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Buffalo, New Hampshire and Vancouver all won big Tuesday night. Dunedin failed to make it a perfect night for the affiliates.

Buffalo 9 Syracuse 3

The Herd scored most of their runs in the middle innings to knock off the Mets. Cullen Large hit a two-run homer in the fourth to get things rolling. Buffalo kicked it into high gear with a five-run fifth highlighted by a Gabriel Moreno RBI double, a Samad Taylor RBI single and an Otto Lopez two-run double. RBI doubles by Moreno in the sixth and Nathan Lukes in the ninth rounded out the scoring. Moreno had four hits, Lopez had a triple to go with his double and Cavan Biggio had two hits and a walk. Seven Bisons had a hit and all nine reached base at least once.

Casey Lawrence pitched seven strong innings of one-run ball on four hits. He struck out nine, walked nobody and induced six of his nine outs on the dirt. Derek Holland served up a two-run homer in the eighth. Matt Gage worked a scoreless ninth.


New Hampshire 13 Erie 3

New Hampshire FC opened their six-game series on the road with the Tigers affiliate with a convincing daytime win. Spencer Horwitz knocked home the first run of the game with an RBI single in the third inning and Tanner Morris singled home another in the fifth. Rafael Lantigua put the F-Cats back in the lead again in the sixth with a two-run single before Horwitz was plunked with the bases loaded. That inning started with the base umpire blowing a call when the first baseman made a tag on Phil Clarke before he stepped on the bag but Clarke was ruled safe. Lantigua singled home another run in the eighth. Will Robertson ripped a two-run homer and Orelvis Martinez mashed a three-run tater in the ninth. The Fishers added on with a De Los Santos RBI knock and and a Robertson RBI double to punctuate the seven-run rally. Lantigua and Clarke led the way with four hits apiece. Eight starters had at least a hit. Only Sebastian Espino did not as he went 0-for-6. New Hampshire struck out 17 times but that was offset by 18 hits, seven of them for extra bases.

Nick Fraze punched out nine batters over 4-1/3 innings, giving up three runs on four hits and two hit by pitches. Jake Elliott got the first two batters he faced to finish the fifth but could only strand one of two Fraze runners as he allowed a sacrifice fly. The pitch before, Elliott got the batter to sky one into foul territory on the first base side but De Los Santos could not locate it in the bright blue sky from second base as the ball fell into the first row of seats. Elliott walked one batter and struck out two over 1-2/3 scoreless innings to get the win. Cre Finfrock faced just one batter over the minimum in his two innings of work by walking a batter. Sean Mellen struck out the final two men he faced in a perfect ninth.


Vancouver 5 Tri-City 0

Addison Barger blasted one over the right field wall in the second inning to boost the Canadians to a win over the Angels affiliate. Cameron Eden drove in a run with a fifth inning double, Trevor Schwecke doubled home two in the sixth and Leo Jiménez celebrated his 21st birthday with a run-scoring double in the eighth. Barger, Eden and P.K. Morris all had two-hit efforts. Steward Berroa singled, walked and stole two bases.

Sem Robberse threw an efficient 66 pitches over six innings to get the win, scattering three hits and a walk. He struck out two and racked up 13 groundball outs. Abdiel Mendoza worked around a hit, a walk and two consecutive errors by Miguel Hiraldo at second base to put up two shutout innings. Jimmy Burnette walked the first man he faced but struck out the side in the ninth by pumping gas at 95 and 98 miles per hour.


Daytona 2 Dunedin 0

The Reds affiliate used a two-run home run two batters into the game to defeat the D-Jays. Connor Cooke took the loss but went five innings and allowed two runs on three hits and two walks while striking out seven. Matt Svanson put up three zeros by working around a hit and four walks while striking out five.

Dunedin matched Daytona in the hit column with four. Glenn Santiago had a double. Chavez Young, Damiano Palmegiani and Hugo Cardona had the other hits. Cardona also had an assist from center field. Juan Gonzalez drew the only walk. Adrian Pinto, Rainer Nunez, Gabriel Martinez and Estiven Machado all went 0-for-4.


