Minor League Recap: Games of April 11, 2014

Your daily look at the previous night's Minor League happenings.

By Brian Stevenson@Ashitaka1110 Apr 12, 2014, 9:00am CDT

Jonathan Singleton hit his third homer of the season

AAA Oklahoma City RedHawks: 8-4 loss to New Orleans

-> Jonathan Singleton: 2-for-4, BB, HR, RBI, 3 R
-> Gregorio Petit: 2-for-4, BB, 2B
-> Domingo Santana: 2-for-5, 2B
-> Japhet Amador: 1-for-4, BB, 2B, 3 RBI
-> George Springer: 1-for-4, BB, SB
-> Austin Wates: 1-for-4, BB
-> Max Stassi: 1-for-5, R
-> Jonathan Meyer: 0-for-3

SP Rudy Owens: 5.0 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 0 BB, 4 K
RP Michael Foltynewicz: 1.1 IP, 6 R (5 ER), 5 H, 1 BB, 1 K (blown save, loss)
RP Darin Downs: 1.2 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 1 BB, 5 K
RP Raul Valdes: 1.0 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 0 BB, 2 K

In his first start of the season, Owens coughed up five earned runs during the second inning. Outside of that one inning, he has a 1.50 ERA, 0.00 BB/9 and 9.00 K/9 on the year. Singleton is only hitting .258 so far, thanks to striking out a bunch (13 times in eight games), but he has a 1.008 OPS thanks to three bombs, two doubles and seven walks. 62.5% of his hits have been for extra bases.

Stassi continues to impress as well; .303/.378/.545 with two each of doubles and dingers, and he has at least one hit in each of his eight games. The other two lefty relievers from Spring Training, Downs and Valdes, have combined for a 3.00 ERA, 3.00 BB/9 and 15.50 K/9 (just a six inning sample). Amador hasn't really gotten going yet, though he's on a four game hitting streak with five hits and two walks during that span.

Folty's ERA is now an MLB-ready 11.57.

AA Corpus Christi Hooks: 10-9 loss to Tulsa

-> Tyler Heineman: 3-for-4, 2B, 2 RBI
-> Enrique Hernandez: 2-for-4, HR, R, 2 RBI
-> Nolan Fontana: 1-for-3, BB, R, RBI
-> Delino DeShields: 1-for-3, BB, R
-> Preston Tucker: 1-for-4, RBI, R
-> Leonardo Heras: 1-for-4, 2 R
-> M.P. Cokinos: 1-for-4, R
-> Matthew Duffy: 1-for-5, 2B, R, 3 RBI
-> Andrew Aplin: 1-for-5, R

SP Matthew Heidenreich: 3.1 IP, 6 ER, 8 H, 0 BB, 2 K
RP Andrew Robinson: 1.2 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 0 BB, 2 K
RP Thomas Shirley: 4.0 IP, 3 R (1 ER), 5 H, 1 BB, 3 K (blown save, loss)

Every starting player in the lineup (Jiovanni Mier went 0-for-0 as a defensive replacement) had at least one hit, but Heidenreich's bad outing and Shirley digging his own grave with a throwing error to start his outing led to the snapping of Corpus' six game winning streak. They're 6-2 on the year now.

Aside from that error, Shirley has looked good in his first two starts, with ten strikeouts and two walks in nine total innings. He's allowed four runs, but only the one was earned. For some reason, Heineman has only played sporadically; this was just his first game. Now he's hitting .333/.375/.467, so maybe they'll play him. Preston Tucker is on a six game hitting streak, failing to collect a hit only in his second of eight games. While he's only walked once during those eight games, he's also struck out just twice. To emphasize, that's a guy playing in AA in just his second full season of professional ball.Your daily look at the previous night's Minor League happenings.

A+ Lancaster JetHawks: 5-1 win over Lake Elsinore

-> Justin Gominsky: 3-for-4, R
-> Teoscar Hernandez: 2-for-4, 2 3B, 2 R, 3 RBI
-> Rio Ruiz: 2-for-4
-> Carlos Correa: 1-for-3, 2 RBI
-> Anthony Kemp: 1-for-4, BB, 2 R
-> Daniel Gulbransen: 1-for-4

SP Vincent Velasquez: 5.0 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 0 BB, 4 K (win)
RP Kyle Westwood: 4.0 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 1 BB, 2 K (save)

Sixth win in a row for Lancaster; they're 7-2 on the season. The V-Twin and Westwood piggyback combo now have a combined 1.04 ERA, 1.73 BB/9 and 9.00 K/9 in 26 total innings. Velasquez's strikeout rate is 11.08 per nine innings. Captain Correa is tied for third in the California League in RBI (10) and leads the league in awesomeness.

Hernandez is on fire right now; he's on a six game hitting streak, and five of those six games have been multi-hit efforts. He has a double, a homer and four triples in his last four games. Meanwhile he's struck out a reasonable eight times in nine games on the year, and has three steals as well. .351/.400/.730 (1.130 OPS). That's gettin' it done. And he's hit even better in the two games he's played outside of Lancaster, just for the record.

A- Quad Cities River Bandits: 6-4 win over Great Lakes

-> Jack Mayfield: 3-for-5, 2B, HR, RBI, 2 R
-> Jobduan Morales: 2-for-3, BB, RBI
-> James Ramsay: 2-for-4, BB, 3B, R, RBI
-> Austin Elkins: 2-for-4, RBI, R, 2 2B
-> Conrad Gregor: 2-for-5, RBI
-> Brett Phillips: 2-for-5, RBI
-> Tanner Mathis: 1-for-3, 2 BB
-> Chan Moon: 1-for-4, 3B, R
-> Chase McDonald: 1-for-5, 2B, R

SP Adrian Houser: 4.0 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 3 BB, 3 K
RP Gonzalo Sanudo: 3.0 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 2 BB, 3 K (win)
RP Chris Cotton: 1.0 IP, 3 ER, 5 H, 0 BB, 2 K
RP Andrew Walter: 1.0 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 1 BB, 0 K (save)

Quad Cities, probably the least-talented of the four main affiliates this year, has started considerably slower than the other three teams, but they're back to .500 after their second win in a row. Nice to see Houser bounce back nicely from a rough first outing, high on him.

Five game hitting streak for Ramsay, who's started the season on a .323/.436/.452 hot streak; in eight games, he's drawn six walks, struck out just five times, and is 5-for-5 in stolen base attempts. He has a 15.4% walk rate and 12.8% strikeout rate. That'll work at the top of a lineup.

Not to be outdone, Brett Phillips has hit .333/.375/.333 in eight games. Obviously not as impressive, but darn impressive when you consider the question marks that surround him (namely wheither he'll develop into a useful bat or just be another toolsy prep outfielder that can't hit). His 20th birthday isn't until the end of May, but he has a 15.2% strikeout rate so far in full-season ball. That's nothing to sneeze at.

Morales' sample size is just five games so far, but how about the .412/.524/.471 start for him? It's not like dealing Justin Ruggiano cost us anything, but Morales has still disappointed so far. Hopefully he can keep it up. Four straight games with a walk is a good trend. And lastly...well, I don't know how much I should care about Jack Mayfield. Un-drafted free agent college senior who, coming out of OU, certainly had exposure to scouts? Not a great track record for those types of guys. But he's hitting .391/.500/.652 so far, so I would kind of be remiss to not mention him at least. Huge OBP and just three strikeouts in six games. If only a certain other polished college SS prospect of ours could figure that out...