Vladimir Guerrero Jr. gets a home run. Kevin Smith, you get a home run. Anthony Alford, you get a home run. Despite those home runs, Buffalo and New Hampshire lost. Dunedin won with home runs from Ryan Noda and Cullen Large.
The season is a week old today and I thought we should take a peak at the hitting stats, even though it is a small sample size and for some hitters the weather has not been hitter friendly. Even so, it is fun to see what trends we are seeing early, even if they disappear in another few weeks.
Buffalo 8 Scranton WB 9 - 10 innings
Shawn Morimando got pounded for seven runs in less than three innings and the Bisons trailed 7-1. But they fought back with home runs by Vladdy and Alford to tie the game at 8-8. The game went to extra innings. In the top of the tenth, Alford started the inning on second but was out trying to steal third. In the bottom of the tenth, a wild pitch by Derek Law put the runner on third, he scored on a single. The two big hitters, Vlad and Alford, drove in four runs each. They had two hits each as did Biggio and Sogard. Corey Copping pitched well in relief, he had five strikeouts in two innings.
Cavan Biggio leads the hitters with a .417 average, Roemon Fields is also hitting over .400. Bo Bichette is bringing up the rear with a .138 average. Bichette has just three strikeouts in 29 at-bats so he is not being fooled. He has walked just twice so he might need to tone down the aggressiveness. Eric Sogard leads the team with just two K's, he has walked five times. Several of the Bisons have low strikeout numbers. Heidt, Patterson and Alford have the most, but there is a big gap from Alford's 10 to Andrew Guillotte's five. Cavan Biggio leads the team with six walks.
New Hampshire 5 Hartford 10
Hector Perez, like Morimando, gave up seven runs in three innings. That put the Fisher Cats in a hole they could not get out of, despite having 14 hits. Three hitters who were off to slow starts picked up three hits each. Kevin Smith was one of them and among his hits were a home run and a double. Forrest Wall and Nash Knight also had three hits. Alberto Mineo had two.
Mineo continues to hit well, his average is .318 although he doesn't walk much or hit for power. Josh Palacios is hitting .308 and leads the team in OPS (for those with at least 10 AB's). Brock Lundquist is 1-22, Chad Spanberger and Santiago Espinal are also below the Mendoza line. Kacy Clemens and Espinal are hot striking out much. Clemens has six walks and three K's. Spanberger leads the team in K's with ten, Kevin Smith has nine. Palacios has five walks and six K's.
Dunedin 5 Fort Myers 0
After being shut out twice, the D-Jays got some revenge with a 5-0 win. Nick Allgeyer pitched five shutout innings of two hit ball. Three relievers finished up. Cullen Large started the scoring with his first home run of the year. Ryan Noda also hit his first home run, a two run shot. Noda had two hits, the only hitter to do so.
In small sample sizes, Noda leads the team with a .286 average, the Jays have not been hitting. Chavez Young and Riley Adams are in the .270's. Samad Taylor, Cal Stevenson, and Logan Warmoth are both hitting well under .200. Other than Vlad Jr., Adams has the fewest K's, 5 in 18 AB's. Stevenson has 6 in 25. Noda and Christian Williams lead the team in K's with 12, Large has 11. Large and Demi Orimoloye lead in walks with six.
West Michigan 7 Lansing 3
Pitching is the name of the game and the Lugnuts staff were off in this game. The starter was 2018 draftee Josh Hiatt, making his first professional start. It was a lot of fours, four innings, four hits, four walks and one big home run allowed. He was charged with three runs. New Blue Jay Juan De Paula maybe didn't like the cold, he was charged with three more runs in 2.2 innings. Mike Pascoe finished up and allowed the seventh run. Otto Lopez, Dom Abbadessa and John Aiello each had two hits. One of Lopez's hits was a double and one of Abbadessa's a triple.
In the small sample size hitting stats, Otto Lopez is hitting .409 with Jordan Groshans and Alejandro kirk also above .300. Lopez has only 2 K's in 22 at-bats. Ryan Gold also has just 2 in 15 at-bats. Other good contact hitters are Kirk (3 K's), Hagen Danner and Nick Podul, (5 each). Groshans is middle of the road, 6 in 19 at-bats. Reggie Pruitt and McGregory Contreras are the K kings, close to 50% each. Lopez and Kirk lead the walkers with five each.
3 Stars
3rd star: Kevin Smith
2nd star: Anthony Alford
1st star: Vlad Jr
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20190411162755252