Minor League Recap: Games of May 26, 2014

AAA Oklahoma City RedHawks: 6-4 win over Memphis (STL)

-> Austin Wates: 2-for-4, BB, 2B, SB, R
-> Ronald Torreyes: 2-for-4, RBI
-> Jon Singleton: 2-for-5, HR, 2 RBI, 2 R
-> Adron Chambers: 1-for-3, 2B, R
-> Carlos Perez: 1-for-3, BB
-> Gregorio Petit: 1-for-3, RBI
-> Enrique Hernandez: 1-for-4, HR, R, 2 RBI
-> Domingo Santana: 1-for-4, 2B, R

SP Paul Clemens: 5.0 IP, 0 ER, 3 H, 0 BB, 3 K (win)
RP Alex White: 2.0 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 0 BB, 1 K
RP Josh Zeid: 0.2 IP, 4 R (1 ER), 2 H, 2 BB, 1 K
RP Kevin Chapman: 1.0 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 3 BB, 0 K (hold)
RP Jason Stoffel: 0.1 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 0 K (save)

OKC jumped out to a 6-0 lead after five innings, but Memphis roared back with their four in the eighth. Fortunately the bullpen just managed to hold on. An error really hurt, but after the error and then a walk to load the bases, the manager brought in Kevin Chapman...who immediately walked in two runs. So it was all just a little messy, and while Zeid had his ERA hit by it, it was just as much Chapman and the error to blame.

Swingin' Jon Singleton, nice to see you again, sir. First homer since May 12, and his 13th on the season. His two hits tonight gave him a .189 average in his last ten games, so he's definitely been in a bit of a funk. He's whiffed just once in his last four though.

Austin Wates has just picked right up where he left off before the injury. In four games back, he has seven hits, including two doubles, and four steals, while striking out just twice and walking three times. If Grossman starts struggling after a number of weeks again, they'd better give Wates a look. If he keeps this up, no way does someone not snag him in the Rule 5 this December.

Nice to see White coming back strong so far from his TJ surgery. He has three innings in his two outings since coming back, and though he's only struck out one, he hasn't issued a walk yet.

I can officially no longer ignore Enrique Hernandez. Homers in back-to-back games gives him three on the year (in AAA). He's hitting .313/.350/.443 on the season now, and though he never walks, he also never strikes out; he has just nine whiffs in 35 games. He kind of has a poor man's Altuve vibe going on right now, though he's flashed some solid pop that we don't always see consistently from Altuve. I had mostly ignored him in years past because he wasn't really someone of note in terms of pedigree, and he really never did anything performance-wise to grab my eye. But he's doing it this year, and he's actually just 22 years old, a year younger than Altuve.

For those who have been paying attention to him before this, especially if you've seen him live, tell me what you think about Enrique Hernandez. What do you like or not like about his game? What do you think his future is?

AA Corpus Christi Hooks: 5-3 loss to Northwest Arkansas (KCR)

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

SP Jordan Jankowski: 4.0 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 4 K
RP Michael Dimock: 1.2 IP, 2 ER, 3 H, 0 BB, 0 K (loss)
RP Patrick Uckfitz: 2.1 IP, 1 R (0 ER), 2 H, 0 BB, 2 K

Duffy is officially on a hot streak now; he has 13 hits in his last seven games, and is hitting .302/.333/.395 over his last 10. He has a .769 OPS on the season. He's hit .356/.400/.495 for the month of May thus far.

A seven-game hitting streak for DeShields, and his 18th steal of the year. Fontana bounces back after having his eight-game streak snapped the previous game; he's walked 14 times in his last 10 games, and has 36 of them on the season in 44 games.

After going on a home run tear, Tucker faded for just a couple of games, but seems to have righted the ship already, with two multi-hit games in his last three. He has a 1.062 OPS in his last 10 games, and he's hitting .269/.341/.502 on the season with 34 strikeouts in 50 games.

Good ole' Pat Urckfitz. The man with the funky-cool name has been around for a long time; he was an undrafted free agent back in 2008, the year we drafted Castro. He's been slowly plugging along since then and has a 1.86 ERA, 2.33 BB/9 and 7.45 K/9 in 19.1 innings so far this year. The odds are certainly against him being anything of note, but I thought I'd give him a shout out here.

