It's your abbreviated, long weekend, minor league update. Enjoy the weather and don't pay much attention to the Jays or their farm teams. Not only are the Jays not winning, neither are the top two farm teams. In case you missed it as you enjoyed the weekend, Lane Thomas is no longer a Blue Jay. He was traded to St. Louis for international cap room. It might be a fair trade but it sets back the timetable to help the major league team by four years. The Jays traded a 21 year old for a 16 year old. The Jays replaced Thomas with Eduard Pinto who they picked up for Jason Grilli. Pinto is a year older than Thomas. Thomas has shown flashes of potential this year but probably not enough to have made the Jays top 30 list. However if he continues to improve he could get to the major leagues.
Buffalo scored three runs in three games over the weekend and lost all three. TJ House, Cesar Valdez and Aaron Sanchez all started and all three took the loss. On the hitting side batting averages are taking a dive. The Bisons had 13 hits in three games and the bottom third of the order had ten of them. Michael Saunders is off to a slow start, just one hit so far, and he is hitting .067, Rowdy Tellez is at .204, Jason Leblebijian and Dwight Smith Jr are down to .282. Roemon Fields is hanging in with three weekend hits to keep his average at .327.
New Hampshire gave up 13, 14 and 6 runs and lost all three, just like Buffalo. Conner Greene and Francisco Rios were both hit around the park. Ryan McBroom's five hits led the offense. Danny Jansen had three hits in two games.
Dunedin won all three games, scoring 25 runs. Josh Almonte was 5-10 to push his average up to .242. Juan Kelly was 6-9 with a home run, he is hitting .254. Cavan Biggio had six hits and is hitting .264. Lourdes Gurriel was 2-11. In case you missed it Dalton Pompey is playing for Dunedin as he returns from a leg injury. Ryan Borucki had a good start on Sunday.
Lansing won one of three. Andy Ravel was the best of the starters. Yenssy Diaz, who has been Lansing's best starter, only went three innings but surrendered five runs. The short start was due to a lengthy rain delay. Bo Bichette had one hit on Friday, sat out Saturday and took a very rare 0-5 on Sunday. According to the Lugnuts radio guy, Jesse G-S, three of the outs were "laser lineouts". So no worries there. Vlad Jr. also played two games, going 4-7. Mitch Nay had four hits in Saturdays game, including a home run, while Josh Palacios had four hits on Sunday. Ridge Smith and Andres Sotillo had three hit games.
Vancouver had to come from behind to win on Sunday and salvage a game in the weekend series. Wilfri Aleton pitched well on Friday, five shutout innings. Dany Jimenez pitched OK on Saturday but left with an injury. Jose Espada struck out seven in 4.2 innings on Sunday. He did have seven base runners. On Friday the Canadians had only two hits, both by Riley Adams. Matt Morgan hit his first home run but is still hitting just .136. Brock Lundquist and Kacy Clemens each had a couple of hits on Sunday to keep their averages over .350. As usal our #2 JBrumfield has all the details at C's Plus baseball.
Bluefield won all three games by 2-0; 2-1; and 2-0. That suggests good pitching. Maximo Castillo pitched five shutout innings with four K's. Elio Silva also pitched five, one run, five K's. Alvaro Galindo fell short of five, 4.2 shutout innings, four K's. Ryan Noda was 5-9 with a triple and a home run. Kevin Smith was 3-8 and Yorman Rodriguez 3-12.
The GCL Jays played one game plus three innings of a second that was stopped by rain. The one standout was Jol Concepcion who was the starting pitcher in the completed game. He pitched five shutout innings with five K's.
Three Stars
Third Star - Alvaro Galindo
Second Star - Josh Almonte
First Star - Matt Morgan
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