games with 3 hits last night. He is raking at a .395 clip over that same period.

Hendrik Clementina is playing with fire, concerning his on-base streak. He went hitless again last night, but was issued a free pass. The league-leading streak is up to 20 games.

[texasdave]

Dayton snapped their losing streak with some fine pitching, 4-2. They escaped the cellar in the process.

Connor Curlis (3.86) is coming off consecutive subpar outings. Curlis has walked 17 in 25.2 innings this season. That is not going to get the job done. He is going against Matthew Liberatore, who is pretty much dominating lower-level ball.

Brian Rey is hitting much better on the road (.322) as opposed to home (.263). So much for home cooking.

Michael Siani (23 steals) got pulled from the game last night for a pinch runner. Hmm.

Miles Gordon is hitting .138 over his last 65 at-bats. 25 strike outs against 2 walks over that stretch. Gordon OPSd a wonderful .919 for Billings in 2017. Since then, he is probably OPSing under .600.

[texasdave]

Billings Mustangs won their 4th in a row on Wednesday night. After a truly miserable start to the season, they seem to be getting their house in order.

Justing McGregor is on the mound today, so there is a pretty good chance of both in-game and post game fireworks.

Frainger Aranguren and Alberto Gonzalez combined yesterday to retire 15 straight and 22 of 23 at one point in the contest. Aranguren's ERA over his three years in the organization is 2.95.

The pitching staff is second in the league in WHIP at 1.39.

Is it possible for a 20-year-old to get Wally Pipped? Since Matt LLoyd exploded on the scene, Leonardo Seminati (the team's leading hitter at .388) has played in just 1 of the last 4 games. He currently stands 5th in league in batting average.

Quin Cotton had himself a 4-hit night. He is averaging .358.

Jonathan 'J-Train' Willems struggled at Dayton at the beginning of the season. But he is having no problems at all with Pioneer League pitching, batting .361.

Idaho Falls and Ogden have split the top 8 places in OPS. Seminati is number 10.

As a team, Billings is second in the league in batting average at .282.

[JCM11]

4th of July is the most underrated Soundgarden song.

[texasdave]

Greeneville clipped their losing streak, winning 5-4. They will host Bristol in the first of three.

Neither team has determined their starting pitcher as of yet. I guess it's hard to get volunteers to work on holidays.

Andy Fisher, free agent signee in June of 2019, has been in a word - brilliant - for the G-Reds. 11.2 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 0 HR, 1 BB, 17, 0.60 WHIP, 0.77 ERA. Fisher was a reliever for 2 seasons at Eastern Illinois before transferring to the University of Illinois. They converted him to a starter, but he is back in the bullpen for Greenville, though he has worked multiple innings in each of his 4 appearances. Fisher expected to be drafted, but quickly signed with the Reds when that did not take place. Fisher has a 3/4 arm angle with a high 80s fastball, a good change up, and a slider with nasty bite. Maybe a bit of a lefthanded Bronson Arroyo. Okay, I just made that up on the spot. Andy was National Pitcher of the Week in 2019 after stifling the Hoosiers. Fisher's Fighting Illini teammate, Quentin Sefcik, also pitches for Greeneville.

Alec Byrd came up huge in last night's win. With a runner on third and only one out, and clinging to a one-run lead in the 10th, Byrd got back-to-back punch outs to secure the win.

One-time bonus baby, Cristian Olivo, leads the team in hitting with a .353 average. Ranking second is Allan Cerda at .271. Yes, hitting the baseball is a problem for this team. They rank dead last in runs scored with 62.

[texasdave]

The AZL Reds led most of the game, before falling 4-2. They led 2-0 after 6. This had stretched the staff's scoreless inning string to 14, which is a huge improvement from how the team's pitching started the season.

No idea who is starting today.

Chadwick Tromp's rehab time is close to being up. He has dominated during his time here: .355/.488/.613/1.101. 9 walks, 5 strike outs.

[texasdave]

It's early down on the island, and the DSL Reds lead 1-0.

D-Reds starter, Jesus Rojas, came out after 1.1 hitless innings. He retired the first 4 batters that he faced, walked a guy and was gone. This was his 6th start of the season, and he was averaging close to 4 innings an outing. Odd.

Darlin Guzman has scored the lone run. He singled, went to second on a balk, third on a ground out and scored on a single by Fraudy Rodriguez.

[texasdave]

Sometimes all you can do is laugh about things. The DSL Reds led 3-2 going into the top of the sixth. DSL Reds' pitchers walked the first EIGHT batters that they faced in the top of the 6th.. Yep. E-I-G-H-T in a row. They trail the DSL Blue Jays 7-3 now. The D-BJs have 7 runs on 1 hit.

Willy Mendez faced 3 batters, walked them all.
Israel Lantigua faced 5 batters, walked them all.

[JaxRed]

Sometimes all you can do is laugh about things. The DSL Reds led 3-2 going into the top of the sixth. DSL Reds' pitchers walked the first EIGHT batters that they faced in the top of the 6th.. Yep. E-I-G-H-T in a row. They trail the DSL Blue Jays 7-3 now. The D-BJs have 7 runs on 1 hit.

Willy Mendez faced 3 batters, walked them all.
Israel Lantigua faced 5 batters, walked them all.

Apparently, no one related to Jose Peraza plays for that team.

[texasdave]

Sometimes all you can do is laugh about things. The DSL Reds led 3-2 going into the top of the sixth. DSL Reds' pitchers walked the first EIGHT batters that they faced in the top of the 6th.. Yep. E-I-G-H-T in a row. They trail the DSL Blue Jays 7-3 now. The D-BJs have 7 runs on 1 hit.

Willy Mendez faced 3 batters, walked them all.
Israel Lantigua faced 5 batters, walked them all.

Willy Mendez has faced the DSL-Blue Jays 3 times this season. He has pitched to 12 batters, and walked 9 of them. Crazy Stat of the Season.
His BB/9 is a Howardian 16.4.

[redsof72]

Michael Siani (23 steals) got pulled from the game last night for a pinch runner. Hmm.

Siani collided with the first baseman on an infield single last night on a bit of an odd play. It was a very hard collision and both players were down for some time. Siani tried to stay in the game and actually advanced to second on a hit a moment later, then took himself out of the game. Back injury. Doubt if you see him out there for at least a couple days.

[texasdave]

Siani collided with the first baseman on an infield single last night on a bit of an odd play. It was a very hard collision and both players were down for some time. Siani tried to stay in the game and actually advanced to second on a hit a moment later, then took himself out of the game. Back injury. Doubt if you see him out there for at least a couple days.

Thanks.

[texasdave]

The DSL-Reds' staff allowed just 2 hits today, and lost 7-6. Yep. 2 hits and 7 runs. That is what 8 in a row, and 11 overall will get you. The team fought back from a 7-3, and actually brought the winning run to the plate in the 9th, to no avail.

Andry Cuevas was stellar. He faced the minimum 12 batters over his 4 innings of shutout pitching. He gave up a hit, but that runner was erased on the front end of a double play.

The hitting was pretty thin. The sticks were efficient, but not successful enough, leaving just 2 runners on base.

Darlin Guzman singled twice and hit a solo shot (4).
Wilmer Alcantara walked twice.