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The minor league season is grinding towards the end. The Bluefield Jays finished their regular season on Wednesday, they start their playoff run on Friday. Max Pentecost hit his tenth home run, his teammate Santiago Espinal hit his first, just in time before the season ends. New Hampshire lost despite the power. Buffalo lost. Ryan Noda carried Lansing to a win. Vancouver and Bluefield also won. Vancouver are closing in on a playoff spot. Assuming they make it the Jays would have four teams in the playoffs, New Hampshire, Lansing, Vancouver and Bluefield. Dunedin were rained out.

Buffalo

Buffalo lost 4-1 even though they out-hit Rochester 9-5. The Bisons starter, Shawn Morimando, had one problem, a hitter named Zander Wiel. Wiel is hitting well under .200 but he took Morimando deep twice for three runs. Morimando went six innings and gave up all four runs.

Seven of the nine Bison hitters recorded a hit. Vlad Jr. was one of the two hitless hitters. Jonathan Davis had the only multi-hit game, going 3-4. I don't think its enough to get a call-up though.


New Hampshire

The Fisher Cats belted out 15 hits, scored nine runs but lost 10-9. Max Pentecost had two hits and three RBI. His home run was his tenth of the season. Its a strong finish to the season for Max, after a so-so four months. Santiago Espinal had three hits, including his first home run. Bo Bichette was 2-3 with two walks, reaching base four times. He is finishing strong too. Andrew Guillotte and Forrest Wall also had two hits each.

Jordan Romano had one of his bad starts to finish his season on a down note. He gave up eight runs on ten hits. Romano has had a very odd season. Here are his WHIP's by month: 0.98; 0.73; 1.48; 0.81; 1.85. I don't know why the difference is there, hopefully he is experimenting.


Dunedin

Dunedin were rained out, they will play a double header tomorrow, Thursday.


Lansing

Lansing won 2-1 and it was the Ryan Noda show. In the first inning he tripled in a run. Then, next time up, he hit his 19th home run. After the home run he tried to bunt his way on but was thrown out and finally he struck out to make it a 2-4 day with seven bases. He had two RBI and Lansing won 2-1. They were out-hit 9-5. Turner Larkins went four shutout innings, three hits, three K's. Donnie Sellers also went four innings, he gave up the only run on six hits.



Vancouver

The C's won 10-3 and are two games ahead of Spokane for the playoff spot. Their last three games are against Spokane so avoiding a sweep would put Vancouver in the playoffs. Everett led Vancouver 3-1 in the sixth before four errors led to five unearned runs for the C's. Trailing 3-1 in that sixth, Griffin Conine launched a two run home run to tie the game. He drove in another run later. Yorman Rodriguez also had three RBI on three hits. Chris Bec scored the first run and drove in two.

The C's used six pitchers who combined to walk ten batters. The only non-walker pitcher was starter Nick Allgeyer who pitched two innings.


Bluefield

Bluefield got ready for the playoffs with a 9-3 win. Hagen Danner had two hits including a three run home run. Andres Guerra also homered. Jose Theran hit two triples. Cal Stevenson had his usual tally, a hit and a walk.

Felipe Castaneda had a nice start, five innings, two hits, one run.




Three Stars

Third Star - Hagen Danner

Second Star - Max Pentecost

First Star - Ryan Noda


Boxes

Max Power | 20 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
Gerry - Thursday, August 30 2018 @ 02:55 PM EDT (#364604) #
Vlad, Bo and Biggio will represent the Jays in the AFL this year. Biggio will play some in the outfield.

The pitchers include Shawn Morimondo, free agent signing who was injured for a lot of the season. Jackson McClelland and Zach Jackson.
PeterG - Thursday, August 30 2018 @ 02:56 PM EDT (#364605) #
Guererro, Bichette, Bigio headed to Fall League. I assume others are yet to be announced.
Gerry - Thursday, August 30 2018 @ 02:57 PM EDT (#364606) #
Stubby Clapp will manage the young Jays.
PeterG - Thursday, August 30 2018 @ 02:59 PM EDT (#364608) #
Morimando seems a surprising choice? I guess they want a better read on him.
Gerry - Thursday, August 30 2018 @ 03:06 PM EDT (#364611) #
Its always tough to find pitchers to go and each team is obligated to supply a starting pitcher.

