Batter's Box Interactive Magazine Batter's Box Interactive Magazine Batter's Box Interactive Magazine
There were a lot of crooked numbers on a good night on the farm, plus a couple of multi-home run games.


Las Vegas 10 at Salt Lake 3

The Kyle Drabek redemption tour is continuing apace, as Drabek went 6 strong innings, allowing 3 runs on 6 hits. He struck out 8 batters, and more important walked on 1. Still he only threw 63/105 pitches for strikes, which is a good but not great ratio. In his last 2 starts he's gone 12 innings, striking out 11 and walking just the one. The other 51s weren't half bad either, as they put a 5 spot up in the first that put the game out of reach early. David Cooper went 3/5 with 2 doubles, and Chris Woodward actually went 4 for 5, with 1 2B. Darin Mastroianni, Brian Jeroloman and Ricardo Nanita each had 2 hits, as  the team totalled 17 knocks on the day, with Mastroianni and Kevin Howard homering.

New Britain at New Hampshire - Suspended

Dunedin 5 at Lakeland 11

This one wasn't as close as the final score indicated, as Lakeland struck for 2, 7 and 2 in innings 6-7-8 before the Baby Jays put some dressing on the windows with 3 in the 9th. Dunedin actually opened up the scoring in this one and led most of the way, thanks to 2 scoreless and hitless innings from Dustin McGowan, who struck out 2 and walked 2. Because McGowan was on a pitch count Drew Hutchison picked things up from there, and coasted for a bit. He extended his scoreless innings streak to 36 innings before getting absolutely hammered; his final line was an ugly 4.1 IP, 6 H, 7 ER, 4 BB and 3 K. Dumas Garcia and Ryan Shopshire also gave up a pair of runs each, for good measure. AJ Jiminez went 1/3 with a double and a walk, Kevin Nolan singled and walked and Chris Hopkins had 2 hits in the losing effort.

Western Michigan 0 at Lansing 11

Well 11-0 certainly qualifies as a beatdown. Casey Lawrence was one out away from going the distance, pitching a scoreless 8.2 innings, allowing 5 hits and striking out 6, though I guess it can be noted that he got 13 fly ball outs. Marcus Knecht and Jack Murphy did some of the heavy lifting, rapping 3 hits and driving in 2 apiece, though Knecht also homered. Doing most of the heavy lifting: he doubled home two and homered in 3, himself included, while also walking. Jake Marisnick had "only" 2 hits and walk, while Bryson Namba was 2 for 3 with 2 walks and scored 4 times.

Vancouver 11 at Eugene 1

Taylor Cole allowed only a solitary run, but was hardly impressive in 4.2 innings, as he walked 6 batters. He did strike out 5 and allow only 2 hits, but it's not exactly the ratio you want to be at. Meanwhile Vancouver did their damage with a 7 run 6th, and scored 11 runs despite only tallying 11 hits. Jonathon Berti had 3 of those, all singles, while Jonathon Jones homered once and drove in 3 while Stephen McQuail homered twice and drove in 4, and also walked twice.

Johnson City 4 at Bluefield 6
(11 Innings)

This one took a while to be decided, but in the end the Blue(field) Jays prevailed thanks to a 1 out Daniel Arcila home run after the previous batter reached on an error. It was in fact Arcila's second home run of the evening, the other having been a solo shot to lead off the game, so his WPA was probably pretty high. Chris' Schaeffer and Hawkins and Kevin Pillar also had 2 hits on the evening, and while each of them doubled none of them homered. Meanwhile Mitchell Taylor got the start for Bluefield, going 3.2 and allowing 2 runs on 6 hits, with 2 walks and 3 Ks. Tyler Ybarra was next and had more success, going 3.1 while allowing only an unearned run, on 4 hits, 1 walk and 4 Ks. Ian Kadish blew the save by allowing... a batter to reach on an error and two successive groundouts. He would pitch the next two frames and allow only a solitary hit and walk to go with 4 K's for the W.

GCL Jays 0 at GCL Tigers 2

DSL Giants at DSL Jays - Postponed? Maybe?

MILB is pretty unclear.

3 Stars!
Hon. Men! Marcus Knecht - 3/4, BB, 2B, HR, 2 R, 2 RBI
3rd Star!  Daniel Arcila - 2/4, BB, 2 HR, 2 R, 3 RBI
2nd Star! Stephen McQuail - 2/3, 2 BB, 2 HR, 3 R, 4 RBI
1st Star! Casey Lawrence - 8.2 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 6 K
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Mike Green - Thursday, July 07 2011 @ 12:10 PM EDT (#238153) #
It is surprising that Knecht in particular has not been promoted to Dunedin.  He's now 21 years old and has shown that he can handle the Midwest League.  The organization is backed up in corner outfielders at double A, triple A and in the major leagues, but there is no reason to not let him get a chance in the FSL.  This is not a Justin Jackson/Kevin Ahrens situation of standard promotion.
Lugnut Fan - Thursday, July 07 2011 @ 03:35 PM EDT (#238181) #

I could not agree with you more Mike.  I went to a game at Great Lakes on Saturday and had the pleasure of sitting next to my father as the Lugnuts played the Loons.  My dad watched the ball come off Knechts bat, looked at me and said "What is he doing here?  They are wasting his time."

My sentiments exactly.

Gerry - Thursday, July 07 2011 @ 04:20 PM EDT (#238187) #

Baseball America has released their mid-season top 50 prospects.  Three Blue Jays make the list:

Brett Lawrie is #10

Travis d'Arnaud #29

Anthony Gose #45

Gose is the only surprise on the list but BA loves the toolsy guys and Gose is that.

Hodgie - Thursday, July 07 2011 @ 07:09 PM EDT (#238193) #
I was of the mind that if Betances and Banuelos were on that list then so should have Alvarez. The only thing that he doesn't have in comparison to the Yankee wunderkinds is the flashy K/9 but conversely his BB/9 is less than half of his competitors. The 20 year old Banuelos may be the slightly better prospect being a year younger and a lefty but I am hard pressed to believe that the 23 year old Betances is.
Kelekin - Thursday, July 07 2011 @ 08:03 PM EDT (#238196) #
Alvarez has the potential to be a top 50 starter, but I don't think he has been as successful for as long as they have to be considered a top 50.  Top 100, surely.

Hodgie - Friday, July 08 2011 @ 09:08 AM EDT (#238234) #
I am not sure that prolonged success is much of a factor on a list like this considering the fact that names like Lee, Profar and Martin can be found. The list is about tools and hype as much as performance and right now Alvarez only has two of those three covered.
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