5/27 Minor League Scores

[Bourgeois Zee]

Louisville starts either River Sanmartin or Mike Minor. MiLB says Sanmartin, but Minor missed his last rehab start last night, so who really knows, at this point? He'll have some new company, at any rate-- Colin Moran and Jared Solomon were both sent to AAA today, in lieu of Graham Ashcraft, who'll make his second start of the season, and Ross Detwiler.

Chattanooga plays Birmingham. The Lookouts are four games over .500. They're two games behind division leader Tennessee Smokies and one game behind the Trash Pandas of Rocket City. The Chattanooga offense seems legit. They're scoring 5.67 runs per game, which is second in the 8-team league. Their pitching has been their Achilles' heel all season. That 5.04 team ERA is ugly. Part of the blame for that hideous ERA is the league-leading BB rate of 5.3.

Dayton plays West Michigan at 6:35. Connor Phillips goes for the Dragons. He's 2-2 with a 3.00 ERA, but his peripherals are far more interesting than that. Barring a fairly massive collapse, the Dragons should be considered the favorite to claim the East Division half-season crown. They're up 4.5 on second-place Great Lakes. Offensively, Dayton's solidly above average, third in the league in runs/ game at 4.80. That .234 BA is anemic, but it's actually tied for fourth in the 12-team league. The reason they have the best offense in the league is their power. They lead the league in HR, slugging and OPS.

Daytona is six games below .500. They play Palm Beach at 7:05. Chase Petty pitches for the Tugas. He's struggled a bit lately. Hopefully, he can get on the right train. Daytona has the oldest hitting lineup in the league and the second youngest pitching staff. That's kind of odd. That pitching staff doesn't K all that many opposing hitters-- they rank second-to-last with 10.1 K/9. This, against 3.7 BB/9. (That BB rate is the best of any Red farm team, fwiw.)

[texasdave]

Louisville jettisoned Nick Howard and Zack Godley. They were replaced by Justin Nicolino and Deck McGuire. Yes, that Deck McGuire. And, yes, that Justin Nicolino. Deck pitched for the Reds in 2017. In 2019, he toiled in Korea. He took 2020 off. In 2021, he pitched in the Chinese Professional Baseball League, before throwing Indy Ball in 2022. Nicolino had an equally coloful road back home. He was a Bat in 2018. During 2019, he was a member of both the Minnesota and Chicago White Sox organizations. Winter of 2019-2020 found him in the Dominican Winter League. in 2020, it was the CPBL. Once again the winter found him down in the Dominican. And in 2022, it was Indy ball for Justin too. The Reds are now not only scraping the bottom of the barrel, but lifting the barrel up, and scraping underneath.

Nick Howard walked 179 batters during his minor league career, while striking out 180. Yikes!

[Mitri]

When a pitcher walks more batters than they strike out, it will now forever be known as the Howard ratio. Much like the Mendoza line, if your're in the Howard ratio it is not a good thing at all.

[Tony Cloninger]

Why can’t they promote players from AA? They are averse to doing this a lot of times.

[RED VAN HOT]

Louisville jettisoned Nick Howard and Zack Godley. They were replaced by Justin Nicolino and Deck McGuire. Yes, that Deck McGuire. And, yes, that Justin Nicolino. Deck pitched for the Reds in 2017. In 2019, he toiled in Korea. He took 2020 off. In 2021, he pitched in the Chinese Professional Baseball League, before throwing Indy Ball in 2022. Nicolino had an equally coloful road back home. He was a Bat in 2018. During 2019, he was a member of both the Minnesota and Chicago White Sox organizations. Winter of 2019-2020 found him in the Dominican Winter League. in 2020, it was the CPBL. Once again the winter found him down in the Dominican. And in 2022, it was Indy ball for Justin too. The Reds are now not only scraping the bottom of the barrel, but lifting the barrel up, and scraping underneath.

Nick Howard walked 179 batters during his minor league career, while striking out 180. Yikes!

Neither Nicolino nor McGuire pitched well in Taiwan which, by all rights, should have been the last stop. Both, however, are having success as starters this year in the Atlantic League. McGuire wasn't bad in his stint with the Reds. He didn't pitch in 2020 but was signed by the Rays and then released in May before the season actually started in July. Gotta love guys who won't give up on the dream.

[texasdave]

Dayton is locked in a scoreless dogfight with Western Michigan. There is no score through 6 innings.

Connor Phillips has gone 6. He has yielded 2 hits, and 3 walks, while striking out 6. Over his last 5 starts (including tonight), Phillips has worked 28.0 innings, and given up 14 hits. He has walked 7, while punching out 45. His ERA is 1.29.

Through the first 6, Elly De La Cruz has the lone Dayton safety, a triple.

[texasdave]

Chattanooga leads 2-0 in the 4th.

Brandon Williamson is dealing in his 4 innings, toeing the rubber. 4 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K.

[texasdave]

An odd night for Connor Phillips in his 6.2-inning stint. He allowed 8 baserunners - 3 hits, 4 walks, 1 HBP). 5 were erased on double plays, and a sixth on an outfield assist. He left just 2 runners stranded.

[texasdave]

Louisville leads 4-0 through 3.

Mike Minor looks ready to come on up the river. One hit, no walks and 4 strike outs.

TJ Friedl cracked a 2-run shot (3).

Cristian Santana is 2 for 2, raising his batting average to .344.

[Old school 1983]

Chattanooga leads 2-0 in the 4th.

Brandon Williamson is dealing in his 4 innings, toeing the rubber. 4 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K.

I’m glad to only see one walk. Gotta wonder what happened to his ridiculous K rate from last year.

[HokieRed]

Louisville leads 4-0 through 3.

Mike Minor looks ready to come on up the river. One hit, no walks and 4 strike outs.

TJ Friedl cracked a 2-run shot (3).

Cristian Santana is 2 for 2, raising his batting average to .344.

Cristian Santana is figuring it out.

[Bourgeois Zee]

Dayton ends up on the smiling side of the scoreboard, 3-0 in 11 innings.

Phillips was exceptional. Hinds hit a two-run dinger in the 11th (his 6th) and a single. The 2-run jock came after an Elly De La Cruz sacrifice to make it 1-0.

Dragons keep finding interesting ways to win.

[texasdave]

Brandon Williamson is likely done for the night. 1 run over 6 innings. He made 5 starts in the month of May, and 4 were quality starts. The fifth missed only because BW went 5 innings, instead of the requisite 6.

[Bourgeois Zee]

Bats beat the Storm Chasers, 4-2.

Good game by Minor-- his best of the season, IMO.

Santana had three hits, as is his wont. BA up to .346. (Might be time to see what he has.)

[Bourgeois Zee]

Lookouts win, 4-1. Red farm teams go unbeaten on the day.

McAfee had a couple of hits, but the story of the game was Brandon Williamson and the relief corps. Williamson gave up 1 in 6 (as Texasdave wrote earlier), then Garcia, Pinto, and Karcher shut the door.

Chattanooga goes five over .500 at 24-19.