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Only one club lost Thursday and it was the baby, baby Jays in the Gulf Coast League. Regardless, there were a lot of positives on the night.


Syracuse 6 Richmond 1

Kane Davis allowed just one run over six innings. He allowed five hits and four walks but struck out four as well. Recent pick-up Jonah Bayliss pitched a scoreless inning. Brandon League and Jordan DeJong also pitched scoreless innings. Hector Luna was 3-for-5 with a run scored and a double. Adam Lind was 1-for-3 with a two-run homer. Danny Sandoval was 2-for-4 with a homer. Matt Watson was 1-for-2 with a double, two runs scored and two walks. Wayne Lydon stole two bases and now has 27 on the year.

New Hampshire 6 Connecticut 1

Robert Ray allowed 10 hits in seven innings but kept all but one runner from crossing the plate. He also walked two and struck out just one. Jared Gothreaux and Daryl Harang each pitched a scoreless inning. Kyle Phillips was 3-for-4 with two solo homers. Travis Snider was 2-for-4 with two doubles and two RBI (and no strikeouts!). Scott Campbell went 2-for-4. J.P. Arencibia was 0-for-4 with a strikeout.

Dunedin 12 Clearwater 6

Rehabbing Major Leaguer Kris Benson may never want to see Dunedin again. He was torched for five runs in his first inning back from shoulder surgery. On the other side, Ray Gonzalez pitched 5.2 innings and allowed just two runs on eight hits and one walk. He struck out four batters. Celson Polanco allowed three runs in two-thirds of an innings and Brian Pettway worked 1.2 scoreless innings. Sean Shoffit and Luis Sanchez each went 2-for-5. David Corrente, who missed the first half of the season with an elbow injury, hit his second and third homers (in his third game of the year). Cory Patton went 2-for-5 with a homer. Brian Dopirak went 1-for-5 with a homer and three strikeouts. Marcos Cabral was 1-for-3 with three runs scored.

Lansing 4 Fort Wayne 0

There may be no hotter pitcher in the system than southpaw Luis Perez. After a terrible start where he struggled mightily with his command, Perez has been nearly untouchable for the last month or so. Tonight, he allowed four hits and one walk over seven innings and struck out nine batters. His ERA lowered to 3.56, which is impressive considering it was 8.20 at the end of April. Perez did balk twice and hit two batters, so he's still a little rough around the edges. Tim Collins continued his dominance of A-ball with another two scoreless innings and four strikeouts. Catcher Matt Liuzza was 2-for-3 with a double, triple and and RBI. Moises Sierra was 2-for-4 with a double. Every starter had a hit but lead-off man Eric Eiland, who was 0-for-3.

Auburn 7 Batavia 0

2008 draftee and southpaw Evan Crawford received the start and did not allow a run over 2.2 innings. He allowed just one hit but walked three, threw a wild pitch and hit a batter. He also struck out four. Robert (Scott) Leffler pitched 2.1 scoreless innings for the win. Jimmy Dougher threw two innings and struck out four. Frank Gailey and Matt Daly each worked a scoreless inning. Chris Demons (pronounced Deh-Mahns) is now 0-for-5 with five walks after two games. David Cooper and Adam Amar each went 2-for-5 and Amar slugged a solo homer. Jonathan Del Campo was 2-for-2 with a triple, two RBI and two walks. Joel Collins was 2-for-3 with an RBI and has been playing outstanding defence behind the plate. Every player who started the game had at least one hit except Mr. Demons.

Gulf Coast Phillies 5 Gulf Coast Jays 2

Henderson Alvarez, an 18-year-old Venezuelan got the start for the Jays and struggled. He allowed three runs on six hits over 4.1 innings. Alvarez did not walk a batter and struck out two. Scott Gracey, a two-way player in college who is focusing on pitching, did not allow a run or hit over 1.2 innings. He struck out one batter. Yorman Mayora, making his North American debut, allowed two runs on three hits and a walk over two innings. Offensively, 2008 second rounder Kenny Wilson went 1-for-4 with a stolen base. Fellow speedster Markus Brisker went 1-for-3 and also stole a base. Gulf Coast repeater Kevin Denis-Fortier went 2-for-4 with a double and a solo homer. Justin McClanahan also hit a homer. Balbino Fuenmayor was 0-for-4 with two strikeouts. Henry Rodriguez started behind the plate in his North American debut and went 1-for-3 with a double.

