Minor League Recap: Games of May 25, 2014

AAA Oklahoma City RedHawks: 3-2 loss to Memphis (STL)

-> Gregorio Petit: 1-for-2
-> Max Stassi: 1-for-3, BB, R
-> Jonathan Meyer: 1-for-3
-> Enrique Hernandez: 1-for-4, solo HR
-> Domingo Santana: 1-for-4, 2B
-> Adron Chambers: 1-for-4
-> Andy Simunic: 0-for-3, RBI

SP Jake Buchanan: 6.0 IP, 3 ER, 8 H, 2 BB, 0 K (loss)
RP Bobby Doran: 2.0 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 2 K

Singleton was out of the lineup today.

Double #13 on the season for Santana, who has 23 XBH in 51 games. He's hitting .294/.366/.510 on the season. Max Stassi appears to be warming up again at last; he's hitting .300/.346/.475 with five doubles, a triple and eight strikeouts in his last ten games.

Nice to see Doran bounce back after getting just torched his last time out (six earned in one inning). It's possible that they're transitioning him to more of a full-time reliever now, and I think a lot of people have thought that was probably his future anyway. This is three outings in a row of two innings or less; granted he pitched himself out of any more innings last time out, but still. We'll see if that's the case long term or if they're just easing back on him for a while.

Buchanan's season has been quietly very good. Case in point; this was the first time he had allowed any runs at all during May. He now has a 2.83 ERA, 1.26 BB/9 and 5.49 K/9. I should also point out that, after hovering around 55% for his career, his ground ball rate this year is inching towards 65%, a massive improvement (and it was already very good). I know a lot of people look at the strikeout rate and sneer, but just a reminder; Dallas Keuchel's career strikeout rate in AAA is 4.69 K/9. Now, this isn't me saying that Buchanan is the next Keuchel, but I am saying don't go to sleep on this guy. Look at what Strom and this organization did with Keuchel. There's good precedence for this kind of guy turning out to be a very effective Major League rotation arm, and said precedence is right before our very eyes on the Astros roster right now.

And his name sounds like "Buccaneer" and look at his facial hair, like some kind of Spanish pirate or conquistador. Awesome.

AA Corpus Christi Hooks: 7-4 loss to Northwest Arkansas (KCR)

-> Jiovanni Mier: 2-for-3, BB, 2 RBI
-> Tyler Heineman: 2-for-3
-> Joe Sclafani: 2-for-4, R
-> Matthew Duffy: 2-for-5, HR, 2 RBI, 2 R
-> Delino DeShields: 1-for-5, SB
-> Nolan Fontana: 0-for-2, R, 2 BB

SP Luis Cruz: 5.0 IP, 6 ER, 9 H, 0 BB, 4 K (loss)
RP Alex Sogard: 2.0 IP, 1 R (0 ER), 1 H, 1 BB, 1 K
RP Jorge De Leon: 1.0 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 1 K

Not much to talk about here, just a pretty bad game on the whole.

17th steal for DeShields. He's 17-for 20 (85%) on the bases.

Duffy has eight hits in his last five games. He's hitting a solid .284/.320/.423 on the season with 16 XBH.

I wonder why Heineman's playing time has been sort of...sporadic. He's hitting .286/.372/.398 on the season now, but has played in just 28 games for...whatever reason. Just 11 strikeouts in those games.

A+ Lancaster JetHawks: 12-5 win over Inland Empire (LAA)

-> Carlos Correa: 3-for-4, HR, 2 R, 3 RBI
-> Anthony Kemp: 3-for-5, RBI, 2 R
-> Jordan Scott: 2-for-4, 3B, SB, RBI, R
-> Carlos Perdomo: 2-for-4, BB, SB, RBI, R
-> Danry Vasquez: 2-for-5, 2B, 3 RBI
-> Daniel Gulbransen: 1-for-2, 2B, 2 R, 3 BB
-> Rio Ruiz: 1-for-3, 2 BB, 2 R
-> Roberto Pena: 1-for-4, BB, R, 2 RBI
-> Teoscar Hernandez: 0-for-3, SB, R, 2 BB

SP Zach Morton: 5.0 IP, 2 ER, 6 H, 0 BB, 1 K (win)
RP Brian Holmes: 3.0 IP, 3 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 2 K (hold)
RP Mitchell Lambson: 1.0 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 0 BB, 1 K

Aw yeah, the Captain strikes again. Correa is hitting .310/.383/.548 over his last ten games with a pair of long balls. Something about him that isn't getting a lot of play but is worth mentioning; he's 10-for-13 in stolen base attempts. That's pretty nice for a guy who is thought to be missing that one tool from the chest. Sure, he'll keep aging, maybe fill out more, maybe it will go away...but it didn't leave Bagwell, did it? He wasn't super fast, but he was smart. Carlos Correa strikes me as the kind of guy who could maybe steal some bases with his mind, like Bagwell, yeah?

Kemp has hit .310/.396/.476 over his last ten games, and I went in kind of feeling like he was in a slump. What an incredible start to the season this kid has had. He owns a .940 OPS, 20 steals, 12 doubles, four triples and three dingers on the season.

Remember a couple of days ago when I talked about how Singleton was drawing walks and contributing despite being in a slump? Rio Ruiz is hitting .243 in his last ten games, but he has 11 walks and two strikeouts during that span, so his OBP is .408. It can't be overstated how impressive he's looking for his age and competition level; his 20th birthday was last Tuesday (and Anthony didn't even mention. Poor Rio. I love you at least, buddy!).

Hernandez is basically Lancaster's version of Domingo Santana, right? Sure, Santana has the better raw power at the expensive of the defense and speed of Hernandez, but they both have a nice mix of tools, some real hitting and OBP ability, legitimate starting RF upside, and are being held back only by strikeouts. Hernandez is hitting .297/.377/.557 on the season, but with 65 whiffs in 47 games.

A- Quad Cities River Bandits: 3-2 loss to Burlington (LAA)

-> James Ramsay: 1-for-3, 2B
-> Thomas Lindauer: 1-for-3, R
-> Jack Mayfield: 1-for-4, solo HR
-> Tyler White: 0-for-2, BB
-> Conrad Gregor: 0-for-3, BB
-> Brett Booth: 0-for-3, BB
-> Chan Moon: 0-for-3, RBI

SP Evan Grills: 6.0 IP, 1 ER, 6 H, 1 BB, 2 K
RP Frederick Tiburcio: 2.0 IP, 2 R (0 ER), 1 H, 1 BB, 5 K (blown save, loss)

Boy...uh...highlights, highlights...mmmmm not finding much today here.

I can say that Ramsay is hitting .275/.356/.400 over his last ten games, so hopefully he's rounding back into form.

And this Tiburcio kid is kind of interesting. Small sample size alert; he has just five innings, but in those five innings, he's walked one and punched out 10. You know, 18.00 K/9...that kinda works. Walk rate in his MiLB career is 4.34 BB/9, so I guess that's what to watch going forward, as his strikeout rate has always been fairly promising (8.20 K/9).

Tomorrow's Scheduled Starters

AAA: Paul Clemens vs. TBD
AA: Jordan Jankowski vs. Sam Selman
A+: Gozalo Sanudo vs. TBD
A-: Adrian Houser vs. Ryan Etsell

Tomorrow's games (aside from Lancaster due to the timezone difference) are all day games on Memorial Day, and they all start before the Astros game at 7:00 central, so you might want to grill some dogs, enjoy the weather and take your laptop or phone outside with you; remember that you can visit the home page of each team to listen to the radio broadcasts of the game. Sounds like a nice way to spend a Memorial Day afternoon, yes?