AAA -- Omaha 4, Tacoma 2 -- Box
Just when we thought "Puzzling Pax" might be taking an extended leave, he's baaaaaack.
3.0 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 3 K
And, of course, he had to be victimized by He For Whom We Coughed Up Shin-Soo Choo, sometime-musician, sometime-ballplayer Ben Broussard, who got a two-run single in the 1st.
On offense, Jesus Montero had a double and two walks, as Biogenesis continues to loom.
AA -- Jackson 5, Huntsville 2 -- Box
Another double and two walks for our man Ji-Man Choi (Talk40 #19). You can't stop him, you can only hope to contain him, as they say.
Veteran Joseph Dunigan got his first homer since returning from the disabled list.
Trevor Miller (26intheMix) had a strong start: 6.0 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 K.
And The Carson Show! concluded the evening's programming for the 11th save for Carson Smith (Talk40 #13): 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K.
High-A -- Stockton 8, High Desert 7 -- Box
The Ports jumped out to an early lead off of Stephen Landazuri (Talk40 #24), despite an otherwise-intriguing 0-walk, 7-strikeout performance.
The Mavericks rallied, with Steven Proscia (26intheMix) nabbing two doubles in a 4-for-5 night, and red-hot Kevin Rivers getting two doubles of his own.
Jamal Austin had two hits and a walk, and swiped his 32nd base of the year.
Low-A -- Clinton 15, Beloit 6 -- Box
The LumberKings exercised plenty of LumberAuthority over the hapless Snappers.
Deeeeeej!
D.J. Peterson: 3-for-5, triple, home run
In three games since taking a day off, he has two homers, a double and a triple.
Overall: .289/.358/.542
And Jordy Lara also homered (and had two singles and a walk)
And Janelfry Zorrilla had two doubles plus a single.
And Ketel Marte (26intheMix) had four more hits to bring his average up to .281.
All of the offense made a winner out of Charles Kaalekahi (26intheMix) despite giving up five earned runs.
Short Season-A -- Everett 5, Boise 1 -- Box
Thyago ("Brazilian for Tyler") Viera had a strong, but brief-ish outing: 4.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 7 K.
He was relieved by Tyler ("American for Tyler") Smith, who got the win with 1.1 IP of perfect work.
Carlton Tanabe homered, and Chantz Mack had a double, a single and a walk. It was Mack's 11th double in 29 games.
Rookie -- Pulaski 5, Danville 4 [10 innings] -- Box
The P-Mariners got three in the top of the 10th to take a 5-2 lead, but barely held on in the bottom of the frame.
Kristian Brito (Watch List) had a double for the key hit in the 10th, and Isaiah Yates (Talk40 #39) had a double and two singles.
AZL Rookie -- Mariners 8, Rangers 6 -- Box
The youthful M's fell behind 5-0, but rallied to vanquish the youthful Rangers.
The Tank Tyler O'Neill had a triple and a walk, and stole a base. Then he was replaced in a defensive substitution. Hoping it was just that.
Luis Caballero had a double and two singles.
Looking Ahead
Victor Sanchez (Talk40 #12) is set for Clinton. Strikeout whiz Eddie Campbell for Pulaski.
The dude got dinked to death. Check the log. Infield hits, bunt singles, error. There was one xbh, just about everything else was a ground ball. The way he comes in from the sky, it's no wonder they're killing worms. A smart guy with a good system for evaluating minors says all the time that singles are fairly meaningless. I remain very bullish on JPax.
Get that straight >:-{
One of those science fiction things. Kinda out of the loop, Doc. I did read a Ray Bradbury novel once though.
Yes, good call rick. His ISO-against for July/August is much improved. .064 for July/Aug vs. .141 for Apr/May/June. Damage from singles, not XBH.
But 75 pitches to get through 3.0 IP ... after a string earlier when he would be around 100 pitches and only get through 5.0 or less.
Even if he's effective, I worry he'll be a Bedard type who strains the bullpen.
First year in the bigs: 21 starts, 106.2 IP = 5.1 IP/game. He struck out 8.4, walked 4.3 and gave up too many hits for his stuff.
Second year in the bigs: 30 starts, 169 innings = 5.2 IP/game. Not much better. Struck out 9.7 but walked almost 5. Led the league in fewest H/9 (as he would do continuously thereafter).
Third year: same low hits, walks down to almost 3.5 which let him throw an extra 30 innings in the same # of starts.
4th-to-current: BB bottoming out between 2-to-2.5, still the hardest guy to hit in the league with that curve and his other weapons, gained an extra 30 IP again over his year 3 levels.
So Kershaw, the best pitcher in the NL, took until his 4th year to completely harness his talent. How bout Felix?
Took Felix until his FIFTH year to really become the Felix we love today. He barely scratched 200 IP in year 4, and that was the only time he did it in those first years. Before year 5 he was having to leave games too early (though not as early as Kershaw because he wasn't trying to control that kind of curve ball), giving up too many hits (now he's a league leader in H/9 too) and working too hard in games.
It takes even the great ones a while to figure out their stuff. Why wouldn't we give Paxton the chance to do that, even if it is a little taxing to the pen? We have Felix, Kuma and E-Ram who can throw strikes and get deeper into games. The guy with the bombshell curve may only go 5, but consider it an investment in the future. Cuz if he becomes somebody else's Kershaw-lite that could kinda stink for us.
~G
He's running his lowest BB% of his career, at 8, and his 3.12 BB/9 is a big improvement over last season.. He's now moved past last season's innings pitched, currently at 115. I think his development path looks good. He's striking out less than ever, but it's above 8 per 9 innings to go with the lowered walk rate. His fielding Independent ERA is 3.27, suggesting to me a big problem with his inability to go deep is more a matter of the guys behind him and luck. Anyway, he's progressing nicely, at a good rate.
Man, I still really like our big three, although Z said on KJR the M's are making adjustments to Hultzen's delivery to relieve the stress, and is still concerned about setbacks. I imagine they now wish they'd done so earlier. But the Mariners seem to be in no hurry to force the development. It may be nothing more than Grienke-Affeldt-Gobble (which wouldn't be bad, to get a Grienke out of the trio), but I think the Mariners are shooting for a Maddux-Smoltz-Glavine hat trick. Sure, it's a long shot. We may never see such a thing again. But you gotta try, right? That's what it's all about.