Third Star: Kyle Phillips for going 3-for-4 with two homers
Second Star: David Corrente for two homers and being from Ontario
First Star: Luis Perez for seven dominating innings

Better Than the Big Club (But That's Not Hard) | 7 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
greenfrog - Thursday, June 19 2008 @ 11:53 PM EDT (#187590) #
For those of you who haven't checked out Tim Collins's stats, the 5'7", 155 lb (according to minorleaguebaseball.com) lefthander, age 19, has posted the following for Lansing in 2008:

1-0, 0.30 ERA, 16 G, 30 IP, 11 H, 1 ER, 0 HR, 15 BB, 42 K
ayjackson - Friday, June 20 2008 @ 01:34 AM EDT (#187597) #

Snider is certainly ripping it up now.  His June OPS is over 1.000.  His K rate's coming down too - around 23% for the month.  New Hampshire might be able to turn it around for a bit if they continue to get better starting pitching.  Their offense looks really good with Campbell, Mathews, Snider, Arencibia, Patterson, and Jeroloman.

NH is a bit more interesting to follow now with four good prospects there (Campbell, Cecil, Snider and Arencibia), plus Ricky.  Even Robert Ray is becoming an intriguing prospect.

Pistol - Friday, June 20 2008 @ 09:05 AM EDT (#187605) #
Yeah, Tim Collins is really interesting.  If I calculate it correctly he's striking out 36% of the batters he's facing.  Undrafted and signed out of high school and he's putting up numbers better than a lot of college drafted pitchers taken on the first day of the draft.

I don't know much about him, but I think I'd keep him in the pen in Lansing all year and then move him to a starter in Lansing next year and see what happens.

Mike Green - Friday, June 20 2008 @ 09:17 AM EDT (#187607) #
Joel Collins was 2-for-3 with an RBI and has been playing outstanding defence behind the plate

Rumours that Marc is my new nom de plume are entirely unfounded. Usually second year collegiate draftees get a shot at full-season ball, but it doesn't look like Collins will.
FisherCat - Friday, June 20 2008 @ 10:55 AM EDT (#187620) #

I was in attendance for last night's NH vs Conn game and was once again blessed with grabbing a foul ball.  This time in my regular seat several rows behind the 1st base dugout.  The RH is slightly bruised, but I will live.

But now onto baseball: Robert Ray at first glance looks somewhat similar to Clay Bucholz, both in build and in mechanics.  He was consistantly hitting 89-91 with his fastball.  Although his only K in the 5th inning was on a 93mph heater that the batter never expected, swinging way late on it.  Both he and the CT starter must've been reading Doc Halladay's book on "pitching to contact" because K's were endangered species last night.  If not for a well placed pick-off in the 2nd or the AMAZING diving grab by JP Arencibia on a not-so-high pop-up directly behind the plate in the 1st, this one could've followed the script of most of NH's games this year.

Gouthreaux is a VERY fast worker on the mound and reminds me a lot of Lee Gronkiewicz.  He had a very good change-up deceiving the batters in his 1 inning of work.

As for the batters, Travis Snider has his opposite field mojo working as both his doubles were smacked to either side of the left-fielder.  He also showed deceptive speed on the base paths; as in the 5th he easily beat out the relay throw on his fielder's choice (albeit Campbell got in on 2B quickly to interrupt the timing a bit).  Kyle Phillips 2nd HR of the night was "majestic" as it cleared all 3 fences in RF and was nearly as high as the light tower when it left the yard.  His 1st one was more of a ringing fly ball that had just enough to get out in right center.

Finally in regards to Campbell's fielding he surprised me with how well he pivoted on the 2 DP's the FCats turned.  Including one that off-the-bat looked like a Fielder's Choice grounder, but with the runner bearing in on him, he gunned to 1st for the DP!  IF the rest of his season in the field is like last night, the Jays may have something here

ayjackson - Friday, June 20 2008 @ 12:42 PM EDT (#187628) #
Since May 1, opposing hitters have been batting .180 of 23 year-old lefty, Luis Perez at Lansing.  His K:BB rate over that time is 3:1.  He joins Mills, Zip and to a lesser extent, Boone, in the bucking-for-a-promotion-to-Dunedin department.
ayjackson - Friday, June 20 2008 @ 07:41 PM EDT (#187755) #

JP Arencibia opens his account with a 3-run homer in the bottom of the first.

Better Than the Big Club (But That's Not Hard) | 7 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.