Minor League Recap: Games of June 2, 2014

AAA Oklahoma City RedHawks: 8-1 win over Memphis (STL)

-> Gregorio Petit: 3-for-3, 2B, HR, R, 3 RBI
-> Adron Chambers: 2-for-4, 2B, 2 RBI, 2 R
-> Erik Castro: 2-for-4, 2B
-> Enrique Hernandez: 2-for-5, solo HR
-> L.J. Hoes: 2-for-5, SB, RBI, R
-> Domingo Santana: 1-for-2, 2 R, 3 BB
-> Carlos Perez: 1-for-4, RBI
-> Austin Wates: 1-for-5, R

SP Nicholas Tropeano: 8.0 IP, 0 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 5 K (win)
RP Alex White: 1.0 IP, 1 ER, 1 H, 1 BB, 0 K

The post-Singleton era begins for OKC, but they didn't show any signs of it on the scoreboard tonight, scoring four in the first and another three in the third.

The remaining elite slugging prospect, Santana will have a chance to shine on his own and carry the team on his back. He hit .297/.386/.514 in May with six of his nine homers coming in the month, and a slight improvement in strike out rate from April. He has 11 hits and seven walks in his last ten games, giving him a .429 OBP during that stretch.

I'm not sure I buy into Chambers, but it's hard to argue with the numbers so far. He has 21 games this season, and he's hitting .301/.388/.466 with six doubles, two homers, 10 walks and 12 strikeouts during them. So, average, walks, solid power and a lack of strikeouts thus far. I don't know...I guess we'll see, huh?

Great start for Nitro, despite not striking out a ton of guys. He threw 98 pitches, 65 for strikes, and probably could have gotten the complete game if they'd wanted him to.

That's the first walk and the first run White has allowed since returning. He has six innings so far.

AA Corpus Christi Hooks: Off Night

:-(

A+ Lancaster JetHawks: 8-2 win over Rancho Cucamonga (LAD)

-> Daniel Gulbransen: 2-for-3, 2B, R, 2 BB
-> Anthony Kemp: 2-for-3, BB, RBI, R
-> Teoscar Hernandez: 2-for-5, 2B, HR, R, 2 RBI
-> Ruben Sosa: 1-for-2, BB, 2B, SB, 2 R
-> Conrad Gregor: 1-for-3, BB, HR, RBI, 2 R
-> Carlos Correa: 1-for-3, R, 2 BB
-> Danry Vasquez: 0-for-3, RBI
-> Jobduan Morales: 0-for-4, RBI

SP Lance McCullers: 6.0 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 6 K (win)
RP Mitchell Lambson: 1.0 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 1 BB, 1 K
RP Daniel Minor: 1.0 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 1 K
RP Juan Minaya: 1.0 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 1 BB, 0 K

This was obviously a nice start for McCullers, but the best part for me is the one walk; in his five previous starts, he'd walked 16 batters in 18.1 innings pitched, for a 7.86 BB/9. That's obviously an unacceptable number, no matter how good his stuff is, if he wants to be anything better than Mitch Williams in the Majors. He's survived getting destroyed so far thanks to being hard to hit and the strikeouts, but the command still needs major, major work. So one walk in six innings is a great sign, in my eyes. This was his fifth consecutive start of averaging at least one strike out per inning.

Correa has reached base via hit or walk in 12 of his last 13 games, and he has a 1.169 OPS over his last ten games. He has 20 XBH and 14 steals on the season in two months, and that's with missing some time due to injury.

Gulbransen is hitting just .227 on the season, but his ability to draw walks have netted him a .354 OBP. Recently, he's doing even better; .300/.500/.600 over his last ten games, with 11 walks to just six strikeouts. He's failed to reach base via hit or walk in just one of those ten games.

Back-to-back multi-hit games for Hernandez, and back-to-back games with a homer. He now has 10 on the season, giving him 13 doubles, 7 triples and 10 homers. His 30 XBH are the fourth-most in the California League.

