Minor League Recap: Games of June 27, 2014

AAA Oklahoma City RedHawks: 8-5 win over Omaha (KCR)

-> Domingo Santana: 4-for-5, HR, 3 RBI, 3 R
-> Matthew Duffy: 2-for-3, BB, RBI, R
-> Austin Wates: 2-for-5, RBI, R
-> Marc Krauss: 1-for-4, BB, HR, 2 RBI, 2 R
-> Gregorio Petit: 1-for-4, R
-> Preston Tucker: 1-for-4, SB, RBI
-> Max Stassi: 1-for-4
-> Enrique Hernandez: 1-for-4
-> Ronald Torreyes: 0-for-3, BB, SB

SP Bobby Doran: 6.0 IP, 4 ER, 8 H, 2 BB, 1 K
RP Andrew Robinson: 1.0 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 0 K (hold)
RP Kevin Chapman: 1.0 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 1 BB, 1 K (hold)
RP Jason Stoffel: 1.0 IP, 1 ER, 1 H, 1 BB, 1 K (blown save, win)

My oh my, what a night for Santana. That homer? A three-run jack with one out in the bottom of the ninth in a tie game to walk off. After Omaha intentionally walked Krauss in front of him to get to Santana. Whoops!

Yeah, Santana is looking closer and closer to being ready, which is kind of shocking at his age. He's hitting .421/.500/.658 over his last ten games, and that was his 13th homer (and 35th XBH) of the season. More importantly, it looks like his discipline may be improving as well. Take a look:

Domingo Santana in 2014
-- April: 29.8% K rate, 7.0% walk rate
-- May: 27.6% K rate, 11.8% walk rate
-- June: 23.8% K rate, 14.3% walk rate

Pretty nice, no? Maybe the "Hoes or Grossman?" question will become a moot point before long...

On the other side of the coin is Max Stassi. He's hitting .237/.281/.394 on the season now, with one homer in May and June combined. What the heck happened? Man...is he the most disappointing prospect season for any of you out there? Does someone else top him?

AA Corpus Christi Hooks: 6-2 loss to Springfield (STL)

-> Delino DeShields: 1-for-2, 2B, RBI, 2 BB
-> Jiovanni Mier: 1-for-3, BB
-> Tony Kemp: 1-for-4, R
-> Jonathan Meyer: 1-for-4
-> M.P. Cokinos: 1-for-4
-> Ruben Sosa: 0-for-2, R, 2 BB
-> Carlos Perdomo: 0-for-2, 2 BB
-> Andrew Aplin: 0-for-3, RBI

SP Mike Hauschild: 5.2 IP, 6 ER, 11 H, 0 BB, 7 K (loss)
RP Alex Sogard: 1.1 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 1 BB, 0 K
RP Travis Ballew: 1.0 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 0 BB, 0 K

You know, an outing like this from Hauschild is almost an encouraging thing for me. Not that I like seeing guys get knocked around, but I do like seeing how they respond. Everyone is going to have bad nights, but how bad do you let them get? In the midst of giving up two hits per inning, and who knows what, bad defense, umpire squeezing him maybe, he still doesn't walk anyone and whiffs more than one an inning. Despite this outing, he's been solid since his promotion; he owns a 3.99 ERA, 1.09 BB/9 and 7.61 K/9 in 49.2 innings of work for the Hooks.

Kemp is just three games into his AA career, but he has four hits in them, as well as a walk. And DeShields hasn't done much of anything in a while, but he's walked five times in his last four games; maybe he's just starting to show a little life again. Let's hope.

