Minor League Recaps: 8/16

by yondaime4 on Aug 16, 2008 11:50 PM EDT in Minor League Recaps Comment 22 comments

Did I see that Frenchy had 4 hits tonight? Is that toe tap really helping him? I wish I could get the Braves up here.

Toledo 1, Richmond 8

J. Anderson 3-5 RBI, 2 SB (40)
B. Canizares 3-5 2B, RBI
C. Loadenthal 3-3 BB
M. Acosta 0.2IP 2H 0R BB 2K

Anderson is just getting more and more impressive as his little streak goes on. He is up to 21 games now (apparently I counted wrong last night). That ties the longest streak in the International League this season. Canizares is hitting .359 this month but with no real power. He has pretty much the same SLG for the past 3 months (.408) after starting off pretty hot.

Mississippi 3, Mobile 2

J. Schafer 2-4 2B, HR(7)
T. Hanson 5IP 1H 1R 4BB 6K

Hanson made BA's hot sheet again yesterday, I think he has been on there all but like 4 weeks this season. His combined opponents average coming into this game was .197 and that had to drop some. The run that Hanson 'gave up' was because he walked a guy in the 6th and they pulled him and then Marek Promptly gave up a 2-run homer. Wonderful guy. Schafer is also battering the ball this month as he attempts to polish his tarnished star.

Potomac 4, Myrtle Beach 8

E. Mejia 2-4 2B, HR(18), 2 RBI
T. Flowers 2-4 HR(16), 3 RBI
J. Owings 2-4 2 2B, K
C. Rohrbough 6IP 4H 4R 3BB 5K

Mejia and Flowers did their thing and the bullpen picked up Cole Rohrbough's rough outing. Flowers has an OPS over 1.300 so I guess he is having a good month. We seem to have a ton of hot hitters this month. Mejia is having a killer month as well with a .368 AVG after having an off July. I bet you didn't know that Mejia leads all of our minor leaguers in XBH. He has 68 on the season with 45 doubles, 5 triples and 18 homers. Thats pretty impressive. Now he just needs to learn how to walk (25 in 490 PAs).

Lake County 12, Rome 6

J. Heyward 2-5 2 2B, K
F. Freeman 1-4 2B, 2 RBI, BB
M. FIsher 2-4 2B, 2 RBI, K

Eh, same old same old at Rome. They get some offense from the big guys but it isn't enough to back up a rough outing from Eric Cordier. It is worth noting that Kimbrel pitched 1.1 innings and struck out 4 guys. I'll take it.

Danville 1, Elizabethton 5

J. Gilmore 2-4 K
L.V. Ware 2-4 2 2B

Gilmore is also having a good August with an OPS at .980+. NICE!

Braves 0, Tigers 4 (6 innings due to rain)

A. Feliz 1-2 K

Nothing worth mentioning here. Only 3 hits for the whole team.

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Also, Matt Harrison went 8 innings allowing only 3 hits along with 8Ks.

by yondaime4 on Aug 17, 2008 12:20 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

kimbrel allowed 2 baserunners. FAILURE

Following the Braves...one long hard drink at a time.

by bigjoe on Aug 17, 2008 12:22 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

yeah, was he rolling the ball up to the plate or what?

by yondaime4 on Aug 17, 2008 12:34 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I think

he was experimenting throwing underhand…

by colerocks on Aug 17, 2008 12:37 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Kimbrels a beats whens he gonna be in Atlanta

by SayHeyWerd on Aug 17, 2008 12:54 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

BEAST********

by SayHeyWerd on Aug 17, 2008 12:54 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Crazy thing is...

that he illicited the “hows that????” response from Kevin Goldstein at Baseball Prospectus on draft day.

by colerocks on Aug 17, 2008 1:10 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

You’re right about Cannizares, he has absolutely no power. He’s a great hitter, seems to get timely hits too, and a serviceable first baseman. I’d like to see him get a chance to show what he can do coming off of Atlanta’s bench in September.
And Josh Anderson should be in the bigs. Should have been all year.

by cbwilk on Aug 17, 2008 1:19 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

in place of who? he’s blanco with a high BA instead of OBP

Following the Braves...one long hard drink at a time.

by bigjoe on Aug 17, 2008 1:26 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I love Blanco and I’m thrilled he’s been in the bigs and held his own, but Anderson is what the team has lacked for years, a true leadoff hitter. He’s lightning fast, knows how to bunt and move the runners over, and has more range, though only slightly, than Blanco. Frankly, I feel like Anderson can just create more havoc at the top of an order than Blanco can.

by cbwilk on Aug 17, 2008 2:59 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Blanco is a true leadoff hitter.

Great at working the count. Gets on base. Fast. What else could you want? He gets a ton of bunt base hits too, so I guess he can sacrifice if you need him to. Maybe Andersno’s a better defender, but Blanco’s major league OBP is higher than Anderson’s right now in the minors. Blanco’s going to create a lot more havoc by being on base a lot more.

