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It was Ripley's "believe it or not" night for the affiliates Friday.  Consider:

Jarrett Hoffpauir hit for the cycle in Las Vegas's win over Tacoma.  It was his second cycle of the season.

Two Jays, Aaron Mathews in Vegas and Eric Thames for New Hampshire, hit inside the park home runs

New Hampshire were losing 6-1 in the eighth inning and won.

David Cooper, who has been struggling all season, hit a two run home run in the ninth to tie the game

Bubbie Buzachero, who had an ERA around 8 before last nights game, pitched five innings to get the win for the Fisher Cats

Chad Beck, whose pre-game ERA was over 6, made a spot start for Dunedin and pitched five shutout innings

Travis D'Arnaud hit a grand slam homerun.

Zach Stewart gave up five runs in the first two innings, then pitched three almost perfect innings



Tacoma 4  Las Vegas 6

Las Vegas got going early, Jarrett Hoffpauir started the first inning with a triple and scored on a Luis Figueroa single.  Figgy was thrown out at home on a double by Brett WallaceRey Gonzalez started for the 51's and dodged trouble all night.  It eventually caught up to him in the fifth when Tacoma tied the game.  But in the bottom of the fifth Hoffpauir, who had singled in the third, hit a two run home run to put Vegas back in front 3-1.  Gonzalez gave up two more runs in the sixth and was pulled in favour of Jesse Carlson.

In the bottom of the sixth Aaron Mathews hit a two run inside the park home run to give Las Vegas a two run lead.  Mathews was followed by Hoffpauir who needed a double for the cycle.  Hoffpauir hit the ball over the outfielders head for his double and the cycle.  It was Hoppy's second cycle for the season.  Figueroa followed with another double to make it a 3 run game.  After that the bullpen took over, Merkin Valdez did give up one run.

Hoffpauir, obviously, had four hits .  Figueroa and Wallace had two hits each.

Milb story on Hoffpauir.


Trenton 6  New Hampshire 7

Zach Stewart had a rough first couple of innings.  In the he walked three hitters and added a couple of hits and was lucky to escape with two runs allowed.  In the second Stewart gave up three runs with five hits allowed and throw in a passed ball and a wild pitch.  But Stewart then settled down and went five, the gave up just one hit and one walk over the last three innings.

A Brad Emaus double led to a run for New Hampshire in the fourth but after seven and a half innings Trenton led 6-1.  But in the bottom of the eighth a two out error opened the flood gates.  Add in a walk and Eric Thames hit an inside the park home run to make the score 6-4.

In the ninth Adam Loewen doubled with one out and then David Cooper hit a two run home run to the the game.  In the tenth Eric Thames walked and went to third on a throwing error by catcher Austin Romine.  Shawn Bowman then singled to drive in the winning run.

Even more improbable than the come back was that Bubbie Buzachero got the win.  First Buzachero pitched five innings, his longest outing in a long time, and secondly Bubbie's ERA before this game was around 8.

Bowman and Mastroianni had two hits each.

Kevin Gray's game story.

For those of you wondering about Cooper, here is what his manager had to say in Gray's story:

“If you look at the charts, he’s had a lot of hard-hit balls, but he wasn’t getting any hits,” Rivera said. “I moved him down in the order, and now he’s hitting better. I have nothing do with it, but at the end of the day, it’s working.”

 

Charlotte 0  Dunedin 5

Chad Beck made a spot start with his 6 plus ERA and of course pitched five shutout innings.  Frank Gailey pitched three innings and Juan Hernandez made his first appearance of the year and pitched the ninth.

Dunedin scored all their runs in the fifth inning.  Brian Van Kirk, Daniel Perales and Welinton Ramirez singled to load the bases.  Adeiny Hechavarria singled to drive in one run and then Travis D'Arnaud hit a grand slam.  Mike McDade followed the grand slam with a double and that was Dunedin's last hit of the night.


Lansing 6  South Bend 8

Lansing went down 6-0 in the second inning and could never catch up.  The first eight hiiters of the second inning reached against starter Dave Sever, leading to the six runs.  Ryan Schimpf played a role on both sides of this game.  In the third inning he hit a solo home run to get Lansing on the board.  And then in the seventh, after the Lugnuts had come back to trail 6-5, Schimpf made two errors on the same play, leading to two unearned runs and putting the Luggies down by 3.  Schimpf tripled in Lansing's last run in the ninth.  Schimpf and Brad McElroy had two hits each.

