A tale of two minor league starts: Not a whole lot of success in the minor leagues Friday night. Subber will get you completely updated, but I just finished looking at the starting pitchers and have a couple of reactions to some bad starts that may not have been too terribly bad.
First up, Jonnathan Aristil looks to have been bombed against Tulsa in his first start with the Astros organization. He gave up three runs in 4 2/3 innings while striking out three and walking one. However, a huge part of his run total came when reliver David Berner came in to finish the fifth and promptly gave up a three-run home run. Would Aristil have done any better? Maybe, but Berner also gave up another home run in this game, so it may have not been his night.
Aristil also threw just 65 pitches, so his count wasn't that high. No explanation was given in the Corpus Christi Caller Times recap for why he was pulled, but it did point out how close Aristil was to throwing five shutout innings, instead of 4 2/3 average ones.
In that same vein, Tanner Bushue's start Friday could have gone better. He did pitch six innings and picked up the victory, but gave up four runs, including three home runs while striking out just three. Again, though, his line is a little misleading in a different way.
Bushue gave up three hits in 11 at-bats to lefties, which is not great. But, all three of those hits came from one player, Slade Heathcott. The 2009 first-round pick out of Texarkana was 3 for 3 with two home runs off Bushue. Considering he only hit two home runs in his first two minor league seasons, that's an even worse sign.
Looking at the scouting reports on Heathcott, it's not as bad as it seems. Both John Sickels and Baseball America agree that Heathcott has great tools and loads of power potential. He just hadn't put it together in his first full season last year. Apparently, he did just that against Bushue.
Does it make any difference whether the entire lineup hit him hard or just one guy? I'm not sure, but I think it should better inform our opinions of him. It's not the best sign, but we also shouldn't downgrade his status just yet.
Comment of the Day: What can I say, I'm a sucker for puns.
For whom the bell Towles
gettin it done today
by danielcp0303 on Apr 8, 2011 7:18 PM CDT reply actions
Comment Leaderboard: Again, here's the top five commenters from Friday's game thread and a roll call of everyone there.
Roll Call: Its Gonna Happen, clack, mike_o, Z-Dub, BigMacFrys, timmy_, Trei Brundrett, SeoulStro, Danteslion, entropic soul, danielcp0303, Joe in Birmingham, h-town_sports, Matt3511
| Name | # of Posts |
|---|---|
| mike_o | 45 |
| Joe in Birmingham | 41 |
| Danteslion | 25 |
| Trei Brundrett | 18 |
| Matt3511 | 14 |