7/10 Minor League Wrap-Up

- Despite making 8 of his 10 appearances in relief, Felix Bautista leads the DSLMs in innings pitched (38) and strikeouts (43).

- Interesting additional to the AZL Mariners: pitcher Erik Averill, dropped by the Tigers org after spending all of 2007 recovering from Tommy John surgery. In 2006, he led the MWL with 171.1 IP for West Michigan, striking out 111 against 48 walks and 12 HRs, hardly indicative of inferior ability, but the Tigers wanted nothing to do with him anymore as of late June, due to a need for roster space and believing that Averill had a longer road ahead than their other prospects. Here he is. If there's one thing to like about the Mariners, it's their willingness to offer a second chance to minor league scrap heapers that have assets and possible upside.

- DSL catcher Hassiel Jimenez has a lot of company in the Mariners catching prospect department. Aside from the usual suspects (Clement, Adam Moore), Juan Fuentes is raking out of the gate in the AZL. Granted, Peoria is a high altitude desert environment, which does inflate offensive numbers, but Pulaski (thanks to J for pointing this out. It's been a long week). 436/475/500 out of the gate after a 5 for 5 game is nothing to shake a stick at... unless Juan Fuentes is holding it.

- Go figure I talk smack about Tri City's pitcher-friendly factors, and the wind decides to blow left to right for last night's game, prime liftoff conditions for left handed sluggers like... I dunno... Dennis Freaking Raben. Christian Staehely got taken deep by Bo Bowman to... right field, and Anthony Phillips went deep as well... to left field! Maybe the wind was swirling, because if it was still blowing in from the LF foul pole, then Phillips hit one of the most monstrous shots ever.

Either way, given this, the Dust Devils pitching staff wanted nothing to do with Dennis Freaking Raben, per reader PascoJoe, who was at the game in Pasco and says that the Dust Devils pitched around him for most of the night. Raben did stroke a base hit and finish 1 for 2 with 2 walks, but his meager night had a lot to do with the pitchers avoiding his wheelhouse. That NWL pitchers are actively avoiding pitching to a guy with only 5 games of pro experience speaks as many volumes as Raben's ridiculous numbers so far.

- This may look familiar, but the Wisconsin T-Rats are 3-17 to start the 2nd half, and have scored 3 runs in two games so far against the Dayton Dragons, which have allowed a league-high 4.76 runs per game. Dayton, the MWL's 4th lowest scoring offense, has managed 14 runs in those 2 games.

- Speaking of crappy 2nd halves, YOUR Southern League North division 1st half champion West Tennessee DIAMOND JAXX... are 6-17 in the 2nd half, good for last place in the North division by 4 games over (under?) Chattanooga. The new division leader? The 16-7 Tennessee Smokies, to whom the DIAMOND JAXX have lost the first three games of their current 5 game series.

A likely culprit: the DIAMOND JAXX's .646 defensive efficiency is 2nd to last in the Southern League. It's not the outfield's fault, as, with the exception of Jon Nelson when he's played LF, the outfield has remained effective since losing Michael Saunders to promotion (in fact, Greg Halman's probably been better in CF). Mark Kiger has been below average at SS (and newly promoted Erick Monzon is having a pretty hard time with SS himself), the below-average Ronnie Prettyman was replaced at 3B by the even more below-average Matt Mangini, the reasonably solid Luis Valbuena was promoted and replaced at 2B by the more average Jeff Dominguez, and Marshall Hubbard and Johan Limonta aren't known for their range at 1B. Depleting the strengths of a struggling pitching staff through promotion (Chris Jakubauskas, Mumba Rivera) didn't help, but their infield hasn't helped either.

- While I want to get excited about Carlos Triunfel hitting his 3rd career HR last night, so soon after his 2nd... there was a 25 mph wind blowing out to left in Adelanto, already a launchpad to begin with, and the Mavs as a team hit 5 HRs (including two from Jamie McOwen, who had 3 on the season coming into this game) and added 3 doubles and a triple. Recently promoted Quakes hurler Michael Anton allowed four of those home runs himself in failing to finish the 5th. It's great to see Phenom blast one off, but let's see another bomb from Triunfel in the near future, in more normalized circumstances (or as normalized as you can get in the Cal League), before we start getting excited.

