Sunday was a day of not so great news in the minors. The system went 1-3 with Memphis providing the only win. Also, Quad Cities lost their youngest player and biggest star among the everyday players.
Oklahoma City 1 @ Memphis 7
Hitting:
- Pete Kozma went 3-for-5 with 1 2B and 1 R
- Ramon Vazquez had 1 H in his 4 AB, he produced 2 RBI
- Nick Stavinoha and Mark Hamilton both singled twice, scored, and had an RBI, Stavy also walked
- Andrew Brown and Bryan Anderson both went 1-for-4 with 1 RBI, Brown scored 1 R
Pitching:
- Lance Lynn went 7.0 strong innings giving up 6 H and 1 ER while posting 3 K
- Jason Buursma and Blake King each pitched a scoreless inning, King recorded 2 K
Springfield 5 @ Midland 6
Hitting:
- Ryan Jackson continued his hot start by going 2-for-5 w/ 2 R
- Tyler Henley went 2-for-4 w/ 1 3B, 1 R, and 2 RBI
- Matt Adams had 1 2B in his 4 AB, he drove in 2
Pitching:
- Deryk Hooker went 4.1 innings and gave up 7 H, 2 ER, 1 BB and recorded 1 K
- The rest of the pitchers were not much better
St. Lucie 2 @ Palm Beach 1
Hitting:
- Zack Cox went 1-for-5
- Alan Ahmady and Domnit Bolivar each went 1-for-3 with 1 2B
- Audry Perez went 2-for-4 with 1B
- The lone RBI went to Edgar Lara who went 0-for-3
- Just FYI, the St. Lucie team is pretty loaded with good position prospects including Wilmer Flores, Cesar Puello, Matt Den Dekker, and Jefry Marte to name a few
Pitching:
- Joe Kelly had a line of 5.0 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, and 5 K
- Jorge Rondon came in to pitch 2.0 scoreless with 1 K
- Aaron Terry took the loss by giving up 3 H, 2 ER, and 2 BB in 2.0 innings
Beloit 5 @ Quad Cities 3
Hitting:
- Oscar Taveras was the bright spot until he was injured legging out an infield single, he went 2-for-2 w/ 1 HR
- Kyle Conley and Cody Stanley both hit solo shots while going 1-for-4
- Oswaldo Arcia of the Snappers has been a constant force against the River Bandits going 6-for-12 w/ 3 2B, 1 3B, and 4 RBI over the course of this series
Pitching:
- Anthony Ferrara went 6.0 IP giving up 6 H, 2 ER and 1 BB while posting 1 K
- Angel De Jesus hurt himself with an error and posted a line of 1.1 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 1 ER, and 1 BB
- Our favorite Boone Whiting went 1.2 scoreless giving up 1 H and posting 1 K
Thanks to “IL and STL Fan” for the link about Taveras
Entries (RSS)
I dreamed yesterday that Kozma and JAckson both hit and fielded well this year in the minors taking us from 0 near ready SS prospects to 2.
I like seeing Kelly K a few guys. That has been my gripe with him as a top prospect.
I think Rondon will add a few years to his career by switching to relief. His FB will by him some time to try to develop a 2nd pitch.
Ahmady continues the solid OBP skills he has showed his first 2 years. Can make it as a corner IF with no power?
Matt Carpenter off to a slow start.
Lots of players off to slow starts. I’ve been surprised by how bad some of the minor league hitters are performing.
jackson made goldstein’s bp monday morning 10 pack this week.
Just saw a report that Taveras is headed to the dl anyone know how long he may be out?
Click the link in the first sentence. Doesn’t look good.
That news on Tavares sucks. I might dare say he is the most complete position prospect we have had since Colby made the jump. Damn.
It would be nice to hear just how bad Taveras’ hammy injury is — “nice” in an informative sense, not “nice” as in “good news.” A grade I or II hammy strain isn’t a big deal (although even a grade I hurts like mad — ask me how I know…), but a grade III is a bit spookier, although still with reasonable chances of complete recovery. Any news on severity?
I guess we have to look at the bright side. Virgil Hill gets a shot at a full season squad now. He was really strong in the playoffs for JC last year (MVP I think).
