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
AA Eastern League
While New Hampshire (7-2) and Richmond (8-3) are both playing excellent baseball, what is unique about the Eastern League is that there are four teams under a .400 winning percentage – Binghamton (3-5), Portland (3-5), Reading (4-7), and Hartford (2-7).
Former Mexican League infielder Esteban Quiroz has hit in every game for Portland so far, and he had a solid week, going .438/.591/.813 with a pair of home runs and a stolen base with a 4/3 BB/K on the week over 5 games and 22 plate appearances. Altoona shortstop Cole Tucker had his 3rd and 4th multi-hit games of the season on the week, going .429/.529/.714 on the week with a pair of doubles, a triple, and a 3/1 BB/K.
No one may have been hotter than Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. on the week, with a multi-hit game in every game but one on the week, where he still collected a hit, totaling a week at .476/.480/.714 with 2 doubles, a home run, and a 2/3 BB/K over 5 games and 25 plate appearances while driving in 10 runs. Bo Bichette set the table for Guerrero, continuing his streak of getting on base every game this season, with a week line of .364/.462/.500 with a double, triple, and a steal along with a 4/5 BB/K ratio. Richmond infielder led the Flying Squirrels to their first place spot with a week of .455/.520/.682 with a pair of doubles, a home run, 2 stolen bases, and a 2/3 BB/K.
While their home park has led to ERAs that are not-so-stellar, top arms Ranger Suarez, Harold Arauz, and Franklyn Kilome have combined for 45 strikeouts over 37 1/3 innings so far on the season for Reading. Shane Bieber kept up his excellent work, following up his stellar opening week start with 7 shutout innings, allowing 4 walks and still not walking a hitter, striking out 8.
While teammate Mitch Keller is the top prospect, Brandon Waddell had his own impressive start this week, going 6 scoreless innings, allowing just 2 hits and no walks, striking out 6. Also overshadowed by teammates, but by hitters, Jordan Romano tossed 7 shutout innings this week for New Hampshire, allowing 3 hits and no walks, striking out 7.
AA Southern League
With six of the ten teams in the league at or within a game of .500, Jackson (8-2) and Biloxi (9-2) have started to separate from the pack, though only Montgomery is the only one separating from the pack the other direction at 3-8.
Jackson has four hitters hitting over .400 on the young season still, led by infielder Juniel Querecuto, who hit .526/.550/.684 on the week with a double, triple, and a stolen base. Jacksonville’s Austin Dean had a big week, hitting .632/.667/.737 over 5 games with a pair of doubles. Taylor Ward had a hot week for Mobile, hitting .412/.545/.647 with a double, home run, and a pair of steals.
Arguably no minor leaguer has had a better start to his season, however, than Mobile’s Hutton Moyer. The 2015 7th round selection from Pepperdine has filled up the stat sheet all season and continued to do so this week, going .316/.364/.789 with a double, a triple, 2 home runs, and 3 stolen bases on the week, giving him 4 home runs and 7 stolen bases on the season thus far.
I don’t often lead off with a reliever here, but Jackson’s Colin Poche has put together an incredible open to the season, and his last week was impressive. He made two appearances, going 4 perfect innings, striking out 9. He ended the week with 6 innings tossed on the year and 15 strikeouts.
Kohl Stewart has struggled with generating strikeouts previously, but in his second turn in Chattanooga, Stewart is doing just that, making two starts on the week, striking out 14 over 10 1/3 innings while walking just one. Veteran Jeff Brigham had a second brilliant start for Jacksonville, going 5 scoreless innings, allowing 4 hits and a walk, striking out 10.
AA Texas League
Tulsa, Midland, and San Antonio are all leading the Texas League with a 7-4 record. On the opposite side, Frisco rode a 5-game losing streak to a 3-8 record at the end of the week.