Sever pitched four innings and took the loss.  Matt Wright pitched three innings in relief and gave up the two unearned runs.
 


Three Stars

3rd star - David Cooper
2nd star - Travis D'Arnaud
1st star -
Jarrett Hoffpauir

 

Standings

Las Vegas - 21-28, last place, 11.5 GB
New Hampshire - 30-18, 1st place, 2 GA
Dunedin - 31-18, 1st place, 1.5 GA
Lansing - 28-20, 3rd place, 3.5 GB

 

 

Ripley's Meets the Blue Jays | 20 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
greenfrog - Saturday, May 29 2010 @ 09:52 AM EDT (#215738) #
Does anyone know how well Hoffpauir plays defence at 2B (or at other positions)? I'm surprised that there isn't more interest in him. He's 27 (in his hitting prime), has decent overall minor-league numbers, had a very good season last year for Memphis (291/357/486), and is raking this year (348/403/560). He could be a useful player for a team that needs a 2B or utility IF, sort of a Joe Inglett-plus from the right side.
tstaddon - Saturday, May 29 2010 @ 11:25 AM EDT (#215740) #
Bat certainly looks good. Error total is a little skewed right now from a not-entirely-successful trial at 3B. Seems to be a solid, if unspectacular second baseman, but the jury's out on whether he can move around the diamond like Inglett. And, fair or not, the way Cito uses his bench (or, rather, doesn't) makes McCoy's versatility slightly more valuable than Hoffpauir's bat. For now, anyway.
earlweaverfan - Saturday, May 29 2010 @ 11:44 AM EDT (#215741) #
A recent Cito comment was intriguing:  He was quoted (about all the homers) as saying something like "it would be great if we could get some singles, too".  What I find fascinating about Hoffpauir is the high OBP, and the wonderful K/BB ratio.  Is that a mirage, or likely to come way down in the majors, due to a combination of the Vegas effect and major league pitching?

Now I realize that Dwayne Murphy says that OBP is way overrated, and I understand his point of view, but suppose this guy who has hit 11 doubles, 2 triples and 8 home runs so far this year was put in the care of Murphy:  Could Murphy show this guy how to hit more home runs, without a huge cost to his OBP? 

So far, there doesn't seem to be anyone Murphy can't turn into a bopper - except, I suppose, for MacDonald, Molina and McCoy.  And maybe I am just being impatient - next time MacDonald goes up to bat, maybe he will drive for the second deck, too!

The other person I am keen to see Murphy work on is Lubanski - he clearly has the power, but could Murphy help him make it much less occasional?

finch - Saturday, May 29 2010 @ 12:40 PM EDT (#215742) #
Does anyone know what has happened to Carlos Perez? He was one of our top prospects last season and I haven't heard of him playing this season. Is he hurt?
Gerry - Saturday, May 29 2010 @ 12:42 PM EDT (#215743) #
Perez is in extended spring training.  You should start seeing him in a couple of weeks when the short season teams start.  He should be in Auburn having been in the GCL last season.
sam - Saturday, May 29 2010 @ 01:48 PM EDT (#215744) #
Is it too much to ask for DSL Blue Jays to be included in Minor League Update this year? The team is really young, and with the Jays newfound focus on Latin America maybe we should include them in our updates? Just a suggestion.

Man, that Auburn team is sure going to be interesting to follow. Pierre, Perez, Marinsnick, Hobson, Hutchinson, Webb, and I'm probably missing some people, oh and any of the college guys we draft which will probably be a couple. Should be fun.
Maldoff - Saturday, May 29 2010 @ 02:18 PM EDT (#215745) #

Blind item! Who is the top prospect?

Player A (born 08-26-1986): 194AB, 30R, 50H, 15 2B, 0 3B, 11HR, 33RBI, 15BB, 51K, .294 avg, .349/.541/.890

Player B (born 03-24-1985): 147AB, 27R, 42H, 12 2B, 1 3B, 10HR, 23RBI, 11BB, 33K, .286 avg, .333/.585/.918

PeteMoss - Saturday, May 29 2010 @ 03:00 PM EDT (#215746) #
Well... not knowing the levels they are at... I'd probably go with B just b/c A seems quite whifftastic.
ayjackson - Saturday, May 29 2010 @ 03:16 PM EDT (#215747) #
It would depend on the levels those numbers were put up at?
92-93 - Saturday, May 29 2010 @ 03:20 PM EDT (#215748) #
You can't throw Lubanski's 3 previous years in the PCL out the window, they are a big part of that picture.
Maldoff - Saturday, May 29 2010 @ 03:22 PM EDT (#215749) #

Apologies, both players are at AAA in the PCL.

