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Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Weekend Wrap (Friday through Monday)

I apologize for the absence; now back to your regularly scheduled minor league updates.

AAA:

Alberto Gonzalez has gone 4 for 11 with a double over the last 3 games as he continues to impress in the early going. When Gonzalez was named as part of the RJ deal, I initially wrote him off as a future utility IF, but every time I’ve looked at his performance record and scouting reports, I have just been more and more impressed by him. He definitely has a shot to start in the middle infield for some team.

Eric Duncan was 0 for 5 with 2 walks and 2 strikeouts in the same stretch. Duncan continues to struggle to hit singles. His walk to strikeout ratio is fine and he’s showing power, so he gets more rope.

Matt DeSalvo, Steven Jackson, and Ross Ohlendorf each got a start in the 3-game stretch. While it was great to see DeSalvo with a terrific outing and Jackson with another solid one, I think the most important outing belonged to Ohlendorf. Ohlie has now walked 10 batters in just 9 innings. This is a year after walking 29 in 182.2 innings. This, combined with how unimpressive his pitches have looked, in my unskilled estimation, is making me begin to wonder if he’s hiding an injury. I’m very interested to see how he performs in his next start.

AA:

Cody Ehlers was 2 for 12 with 2 walks and 2 strikeouts as he continues to do his best Eric Duncan impression. Ehlers had a huge year in the FSL last year and I’m hopeful that he can put up similar numbers this year and make himself interesting. In the early going, he’s been doing a good job controlling the strike zone, but he needs to start hitting something other than the occasional double.

Brett Gardner was 3 for 14 with a triple and a strikeout. I like Gardner’s start. I figure the average will work itself out and he’s already reached more than half of his AA extra base hit total from last year, which really puts into perspective how poor his power production was.

On the mound, Jeff Marquez, Alan Horne, and Brett Smith all turned in quality outings. Horne and Smith are off to fast starts and I’m very interested in seeing how long they can maintain that as I didn’t have much positive to say about either player this past offseason.

A+:

Last night in Tampa, Ian Kennedy picked up his first professional win. He did so in a fashion that was not particularly impressive as demonstrated by his 4 walks and 1 strikeout in 3 innings. Kennedy was not able to start as Jeff Karstens took the mound as he heads towards the conclusion of his rehab. The early returns on Kennedy’s groundball to flyball ratio are pretty scary, but hopefully it will correct itself. If not, I hope he’s a guy who can survive like that by getting tons of popups and only allowing solo homers, which would mean he needs work on that early walk rate as well.

In the past 4 games, the hottest Tampa offensive prospect has been Marcos Vechionacci. He has doubled in his last 3 games and overall was 4 for 10 with 3 doubles, 2 walks, and 1 strikeout. Jose Tabata also continues to pound the ball when he makes contact. Unfortunately, he seems to be struggling a bit with the strikeouts. His overall line is highly impressive, but his rate of production given his peripherals is unsustainable. Tabata’s fast start is reminding me of the similarly hot FSL starts of Bronson Sardinha and Robinson Cano, but hopefully he can do a better job of maintaining his production than they did.

A-:

On the positive side, Austin Jackson has only struck out 3 times in his last 17 at bats, on the negative, he’s only picked up 3 hits in that same stretch. The Yankees don’t have much in the way of legitimate position prospects so when guys like Jackson struggle, it really hurts. Fortunately for Jackson, he doesn’t stand out too much, because the entire Charleston offense is struggling. My infatuation with Jose Gil is beginning to look silly as he was 1 for 8 with 3 strikeouts in the 4-game stretch and is off to yet another slow start. Wilmer Pino is the only guy on the team hitting consistently and he was just 3 for 13 with a walk in on the weekend.

Tim Norton and Angel Reyes had similar outings in that their good stuff was able to overcome their control/command issues. Unfortunately for both, their efforts resulted in losses as the Charleston offense is just not getting the job done at the moment.

Spotlight On:

Yankees and the Indians at the Stadium for Chase Wright’s ML debut.