A+ Lancaster JetHawks: 6-5 win over Inland Empire (LAA)

-> Danry Vasquez: 4-for-4, 2 R
-> Daniel Gulbransen: 1-for-2, BB, GRAND SLAM, R, 4 RBI
-> Carlos Correa: 1-for-2, R, 2 BB
-> Rio Ruiz: 1-for-3, BB, 2B, RBI, R
-> Roberto Pena: 1-for-4, RBI
-> Jordan Scott: 1-for-4
-> Carlos Perdomo: 0-for-3, BB, R

SP Gonzalo Sanudo: 5.0 IP, 5 ER, 7 H, 0 BB, 2 K
RP J.D. Osborne: 1.1 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 3 BB, 1 K
RP Daniel Minor: 2.2 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 1 BB, 2 K (win)

Sanudo's third outing in the California league didn't go as hoped, but two homers were to blame, and you never know how...well, you never know when they're legit homers or Lancaster homers, you know? The second one in particular hurt; a three-run jack with two outs in the third inning. He gets out of that, and we're talking about two earned in five innings with no walks. Again, impossible to tell for sure how good or bad he was, but you tend to be more forgiving given the environment. At any rate, he's walked just one in 12 innings so far, so the control has held up, if nothing else can be said.

Vasquez might finally be starting to put things together; six hits in the last two days. He's hitting .308/.357/.462 in his last 10 games with a bomb and three doubles, and just four strikeouts. His .708 OPS on the season is far from sexy, especially given the league, but we're starting to see some life. I'll keep hammering on it; he's 20 years old, just a few months older than Ruiz and Correa.

Gulbransen is one of those guys that kind of intrigues me, but I'm never sure how much I should really like them. That said, the guy walks. A lot. He has nine in his last ten games and 26 on the season in 42 games. He's hitting just .233 in those last ten, but his OBP is .425. Throw in a reasonable level of striking out (37 in 42 games) and there's...at least something there, right? And heck, he hit a slam, I kind of have to mention him after that.

Captain Correa is only hitting .350/.447/.600 in his last ten games. You know, no big deal, all in a day's work. And a .383 OBP for Ruiz in his last ten games.

A- Quad Cities River Bandits: 7-5 loss to Burlington (LAA)

-> Jon Kemmer: 2-for-4, 2B, R
-> Brian Holberton: 2-for-4, R
-> Brett Phillips: 2-for-5, 2B, RBI, R
-> Conrad Gregor: 1-for-4, BB, RBI, R
-> Ronnie Mitchell: 1-for-4, 2 RBI
-> Tyler White: 0-for-3, BB
-> Chan Moon: 0-for-4, RBI
-> James Ramsay: 0-for-5, R

SP Adrian Houser: 5.0 IP, 3 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 4 K
RP Kevin Comer: 3.0 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 0 BB, 4 K (hold)
RP Andrew Walter: 1.0 IP, 1 ER, 1 H, 0 BB, 0 K (blown save)
RP Tyler Brunnemann: 0.1 IP, 2 ER, 2 H, 0 BB, 0 K (loss)

Oh man, heartbreaker. 5-3 lead heading into the bottom of the eighth inning, Burlington scored one each in the eighth and ninth to tie, and then two in the 10th to walk off.

And it was Brunnemann who coughed it up in the end. I...kind of feel like a kid who just got his candy stolen. It's okay Tyler, we all know you're the closer of the future! Burlington was probably cheating somehow anyway. Sign-stealing punks. Just bush league, man. Gosh. His ERA is still 1.85 even after those cheating cheaters cheated him! Ha!

Decent outing for Houser. His control was very spotty early on, but he has a 1.64 BB/9 in his last four games. And Comer looks like he might be putting it together; his last outing was rough (4 ER in 5.0 IP), but he's allowed just the one run he did in this game otherwise, and overall has a 2.65 ERA, 2.12 BB/9 and 5.82 K/9 on the season in five outings.

Gosh Holberton is hot right now. He's hitting .425/.452/.650 in his last ten games, and has a .989 OPS on the season. Small sample, but his splits are notable; .500 OPS against LHP and 1.101 against RHP (he bats left-handed, for those unaware). His strikeout rate against same-side pitching is also more than double what it is against righties, so that's an area to hope for improvement in still.

I wonder if we could see Phillips in Lancaster at some point. Likely late in the season, if at all, but since QC's record is a little mediocre this year, it's possible they won't make the playoffs this year, and Lancaster looks like they have a good shot, so who knows? He could give them a little boost and get his feet wet at the next level in August. He's hitting .304/.376/.485 on the season now, by the way; 20 walks and 36 strikeouts in 47 games.

Tomorrow's Scheduled Starters

AAA: Nicholas Tropeano vs. Brett Tomko
AA: Thomas Shirley vs. Drew Rucinski
A+: Kyle Westwood vs. Joe Ross
A-: Andrew Thurman vs. Clint Sharp