Though prepared to take a pass about today, not noting Triunfel's two stolen bases, or Michael Pineda's 11 strikeouts... and just forward you to the stats... Gaby Hernandez, the return in the Arthur Rhodes trade, made his DIAMOND JAXX debut, and I'd be a lazy failure not to note this.
- Biscuits batters put a lot of balls in play against Gaby, who scored 12 groundballs and did not walk a batter (huge given one of his suspect traits was a propensity for walks), but got taken deep back to back in the 3rd, and gave up a few too many line drives and worm burners for comfort. Still, it was an outing of reasonable production and good groundball rates, and while he looked like the Latin Sean White today, he's younger and has far more upside.
Groundballs: 12
Flyballs: 5 (2 HR)
Line Drives: 5
Pop Ups: 4
Walks: 0
Strikeouts: 2
Also, Matt Mangini took a curiously early exit before the bottom 4th, subbing out for Erick Monzon, who took SS as starting SS Mark Kiger moved over to 3B. Let's hope nobody got hurt.
- Another start for Ryan Feierabend, 93 pitches, 7 strong innings against the Albuquerque Isotopes. He got 5 runs worth of help in the 2nd inning and never looked back. He reverted back to his flyball-pitcher form, and good thing this game was in Cheney instead of Isotopes Park, because if Feierabend had this start in the latter, he probably doesn't survive the 4th inning.
Groundballs: 4 (plus 1 bunt)
Flyballs: 8
Line Drives: 6
Walks: 1
Strikeouts: 5
And since many of you were waiting for it... WLAD finally made a terrible gaffe in center field, muffing a catchable Tagg Bozied flyball in the 1st inning with two out, giving Tagg 2nd base. Feier fortunately finished the frame without further damage. That said, it was WLAD's 1st error of the season in 18 games at CF, and he's still displayed pretty good range.
- While First Inning's prospect lists are outdated, their data is quite current, and they have data no one else seems to have: LD rates, BABIP and GB rates for hitters, plus GB rates for pitchers. Some interesting notes:
- Despite reports that he's driving the ball, Carlos Triunfel sports a low 9% LD rate, which hasn't noticeably appreciated over these last two months of "driving the ball more". However, his groundball rate has steadily declined, from 63% in May to 51% in June to 43% in July. It appears that Carlos, now realizing that he is in the Cal League, is getting underneath the ball and getting it in the air, and the conditions are rewarding him.
Now check this out: he sports a 47% GB rate with a 304/348/479 line with 6 HR at home, but 56% and 256/306/321 with 1 HR on the road. Observational reports on his HRs state that the shots at home were hit with legit power with no wind-aid... but still... 6 of 7 home runs in the Adelanto launchpad? Little of the newfound power away from the launchpad? Hmm....
- The culprit in Doug FISTER's struggles this season? Hittable stuff. After a fine start with a BABIP in the .260s, his BABIP jumped to .389 in June, then .427 in July. He has reasonable stuff and while he's locating it better (he cut his walk rate from 10.7% in May, to 7.5 in June and 4.3 in July), and missed more bats in July (19.4% Ks, up from 12.5 in June), he's getting killed when the hitters guess right. Jamie Moyer made a career out of booking his opponents and keeping then constantly off balance despite unspectacular, heat-lamp stuff. FISTER's stuff is a little better, but he will need to learn the same or he's not going to get to the show.
- What in the heck is working for Rob Johnson? Sure, he and his wife just had a kid and that's thrilling, but what baseball-related is working better for him? He had a heck of a line drive rate in June (29%) when the hot streak started, but even after that cooled off in July (22%), he still smacked the tar off the ball (392/467/633). The only discernible difference is that he's hitting fewer groundballs (56 and 45% in April and May... 40 and 42% in June and July). Much of the power has been on the road, as you'd expect in the hitters parks of the PCL (333/400/503) but the 274/339/405 line at home with the 25% LD rate is still pretty good for him. Likely in response from pitchers to his hot hitting, he started drawing more walks in July (11% to a more typical 9ish%). Otherwise, the guy is just hitting well. His BABIP has spiked to .368 in June and .397 in July, something tells me that'll regress just a little bit. That's all we can say given this info.
