Wednesday Pebble Report:

by Rox Girl on May 14, 2008 10:40 AM MDT in Pebble Report Comment 9 comments

I did a review of the Rockies past five drafts yesterday at the RMN's Farm Report blog.

Colorado Springs (18-20, 12 GB): W 9-6

Jayson Nix, Seth Smith, Christian Colonel and Eduardo Cornejo all had multi-hit games for the victors last night. One of Smith's two hits was his fourth homerun of the season off of former Rockie Marcos Carvajal. John Koronka pitched with some traffic, but got the job done with four runs allowed over eight innings. Colonel has an amazing pinch hitting streak going (six straight, tying the PCL record, as TulsaDriller pointed out Monday) but he's just been swinging the bat well in general with three more hits yesterday to bring his average up to .375 on the season, which is tops on the team of those over 50 PA's. Of course, we're not the only ones to notice, his manager had this to say to the Colorado Springs Gazette:

"Anybody that hits .375 is a bit of a surprise," Runnells said. "What I'm most impressed with is his pinch-hitting."

You could ask Jeff Baker how difficult, and how much of a skill pinch hitting can be as you rarely have the luxury of getting a second look at a pitcher. The one drawback for Colonel, and it could be important outside the PCL, is that only five of his 21 hits have gone for extra bases -all doubles- so his value is almost entirely in that average.

Tulsa (14-24, 6 GB): L 4-7

Ching-lung Lo followed his best outing of the season with a fairly disappointing one, giving up nine hits -including two HR's- and six runs in 5 2/3 innings. Much of the Drillers offense has been slumping lately, including Dexter Fowler until two days ago, but he at least seems to have broken out of the doldrums following Monday's two hit performance with a four for four night last night. He's back in the top ten in the Texas League in OPS, barely, but he's rising. I'm going to have a little more on him later today. Matt Miller had two hits, including his eighth double of the season in the loss.

Modesto (18-21, 8 GB): L 1-2

Keith Weiser was the hard luck loser for the Nuts, pitching a strong seven innings and allowing just a pair of runs to cross the plate, but the offensive woes that plagued the team early in the year have returned to the Nuts in San Jose, with just one run in eighteen innings thus far. Cole Garner has been a bit of an exception with two hits yesterday. He's batting .359 over his last ten games to bring his average to just below the .300 threshold for the season. Michael Paulk and Geoff Strickland both also knocked out a pair of hits, but there wasn't enough punch to overcome the Giants.

Asheville (27-12 1st Place): L 6-2

Craig Baker doesn't figure to stay on top of Jason McGill's Tourist Power Rankings in week nine after giving up four runs in the eighth inning last night. Baker and Matt Reynolds let another strong start by Connor Graham result in a no decision. Graham pitched six innings, giving up one unearned run on three singles and four walks. He struck out six. Darin Holcomb had three hits in three attempts and Jeff Cunningham had a pair of singles in the loss.

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Savannah/Asheville game

Quick synopsis before I head off to work. It should be noted that it was half-price beer night at the ballpark, so my memory could be a little fuzzy.

Everth Cabrera: Played pretty much how I expected him to. He made contact every time up, which was more than some other Tourists could say.
Michael Mitchell: Wasn’t very impressed. Swung at awful pitches in every one of his at bats, but did show some decent range in CF. Perhaps he was just having an off day at the plate.
Brian Rike: Dropped a fly ball that led to a run. Every time he came up to bat, the announcer played some sort of Simpsons sound bite that involved the words “sweet” and “cinnamon buns.” I’m not sure what this even meant.
Darin Holcomb: Every single time he made contact, the ball was hit hard. Very good hitter. Seemed lazy and inattentive in the field. He stole a base and drew throws over multiple times. Perhaps he’s faster than I realized.
Cunningham: Made solid contact, swung at bad pitches. Pretty much a typical SALLY hitter.
David Christensen: Awful. Swung at nearly everything. Left men on base multiple times. Also, according to my y-chromosome lacking guest, he has a ‘girly butt.’ Not sure what it means, but it could possibly be relevant.
Lapin: Ugh.
Velazuez: Showed decent range, but a number of his throws bounced in the dirt and he had the error to put the tying run on base in the 8th. Also dropped a line drive that was recorded as the first hit (it shouldn’t have been).
Davis: Made a couple decent defensive plays, but didn’t show much offensively. Had nice thighs, according to the companion.
Connor Graham: I was pretty impressed. He seemed confident the whole time and really only allowed one hit. Apparently the Sand Gnat scorers are morons.
Baker/Reynolds: Neither of them really allowed much hit hard. The home run was hit by one of the Gnats’ worst players, but it really wasn’t struck very hard. It just cleared the right field fence. Seemed like a good pitch that the hitter got lucky with. Several of the other hits were of the ‘bullshit bloop’ variety.

Overall, Holcomb impressed me, as did Graham. I had hoped to see Chacin pitch during this trip, but Graham was a nice consolation prize. WIthout doing any research whatsoever, I’d go ahead and guess that, on average, the Tourists have an older roster than much of the South Atlantic League brethren.

by rosenthal on May 14, 2008 11:14 AM MDT reply actions 0 recs

Older than some, younger than others.

Overall they’re nearly exactly average in age (league ave. in parentheses):

Average position player: 21.6 (21.6)
Average pitcher: 22.0 (21.9)

Savannah’s got one of the league’s youngest teams, particularly the pitchers according to Baseball Reference.

by Rox Girl on May 14, 2008 11:27 AM MDT up reply actions 0 recs

n/t

That could be it. The Tourists just seemed far more physically advanced than the Gnats. That could also explain why I’ve gotten used to writing a variety of headlines involving “Sand Gnats” “Lose” and “Game”

by rosenthal on May 14, 2008 11:57 AM MDT up reply actions 0 recs

BTW,

I’m collecting info about players down there, so don’t think I’ve ignored the e-mail.

by Rox Girl on May 14, 2008 11:28 AM MDT up reply actions 0 recs

also

Gratuitous link to the Savannah Morning News:

http://savannahnow.com/node/496631v

by rosenthal on May 14, 2008 11:14 AM MDT reply actions 0 recs

Xavier Cedeno update:

In the farm report post, I mentioned that he’d been held back from starting due to an inflamed left shoulder. He is scheduled to return and start for the Drillers tomorrow.

by Rox Girl on May 14, 2008 12:31 PM MDT reply actions 0 recs

Tourists lost today

Sand Gnats dominated, striking out 13 in the game apparently. Would have been a shutout, but the Gnats used a backup reliever who allowed a couple walks a double. 4-2.

by rosenthal on May 14, 2008 2:47 PM MDT reply actions 0 recs

The T's offense sure is making

Savannah’s pitching staff look a lot more mature. The Tourists have been a heavy strikeout team, though, and that’s the biggest concern for a couple of these players’ prospects of successful advancement. Notably Cunningham, Mitchell, Christensen and Rike. Everth Cabrera and Holcomb seem fine with the contact.

by Rox Girl on May 14, 2008 3:02 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs

I'm told

That the Gnats pitching has been pretty damned awful, Antonnini aside (although I don’t think Antonnini has pitched this series, which makes things worse).

by rosenthal on May 14, 2008 4:25 PM MDT reply actions 0 recs