Minor League Recaps: 7/20

by yondaime4 on Jul 21, 2008 12:12 AM EDT in Minor League Recaps

Richmond 1, Buffalo 2 - Game 1 (7 Innings)

S. Thorman 2-3 HR(18)
C. Sammons 2-3 2B
C. James 5IP 5H 2R 2BB 5K

Nothing much going on in this one. Scott Thorman continues to do his best Mark Teixeira impersonation by hitting meaningless homers. Actually one more run would have made his homer valid, so I guess it wasn't that pointless.

Richmond 1, Buffalo 0 - Game 2 (7 Innings)

B. Jones 2-3
B. Lawrence 5.2IP 6H 0R 1BB 9K

Someone tell me why Phil Stockman is still in the minors? His ERA is 0.75!!!! If I could capitalize numbers I would have to make my point. Brian Lawrence pitched pretty damn well too. But thats just once.

Carolina 7, Mississippi 7 (In Progress)

Seriously, these Mississippi games always go into extras whenever I have to wake up early the next day. Screw this.

Frederick 6, Myrtle Beach 4

T. Flowers 1-2 HR(12), 2 RBI, BB, K

Seriously, the Pelicans only got two hits in this one and still somehow scored 4 runs. Impressive I guess? I dunno. One thing I just noticed about this lineup is that every player is hitting over .260 except Campbell (.257). We knew their offense was good though.

Rome 11, West Virginia 7

J. Heyward 2-5 2B, RBI, K
F. Freeman 2-4 HR(16), 2 RBI, BB
A. Coe 2-5 2B, 2 RBI
B. Johnson 2-3 HR(4)
C. Rohrbough 2IP 5H 4R 2BB 2K

As you can see Cole Rohrbough got roughed some more after a couple of promising outings. Rome is intown and I almost forgot about it. I'm going to try and get to the last two games in this series. I wish I had a better digital camera to take pics but sadly I don't. Jason Heyward had an XBH which has become somewhat of a rarity for him in the last month. Freddie Freeman is hitting .471 for July and I have to note that since June started he has a 22/24 BB/K rate. He really seems to just keep improving. Amazing.

Pulaski 5, Danville 2

G. Rodriguez 1-4 2B, RBI, 2 K
J. Gilmore 2-4 RBI, K
C. Hodges 5IP 4H 1R 2BB 6K

Casey Hodges is obviously too old for this league. He needs to get moved somewhere. Jon Gilmore might be in the same boat since he is hitting .373 this month. They may just hold him there since he struggled so bad at Rome, but I really want to see him in a lineup with Heyward and Freeman with them all hitting.

Braves - off

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Things I noticed

1. Tyler Flowers has matched his homerun total from last year in Rome (12).
2. Campbell is at .257, which, I know, you pointed out – but that’s an impressive feat since it seems like yesterday he was mired in the .220’s.
3. Jordan Schafer is mired in the .220’s. Well, now he’s down to .214. Hmmm.

I’m wondering – if Tex gets traded (yeah, I know, but that’s not really the point of my musing here), then it’s possible Thorman could go up, setting off a chain reaction that could have Freeman moving up somewhere as well – before Heyward. There’s been so much speculation about why Jason Heyward is wasting his time in low A when he clearly should be moved up that Freeman has snuck up and put up very impressive numbers. Freeman’s not exactly sneaking, but you get the point.

by secondbass on Jul 21, 2008 8:11 AM EDT 0 recs

Thorman’s leaving for the Olympics on the 28th (or right around there), so he won’t be in the Braves’ plans in any way for the end of the season.

by cbwilk on Jul 21, 2008 1:23 PM EDT up 0 recs

All the more reason to suspect a promotion is in the near (July 28) future for Freeman....

by secondbass on Jul 21, 2008 3:22 PM EDT up 0 recs

I really don’t think they will promote Freeman without Heyward. I mean if you promote one you have to promote the other. it isn’t like Heyward has struggled at Rome. He’s just been tiring out lately from what I can tell. I do think they both get promoted, though one of the guys at BA (Ballew I believe) says the Braves like to keep their teenage guys in Low A for a full season. So we shall see.

by yondaime4 on Jul 21, 2008 7:41 PM EDT up 0 recs

Well, that crossed my mind, too

I mean about keeping those two together. At the beginning of the year, it seemed like Heyward and Johnson were total BFF. But lately, Heyward and Freeman always warm up together, and every time Heyward’s parents are in town, they hug Freddie like he was a Heyward.

A disappointing scene a few nights ago, if I may. Lots of people were lined up for autographs after the game, and all the guys came out to sign (except, of course, Adam Coe, of all people, who is almost always in too big a hurry to sign, and told the crowd so that night. I mean, Adam Coe? He does that ALL the time. It looks like sooner rather than later there won’t be anybody asking for his autograph – but I digress). Anyway, 45 minutes or so into it, no Heyward or Freeman. And then, real quiet-like, you could see the two of them sneaking out a back door with cell phones up to their heads pretending not to see the crowd. What was bad is that there were so many kids standing there asking for Heyward, and when everybody watched him sneak off, most everybody just left. I just hate seeing that out of single A ballplayers, especially somebody who is most likely going to be a superstar.
The interesting thing is that several people let the coaches know what had happened and said they’d say something to them about it – supposedly Randy Inlge (the Rome manager) doesn’t like the guys not being appreciative of the fans. I guess he can’t make them, but we’ll see.

As a comparison, when John Smoltz was rehabbing, he stayed about 2 hours after the Saturday game signing, long after everybody else had left. Plus, other guys in the past – superstar potential – have always been good with the fans – Francoeur, Elvis Andrus, Ka’aihue.

by secondbass on Jul 21, 2008 8:05 PM EDT up 0 recs