*** 3 Stars!!! ***

3. Sem Robberse, Vancouver

2. Casey Lawrence, Buffalo

1. Gabriel Moreno, Buffalo



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Moreno More Than Bueno | 15 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
bpoz - Wednesday, May 18 2022 @ 08:59 AM EDT (#413836) #
Our farm is doing very well this year.

Groshans and Orvelis will need 40 man protection and will get it. Probably also Tanner Morris.

Our pitching is the high light this year IMO. Robberse rebounded very well. I don't know what to make of Jimmy Burnette yet. He throws hard, does not get hit much lots of bb and Ks like AJ Burnett. Max Castillo, Tiedemann and Zulueta have earned promotions.
jerjapan - Wednesday, May 18 2022 @ 09:48 AM EDT (#413840) #
I haven't heard anything about Matt Gage as we talk about LHRP options to cover for Mayza's injury, but according to Dan Shulman in spring training, he's added velocity and impressed the team.
At 29, with zero IPs in the bigs, he's a longshot, but he's also in only his second year as a reliever after 119 minor league starts.
Mike Green - Wednesday, May 18 2022 @ 10:22 AM EDT (#413842) #
You can watch Moreno's 4 hit game on milb.com.  It's obvious that the easy power that he had in Lansing and New Hampshire hasn't shown up yet- the exit velocities are, I am sure, off a few mph from where they were prior to his injury.  It's no accident that he hasn't hit a home run yet.  Without the power, he's still a good hitter but he's not going to displace Jansen or Kirk. 
hypobole - Wednesday, May 18 2022 @ 10:33 AM EDT (#413844) #
There is a real power outage in Buffalo. They've only hit 20 HR's as a team, dead last. The median of the other 19 teams is 38, the 2nd lowest is 27. Capra and Palacios, no longer with the team, had 5. Samad has 5, so the rest of the entire roster has 10 total. Our 2 best prospects, Moreno and Groshans, have 0.

Groshans still hasn't shown any HR power, his highest was 7 in 316 PA's in AA last year. He did have a .158 ISO last year though. It's at .041 currently.

Moreno is a bigger surprise. Hit 12 in Lansing and 8 in only 145 PA's last year, ISO's of .205 and .278 respectively. He's at .075 currently.

That said, they're both holding their own otherwise offensively for 22 yr olds, wRC+ of 111 and .114. Of players with 60 AAA PA's, 17 or about 5% are age 22. They're around median in that elite group, with similar wRC+'s to Top 100 prospects Tristan Casas and Alek Thomas (who just got called up the bigs).

scottt - Wednesday, May 18 2022 @ 10:48 AM EDT (#413845) #
Moreno is hitting .323 .376 .398. He has 7 doubles.
Kirk is hitting .265 .339 .337. He has 4 doubles and 1 homerun.
Moreno has gunned down 45% of base stealers, Kirk, 29%.
(Buffalo is an environment that advantages the runners with bigger bases and a limit on pick off moves.)

I don't think Kirk is blocking him.

uglyone - Wednesday, May 18 2022 @ 11:00 AM EDT (#413846) #
* C A.Kirk (23, MLB): 112pa, .284babip, 98wrc+
* C G.Moreno (22, AAA): 101pa, .405babip, 114wrc+
* 3B J.Groshans (22, AAA): 60pa, .319babip, 111wrc+
* 2B O.Lopez (23, AAA): 48pa, .212babip, 111wrc+
* SS O.Martinez (20, AA): 119pa, .233babip, 138wrc+
* (SS A.Martin (23, AA): 142pa, .286babip, 89wrc+)
* SS L.Jimenez (21, A+): 106pa, .306babip, 145wrc+

yeah still looks like we sold the right guy to me.