A+ Lancaster JetHawks: 13-5 win over Lake Elsinore (SDP)

-> Chan Moon: 3-for-5, 2B, 2 HR, 2 R, 6 RBI
-> Danry Vasquez: 2-for-4, 2 R
-> Roberto Pena: 1-for-1, R, 2 BB, 2 RBI
-> Brandon Meredith: 1-for-3, 3B, 2 BB, 3 R
-> Conrad Gregor: 1-for-3, 2B, 2 BB, 2 R
-> Tanner Mathis: 1-for-4, SB, RBI, 2 R
-> Teoscar Hernandez: 1-for-5, 2B
-> Jack Mayfield: 0-for-4, RBI, R

SP Mark Appel: 5.0 IP, 3 ER, 5 H, 1 BB, 3 K (win)
RP Brian Holmes: 4.0 IP, 2 ER, 2 H, 3 BB, 3 K (save)

Appel's three runs came in the first two innings, after which he tossed the next three innings scoreless. Matter of fact, in those last three innings, the only runner he allowed (on a walk) was immediately erased on a double play. Technically he allowed another on a swinging third strike where the runner reached, but he got out of the inning the next time. The run in the first inning came on a ground out. He allowed just one XBH during his outing (an RBI triple). Only one out in the five innings was a fly out; otherwise he was getting balls on the ground and getting swings and misses all night. All that to say that, while three ER in five innings doesn't look special, reading more than just his line, it sounds like he's actually making considerable progress.

Much like Gregor, Moon is finding the friendly new confines of the CAL League to be to his liking. Just...don't expect those homers to keep coming, and certainly at higher levels.

And Vasquez's rebirth continues; he's hitting .395/.425/.526 over his last ten games. His 44 strike outs in 67 games on the season is pretty reasonable, and encouraging.

A- Quad Cities River Bandits: 4-3 win over Peoria (STL)

-> Jon Kemmer: 3-for-5, 2B, R
-> Ronnie Mitchell: 3-for-5, SB. RBI, R
-> James Ramsay: 2-for-4, BB, SB, 2 2B
-> Brett Booth: 2-for-4, 2B
-> Chase McDonald: 2-for-5, 2B, R, 2 RBI
-> Tyler White: 1-for-4, RBI
-> Thomas Lindauer: 1-for-5
-> Marc Wik: 0-for-2, R, 2 BB

SP Edison Frias: 5.0 IP, 2 R (1 ER), 4 H, 0 BB, 5 K (win)
RP Evan Grills: 4.0 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 0 BB, 6 K (save)

Grills is yet another Luhnow-y pitcher in the system; his stuff isn't staggering, but he knows what to do with it. So far this year, he's owns a 2.76 ERA, 1.38 BB/9 and 5.65 K/9. He doesn't miss a lot of bats, but he's been generating right around 50% ground balls this year. He's also a lefty and just turned 22-year-old a couple weeks ago. Depth, depth, depth. There's just so many of these unspectacular guys who have real MLB potential.

Kemmer is having a nice run for himself; he has a .429 OBP in his last ten games, and on the season he's hitting .299/.379/.474 with 18 XBH in 43 games.

SS Tri-City ValleyCats: 7-5 win over Connecticut (DET)

-> Mott Hyde: 2-for-4, 2B, RBI, R
-> Ricky Gingras: 2-for-4, 2B, R
-> J.D. Davis: 2-for-4, RBI
-> Bobby Boyd: 2-for-5, 2B, RBI, 2 R
-> Nick Tanielu: 1-for-3
-> Terrell Joyce: 1-for-4, HR, R, 2 RBI
-> Ryan Bottger: 0-for-2, SB, RBI, 2 BB
-> Ariel Ovando: 0-for-3, BB, R
-> Alex Hernandez: 0-for-1, R (pinch-runner)

SP Francis Ramirez: 1.2 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 1 K
RP Raul Rivera: 1.1 IP, 2 ER, 2 H, 1 BB, 0 K
RP Ryan Thompson: 1.0 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 0 K
RP Sebastian Kessay: 2.0 IP, 2 ER, 3 H, 1 BB, 2 K (win)
RP Derick Velazquez: 1.0 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 1 BB, 1 K (hold)
RP Jordan Mills: 1.0 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 2 K (hold)
RP Chris Munnelly: 1.0 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 1 BB, 2 K (save)

Dang, look at that bullpen usage. Bo Porter must have been managing for Tri-City, amirite!?!?

...ahem.

