Friday: Robles 5.0 IP, 6 H, 3 ER. 1 BB, 7 K
Saturday: Pineda 6.0 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 K
They've been matching each other K-for-K so far -- both have 12 in 9.1 IP. If they keep this up, maybe they blow all of the Fister/Vargas/Snell/whomever conversation right out of the water. Cuz they don't seem intimidated by AA.
D-Jaxx had 14 Ks overall Friday, with Varvaro striking out the side in the 9th for the save. Varvaro has 6 Ks in his last 2 innings with no walks, 9 total in 4.1 IP (3 BB in his first 2.1 IP). He's closing, and Fields is pitching longer outings.
But still no real offense from Ackley and Triunfel.
Loopy loogy update: Brian Moran pitched 3 more innings with 5 more Ks -- now 8.1 IP, 0 ER, 0 BB, 13 K. A lefty finally got a hit, but he's struck out 7 of the 11 LH he's faced.
Start with some things one can find on the internet without really trying:
2004 amateur draft, 2nd round:
64th pick: Hunter Pence, Astros
65th pick: Dustin Pedroia, RedSox
67th pick: Kurt Suzuki, As
68th pick: Jason Vargas, Marlins
2005 NL Rookie of the Year:
1st -- 109 points, Ryan Howard, Phillies
T8th -- 1 point, Jason Vargas, Marlins
Good early numbers from the minors:
Just to rile up our host, I'll start with Chad Cordero -- 4 G, 5.1 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 0 BB, 5 K, 2 SV
Garrett Olson is in the Tacoma pen, has 6 K, 0 BB in 5.0 IP
Luke French is in the Tacoma rotation, has 8 K, 1 BB, 1 ER in 12.2 IP
Lost among the big names in W.Tenn is potentially useful bullpen lefty Edward Paredes who has 7 K and 0 BB in his first three appearances (4.2 IP)
Pineda and Robles were limited by pitch counts, but had strong opening starts.
OK, I'm down to High Desert before I get to hitters worth noting. Not so good.
First one is one of those "other Tar Heels" Kyle Seager -- 11 H, 3 xbh, 4 BB (.344/.417/.500)
And then "the guy who isn't Brandon League" Johermyn Chavez -- 8 H, 2 xbh, 4 BB (.296/.406/.444)
Another off the Putz-haul truckload, Maikel Cleto -- 2 GS, 8.2 IP, 2 ER, 2 BB, 9 K (that's an encouraging start in the Cal League)
Nick Franklin has already been noted elsewhere, but: 2 doubles, 2 triples, 2 HR in his first 33 AB
And Brian Moran I highlighted yesterday as a future loopy loogy with a weird fastball that rains death on LH hitters.
Discouraging early numbers from the minors:
Hate to start with my man Mike Saunders, but 2 singles in 23 ABs yields .087 SLG and .279 OPS (ouch).
Narrowly ahead is Dustin Ackley with 3 singles in 28 AB for .107 SLG, but Ackley has 5 BB to boost his OPS to .350.
Whipping them both is Carlos Triunfel with a whopping 5 singles in 30 AB for .167 SLG and .409 OPS.
OK, so that's 81 ABs for our three offensive guys supposedly closest to contributing in the bigs, and ZERO extra base hits. But it's only April.
And, so far, so much for thinking that 1st Lt. Nick Hill and Dan Cortes were two starters with an outside chance of getting a look. Both have two starts and gave up baserunners galore. And Steve Hensley wasn't too sharp in his first start, with 5 H and 4 BB in 4.2 IP, though he only gave up 2 ER.
James Jones was a guy with breakout potential, and he had a decent eye last year, but 10 K/ 1 BB in his first 32 ABs is discouraging (but two triples is cool). Jones is actually better than Mario Martinez, who has 10 K/ 1 BB in only 24 ABs and only 1 double and 3 singles to go with all the whiffing.