Monday, May 21, 2007
Brett Smith Is Teh Awesome
Injuries/News:
Nothing to see here.
AAA:
Eric Duncan was 0 for 2 with 2 walks and Alberto Gonzalez was 1 for 4 with a triple. Any day now, Duncan should start having some hits fall in. Hitters don’t have BB:K ratios this good, 19:22, while hitting .222 in 108 at bats. Gonzalez, meanwhile, continues to work his way back to respectability with 4 triples.
AA:
Brett Smith pitched a no-hitter into the 8th inning yesterday and while he couldn’t git er done, he did well enough, 8-1-0-0-2-10-0 (IP-H-R-ER-BB-K-HR). Actually, he did more than well enough, he pitched excellently. Smith’s season numbers are becoming quite humorous, 52.1-24-7-6-17-49-1. Smith still isn’t in the top prospect bin, I’m waiting to hear about his velocity or see him myself, but his stock is about as high as it has been during his tenure in the organization.
A+:
Daniel McCutchen had his worst start of the year by posting a line of 5.2-5-3-3-4-2-0. With that outing, his ERA ballooned to 2.39 and he also won’t be receiving a promotion to Trenton. Ever.
My new favorite middle infielder, Reegie Corona, was 2 for 4 with a double and 2 walks. Corona’s BB:K ratio is now an impressive 20:25 in 169 ABs. Yay. Jose Tabata was 0 for 4 with a strikeout, the day after reaching .300, in order to drop his AVG to .292. Tabata’s line is now .292/.364/.364. I’m not worried, but this isn’t the type of offensive progress you want to see from someone with midseason promotion aspirations. Colin Curtis was 3 for 5 with a triple and 2 strikeouts. Curtis seems to be heating up with back-to-back multiple hit games. He’s also connected for an extra base hit in both games. Marcos Vechionacci was 1 for 3 with 2 walks, a strikeout, and a stolen base. Francisco Cervelli also continued to cool off by going 1 for 5 with a strikeout. Cervelli is now 3 for his last 17 with 2 walks and an uncharacteristic 6 strikeouts.
A-:
Mitch Hilligoss’ hit streak reached 27 games last night, and this time there was some pop involved. The 3B was 2 for 5 with 2 doubles and 2 strikeouts to raise his seasonal line to .325/.368/.419. He’ll be at an .800 OPS in no time. Eduardo Nunez, Austin Jackson, and Seth Fortenberry were all 0 for 3 with a strikeout, but Nunez managed to draw a walk as well.
Spotlight On:
Joba Chamberlain pitching for Tampa.
Comments
The box score had Smith’s GB/FB at 2/11. I seemed to think he was more of a GB pitcher.
Also, Fabian, do you know when/if Steven White is coming back? Thanks.
Corona can play!!
Don’t know if anyone noticed, but Ferdin Tejeda is back pitching again (after Tommy John surgery a few years ago). Tejeda made it up to AA as a short stop, but couldn’t hit. So they turned him into a pitcher. Then he hurt his arm. Good to see him back.
I noticed Tejeda’s return but given that he’s lost so much development time and looks like he might simply be a reliever, I’m going to wait until he’s knocking on the door to pay attention to him.
Steven White is throwing in Extended Spring Training right now so he might be back in a month or so, which is just wild speculation on my part.
Corona: 2 for 3, 1 BB, and 2 SB. Does he have the range and arm strength for SS? He’s made a lot of errors, but that doesn’t concern me much in A ball if the tools are there.
Chamberlain had another very good start: 6 IP, 4 H, 2 BB, 7 K, 2 ER
And my favorite pitcher (only because he’s making me look smart) Alan Horne went 6 1/3 IP, 5 H, 1 BB, 7 SO, 1 ER
It really is impressive that even with Hughes in the majors/injured, Garcia out for the year, Sanchez out for the year, Cox and Melancon out for the year, and Betances in EST, we still have a bunch of really exciting arms to follow.
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