- PHAT ANDY 22 showed his trooperdom by pitching one of the more brutal 93 pitch complete games you'll see, allowing 8 runs on 14 hits and a hit batter, as all but two Salt Lake batters put the ball in play. His CG loss saved the bullpen for what will likely be a very busy, interesting Friday in which we still don't know who will start on the mound for the Rainiers.

Let's see some numbers! Numbers below the jump....

VENEZUELA~! VSL Mariners 3, VSL Mets 1
VSLMs: 31-18... VSL Mets: 19-31
(League: 255/338/346... 3.54 ERA)

Erasmo Ramirez: 6 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 5 K (9 GS +2, 3.42 ERA, 50 IP, 2 HR, 9/40 BB/K)
Oberth Guanire: 3 IP, 1 H, 4 K (8 app, 2.93 ERA, 15.1 IP, 7/14 BB/K)
Rafael Torrealba: 2-3, 2 doubles, SB (250/329/338)
Yidid Batista: 2-4, R, RBI, SB (277/322/313)
Carlos Ramirez: 1-4, RBI, K (316/385/400)
Larry Gonzalez: 1-3, RBI (238/299/288)

Dominican: DSL Mariners 6, DSL AthleticsUno 4
DSLMs: 24-8... DSLA1s: 13-9
(League: 235/339/320... 3.75 ERA)

Bruno Mercedes: 5 IP, 5 H, (3 R) 1 ER, walk, 6 K, wild pitch (12 app, 2 GS, 2.30 ERA, 31.1 IP, 11/27 BB/K)
Cristian Rijo: 2 IP, 1 H, walk
Felix Bautista: 1 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, K, hit batter (10 app, 1.66 ERA, 38 IP, 2 HR, 9/43 BB/K)
Nelson Germocen: 1 IP, 1 H, K (13 app, 1.35 ERA, 20 IP, 9/31 BB/K)
Mario Flores: 1-3, RBI (329/469/521)
Hector Mercedes: 3-3, double, solo HR, walk (316/449/539)
Ramon Morla: 2 run single (197/395/328)
Angel Zapata: 1-2, R, 2 RBI, walk, K (219/300/229)

Rk-AZL: Mariners 6, Giants 5
AZLMs: 7-9... AZL Giants: 8-8
(League: 263/342/384... 4.55 ERA)

Ariel Alcantara: 5 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 3 walks, 4 K, wild pitch
Erik Averill: 1 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, walk, balk
Jeroen de Haas: one out, 3 H, 1 ER (HR), K
Taylor Stanton: 1.2 IP, 1 H
Richard Ortiz: 1 IP, K
Jarrett Burgess: 3-4, double, R, RBI, walk, SB
Terry Serrano: 1-5, GRAND SLAM, K
Henry Contreras: 1-3, R, RBI, walk, K
Fred Bello: 2-3, 2 R, walk

Rk+: Pulaski 7, Johnson City 3
PMs: 14-8... JC: 10-13
(League: 263/334/395... 4.36 ERA)

Nick Czyz: 6 IP, 3 H, 1 ER (HR), 4 K (6 app, 2 GS, 2.53 ERA, 21.1 IP, 1 HR, 5/20 BB/K)
Steven Penney: 1 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, K
Brandon Pullen: 2 IP, 1 H, 1 ER (HR), K
Jonathan Arias: 1-4, sac fly RBI, K
Mario Martinez: 2-6, R, K (345/385/512)
Juan Fuentes: 5-5, 2 doubles, 3 R, walk (436/475/600)
Jose Rivero: 1-5, double, 2 RBI, K (329/414/521)
Jacob Shaffer: 2-3, double, R, walk (220/291/320)
Guy Welsh: 3-4, double, R, 2 RBI, walk (405/500/524)

A-: Tri City 8, Everett 3
EVE: 9-14... 3C: 15-8
(League: 254/343/363... 4.09 ERA)