Usually teams look for a pitcher who was injured and didn't get their full innings allocation in. Which Jays pitchers at A ball or above were injured this year? I am not sure if Francisco Rios is a starter or a reliever now, he was injured.

Nate Pearson was injured and could go still go to the AFL.
PeterG - Thursday, August 30 2018 @ 03:21 PM EDT (#364613) #
I thought Pearson was a logical choice. I wonder what the plans are for him, as well as for David Paulino?

I have not heard anything about Pearson's pen sessions since the 1st one. Maybe they are not proceeding as well as hoped? They did feel he could pitch for Lansing next week in MSU game. I don't know if that is still happening.
85bluejay - Thursday, August 30 2018 @ 03:58 PM EDT (#364619) #
Given David Paulino's injury history (including TJ) it's worrisome that he's not pitching in the AFL, maybe winterball. Morimando was a Cleveland draft pick so there's some history & maybe an understanding that he resigns with them as a minor league FA. Not surprised about Pearson,he's never even pitched in full season and to go against top prospects after coming back from missing the entire season may not be a wise choice.
greenfrog - Thursday, August 30 2018 @ 11:12 PM EDT (#364648) #
Bichette is now hitting .341/.401/.526 in AA since the All-Star break this year. I'm not sure I would be so quick to demote him from top-ten prospect status in MLB. He turned 20 less than six months ago.
greenfrog - Thursday, August 30 2018 @ 11:15 PM EDT (#364649) #
That slash line will improve after his 3/4 (plus a walk) night tonight.
greenfrog - Thursday, August 30 2018 @ 11:32 PM EDT (#364650) #
Noda now has 186 games and 785 PA in the minors in Bluefield and Lansing. Here are his numbers over that stretch:

.296/.452/.523 (.975 OPS)
42 doubles
7 triples
27 HR
139 R
118 RBI
163:189 BB:K
20:7 SB:CS

Also, 19 of those home runs have come in June, July and August of this year.
cybercavalier - Friday, August 31 2018 @ 01:42 AM EDT (#364657) #
Per Gerry, SRF and Jonathan Davis are not likely to be called up... Am I right?
Who else are getting their call-ups?
ISLAND BOY - Friday, August 31 2018 @ 06:50 AM EDT (#364660) #
Jose Fernandez, maybe Conor Fisk ?
scottt - Friday, August 31 2018 @ 07:10 AM EDT (#364661) #

Guys on the 40 roster, I would think.
Tellez? McGuire? Petricka, Schafer, Pompey? Alford? Smith Jr? Paulino? Auschild? Guerrieri?

With the state of the rotation. They could use a large bullpen.

NDG - Friday, August 31 2018 @ 08:18 AM EDT (#364662) #
One worry with Noda is his K rate. I think an inability to make contact at low levels is worrisome as it tends to get worse as you move up levels. Anecdotally it seems the hitting prospects that flame out are the ones with high K
but good W/K rates (which is why they are given prospect status).
scottt - Friday, August 31 2018 @ 08:49 AM EDT (#364663) #
Not chasing pitches outside the zone and crushing the bad pitches inside the zone is often enough to translate into a plus bat. High K rate often goes along with plus power. Still early on Noda, so the risk is high.
lexomatic - Friday, August 31 2018 @ 08:50 AM EDT (#364664) #
I'm not worried about Noda's K rate yet when it's combined with his eye AND power.If he loses one then maybe.
Spifficus - Friday, August 31 2018 @ 09:05 AM EDT (#364665) #
I'm not worried about Noda because he's essentially found money. Lots of risk as mentioned, that he's either passive or just drawing walks on non-competitive pitches after getting deeper in counts due to swings and misses.
Gerry - Friday, August 31 2018 @ 09:12 AM EDT (#364666) #
I corrected myself to say SRF could be called up.
ayjackson - Friday, August 31 2018 @ 10:08 AM EDT (#364674) #
Yeah, I think SRF could benefit greatly from, and has room on his pitch limit, about 10 innings out of the pen against major leaguers next month.
TamRa - Saturday, September 01 2018 @ 03:33 AM EDT (#364775) #
"Which Jays pitchers at A ball or above were injured this year?"

While not injury, don't overlook Pannone - he has plenty of innings left. If Pearson goes he probably won't be up to starter level innings and can be used in controlled relief appearances.
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