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Five games and the affiliates went 3-2. Australian Liam Hendriks was fantastic again for Buffalo. Matt Boyd made his first start for New Hampshire and had a mixed outing. Taylor Cole pitched well for Dunedin and Mitch Nay hit his first homerun for Lansing, where starter Alberto Tirado allowed one hit over five innings of work.

Charlotte 1 Buffalo 6

I know all the chatter now is for Marcus Stroman to be called up, but if Stroman deserves a call-up then so does Liam Hendriks. Hendriks has been dominant so far this season and that continued tonight where he pitched seven innings of one run ball. Hendriks even picked off two runners at first. For the season Hendriks has walked just one batter. Hallelujah for strikes! At the plate Kevin Pillar was the standout performer with two hits and three RBIs.

Trenton 3 New Hampshire 4 Game One

Two games down, up, over (wherever you may be) in New Hampshire. Matt Boyd bounced back from a rough first inning in his AA debut where he allowed two earned runs. He went four innings and kept his team in the game. I was curious where his pitch counts were down in Dunedin and how the Jays were approaching him as a college senior. Tonight he threw ninety pitches. It looks like the reins are off Boyd. Homers by Andy Burns and Brad Glenn and two RBIs from A.J. Jimenez paced the offence.

Trenton 2 New Hampshire 1 Game Two

Michael Crouse homered, but the Fisher Cats only mustered three hits in game two. Shawn Hill was solid though. He pitched a doubleheader complete game going the seven innings and allowed just three hits as well. The damage though was done in the fifth by a chain of three hitters who went walk, triple, and single to score the Yankee affiliate’s two runs.

Lakeland 7 Dunedin 1

Taylor Cole shut out the Tigers affiliate over four and two-thirds innings of work. He struck out seven. The bullpen blew it. Dalton Pompey continued his torrid start with two more hits, a walk, and an RBI. The Dunedin squad were 1-11 with RISP.

Lansing 9 Dayton 6

The game really didn’t start for Lansing batters until the second inning after Aroldis Chapman got his inning of work in. Matt Dean had three hits, Jorge Saez had two hits including a homerun, Mitch Nay hit his first Lansing homerun, and L.B. Dantzler hit a grandslam. One the mound Alberto Tirado had a nice start allowing just one hit. Walks will be an issue for him as he progresses. Tonight he walked just three in five innings of work. His “piggyback” partner Shane Dawson too has struggled with the walk and tonight he was poor, gifting five free passes in just an innings and two-thirds of work. In fairness to Dawson tonight was his first Lansing outing.

Three Stars

3. L.B. Dantzler

2. Shawn Hill

1. Liam Hendriks

Box Scores

Matt Boyd makes his debut in New Hampshire and Liam Hendriks deserves an honourable mention for April BBMLPotM | 2 comments | Create New Account
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John Northey - Friday, May 02 2014 @ 09:46 AM EDT (#285622) #
Hendriks has been a curiosity to me. Jays got him off waivers - this past winter he went from the Twins to Cubs to Orioles to Jays via waivers each time. He has 156 ML innings 1.7 HR/9 2.7 BB/9 5.8 K/9 - not impressive. But in the minors he is 609 IP 0.4 HR/9 1.5 BB/9 7.6 K/9.  In AAA his lifetime ERA is 3.38 in 282 2/3 IP.  This guy can pitch but seemed to be mishandled by the Twins.  At 22 he had his first shot at the majors, sucked. At 23 he had 16 starts and gopheritis hit big time although he did very well in AAA. Last year at 24 he again split time but the HR were worse and his AAA stats were poor as well.  From the looks of it they yo-yo'ed him and it didn't work well.  He might be one of those hidden gems we hoped AA would find with all those pro-scouts.  His 1.26 ERA this year (28 2/3 IP) sure suggests it.

Stroman is also doing amazing as we all know (1.69 ERA).  Nolin in AAA adds a 3rd guy with a sub 2 ERA in the starting rotation who is 25 or less (Hendriks is 25, Nolin 24, Stroman 23).  AA gives us Lawrence (2.10 ERA) and Sanchez (also 2.10 ERA) both with 30 IP.  A+ has Norris (0.75) and Boyd (0.77 including his AA time where he is now) and now Graveman (0.89 mainly in A but also some A+) plus Cole (2.36).

Right now the pitching in the system is doing amazing.  9 guys under 2.50 for ERA as starters currently in A+ or higher.  5 below 2, 3 below 1.  Wow. Lets hope they can keep it up.
uglyone - Friday, May 02 2014 @ 01:52 PM EDT (#285627) #
Testament to the system, i guess, that Stroman might have had the best first month of any prospect in baseball, and still couldn't snag a coveted Bbox monthly award!
Matt Boyd makes his debut in New Hampshire and Liam Hendriks deserves an honourable mention for April BBMLPotM | 2 comments | Create New Account
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