Aaron Brown: 3 IP, 5 H, 6 ER, 6 walks, K (6 app, 2 HS, 4.76 ERA, 17 IP, 15/14 BB/K)
Christian Staehely: 3 IP, 3 H, 1 ER (HR), 2 K (6 app, 2.57 ERA, 14 IP, 1 HR, 10/10 BB/K)
Philip Hann: 1 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, walk
Matt Renfree: 1 IP, 2 K (8 app, 3.60 ERA, 15 IP, 1 HR, 5/17 BB/K)
Dennis Freaking Raben: 1-2, R, 2 walks
Ryan Royster: 1-4, RBI, 2 K (154/282/185)
Anthony Phillips: 2-2, solo HR, walk

A: Dayton 5, Wisconsin 2
WIS: 3-17... DAY: 10-11
(League: 250/322/370... 3.63 ERA)

Edward Paredes: 5.2 IP, 6 H, 5 ER (HR), 5 walks, 4 K (17 GS +1, 5.13 ERA, 79 IP, 10 HR, 38/54 BB/K)
Keith Meyer: 2.1 IP, 3 K, hit batter (27 app, 4.30 ERA, 37.2 IP, 4 HR, 21/39 BB/K)
Denny Almonte: 2-4, 2 doubles, R, RBI (270/319/460)
Ronald Garth: 2-4, RBI (271/330/421)
Alex Liddi: 1-3, double, walk (243/312/345)

A+: High Desert 11, Rancho Cucamonga 2
Mavs: 9-11... Quakes: 10-9
(League: 271/340/406... 4.48 ERA)

Travis Mortimore: 7 IP, 4 H, (2 R) 1 ER (HR), 3 walks, 6 K
Bryan Harris: 1 IP, K (22 app, 5.14 ERA, 28 IP, 4 HR, 6/19 BB/K)
Kyle Brown: 1 IP, 1 H, walk
Kuo Hui Lo: 2-4, 2 R, RBI, walk, 2 K (253/316/392)
Carlos Triunfel: 3-5, double, 2 run HR, 3 RBI (252/307/345)
Ronnie Prettyman: 3-5, double, solo HR, 2 R, 2 RBI
Chris Minaker: 2-5, solo HR, 2 R, K (296/328/457)
Jamie McOwen: 3-5, solo HR, 2 run HR, K (269/324/409)
Ogui Diaz: 3-5, double, RBI (255/288/329)
James Davenport: 3-3, triple, 2 R, walk, SB

AA: Tennessee 11, West Tenn 6
WTN: 6-17... TEN: 16-7
(League: 262/340/396... 4.17 ERA)

Travis Chick: 5 IP, 6 H, (7 R) 2 ER (HR), 4 walks, 4 K (23 app, 7 GS, 4.35 ERA, 72.1 IP, 5 HR, 34/57 BB/K)
Craig James: one out, 3 H, 3 ER, 2 walks (27 app, 6.63 ERA, 36.2 IP, 3 HR, 22/37 BB/K)
Shawn Kelley: 1.2 IP, 2 walks, 4 K (13 app, 0.51 ERA, 17.2 IP, 9/18 BB/K)
Roman Martinez: 1 IP, 2 H, 1 ER (HR), K (26 app, 4.70 ERA, 30.2 IP, 2 HR, 15/24 BB/K)
Erick Monzon: 1-4, RBI, walk
Marshall Hubbard: 2-3, R, walk, K (335/450/563)
Johan Limonta: 2-5, double, R, 2 RBI, 2 K (289/382/487)
Jon Nelson: 2-3, 2 R, walk, K (288/335/438)
Jeff Dominguez: 2-4, 2 doubles, 3 RBI (213/278/271)

AAA: Salt Lake 8, Tacoma 4
TAC: 45-49... SLK: 57-36
(League: 275/346/439... 4.77 ERA)

Andrew Baldwin: 8 IP, 14 H, 8 ER (2 HR), K (14 GS +1, 5.46 ERA, 89 IP, 7 HR, 30/50 BB/K)
Prentice Redman: 2-4, R (307/358/557)
Victor Diaz: 2-4, double, 2 run HR, 2 R, 3 RBI, K (288/370/512)
Bryan LaHair: 1-4, double, RBI (256/352/461)
Shawn Garrett: 2-4 (278/313/415)