Batter's Box Interactive Magazine - The Farm Boys Outscore Friday’s Foes 23-12 Finishing with 2 W’s and 2 L’s

The Farm Boys Outscore Friday’s Foes 23-12 Finishing with 2 W’s and 2 L’s

Las Vegas came to town and brought their lumber with them, humiliating the crew from Colorado. The Fisher Cats put up just a meow against the Rock Cats. Dunedin did their thing besting Brevard and Lansing’s Lugnuts lost to West Michigan. All in all, the Blue Jay farm boys out hit opponents 43 to 33.

Las Vegas 14 (yes 14) Colorado Springs 0 (yes 0)

The 51s sit in 3rd place in the PCL Pacific South division with a record of 3-6 and a one game win streak. Some win it was Friday. Following 6 hit 10 strike out shut out pitching, Las Vegas brought out the bats with 18 hits and 14 runs. Highlights on the mound included winning pitcher Joel Carreno (1-0) who struck out 8 and allowed only one hit in 5.0 IP. Andrew Carpenter and Clint Everts came on in relief and kept Colorado scoreless, allowing only 5 hits in the final four innings.

But the big blast came at the dish as the 51s put on a show for the shell-shocked Sky Sox home fans. Everyone hit for Las Vegas except David Cooper who went 0-4, but earned an RBI. The big gun for the evening was Travis Snyder (4-5, 3R, 2B, 3B, HR, 5RBIs) with the first Slam of the year in the 4 run 3rd inning. Then was the devasting 4th inning which looked like this: Moises Sierra singles, Ricardo Nanita Singles Sierra to 3rd, Yan Gomes K, Ruben Gotay singles Sierra home, Anthony Gose doubles in Nanita. Adieny Hechavarria singles in Gose, Snider singles, Travis d’Arnaud walks, Cooper walks in Hechavarria, Sierra K, Nanita doubles in Snider and d’Arnaud, Gomes lines out to 3rd. Las Vegas added insult to injury with a run each in the 6th, 7th and 8th innings. Sierra had a lead-off HR in the 8th. All told, the 51s line up ended up with just 3 batters under .333 average and 4 above .333 average with 2 batters above .400. Pretty awesome, even by PCL standards.

New Hampshire 1 New Britain 6

At 3-5 on the year so far and sitting at 4th place in the Eastern League Eastern division, New Hampshire suffered their third loss in a row. Deck McGuire (0-2) took the loss in 5 IP, allowing 3 earned runs on 7 hits with 5 K’s. Matt Wright and Danny Farquhar and came on in relief, allowing a run each and a combined 3 hits. A.J. Jimenez and Brad Glen added an error each.

The Fisher Cats had eight hits, but spaced them out so they only put a single run on the board in the 7th inning when Jonathan Diaz plated Justin Jackson on an infield single. Ryan Goins went 2 for 4 with New Hampshire’s only multi-hit performance. The Fisher Cats could not muster any extra base hits, but Brad McElroy and Brad Glen pinched a base each. It was a long night for 3,015 home fans in Manchester.

Dunedin 4 Brevard County 1

The D-Jays stayed atop the Florida State League North standings with a 7-1 overall and a 5 game winning streak. They travels across the Florida to Brevard and took the W with 5 hit 1 run pitching led by starter Asher Wojciechowski who struck out 4 in 6.0 IP. Scott Gracey took the W (2-1) with 1.0 IP when Dunedin put up 4 runs in the 8th. Boomer Potts came on in relief and Danny Barnes got the save, his fourth of the 2012 campaign.

On offence, the RBI producer was the pride of St. Michaels Col. School, Canadian born Marcus Knecht (1-3, 1R, 1H, 1BB, 2RBIs, 1K). Kevin Nolan (2 for 4, 1R, 2B, RBI) added the other RBI in the 4 run 8th. Nolan recorded the only extra base hit for Dunedin, a double in the 7th. Jake Marisnick (1 for 5, 1R, 1K) stole his second base of the year in the 8th.

