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Friday, May 11, 2007

The Trenton Lineup Is Extremely Uninteresting

Injuries/News:

According to Mike at River Ave. Blues, Mitch Hilligoss is hurt. I don’t know anything beyond that, but I’m going to look into it...The rest of the injury situations remain the same so Tim Norton, George Kontos, Marcos Vechionacci, et. al. are still missing

AAA:

Postponed.

AA:

Jeff Marquez continued to struggle with the strikeouts for Trenton. Jeff’s final line was 6-6-3-3-2-1-1 (IP-H-R-ER-BB-K-HR) and his ERA is now up to 1.93. I’m not going to say I’m concerned, but I would like to take the opportunity to note that Jeff’s K rate is down and he’s not getting as many groundballs. On the plus side, his walk rate is down as well.

A+:

Daniel McCutchen started for Tampa and picked up the win. McCutchen’s line was 7-5-0-0-0-5-0, which lowered his ERA on the year to 1.80. As I’ve already noted, McCutchen is old, but so far so good. He’s also got pretty good stuff according to Pinstripes Plus and hopefully he gets to Trenton this summer so I can witness it first hand.

Reegie Corona, Jose Tabata, and Juan Miranda were all 2 for 4 with 2 singles and a strikeout. No one in this group is hitting for much power, but that can be said of everyone on the Tampa team so it’s nice to see them at least get their AVG up. When it comes to hitting prospects for Tampa, I rarely pay much attention to their power hitting statistics. I’d rather spare myself the pain. Colin Curtis was 0 for 4 to continue his recent tumble. Curtis is now 2 for his last 15. Francisco Cervelli saw his AVG drop as he went 1 for 3 with a single, a walk, and a strikeout.

A-:

Michael Dunn had his worst game of the season, 4.2-8-6-6-0-3-1, but would have been able to pick up a W if not for the umpire choosing to toss him on his first HBP of the game. Supposedly, the umpires felt it might have been related to a past incident.

Wilmer Pino was 1 for 4 with a single to extend his hit streak to 6 games. Austin Jackson continued his hot-hitting since returning from the disabled list by going 1 for 3 with a triple, a walk, and 2 strikeouts. I know you’ve heard a line similar to this before, but Jackson’s emergence is critical in a system devoid of hitting talent beyond Jose Tabata. Seth Fortenberry was 1 for 4 with a single and a strikeout and Eduardo Nunez was 1 for 4 with a single and 3 strikeouts. Perhaps Eduardo was swinging for the fences due to his recent power surge.

Spotlight On:

Thanks to the postponement, it’s the same as yesterday: Scranton and Ohlie.