- Matt Mangini's had some awful luck given he's had a 27% LD rate in AA West Tenn. His BABIP sits at .318 and his 227/267/252 line is meager. The obvious culprits are his lack of power, with only 4 doubles in 163 AB, and his lack of patience, drawing walks in only 4.6% of his plate appearances. He's aggressive and he's driving the ball. It's just not going very far.
- I will note that the VSLMs, as the 2nd place team in the VSL, got to play the 1st place VSL Pirates for the VSL Championship today. Results for that tomorrow.
On to STATS.
Dominican: The DSLMs had Sunday off.
Rk-AZL: Mariners 7, Rangers 3
(League: 266/351/383... 4.53 ERA)
Kenta Suda: 4 IP, 3 H, (2 R) 1 ER, 6 walks, 3 K, wild pitch, hit batter (6 GS +2, 2.39 ERA, 37.2 IP, 1 HR, 23/29 BB/K)
Cheyne Hann: 3 IP, 1 H, 5 K
Taylor Stanton: 2 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, walk, 2 K
Fred Bello: 1-5, triple, R, RBI, 2 K
Jharmidy De Jesus: 1-3, double, R, 2 walks, SB (341/411/595)
Randy Molina: 2-4, double, R, 3 RBI (221/304/309)
Rk+: Danville 9, Pulaski 6
PMs: 27-18... DAN: 25-21
(League: 263/335/392... 4.23 ERA)
Kyle Haas: 2.2 IP, 6 H, 6 ER (2 HR), 4 walks, 3 K, hit batter (9 GS, 8.78 ERA, 27.2 IP, 3 HR, 23/28 BB/K)
Stephen Penney: 2.1 IP, 3 H, (2 R) 0 ER, 2 K (10 app, 7.36 ERA, 14.2 IP, 1/9 BB/K)
Brent Gaphardt: 2 IP, 1 H, 4 K (6 app, 1.50 ERA, 12 IP, 2/11 BB/K)
Brandon Pullen: 2 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, walk, 2 K (12 app, 3.10 ERA, 20.1 IP, 2 HR, 3/20 BB/K)
Deybis Benitez: 2-2, solo HR, 2 RBI (319/398/556)
Kris Sanchez: 3-4, double, RBI, K (318/417/580)
Juan Fuentes: 2-5 (357/434/465)
Tommy Johnson: 2-5, double, R, 3 K (384/408/479)
Dwight Britton: 2-5, double, 2 run HR, 2 R, K (239/272/385)
Gabriel Noriega: 2-4, double, R, RBI, K (188/226/238)
A-: Vancouver 6, Everett 5
EVE: 17-29... VAN: 19-27
(League: 255/345/369... 4.14 ERA)
Kenn Kasparek: 3.2 IP, 4 H, (4 R) 1 ER, 5 walks, 6 K (5 GS, 4.12 ERA, 19.2 IP, 1 HR, 12/23 BB/K)
Mark Pettis: 2.1 IP, 2 H, (1 R) 0 ER, walk, 2 K, wild pitch (13 app, 3.54 ERA, 20.1 IP, 15/18 BB/K)
Matt Renfree: 3 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, walk, 2 K (16 app, 2.51 ERA, 32.1 IP, 1 HR, 14/34 BB/K)
Anthony Phillips: 1-4, double, R, K (242/324/371)
Travis Howell: 1-3, R, sac fly RBI, 2 K (311/427/406)
Bennett Billingsley: 1-3, 2 run HR, K (235/316/391)
Ryan Royster: 1-3, solo HR, K (159/278/215)
A: Wisconsin 3, Great Lakes 2
WIS: 13-30... GL: 16-27
(League: 253/324/375... 3.72 ERA)
Michael Pineda: 7 IP, 8 H, (2 R) 1 ER, 11 K (16 GS +5, 2.29 ERA, 106 IP, 5 HR, 32/92 BB/K)
Keith Meyer: 1 IP, 1 H, walk (34 app, 5.13 ERA, 52.2 IP, 4 HR, 26/53 BB/K)
Jeff Dunbar: 1 IP, 1 H
Daniel Carroll: 1-4, double (261/340/336)
Edilio Colina: 2-4, R, K, SB (290/346/377)
Denny Almonte: 1-3, double, 2 RBI, walk (262/313/454)
Alex Liddi: 1-4, solo HR, K (223/290/332)
Israel Nuñez: 2-4 (204/261/268)
A+: High Desert 11, Inland Empire 6
Mavs: 19-24... Empire: 22-21
(League: 274/343/413... 4.59 ERA)
Travis Mortimore: 3.1 IP, 5 H, (4 R) 2 ER, 4 walks, 4 K (7 GS +2, 7.46 ERA, 35 IP, 9 HR, 24/27 BB/K)
Julio Santiago: 2.2 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 3 walks, K (34 app, 6.14 ERA, 51.1 IP, 3 HR, 37/39 BB/K)
Nick Hill: 2 IP, K (25 app, 10 GS, 4.86 ERA, 79.2 IP, 9 HR, 27/62 BB/K)
Steven Richard: 1 IP, 1 ER, 2 walks, K, wild pitch (21 app, 4.45 ERA, 30.1 IP, 1 HR, 19/30 BB/K)
Jamie McOwen: 3-6, 2 R, RBI, SBs #21 & 22 (267/322/397)
Carlos Triunfel: 3-6, 3 R, RBI, K, SBs #27 & 28 (286/334/414)
Ronnie Prettyman: 2-5, 2 R, RBI, walk, 2 K, SB (355/388/581)
Travis Scott: 1-3, double, R, RBI, 2 walks, K (278/342/475)
Joe Simokaitis: 2-5, R, 3 RBI, 2 K (302/362/500)
Kevin Reynolds: 3-5, R, 2 RBI, K
Ogui Diaz: 2-5, double, R, RBI, K, SB #11 (253/280/338)
Fernando Encarnacion: 3-4, double
AA: West Tenn 6, Montgomery 5, 10 innings
WTN: 17-25... MON: 25-17
(League: 262/340/398... 4.18 ERA)
Gaby Hernandez: 6 IP, 11 H, 5 ER (2 HR), 2 K (5 GS, 4.97 ERA, 29 IP, 5 HR, 4/19 BB/K)
Marwin Vega: 1 IP, 2 walks (39 app, 5.46 ERA, 56 IP, 3 HR, 41/37 BB/K)
Shawn Kelley: 3 IP, 2 H, 2 walks, 4 K (21 app, 0.89 ERA, 30.1 IP, 14/28 BB/K)
Marshall Hubbard: 1-4, RBI, walk (310/429/540)
Brent Johnson: 3-5, double, 2 R, RBI (304/386/429)
Johan Limonta: 3-5, solo HR, 3 RBI (301/380/524)
Jeff Dominguez: 2-5, double, RBI, SB #14 (207/269/262)
AAA: Tacoma 5, Albuquerque 3
TAC: 60-55... ALB: 50-65
(League: 275/346/442... 4.82 ERA)
Ryan Feierabend: 7 IP, 7 H, (2 R) 1 ER, walk, 5 K (11 GS, 1.91 ERA, 66 IP, 5 HR, 13/47 BB/K)
Jared Baek Bait Wells: 2 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 2 walks, 3 K (44 app, 6.42 ERA, 47.2 IP, 4 HR, 29/44 BB/K)
Tug Hulett: 1-3, double, R, 2 RBI, walk, SB #10 (306/386/534)
WLAD: 1-4, double, RBI, K (265/352/574)
Victor Diaz: 2-4, SB (289/371/548)
Jon Nelson: 2-3, double, R, K
Oswaldo Navarro: 2-3, double, R, 2 RBI (274/339/356)