Good call 92-93 on identifying player B as Lubanski. Player A is Wallace.

greenfrog - Saturday, May 29 2010 @ 09:03 PM EDT (#215755) #
Plus, that year-and-a-half (almost) age difference makes a difference in their respective value as prospects.

On a major-league note: there's a great matchup underway in Florida (Halladay-Johnson). I always sympathize with the team that has to face Doc after a rough outing. Somebody usually has to pay the price. Tonight it's the Marlins.
dan gordon - Saturday, May 29 2010 @ 09:08 PM EDT (#215756) #
Yes, the biggest difference between the 2 of them is their age.  That 17 month advantage for Player A, Wallace, is huge.  Given the similarity of their numbers and the big age difference, Player A would be the better prospect by a substantial margin.  Of course, the sample size is very small, and you have to look at several years to get the whole picture.
greenfrog - Saturday, May 29 2010 @ 09:19 PM EDT (#215757) #
All I can say is, I hope one or more of Wallace, Drabek and D'Arnaud turn out to be very, very good.
scottt - Saturday, May 29 2010 @ 09:36 PM EDT (#215762) #
Makes you wonder where the Jays would be with Doc/Marcum/Romero/Cecil  in the rotation.

That and the prospect of Doc in the Hall of Fame in a Phillies uniform.

Oh, well, 4 more homers today.

sam - Saturday, May 29 2010 @ 09:48 PM EDT (#215765) #
Doc will wear a Jays uniform
92-93 - Saturday, May 29 2010 @ 10:17 PM EDT (#215775) #

Makes you wonder where the Jays would be with Doc/Marcum/Romero/Cecil  in the rotation.

The Jays won 4 of Eveland's 9 starts, so probably not much better. There's also the good chance that Cecil would still be in AAA, because with Doc around Eveland may have been sent to the bullpen and been the one to replace Tallet upon injury. But as I said all offseason, I would have preferred this team put its money where its mouth was and spent some money on one year deals, and then explore the Halladay market at the trade deadline if need be.

mamboon - Saturday, May 29 2010 @ 10:50 PM EDT (#215776) #
Greenfrog...  Hoffpauir is indeed on fire at the plate, but he's one of 4 Las Vegas infielders (including realeased Christian Colonel) showing 9 errors each in the field.  I would say that he'd be in the bigs yesterday if he could throw and catch half as well as he's hitting.  The 51's are not known for infield defence prowess.... Hoffpauir is one of the reasons.
China fan - Sunday, May 30 2010 @ 10:52 AM EDT (#215789) #

I think everyone is missing Maldoff's point, which is that Wallace might be somewhat overrated (due to the Halladay trade and the hype about him) while someone like Lubanski might be somewhat underrated.  The conventional wisdom -- that Wallace is a no-doubt future star -- might be a little excessive.   He has a chance, but it's far from guaranteed.  Of the three prospects in the Halladay trade, I think we need to be hoping that ONE of them becomes a star, rather than assuming that all of them are going to make it.

As for Lubanski, his biggest obstacle is the same one that bedevilled Randy Ruiz and is now confronting Hoffpauir and others:  where do you play him?   Barring an injury, there's no vacancy on the Jays this year.  As long as Bautista and Lewis are around, there's no room for Lubanski.  And as Ruiz showed, there's no point in putting a hot-hitting minor-leaguer onto the major-league bench, because he'll rarely see action.   Like it or not, Lubanski is injury insurance at this point.  And if he doesn't crack the Jays lineup within the next 12 months, he is likely to be overtaken on the depth chart by players like Thames, Mastroianni, etc.

earlweaverfan - Sunday, May 30 2010 @ 01:02 PM EDT (#215797) #
Mamboon, I would not eliminate someone from contention with the Jays because of 9 errors to date. Gonzalez, who at his defensive best is spectacular, has committed 8 errors so far. Encarnacion with many weeks out of the lineup has already committed 6.
Ripley's Meets the Blue Jays | 20 comments | Create New Account
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