Minor League Baseball weekly roundup: First Full Week
Minor League Baseball played their first full season this past week. Who had big opening weekends at each level?
As part of what will be a weekly feature here at Call To The Pen, we will take a look at the week’s action in minor league baseball, highlighting both teams and players who played very well, and also looking ahead to some series that could be very intriguing through the week. We’ll go level by level, starting with AAA and working our way down to each level that is active!
AAA International League
A pair of North division squads began to separate themselves from the pack, along with one from the West division, as Scranton Wilkes-Barre closed the weekend 7-3, while Syracuse and Toledo each finished 6-3. Gwinnett is the one team on the other side at 2-6.
Danny Jansen didn’t play his first game until last Monday, but he made up for missing the opening weekend with an impressive week, hitting .389/.522/.667 with a pair of doubles and a home run, posting a 4/3 BB/K ratio. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre had a pair of infielders hitting very well over the week as Gleyber Torres hit .400/.429/.560 on the week with a pair of doubles and a triple while his middle infield mate Abiatal Avelino hit .417/.462/.542 on the week with a double and a triple.
Rochester got two excellent starts from towering (6’10”) righty Aaron Slegers, tossing 12 innings between the two starts, allowing one run on a walk and 8 hits, striking out 6 between the two starts. Anthony Banda continued his brilliance on the mound for Durham, picking up the win on Wednesday, going 5 1/3 innings, allowing a run on 5 hits and no walks, striking out 8. He’s still yet to walk a hitter in his two starts and has now struck out 16 batters in 10 1/3 innings.
AAA Pacific Coast League
Oklahoma City had a perfect week, bringing their record on the season to 8-1. Memphis has the most wins in the league, with a 10-2 record. Fresno and Colorado Springs have both continued to play well, with 9-3 and 8-3 records each. Omaha has been struggling, going 2-9.
A pair of sluggers had big weeks. Tyler O’Neill of Memphis hit .444/.429/.611 with a double and a triple. As good as he was, Sacramento’s Mac Williamson was incredibly good, hitting .524/.643/1.190 with 2 doubles, 4 home runs, and a crazy 6/2 BB/K ratio.
For Nashville, James Naile had a pair of solid starts on the week, throwing 12 2/3 innings, with 12 hits and 2 walks, striking out 10. Veteran starter Christian Bergman had two quality starts on the week for Tacoma, totaling 12 innings, allowing just 1 run on 10 hits and 4 walks, striking out 9.
Freddy Peralta allowed his first runs of the season for Colorado Springs, but he continued to pile up strikeouts over two starts on the week, throwing 11 innings, allowing 2 runs on 10 hits ang 3 walks, striking out 14.
Week ahead
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and Gwinnett open a series on Monday with an excellent pitching matchup of two of the top arms in minor league baseball as Chance Adams and Kolby Allard take the mound for their respective clubs. Banda looks to continue his dominant pitching for Durham against Toledo Tuesday. Friday kicks off a series between two of the better teams in the International League thus far as Toledo and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre square off.
The PCL has some fun matchups, especially Colorado Springs and New Orleans this week, but possibly the highlight game will be the pitching matchup Friday when Eric Lauer takes the hill for El Paso against Braden Shipley for Reno. After taking on struggling Round Rock to open the week, hot Oklahoma City will face a more difficult test with New Orleans starting Saturday.
Next: AA