That’s a real shame about Taveras—however long he’s out. Let’s hope the organization is VERY conservative about his timetable for returning. Four games is far too few for a serious evaluation, of course. So instead, I’ll offer a frivolous one: Taveras is ready for Palm Beach.
The 18-year-old is 8-for-12, with two homers (one to left, one to right), two walks, two whiffs, and the only two outs he’s made on balls-in-play were both lineouts to the opposite field. That’s an insane little hot streak…and coming on the heels of his big breakout last year, I think it’s *mostly* real. Real, not in the sense that he’ll hit .600, or .500, or even .400 at Q.C. this year, but real in the sense that as long as he’s in the Midwest League, he’ll hit for average & power, and control the strikezone well. Therefore, he probably needs to be challenged by the next level immediately.
Get well, Oscar.
Taveras maybe ready for PB, but there is no sense in speeding him through the system until he hits a road block. No doubt, he is an exciting and relatively advanced prospect for his age. However, in my opinion, confidence is crucial to all prospects’ development. Let him have some prolonged success at QC for a full season (at least a half season). Of course this discussion is moot, depending on how long he is out, coupled with regaining timing upon return.
I spent some time recently talking to a strength coach who specializes in training baseball players. He explained that the most important thing is improving strength for acceleration and deceleration.
From the description in the Q-C paper, it sounds like Taveras hurt himself as he tried to slow down. The good news is that this is something that can be fixed with the right strength and conditioning program. It’s not like a wrist or shoulder injury where you worry about a kid’s future.
I agree absolutely, T Bird, about the Confidence Factor—but moreso with pitchers than hitters, and moreso with some hitters than others.
The thing of it is, Taveras is plenty confident. To quote his Johnson City manager, Mike Shildt:
“Oscar expects to hit. He is a real confident hitter. That is something that no one is going to be able to teach him. That is something he has, an innate ability to hit and the confidence to hit.”
This is the boy hitter who fairly murdered the Appy League at 17, then went 8-for-16 in the playoffs to lead the team to two series sweeps. That’s phenom stuff.
While I certainly don’t believe in a promote-him-until-he’s-overmatched philosophy, I do think it’s entirely possible there’s nothing for him to learn at the Midwest League level. Moreover, as Carioca alluded to, Quad Cities has a bit of an (interesting) outfielder glut, with Longmire, Swinson, Parejo, and Virgil Hill all vying for time. And there’s a paucity of similar guys at Palm Beach.
One thing I think he can and will improve on is driving the ball in the air to right and right center. Seems most of his line drives at to left center while his hard basehits on the ground are to RF. One he learns to really drive the inside pitch his homerun total will jump even more as it is now he has tons of power as shown by his opposite field home run.
My thoughts on Taveras as I saw him for all 4 games he played this year from the front row behind homeplate. He’s was the best player on the field for all 4 games easy. Every other hitter was overmatched at one time or another be it with a hard thrower or a lefty with a good breaking pitch. Taveras wasn’t overmatched at all. He hit the ball consistently harder than anyone on both teams. He’s still improving one way I’d like to see him improve is to eleveate and drive balls to right field more. This homerun on Sunday was the most impresive thing I’ve seen in a Minor League park, he hit a fastball line drive off one of the Twins top prospects oppositve field to left center over the top of the Berm in the outfield. It easily could have went completely out of the stadium. The the wind was blowing out but this ball was hit to hard and straight to be effected much, it was just a flat out bomb. He has great hands and is very quick to the ball which allows the ball to come deep and it allows him to hit the ball so hard the other way. The injury to me seemed like he stretched that extra half step to beat out the hit and that caused him to jam his leg into the bag. He was in alot of pain and didnt move for awhile but even though he was assisted off the field he was puttign weight on both legs. Hopefully it won’t be too bad but its really a shame because he was tearing up the league in a way that’s hard to imagine. His manager already said that he’s the best pure hitter he has seen in awhile. He also has a sense of the moment as most of his RBI’s were with 2 outs and in big spots in the game, he drove in the first run of the year and the game up 3 or 4 times with RBI’s.
Thanks a mil, Andrew, for all the personal insights.
Q: Did you see Colby when he was at Q.C.? If so, can you compare the two?
No I did not. If your a member of Cardinal Nation the Johnson City weekly writer saw both in Johnson City and wrote abou tthem in a thread about the two guys.