Minor League Recap: Games of August 11, 2014

AAA Oklahoma City RedHawks: 3-0 loss to Iowa (CHC)

-> Joe Sclafani: 1-for-3
-> Andrew Aplin: 1-for-4
-> Matthew Duffy: 1-for-4
-> Ronald Torreyes: 1-for-4
-> Jonathan Villar: 0-for-2, 2 BB
-> Dexter Fowler: 0-for-2, BB

SP Alex White: 6.0 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 0 BB, 5 K (loss)
RP Richard Rodriguez: 2.0 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 2 BB, 1 K
RP Jason Stoffel: 1.0 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 1 BB, 0 K

White has had two solid starts in a row now; 3.75 ERA, 1.50 BB/9 and 8.25 K/9 during them. Just as importantly for him, he's had 12 GB outs compared to five FB outs in those two games, key for his sinkerball approach. And of course, the Iowa lineup features Kris Bryant, Jorge Soler, Mike Olt, Manny Ramirez and Josh Vitters. Not that Manny can still hit, though...

Ten games in AAA now for Aplin, and he's reached base via hit or walk in each of them (he's failed to collect a base hit in just one of them). He's hitting .359/.395/.385 with OKC so far.

Fowler has hit .300 with a .417 OBP in his four rehab games, nice to see.

AA Corpus Christi Hooks: Off Night

A+ Lancaster JetHawks: Off Night

A- Quad Cities River Bandits: Off Night

SS Tri-City ValleyCats: 2-0 win over Hudson Valley (TBR)

-> Nick Tanielu: 1-for-3, BB, 2B, 2 RBI
-> Jason Martin: 1-for-3, 2B
-> Jamie Ritchie: 1-for-4, 3B, R
-> Ariel Ovando: 1-for-4, 2B
-> Terrell Joyce: 1-for-4, R
-> Derek Fisher: 1-for-4
-> Juan Santana: 1-for-4
-> Alfredo Gonzalez: 1-for-4
-> Mott Hyde: 1-for-5, 2B

SP Joe Musgrove: 6.2 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 1 BB, 5 K
RP Bryan Radziewski: 1.0 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 1 BB, 2 K (win)
RP Jordan Mills: 0.1 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 1 K (hold)
RP Ryan Thompson: 1.0 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 0 BB, 2 K (save)

The Shark returns to the lineup! Thank goodness, I was beginning to get a little worried that it might be something serious, like a big concussion or whatever.

Ritchie has at least one hit in 26 of his last 29 games. That's pretty goofy. His season has been pretty goofy; .387/.496/.505 in 32 games. And that without a homer yet.

Musgrove is looking legit right now. He's allowed just 11 ER in his last eight games, and has a 2.40 ERA, 1.52 BB/9 and 9.36 K/9 during those games. According to the recap, he got eight outs on the ground and four in the air, and allowed just one hit on a fly ball. That's a grand total of five fly balls in nearly seven innings. Coming into this game, he had allowed 54.2% ground balls compared to just 19.4% fly balls, on all batted balls. Now throw in his crazy-good peripherals (1.53 BB/9, 8.24 K/9, 5.4/1 K/BB ratio) on the season, and it's safe to say he's pretty much dominating this league. FIP already liked him half a run better than his already-good ERA coming into this start, and I'm betting his FIP will come out to be under 3.00 once Fangraphs updates today.

A little love for Radziewski; 3.80 ERA, 3.80 BB/9 and 9.28 K/9 on the season in 21.1 innings. So you look at the ERA and the walk rate and kind of go "meh," but FIP had him more than one-and-a-quarter runs better than his ERA entering this outing. So dug a little deeper, and my oh my; a 58.2% ground ball rate to go along with that strike out rate. Yes please, I'll take that. I'll take as many of those guys as I can find. If you've ever seen a heat map for a ballplayer, Radz's looks like a weather radar with a few light little sprinkles here and there and then a friggin' tornado out at short stop. On his spray chart, he has allowed one fly ball to left field this year. One. I'm keeping an eye on this guy.

RK Greeneville Astros: 4-2 loss to Burlington (KCR)

-> Luis Reynoso: 2-for-4, R
-> Bryan Muniz: 1-for-3, BB, 2B
-> Alexander Melendez: 1-for-3, SB
-> Jeffry Santos: 1-for-4, 2B, RBI
-> Antonio Nunez: 0-for-3, BB, SB, R
-> Jacob Nottingham: 0-for-3, BB

SP Brock Dykxhoorn: 3.0 IP, 2 ER, 3 H, 0 BB, 2 K (loss)
RP Dean Deetz: 3.0 IP, 2 ER, 3 H, 1 BB, 6 K
RP Juan Delis: 2.0 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 1 BB, 1 K
RP Angel Heredia: 1.0 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 0 BB, 1 K

Though hitless tonight, Nottingham had five hits in three games leading up to this one. Mostly though, he's just striking out; 45 times in 39 games this far. When he does cut down on that and start putting it in play, good things begin to happen. Won't be 20 until right around Opening Day next year, so there's still plenty of time, but a nice break out these last few weeks would be nice.

Peripherals have been Dykxhoorn's calling card so far; 2.31 BB/9 and 8.49 K/9 so far in 23.1 innings. The batted ball profile hasn't been great, though; 44.3% fly balls to 27.9% ground balls.

While you normally don't want to get too up on relievers down in the low, low levels like this, I do want to mention Heredia for a moment; so far, a 1.69 ERA, 2.36 BB/9 and 9.45 BB/9 are obviously nice. But the batted ball profile deserves mention as well; 56.9% ground balls, and just 16.9% fly balls. This guy has allowed a grand total of 11 fly balls, period. Not just fly ball outs, that means just 11 balls hit in the air, on the fly, against him, for his entire season. His line drive rate is also ridiculous right now at 12.3%. I highly doubt that will last, but there's where the tiny ERA is coming from; it's been nigh-impossible to do anything else but strike out or bash it into the ground against him. I may be reading too much into a small sample size, but based on all the numbers, this guy might just be pretty filthy.

DSL Astros Blue: 1-0 win over DSL Indians

-> Cristopher Luciano: 3-for-5, RBI
-> Jake Bowey: 2-for-4, BB
-> Rodrigo Ayarza: 1-for-3, BB, R
-> Jonathan Matute: 1-for-5

SP Erasmo Pinales: 6.0 IP, 0 ER, 3 H, 1 BB, 6 K
RP Jean Carlos Mejia: 2.0 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 0 BB, 1 K
RP Ramon Tineo: 0.0 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 0 BB, 0 K
RP Jose Nina: 3.0 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 1 BB, 2 K (loss)

DSL Astros Orange: Off Night?

I went to their page, and it says the last game they played was July 17? I mean, that's not right, I'm guessing someone messed up and it's redirecting to an old box score, but I can't figure out any way to get to the box score from yesterday. The DSL teams don't have full-fledged sites and all like the regular MiLB clubs do, and as far as I know, you can't search a schedule or a history of box scores.

Today's Scheduled Starters

AAA: Rudy Owens vs. TBD
AA: Mike Hauschild vs. TBD
A+: TBD vs. Scott DeCecco
A-: Kevin Comer vs. TBD
SS: TBD vs. TBD
RK: Devonte German vs. Yunior Marte