Lansing 4 West Michigan 5

Lansing is the other Toronto farm club team atop of their league standings. Suffering their first loss of the season on a cool, cloudy evening in West Michigan. Luggies pitching gave up 12 hits and 5 earned runs on the night. Starter Marcus Walden went 4.2 innings and struck out 3 while allowing 3 BB and 8 hits, including a pair of HRs. Tyler Ybarra (0-1) took the loss with 2.2 IP allowing a pair of runs on 4 hits (including an HR) and 2 Ks. Shortstop Andrew Burns (0-3, BB) booted one for his first error of the year.

K.C. Hobson (1 for 4, 2B, 2 RBIs) batted in a pair with a double in the 1st and a ground out in the 5th. Triples came from Marcus Brisker (1 for 4, 3B), Chris Hawkins (2 for 4, 1R, 3B) and Carlos Perez (3 for 5, 2R, 2B, 3B, K). Kevin Pillar (3 for 5, 1R, 2B, RBI,2Ks) added a double and an RBI. Pillar inked his 5th SB, but had a CS and was picked off first base.

Stars:

Third Star: Kevin Pillar (3 for 5, 1R, 2B, RBI, 2ks)

Second Star: Joel Correno (1-0) (5.0 IP, 0R, 1H, 8Ks)

First Star: Travis Snider (4 for 5, 3R, 2B, 3B, Slam HR, 5 RBIs) Just a single short of the Cycle

Posted by mamboon on Saturday, April 14 2012 @ 09:13 AM EDT.

The Farm Boys Outscore Friday’s Foes 23-12 Finishing with 2 W’s and 2 L’s | 14 comments | Create New Account

The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.

Ducey - Saturday, April 14 2012 @ 09:51 AM EDT (#254463) #

Re Snider: He was a triple short of the Cycle

hypobole - Saturday, April 14 2012 @ 10:04 AM EDT (#254465) #

Missed Snider's shot, but the announcers spoke about it and were impressed. The wind was blowing in at the time so Snider had to crush the ball to get it out. Saw the Sierra HR. The wind had died down by then. Thought it was a lazy opposite field FB, but it kept carrying as many long flies in Colorado Springs are want to do.
BTW, MiLB TV would be a great deal if Vegas games were televised like last nights, with multiple cameras that actually move (much like telecasts we are used to). Vegas home games are showed through a single security camera (at it's not black and white I guess).

hypobole - Saturday, April 14 2012 @ 10:07 AM EDT (#254466) #

meant to say at least it's not black and white

sam - Saturday, April 14 2012 @ 10:34 AM EDT (#254467) #

Snider's shot was legit to right center. In my mind, he's still the best hitter there. Gomes isn't flashy, but gets the job done. Haven't seen him make any plays at third, and his at-bats have been so-so. Anthony Gose is really good looking player. It doesn't get said enough. I was impressed with his eye at the plate. He sees pitches. His hit in the fourth was really a single right center hole, which he made a double because of his speed and then further advanced to third on the throw home. Hech's single was not a single, but a lazy fly ball that the RF completely misplayed (reminder to how inflated some of these stats are). Hech is very similar to Yunel in many respects, there's a fluidity or rhythm to his game that may appear to lack intensity or effort, but in reality he's playing at a high level. If he's going to hit in the two-hole at the next level he's going to really have to improve his approach at the plate. It's not that he's swinging at bad pitches, but walks and deep counts seem a bit foreign to his game at the moment. Travis d'Arnaud is nice looking catcher. Very quiet behind the plate. I wonder though when the roving catching guy comes through Las Vegas they'll talk to d'Arnaud about his setup on pitches when people aren't on base. He's not really square to the pitcher, with his left shoulder slightly ahead of his right shoulder. It's more pronounced on some pitches than others, but it seems to be a habit that could become more pronounced as the season progresses.

Gerry - Saturday, April 14 2012 @ 11:08 AM EDT (#254468) #

Not to take from Carreno's excellent start but 95 pitches in five innings is not efficient and is symptomatic of Carreno's lack of FB command in his Toronto start.

The #5 starters are not exactly lining up at the door. Carreno has the lead, Laffey is in the wings, while Jenkins and McGuire have struggled. Hutchison's ERA is excellent but the underlying numbers, like strikeouts, suggest he needs more time.