While the team struggled, Frisco’s Hunter Cole put together three multi-hit games, hitting .500/.619/.563 with a double and a 5/5 BB/K ratio. San Antonio’s Josh Naylor continued his big season with a .400/.538/.850 line, hitting 3 more home runs and even adding a stolen base for good measure with an impressive 6/1 BB/K ratio. Myles Straw continues to make a case for his future in Houston’s outfield with Corpus Christi, leading the TL in stolen bases with 8 now on the season after a 3-steal week, hitting .382/.533/.441 on the season so far.
Tulsa teammates DJ Peters and Connor Joe demolished baseballs throughout the week. Peters showed impressive bat-to-ball skills in hitting .409/.480/.636 with two doubles and a home run, and more impressive for the big swinger, he put up a 3/3 BB/K ratio. Joe only had three hits on the week, but he made all of them count, hitting all three out for home runs.
Cal Quantrill had a pair of excellent starts for San Antonio, tallying 11 innings with 7 hits and 4 walks, allowing just one run, striking out 11 total. His teammate Jesse Scholtens tossed two starts, allowing two runs over 12 innings, allowing 7 hits and and a walk, striking out 14.
Dennis Santana continued to establish himself as one of the top pitching prospects in minor league baseball, making two starts, throwing 9 1/3 innings, allowing 2 runs on 4 hits and 3 walks, striking out 15 batters.
Week ahead
Top prospects Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. and Bo Bichette along with the loaded New Hampshire team will spend the early week hosting Tim Tebow and Binghamton. Kyle Funkhouser with pitch the opener of a weekend series with Erie and Binghamton on Friday. Mitch Keller will take on first-place Richmond on Saturday as part of their weekend series.
Stephen Gonsalves takes the hill on Wednesday in the first game of a double-header between Chattanooga and Jacksonville. First place Biloxi and last place Montgomery square off in a weekend series.
Top teams Midland and Tulsa are squaring off in a early week series between two of the top teams in the league. On Thursday, the other team currently tied for the top record in the Texas League, San Antonio, squares off against Midland for a weekend series.
Next: high-A
California League
Four teams in the Cal League are .500 currently, including 3 of the 4 teams in the South division. The only team that has really separated is San Jose, who finished the week at 8-4. The two teams who are not .500 outside of San Jose are both 4-8 (Modesto, Lake Elsinore).
Colton Welker continued to hit well, leading the Cal League in hitting after a .333/.481/.619 week with 3 doubles and a home run, posting a 6/6 BB/K ratio. He’s trailed closely in that race by Bryson Brigman of Modesto, who closed the gap some with a .350/.435/.550 week with a pair of triples and a stolen base.
Jared Walsh of Inland Empire continues to be one of the best 39th round picks in the game, pounding out 4 home runs on the week as he hit .357/.406/.929 and also hit 2 doubles and a triple. Even with Walsh’s big power, the standout in the league is yet another elite Dodgers catching prospect, 2017 draftee Connor Wong, who has the athleticism to handle second base as well as catcher and put up a .292/.370/.750 line on the week with a pair of doubles and 3 home runs with a steal, giving him 5 home runs and 3 steals on the season so far.
Stockton’s starting rotation continues to have an impressive start to the season, as Parker Dunshee, Zack Erwin, Brian Howard, and Jesus Luzardo combined over 5 starts among them to throw 28 1/3 innings, allowing just 4 combined runs on 14 hits and 6 walks, with an astounding 36 strikeouts.
Good pitching is still happening outside of Stockton as well. Jose Suarez of Inland Empire continues to mow down the opposition, as the lefty went just 4 innings in his last start, but allowed no runs on 4 hits and a walk, striking out 8, giving him 18 strikeouts over 9 innings on the year. Bo Takahashi of Visalia is still yet to walk a hitter after two more starts last week, going 10 innings, allowing just one run total, on 7 hits, striking out 5.
Carolina League
Four teams (Potomac, Salem, Buies Creek, Winston-Salem) in the Carolina League are tied with the best record, posting 7-5 records, but that tells just how tight the league is as 3 teams are 6-6 and 2 are 5-6 behind those four teams. The one team pulling away in a negative way is Myrtle Beach, who is currently 3-8.
