The affiliates were 2-2 on Wednesday with two extra innings games. A couple of pitching prospects had their best starts of 2017, Conner Greene and Angel Perdomo both looked like what we hoped they would.
Buffalo
Dwight Smith had a great night, at the plate he reached base five times going 4-4 with a walk. In the field he started a double play to eliminate a threat. Smith has had an excellent start to 2017. It's hard to know what to make of it as Smith spent the last two seasons in AA and hit .265 in each season. His .357 average in 2017 seems unsustainable but if he has learned or improved his game and can keep hitting around the .300 mark he would be a viable option for the major league team. This is Smith's sixth year in the system but he is still just 24 years old, the prime age for hitters to reach the majors, so perhaps he is right on track. Smith has moderate pop, 15 home runs last year, two this year, and as a left handed hitter should get some opportunities in the majors. Smith is a nice surprise so far in 2017.
Ian Parmley gets no prospect love. He was signed for just $5,000 as part of AA's draft strategy when the new draft pools came into play. He was signed as a college senior so he had no leverage. All of the similar signees from those drafts are gone from the system but Parmley hangs in there and is hitting .370 in AAA. The Jays have never given him more than 282 at-bats, likely haven't seen him as a prospect, and Parmley now is 27 years old. I always think of Parmley as a Juan Pierre type, a speedy slasher who is as likely to bunt as hit. I don't think he was on the Jays radar but he could hit his way to a part time role.
New Hampshire
Ryan McBroom hit his first home run of the year. McBroom gets lost in Tellez's shadow but he is a prospect. Wednesday might have seen his first home run of the year but he has been hitting, just not home runs. McBroom is hitting .342.
Conner Greene had struggled to throw strikes through his first two starts but that wasn't a problem yesterday. Greene went 6.2 innings throwing 70 strikes to 33 balls. Trenton scored two runs off Greene in the first inning but Greene did not give up another hit until the sixth inning. Greene had 15 ground balls to just one fly ball, also very impressive. Reports suggest Greene was throwing 100 mph in parts of this game.
Dunedin
Angel Perdomo also had his best start of the year on Wednesday. Perdomo went five innings with seven strikeouts. Perdomo had only two K's in each of his first two starts. Perdomo is very tall, and Perdomo has struggled to coordinate his delivery, so we are likely to see hit and miss starts through 2017. Hopefully there are more hits than misses.
Lourdes Gurriel returned from the DL, had two at-bats, and had to leave with an apparent leg injury. Andrew Guillotte went 4-5 and was a triple short of the cycle. Those four hits bumped Guillotte's average from .227 to .286.
Lansing
Brad Jones had two more hits, a home run, a walk and a strikeout. Vlad Jr had two doubles and his average is just under .300. You wonder if the cold weather is impacting some of the Latino players. Bo Bichette had just one hit but his average is right on .400. Those three hitters are leading the Lugs offense. Josh Palacios took an oh-fer.
3 Stars
3rd star: Angel Perdomo
2nd star: Ryan McBroom
1st star: Conner Greene
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