Triple-A
No games scheduled in the Pacific Coast League.
After a slow start, Chase Headley has picked things up a bit. He hit .242/.317/.396 in April, but is at .358/.424/.528 so far in May. The Padres’ other top prospect at Portland, Matt Antonelli, is headed in the opposite direction. He’s batting .146/.294/.220 this month…
Starting pitching has been awful: Wade LeBlanc (8.35 ERA, 6.96 K/9, .333 BAA), Cesar Ramos (7.36 ERA, 8.59 K/9, .316 BAA), and Josh Geer (5.09 ERA, 5.28 K/9, .283 BAA) have combined to allow 19 home runs in just 107 2/3 innings. Ramos’ strikeout rate is nice (and way above his career average), but he still can’t get hitters out on a consistent basis…
That the Beavers are 17-18 despite a team 6.05 ERA speaks to the quality of hitting at Portland. Brian Myrow (.325/.450/.542) is crushing the ball, as was Jody Gerut (.308/.382/.570) before he was recalled. Chip Ambres (.276/.375/.500) is playing well…
Of course, Ambres is the youngest of the lot at age 28. Still, Gerut is showing that he’s got some life left, and regular readers know I’m a pretty big Myrow fan.
Double-A — San Antonio 4, Corpus Christi 1
Drew Macias: 0-for-4
Chad Huffman: 1-for-4
Kyle Blanks: 1-for-4
Colt Morton: 0-for-4
Craig Cooper: 1-for-1, HR, 2 BB
Seth Johnston: 1-for-3, HR
Steve Garrison: 7 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 HR, 0 BB, 4 SO (82 pitches, 61 strikes)
Jonathan Ellis: 1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 HR, 1 BB, 0 SO
I had a request to get Johnston in these reports, so there he is. Don’t get too excited — he’s 25 years old… The Missions came within an inning of recording their fourth consecutive shutout.
High-A — Lake Elsinore 3, Stockton 2
Javis Diaz: 0-for-5
Cedric Hunter: 1-for-4, BB
Eric Sogard: 2-for-4
Mitch Canham: 0-for-2, 2 BB
Kellen Kulbacki: 0-for-3, BB
Rayner Contreras: 0-for-4
Nathan Culp: 7 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 0 HR, 0 BB, 2 SO
Nice comeback win for the Storm at home. Down 2-0 headed to the bottom of the eighth, they scored twice in that inning and once more in the ninth to improve their record to 19-21 on the young season (good enough for first place in the Cal League’s Southern Division)… Kulbacki is scuffling…
Low-A — Fort Wayne 7, West Michigan 5
Bradley Chalk: 0-for-3, 2 BB, SB
Andrew Cumberland (SS): 0-for-4, BB
Justin Baum: 0-for-1, 2 BB, HBP
Shane Buschini: 1-for-4, 2B
Yefri Carvajal: 1-for-4
Felix Carrasco: 1-for-2, HR, 2 BB
Robert Woodard: 3.2 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 1 HR, 2 BB, 3 SO, WP
Wynn Pelzer: 3 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 HR, 1 BB, 4 SO
LaMond Pope of the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette reports that the Wizards will abandon the “piggyback style” rotation they employed during the season’s first month in favor of a more traditional five-man rotation.
Thanks for the pointer about the Wizard rotation … interesting concept … I’ve posted this comment for LaMond Pope …
Can you ask the Wizard’s pitching coach why they tried this … and then why they have decided to stop doing this?
I would imagine that part of the reason is that developing major league pitchers is best done in the context of minor league pitchers being “starters” … and the piggy-back system allows for twice as many pitchers to get “starter”-like experience and number of innings pitched.
Which makes me wonder why they have changed their mind …
… perhaps I’ll also ask it to the MadFriars community.
#1@LynchMob: I don’t know the answer, but they might use it to limit innings in the early going and to see which pitchers seem to be best suited for starting duty.
#1@LynchMob: That might be a good question for DePo’s blog.
In regards to Antonelli, any chance he’s just real tired? He played fine in A & AA, didn’t play in the AFL or whatnot the winter before. Then he played in the AFL and then to spring training then to AAA, might that be a bit too much for him?