Third straight time going 6.0 IP and 2 or fewer ER.
Season line: 21.1 IP, 1.69 ERA, 18 H, 4 ER, 1 HR, 5 BB, 22 K.
Meanwhile, Paredes gave up his first walk, but went 1.1 IP with 0 ER, and Fields pitched the 9th with 2 K. Varvaro had been closing, but now it looks like they've switched to Fields.
Shortstop fever!
Carlos Triunfel is playing everyday at short, and is on a tear.
Last 7 games: 27 AB, 11 H, 2 HR, 1 BB, 4 K for .407/.429/.630 during that stretch. Hope it's a corner-turning.
And down in Clinton, Nick Franklin was supposed to (1) split time with Gabriel Noriega at SS and (2) hit like Willie Bloomquist. Wrong on both counts, so far.
Franklin's played 12 of 18 games at SS (5 2b, 1 DH) and is just crushing the Midwest League:
74 AB, 26 H, 10 XBH (2 dbl, 4 trp, 4 HR), 5 BB, 13 K for .351/.388/.649
Dude may have his share of luck (.389 BABIP), but he's got 47 hits in his first 137 professional at-bats.
And 4 triples in 18 games? Now that's cool.
Again we will opine that Pineda's numbers (21 IP, 22:5 CTL with 1 HR) would be as good or better at Cheney...
But the agenda calls for a season's worth of pain management and that's reasonable...
.............
Franklin's #'s project to about 45-50 doubles and triples and 30-35 homers, full ML season. What happens when this guy puts on weight.
Down in AA, Carlos Peguero just hit 3HR's in one game and has a total of 9 so far and hitting 378. He has been the forgotten prospect with injuries and strike out issues over the last few yrs. But so far this year he has been coming on strong, he is definitely worth keeping an eye on to see if this is sustainable. If so, could we have found our left hand power for the yrs to come. We'll see.
Holy mother of all that is good and pure...that is balzac!! LOL Time for a promotion?
Yep, Peguero had three dingers. Everyone was waiting to see how much of his power was High-Desert-inflated. Looks like not all of it was. He and Raben have a real chance to establish themselves as LH bats if they keep it up.
Also good news: Hensley -- 5.0 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 K
Less good news: Triunfel's 7-game hit streak ended. Ackley 0-for-4 to drop to .132.
but that woulda been 9 homers in 22 games.
Yeah...the power outage in Seattle is starting to reach epic proportions..that is for sure. I wish we had even ONE Carlos Peguero story on the big club.
about Ackley so far. First rounds in pro ball are notoriously difficult to adapt to, and while I'm not suggesting you throw out the early results entirely, analyzing first-timers compared to proven track records is apples and oranges.
That said, for every Troy Tulowitzki or Ryan Zimmerman, there's a Jeff Clement or Alex Gordon (or three). Ackley is what he is: an extremely polished, mega-talented hitter who is very likely to have an upside somewhere between Zimmerman and Utley performance-wise. Like with all minor-leaguers, you have to remember there's only a (max, generally) 50% chance of reaching that upside.
Be excited about having a round in the chamber like Ackley. Just don't get too worried about the ups and downs along the way.
On another note, I'm really hoping Dunn..erm, Raben pans out for this organization. We need that type of presence in the middle of our order badly.