Wilmington outfielder Khalil Lee has come out swinging, hitting .353/.476/.647, with a pair of doubles and a home run along with two steals on the week. A trio of Winston-Salem outfielders have had very solid weeks, as Micker Adolfo went .414/.433/.759 with a pair of home runs, Luis Alexander Basabe hit .438/.471/.719 with a full stat line of 2 doubles, 2 triples, a home run, and 2 stolen bases, and Joel Booker hit .421/.476/.789 with a pair of home runs and 3 steals.
Following the trend of big performances from position groups, Potomac had big performances from a trio of infielders, as Austin Davidson hit .308/.387/.346, Jake Noll hit .310/.355/.517, and Carter Kieboom finally got going toward the end of the week after a slow start to the season, going 4-13 over the final three games of the week, knocking out a double and a home run.
Justin Garza had a second solid start for Lynchburg, yet to allow a run on the season, with a 5-inning, 2 hit, 1 walk gem on Saturday, striking out 5. Corbin Martin had a pair of solid starts in his full-season debut this past week for Buies Creek, going 10 scoreless innings, allowing 3 hits and 5 walks, striking out 13. Likewise, 2016 22nd round pick Cameron Roegner got off to a big start in his first two starts of the year, going 13 scoreless, allowing 9 hits and 3 walks, striking out 12 for Carolina.
Winston-Salem had a pair of their top prospects have big weeks as Dane Dunning made two starts, throwing 12 1/3 innings, allowing 4 runs on 10 hits without a walk, striking out 15 while Dylan Cease tossed 6 scoreless innings, allowing 2 hits and 2 walks, striking out 5. Emerson Martinez made an excellent start for Down East, going 6 scoreless, allowing 4 hits and no walks, while striking out 8.
Florida State League
Three teams have really finished the week strong, as Daytona, Bradenton, and Jupiter each finished the week at 8-3. Clearwater finished the week at 2-9 and Florida finished 3-8. St. Lucie would have been in that same boat, but finished the week on a 5-game winning streak to finish 6-4.
A pair of catchers had big weeks in the FSL to rocket up the league leaderboards. Tyler Stephenson hit .522/.607/.739 with 3 doubles and a triple on the week for Daytona while Edgar Cabral hit .368/.368/.684 for Clearwater with a pair of home runs.
Jimmy Kerrigan had an excellent week for Fort Myers, hitting .400/.483/.720 with 2 doubles and 2 home runs. Josh Lowe had a solid week for Charlotte as well, hitting .364/.423/.682 with 2 doubles, a triple, a home run, and 2 stolen bases.
A trio of Jupiter hitters had solid weeks as John Silviano hit .423/.500/.808 with 3 home runs, Riley Mahan hit .375/.444/.656 with a pair of home runs, and Joe Dunand hit .407/.452/.704 with 2 home runs.
After a rough first pro season due to injury, Justin Dunn has started the season well for St. Lucie, tossing 5 shutout innings last Wednesday, allowing 2 hits and 3 walks, striking out 7. Daytona’s Tony Santillan was dominant last Wednesday, going 6 scoreless, allowing a hit and two walks, striking out 8. Bryse Wilson made a pair of starts for Florida, tossing 8 2/3 scoreless innings, allowing 6 hits and a walk, striking out 10.
Week ahead
On Thursday, a solid pitching matchup kicks off a weekend series with the affiliates of two NL West rivals as Lake Elsinore and Rancho Cucamonga kick off their series with Adrian Morejon and Imani Abdullah on the mound. Fireballer Melvin Adon hopes to continue a breakout season for San Jose on Friday as they face Modesto.
Top teams Potomac and Salem square off in an early week series. Buies Creek and Carolina will have a very interesting weekend series, while Salem will face talent-laden Winston-Salem for a weekend series.
St. Lucie hopes to keep up their 5-game winning streak against Florida in an early week series. Tigers top 2017 pick Alex Faedo takes the hill on Wednesday for Lakeland against first-place Jupiter. Luis Escobar will take the hill for Bradenton to open a weekend series as they host Fort Myers.
Next: low-A