With so many games going on, we'll sometimes break one or two out for "spotlight." And news.
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Of course, the "news" is not good with respect to Danny Hultzen (Talk40 #4). Hultzen was scratched after experiencing similar shoulder tightness to what sidelined him in April. Tacoma interim manager John Stearns didn't seem too optimistic: "We hope it's not too serious."
Even though the Hulzen "medical school" story has been proven to be a myth, at least he seems to be good at self-diagnosis and not being the "tough guy" who goes out a shreds his own shoulder.
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There'll be Choi Joy at the Futures Game after all. Our man Ji-Man Choi (Talk40 #19) was added to the International team despite losing the "Futures Finalists" fan vote.
He's hitting .303/.394/.578 with 27 doubles, 12 HR and 36 walks. And a low 16.4% strikeout rate.
Gotta find a spot for him -- and for D.J. Peterson -- in the "Dodgers infield." Guess the Dodgers didn't have the DH.
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After getting caught up with the "Taijuan/Chuck Norris" theme yesterday, I neglected the news that Eric Thames had been shipped to Baltimore for Ty Kelly.
Kelly is a switch-hitting infielder taken in the 9th round of the 2009 draft out of Cal-Davis. Interestingly, he's another guy from the inland part of California, where Taijuan Walker (Talk40 #2), Stephen Landazuri (Talk40 #24), Trevor Miller (26intheMix) and James Zamarripa (Watch List) were discovered. So there's some hope there.
As Gordon noted in the Shout Box, he's a star at drawing walks (13.1% career BB rate) and avoiding strikeouts (12.9% career K rate), and that's pretty intriguing -- particularly for a middle infielder.
But he's actually played mostly at third, he's not a shortstop, and he has no power or speed.
So as a second baseman with some utility value, we like him, and since we were going to dump Thames anyway, it's not a bad pickup.
AAA -- Tacoma 10, Colorado Springs 4 -- Box
So with Hultzen out, He Who Shall Not Be Named stepped into the starting role. Oh, OK ... Hector Noesi. And he wasn't bad: 3.0 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 0 K.
And the offense did fine:
Clearly, it will take an unusual set of circumstances ("Brandon Bantz-like" perhaps?) for Tenbrink and/or Poythress to make it to Seattle, but at least they're still in there plugging away.
Poythress is having a good season (.262/.354/.459), but does he really project to more than what Justin Smoak offers? Probably not.
And we love Tenbrink, but to be a utility guy, he'd need to have some middle-infield value, of which we are skeptical (maybe second, but not short). As a corner-guy utility player, it's hard to see.
Obviously numbers don't show quality of play, but here are TenBrink's games and starts per position from minorleaguecentral.com
2013 26.50 Tacoma PCL AAA SEA 1B 7 6
2013 26.50 Tacoma PCL AAA SEA 2B 18 16
2013 26.50 Tacoma PCL AAA SEA 3B 27 25
2013 26.50 Tacoma PCL AAA SEA SS 1 1
2013 26.50 Tacoma PCL AAA SEA LF 12 10
2013 26.50 Tacoma PCL AAA SEA CF 8 7
2013 26.50 Tacoma PCL AAA SEA RF 6 2
Pretty utilitarian, I'd say.