Now, if you want to put Anderson in right field, then you’re onto something.

by VictorW on Aug 17, 2008 10:48 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Ok, it’s not really fair to compare a AAA player’s stats to a major leaguer’s since it’s just plain harder in the majors, but I’ll compare Anderson this season in AAA to Blanco this season in Atlanta and last season in AAA.
Blanco’s OBP this year is .373, last year .369; Anderson’s this year is .361. Not a great deal of difference there. He’s got a few weeks left and could very easily match that.
Anderson’s batting average is .316 compared to Blanco’s .261 this year and .282 last year. While it can easily be argued that OBP is a better indicator than average, it’s what Anderson is doing with those extra hits that’s important. Anderson’s slugging percentage is .409 compared to Blanco’s .319 this year and .362 last year. He’s hit 22 doubles compared to just 10 for Blanco this season and 18 last year. Anderson has also stolen 40 bases this season compared to just 10 for Blanco this season and 23 last season; Anderson has stolen 40 or more each of the last five years, a total Blanco only eclipsed in his first season, showing a steady decline each year (Anderson has declined as well, but still outseals Blanco by a lot).
What all this means is that Anderson puts himself into scoring position more often than Blanco does. And this is the point of a leadoff/speed hitter, getting in scoring position for the boppers. Add in the fact that Anderson has only struck out 52 times, compared to 78 for Blanco this season and 85 last season, he also puts the ball in play more times something that can only be beneficial for speed players as they put pressure on the defense.
If we’re going to use minor league performance as an indicator of major league performance then the stats bear out that Anderson would be more successful in the majors than Blanco. The OBP difference is miniscule and erased by the wide gap in slugging percentage and stolen base totals.

by cbwilk on Aug 17, 2008 11:52 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

do you honestly think bobby would LET anderson steal? he lets NO ONE steal. maybe thats why our team leader has something like a dozen.

Following the Braves...one long hard drink at a time.

by bigjoe on Aug 17, 2008 4:24 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

When’s the last time we had a true basestealing threat on our team? Furcal got his steal while he was batting leadoff. Fact of the matter is that we have really fast guys, and we have really good baserunners. But we don’t have a really fast guy with really good baserunning ability.

by bravesfan91 on Aug 17, 2008 8:37 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Blanco’s career numbers still trump Anderson’s career OBP and SLG in the minors.

I guess I should be one to talk.
There's nights that I can't even walk.
There's days I couldn't give a fuck.
And in between is where I'm stuck.

by Smoltz's Beard on Aug 18, 2008 9:13 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I don’t know about trump. Yes Blanco’s OBP is .371, clearly higher than Anderson’s .340 but the slugging is dead even at Blanco .377 to Anderson .378 (Blanco’s numbers are highly influenced by 26 homers in his first four seasons at the low minors compared to 3 his last two in AAA) . Anderson’s 278 steals clearly trumps Blanco’s 181, and Anderson’s first season was with a short season team. Blanco’s also had 675 strikeouts compared to only 433 for Anderson.
So yeah, Blanco crushes Anderson in OBP (423 walks to Anderson’s 178). But if you want a guy who’s going to put the ball in play and try to make some things happen with his speed and who’s going to put himself into scoring position without needing to be bunted over, Anderson is probably better at that.

by cbwilk on Aug 18, 2008 10:49 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

“Trump” was a poor choice of wording, I apologize.

I want the guy who is getting out less in the first place…ie Blanco. Bringing up a total difference of 3 HRs over the past two season isn’t doing anything to convince me that Anderson is a better threat to get into scoring position. In fact, Blanco had 3 more XBHs over those two seasons than Anderson did. See what I did there? Normally I would disregard the steals, but Anderson is taking the bases at like an 80% rate whereas Blanco is less than 70%…so I’d say that clearly favors Anderson (but it could be a moot point b/c we never steal in the first place). The strikeouts are interesting, but until I see some proof that a strikeout is exponentially worse than a groundout I’m not putting any stock into that arguement. I’m all for Anderson having a shot because when he has been in the majors he’s been pretty damn good despite the small sample sizes. But I still feel like it’s Gregor’s job to lose.

But that’s my opinion, and you have yours.

I guess I should be one to talk.
There's nights that I can't even walk.
There's days I couldn't give a fuck.
And in between is where I'm stuck.

by Smoltz's Beard on Aug 18, 2008 12:02 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I think watching any game will prove that a strikeout nearly always worse than putting a ball in play. Otherwise, I agree it’s Gregor’s job to lose, I simply think given the same amount of time in the bigs, Anderson would be better.

by cbwilk on Aug 18, 2008 1:23 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Well, the situation that is normally brought up to support my arguement is that it’s much better to strikeout than GIDP…but like I said, I’m not going either way until I see some proof. “Watching” the game isn’t good enough for me because I watched the game for years and didn’t realize I had no clue about it. Stats, my friend.

I’m more than welcome to the two of them fighting it out.

I guess I should be one to talk.
There's nights that I can't even walk.
There's days I couldn't give a fuck.
And in between is where I'm stuck.

by Smoltz's Beard on Aug 18, 2008 1:47 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs