Lane Thomas Celebrates His Nineteenth Birthday

Sunday, August 24 2014 @ 07:02 AM EDT

Lane Thomas was 19 today and he got to play in a doubleheader. Thomas had five hits between the two games, two doubles and a walk. Thomas is the top performer so far for the Jays 2014 draft class. Bluefield split the doubleheader. Buffalo exploded for 19 hits, Ryan Goins led with 4. Of note Dalton Pompey had three hits and Kevin Pillar had two including a three run home run. Vancouver won with good performances from Roemen Fields, Franklin Barreto and Chase Mallard.

New Hampshire were one hit, Dunedin and the GCL Jays were three hit and Lansing were seven hit. All four lost. Sean Reid-Foley pitched well for the GCL Jays.

Pawtucket 2 Buffalo 15

• Dalton Pompey was 3-5 with a double, a walk and 2 K's. Pompey has had 14 at-bats. He has 6 hits and 6 K's. Pompey also had one SB tonight.
• Kendall Graveman pitched seven innings and gave up 2 runs on nine hits. Graveman had just one strikeout, he did induce 14 ground balls vs 3 fly balls.
• Ryan Goins had 4 hits and made a great defensive play. Cole Gillespie and Darin Mastroianni had three hits each. Kevin Pillar and Matt Hague had two hits with a home run.

Portland 7 New Hampshire 1

• New Hampshire were held to one hit, a solo home run from Andy Burns.
• The Fisher Cat hitters struck out 15 times, Jon Berti had 4 of them, Jorge Flores 3. Despite the 3 K's Flores led the lineup with a .297 batting average. Flores doesn't walk much or have much power so that 300 BA leads to a 684 OPS.

Dunedin 0 Tampa 2

• Marcus Knecht had two of the Jays 3 hits. Knecht has been streaky all season and despite regularly having multi hit games his BA is just .255.
• Mitch Nay was 0-3 and is still oh for the FSL.
• Jesse Hernandez was the loser with 2 runs allowed in 6.2 innings.

South Bend 7 Lansing 3

• Rowdy Tellez was 2-4 with 2 K's. He is hitting .333 so far in Lansing.
• Dawel Lugo has hit the skids in August, his OPS for the month is 325 but he did hit a home run, a 2 run shot.
• Grent Powers didn't get out of the second inning and was tagged for 5 runs.

Boise 1 Vancouver 4

• Chase Mallard pitched six shutout innings. His ERA is 2.89. Mallard is 22 and from a top university program (UAB) so his performance could have been expected. But he was a 14th round pick so the Jays liked him enough to start him. Next year will be a truer test for Mallard.
• Franklin Barreto had a couple of hits and a couple of steals. We know Barreto can hit but he now has 24 steals and has only been caught 3 times. Barreto's K rate is just over 20% and his K/BB ratio is approx. 2.5 to 1, a decent ratio.
• Roemen Fields was 3-4. After a red hot start Fields has cooled off but it was good to see 3 hits from him on Saturday. This is Fields first full season so the grind of everyday play was bound to get to him at some point.

Kingsport 11 Bluefield 6 - game 1

Kingsport 3 Bluefield 7 - game 2

• Lane Thomas is on fire. In game one Thomas was 3-3 with 2 doubles and a walk. In game 2 Thomas was 2-4. He is now hitting .357 in Bluefield, very good for a guy celebrating his 19th birthday today.
• In game 2 Josh Almonte had 3 hits and is now hitting .297. In case you missed it Fangraphs had a look at Almonte earlier this week. He was described as being toolsy and raw but his long arms might make it tough for him to be a high average hitter.
• Angel Rojas had 3 hits in game one and one in game 2. The 21 year old infielder is hitting .232 for Bluefield.

GCL Blue Jays 1 GCL Phillies 2

• Sean Reid-Foley pitched three innings just hitting one batter. Reid-Foley has pitched in seven games and, other than one blowout where he gave up six runs, he has pitched well. Overall, including the bad start, Reid-Foley gave up 17 hits in 19.2 innings. Chris King from Baseball Prospectus was at todays game and his comment after the game was "command of his secondary pitches has been very good. Will throw them in any count with confidence." Reid-Foley will be 19 next Saturday.
• Nick Wells, this years third round pick, is younger than Reid-Foley, he doesn't turn 19 until next February. Like Reid-Foley, Wells pitched in nine games, although not as successfully as his fellow draftee. Wells ERA is over 6 but he is very young.
• Deiferson Barreto doubled and scored the only run. He is hitting .293 and one of the bright lights among the hitters.

3 Stars

3rd star: Kevin Pillar

2nd star: Ryan Goins

1st star: Lane Thomas

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