ISLAND BOY - Wednesday, May 18 2022 @ 03:22 PM EDT (#413857) #
The draft is such a crapshoot. You'd expect that Martin a no.5 would be a star but his numbers aren't overwhelming and the Jays must have seen this to let him go in the Berrios trade. Meanwhile, a few teams must be kicking themselves for passing up Alek Manoah who went at no.11.
scottt - Wednesday, May 18 2022 @ 03:48 PM EDT (#413861) #
If I understand correctly, the player union will have to choose between an international draft or the current QO system in a few months. Status Quo has been real good for the Jays lately.
John Northey - Wednesday, May 18 2022 @ 04:08 PM EDT (#413862) #
Great article at the Athletic about Manoah and his signing with the Jays. Sadly behind a paywall, but key items are how the Jays were the only ones to do a traditional scouting thing where they ask the coach and the like about his makeup (mental) and how after his team lost a big game (another pitcher on his team gave up a grand slam to lose it) how Manoah was the first to get out there to comfort the pitcher who gave it up. The Rangers, and Atlanta were both in on him but picked others instead (Texas: Corbin Carroll [now a top 20 prospect with a 322/460/695 line in AA in CF], and Atlanta: Shea Langeliers who was part of the Olson trade)
Ducey - Wednesday, May 18 2022 @ 04:11 PM EDT (#413863) #
As has draft pick compensation, which the draft is tied to.

It will be interesting who wins in the union - the 10 Boras client types impacted by a QO each year, or the Latin players who want to keep things as is.
John Northey - Wednesday, May 18 2022 @ 04:12 PM EDT (#413865) #
Huh, odd, the article said Corbin Carroll but Texas actually took Josh Jung (a top 30 prospect now, but hasn't played in 2022 for some reason). Arizona took Carroll as the 16th pick. Ah I see now - read too quickly, Texas was debating between Jung and Carroll. Looks right now like they took the wrong one between those 2 and were debating Manoah too. Of the 3 I'd say they got the weakest.
lexomatic - Wednesday, May 18 2022 @ 05:17 PM EDT (#413868) #
<br>I think I remember reading Josh Jung got a shoulder injury thisboffseason/ early spring. He was supposed to get first shot at 3B
Cynicalguy - Wednesday, May 18 2022 @ 11:33 PM EDT (#413886) #
Of course the obvious difference in the comparison between Kirk and Moreno is that Kirk is doing that in the MLB and Moreno is doing it in AAA...that's a big difference. Also Kirk has mostly struggled at the plate this year and is still a league average hitter with 339 OBP, that's likely his floor as a hitter....pretty valuable for a catcher...now imagine when he starts hitting like most expect him to. In addition, his defence is a lot better than everyone expected, could be avg right now.

Anyone know if the two Guerrero brothers who are 15 are eligible for the international signing period next year? Hoping the Jays have a good shot at signing one of them.
Kelekin - Thursday, May 19 2022 @ 02:17 AM EDT (#413889) #
Yankees have released Dartmouth-born Jake Sanford, former 3rd round pick. Many of us wanted him to be picked, but after hearing reports, I'm certainly glad we didn't.

Allegedly, he stole bats and gloves from his teammates to sell online, and defrauded fans by offering autographs and never providing them.

He signed with a 600k bonus.
Glevin - Thursday, May 19 2022 @ 08:35 AM EDT (#413892) #
"It will be interesting who wins in the union - the 10 Boras client types impacted by a QO each year, or the Latin players who want to keep things as is."

It's not even 10 players. Look at this year. 14 players were offered a QO. Belt accepted it so 13 became free agents. 3 re-signed with same team. The rest...did anyone get a worse contract because they had a QO? Semien, Seager, Freeman, Ray, etc...got huge deals. Maybe Conforto, but it's hard to tell because he got badly injured so wasn't going to sign anyway. The QO when it was first round picks was a bigger deal but now, losing a late second round pick to sign a star doesn't matter and the only teams concerned about it wouldn't be signing big contracts anyway. The international draft would effect every single Latin player. It's something huge versus something inconsequential.
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