J.D. Davis is who we thought he is. Was. Who we thought he...whatever. He's not hitting for a huge average, but there are walks and power to give him a solid OPS (.804 so far in 14 games). He went hitless in his first game, but he's on a 13 game hitting streak since then.

A.J. Reed, on the other hand, has had a tough go of things, outside of drawing walks. He's hitting .239/.375/.304 so far, and his top shelf power has yet to show itself.

RK Greeneville Astros: 11-5 loss to Danville (ATL)

-> Antonio Nunez: 2-for-4, BB, RBI, R
-> Sean McMullen: 1-for-3, BB, 2B, R, 2 RBI
-> Yonathan Mejia: 1-for-3, BB
-> Juan Santana: 1-for-5, RBI, R
-> Ramon Laureano: 0-for-2, R, 2 BB
-> Luis Reynoso: 0-for-2, 2 BB
-> Trent Woodward: 0-for-2, BB, SB, RBI
-> Ydarqui Marte: 0-for-3, R

SP Agapito Barrios: 4.2 IP, 3 ER, 5 H, 4 BB, 2 K
RP Angel Heredia: 0.1 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 0 K
RP Brock Dykxhoorn: 1.0 IP, 1 ER, 1 H, 1 BB, 0 K
RP Dean Deetz: 0.2 IP, 6 ER, 2 H, 3 BB, 1 K (blown save, loss)
RP Jorge Perez: 1.1 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 0 BB, 2 K

McMullen is as hot as can be right out of the gate; he has at least one hit in each of his eight games, and is hitting .424/.457/.545 over them.

Hoo boy, Dean, that one is going to take a while to absorb into the ERA. Certainly not the way he wanted his second outing to go.

DSL Astros Blue: 6-3 win over DSL Royals

-> Jonathan Matute: 2-for-2, SB, 3 BB
-> Joan Mauricio: 1-for-3, BB, HR, 2 RBI, 2 R
-> Oliver Toribio: 1-for-3, BB, SB, RBI
-> Rodrigo Ayarza: 1-for-4, BB, 3B, RBI, R
-> Connor MacDonald: 1-for-4, R
-> Andy Pineda: 0-for-2, BB, SB, R
-> Anardo Peralta: 0-for-3, BB
-> Jose Benjamin: 0-for-0, R (pinch-runner)

SP Miguel Severino: 1.0 IP, 1 ER, 1 H, 0 BB, 1 K
RP Salvador Montano: 4.0 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 3 BB, 6 K (win)
RP Gabriel Valdez: 3.0 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 0 BB, 2 K (hold)
RP Lachlan Madden: 1.0 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 0 BB, 1 K (save)

DSL Astros Orange: 10-7 win over DSL Yankees2

-> Vicente Sanchez: 3-for-5, GRAND SLAM, SB, 2 R, 5 RBI
-> Edgar Lorenzo: 1-for-2, 2B, 2 R
-> Bryan De La Cruz: 1-for-4, 2B, R, 2 RBI
-> Wilson Amador: 1-for-4, SB, R
-> Frankeny Fernandez: 1-for-4, BB, 2 SB
-> Cristipher Luciano: 1-for-5, 2B, R
-> Luis Vasquez: 1-for-5, R
-> Ihan Bernal: 0-for-3, BB, R
-> Marcos Almonte: 0-for-3, RBI, R

SP Edwin Villarroel: 4.2 IP, 5 ER, 7 H, 1 BB, 6 K
RP Juan Hernandez: 2.1 IP, 2 ER, 2 H, 2 BB, 3 K (win)
RP Ramon Rodriguez: 1.0 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 1 BB, 1 K (hold)
RP Jose Ramos: 1.0 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 1 BB, 3 K (save)

Today's Scheduled Starters

AAA: Asher Wojciechowski vs. Aaron Brooks
AA: Thomas Shirley vs. Ryan Kulik
A+: Kyle Westwood vs. Joe Ross
A-: Adrian Houser vs. Blake McKnight
SS: Austin Chrismon vs. Chase Edwards
RK: Jose Montero vs. Yunior Marte