Each starter should have one more audition start.

sam - Saturday, April 14 2012 @ 11:36 AM EDT (#254469) #

To echo Gerry's comments on Carreno. His fastball command in the game was certainly nothing to marvel at. He threw only a handful of change-ups and I'm not entirely sold that his fastball/slider combination is dynamic enough for the bullpen let alone the starting rotation. I really wouldn't read too much into his line. The Skysox lineup is quite poor and the announcers were commenting that they had a rough travel day.

The Jays rotation and depth is really fragile right now. I fear if one of the starters goes down or simply starts to stink.

greenfrog - Saturday, April 14 2012 @ 11:58 AM EDT (#254470) #

Based on watching him last year (admittedly a very small sample size), I felt that Carreno might be best as a reliever - he can air it out for an inning or two, make liberal use of the slider (probably more effective with limited exposure), etc. I'm not sold on him yet as an AL East starter.

I still think the Jays are at least one strong SP short of contention (depending on how Drabek does - I love his potential and the fact that he's improving, but want to see him harness his control/command a bit more). Perhaps the Jays can hang tough with the current group, perhaps not. The minor-league guys I like the most seem to be a couple of years or more away: Syndergaard, Nicolino, Sanchez.

baagcur - Saturday, April 14 2012 @ 12:14 PM EDT (#254472) #

The LV site has Carreno pitch count at 87 but it was still more than five pitches per batter faced

Still in the short term he may be best choice for call up, other than Hutchison. Laffey has failed with his best shot, Jenkins has never convinced and McGuire's last two starts are concerning

Hodgie - Saturday, April 14 2012 @ 03:36 PM EDT (#254474) #

You can see a replay of Snider's home run here. The camera loses it quickly but you can see that it was absolutely crushed. Amazing the power that he can generate when he stays back. Small sample size aside, his power numbers to start the season resemble his 2009 season in AAA while so far striking out at a 17% clip. I am going to spend the next few weeks knocking on wood in hopes that he had rediscovered his power stroke and is finding the consistency in his swing to keep his strikeouts at a more reasonable rate. I am still hopeful that he ends the year patrolling LF for the Jays.

Kelekin - Saturday, April 14 2012 @ 04:34 PM EDT (#254476) #

Lugnuts win in 12.

Cecil continues to struggle - 5 IP 8 H 4 ER 3 BB 4 K.

Sanchez 3 IP 1 H 0 ER 2 BB 3 K. His lack of control is still worrying.
Nicolino 3 IP 4 H 0 ER 1 BB 3 K. Not a great day for Nicolino but still no runs given up.

We need Dyson to salvage the day for the pitchers!

Perez, Hawkins, and Brisker with good days. Same with Justin Jackson, Howard, and Glenn.

TamRa - Saturday, April 14 2012 @ 04:35 PM EDT (#254477) #

it occured to me last night - and I'm just getting on-line so this may have been rendered moot already - that the act of calling up Crawford might have been a gateway to at least putting the idea on the table of plugging Perez in for a few starts.

If Perez becomes your #5 for a little while then Crawford slots in as the second lefty..but that sort of plan would require Laffey to be the one dispatched when Santos is reactivated

(technically, I suppose you could still do this with Laffey as the second lefty but I didn't think of this until Crawford was called up)

92-93 - Saturday, April 14 2012 @ 07:36 PM EDT (#254485) #

Thanks for the link, Hodgie. Not sure if it's the camera angle but it appears like Snider has opened up his stance a bit.

ayjackson - Sunday, April 15 2012 @ 09:27 AM EDT (#254496) #

5 strikeouts in about 40 plate appearances is a very encouraging start to the season for Travis. I'd like to see him put up insane numbers for six to eight weeks before calling him up though. Right now it's just a hot streak.

Hodgie - Sunday, April 15 2012 @ 12:59 PM EDT (#254509) #

I was thinking the same thing 92-93. The slightly open stance to start and then closing on delivery reminded me more of his swing from a couple of years ago. Of course, that could just be wishful thinking on my part as well.

The Farm Boys Outscore Friday’s Foes 23-12 Finishing with 2 W’s and 2 L’s | 14 comments | Create New Account

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