Tony Kemp has reached base multiple times via hit or walk in six of his last ten games. He's hitting .341/.430/.470 on the season and leads the California League in hits (79) and runs (65), and he's second in steals (20), OBP and batting average. He's the only man in the league to have 100 or more total bases at this point without having at least seven homers (Kemp has three). The average number of homers in this 100+ total bases group is 10.

One homer in six games for Gregor, as opposed to one in 44 games for QC. Hey, that's improvement, California League be darned. Keep hitting them!

A- Quad Cities River Bandits: Double header (sorta)!

Game One: 7-4 win over Wisconsin (MIL)

-> Brett Booth: 3-for-4, 2B, HR, R, 2 RBI
-> Tyler White: 2-for-3, HR, 2 RBI
-> Jon Kemmer: 2-for-4
-> Brett Phillips: 2-for-5, 2B, R
-> Tanner Mathis: 2-for-5, R
-> James Ramsay: 1-for-1, 2 BB
-> Ronnie Mitchell: 1-for-2, R
-> Chan Moon: 1-for-3, BB, solo HR
-> Chase McDonald: 1-for-5, RBI

SP Kevin Comer: 3.1 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, 3 BB, 3 K
RP Albert Minnis: 1.2 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 0 BB, 2 K
RP Adrian Houser: 3.0 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, 0 BB, 3 K (blown save, win)
RP Andrew Walter: 1.0 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 3 K (save)

Games Two: 4-3 loss to Wisconsin (MIL)

-> Ronnie Mitchell: 2-for-2, solo HR
-> Tyler White: 2-for-3, 2x solo HR
-> Jon Kemmer: 2-for-3, 2B
-> Austin Elkins: 2-for-3
-> Brett Phillips: 1-for-3

SP Andrew Thurman: 4.0 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 0 BB, 6 K
RP Chris Lee: 2.2 IP, 3 ER, 6 H, 4 BB, 1 K (loss)

Alright, yeah, technically it's not a double header.

Results were no great for Houser, but the peripherals helped salvage that. His 3.91 BB/9 on the season doesn't look great, but five of his 20 walks game in one bad outing; outside of that, he has a 3.19 BB/9. Interestingly, as he's also given up 20 runs on the season and five in that one outing, his ERA is the exact same as the BB/9 in both cases.

Dang. I don't know if White is a legit prospect or not, but he's hitting .394/.500/.909 over his last ten games. That's a 1.409 OPS, to save you the trouble.

Phillips, who is certainly a legit prospect, is also doing well, with an .849 OPS and just six strikeouts in his last ten games. He's hitting .308/.372/.477 on the season and has struck out just 39 times in 53 games. That really, reall impresses me. I'm not sure if another prospect has had their stock rise as much this year in my eyes. I only barely cared about him before because he was a toolsy over-slot guy, but he looks like he might be turning into a real hitter here.

Nice start for Thurman, and a great way to bounce back from his worst of the year. I'll just show it like this:

Andrew Thuman, 2014:

Three bad starts (May 27, April 8, April 3)
-> 10.0 IP, 15.30 ERA, 5.40 BB/9, 9.90 K/9

All nine other outings
-> 35.2 IP, 2.78 ERA, 3.53 BB/9, 10.85 K/9

Pretty much tells you what you need to know. The strikeout rate is nice, but I wouldn't put a ton of stock into it; remember that polished pitchers tend to be able to beat up on the Low-A level hitters in that regard (Nitro, Lyles, etc.)

On the other side of the coin though, just a plain clunker for Lee. This is his second rough one in a row; he's allowed eight earned runs in his last two outings, over 7.1 innings (9.82 ERA).

Comer has been solid so far, with a 3.10 ERA, 3.10 BB/9 and 6.20 K/9 in 20.1 innings thus far.

Tomorrow's Scheduled Starters

AAA: Rudy Owens vs. Tim Cooney
AA: Thomas Shirley vs. Drew Granier
A+: TBD (Devenski? Heidenreich?) vs. Tyler DeLoach
A-: Jandel Gustave vs. TBD