Friday Pebble Report:

Colorado Springs: Off

Tulsa: L 1-5

Former Rockies farmhand Zach Parker shut down the Drillers yesterday. Brian Esposito had half of Tulsa's hits with his pair of singles and he scored the only Driller run. Andrew Johnston pitched two scoreless innings in relief, and the two strikeouts to zero walks helps to start reversing a negative ratio in that column. Of course, Johnston's calling card is his GB%, and that remains as high as ever.

Modesto: L 7-9

A's first base/DH prospect Chris Carter hit his 31st homerun of the season last night for the Ports (one of two HR's given up by Nuts starter Esmil Rogers in a poor outing) while our Modesto first base prospect, Michael Paulk, hit his fifth. Paulk also hit a pair of doubles and had a really solid game, so I don't mean to disparage him, it's just that the Rockies system has a glaring need for middle of the lineup run producers, and the contrast when our affiliates go up against teams that legitimately have that makes it kind of discouraging at times.

Fourth round draft pick Chris Dominguez has as good a chance as anybody to fit in that category. He leads the Cape Cod League this summer in homers and is known in Louisville for some mammoth blasts. With the draft signing deadline less than a week away, I really am wishing for some sort of miraculous turnaround on that front, but I wouldn't hold my breath, it seems that the Rockies will be missing out on Dominguez.

Asheville: W 5-1

I really wish more readers would have a chance to watch Robinson Fabian pitch. I got the opportunity to do so last night, and I really don't know if he's going to make it to the majors, but he's a fun pitcher to watch and it won't be for a lack of stuff.  He has some sharp movement on a fastball that sits mostly in the 88-92 range according to the Lexington ballpark gun. His secondary offerings are erratic at best and he was somehat lucky that Lexington's a free swinging club. Don't be fooled by the lack of walks, he had fits of wildness as the three HBP's in the box should show. He also has quite a bit of effort to his delivery and seems to me an injury risk. It seems to me that he's eventually a reliever or JDLR type of pitcher that doesn't quite have a secure spot on an MLB roster despite flashing impressive stuff at times if he makes it to the show.

Lars Davis has looked a lot better the last couple of times I've seen him from earlier in the season at the plate. Bo Bowman looked pretty good in the first look I got of him, but I'll give a more complete scouting report of the batters after I see a couple more games this weekend. I'll be watching Shane Lindsay tonight, I'm hoping to see some more dominance from T's pitching.

Tri-City: L 0-2

Jonnathan Aristil has been one of our system's more unlucky pitchers when it comes to run support this season, and the loss he took in yesterday's shutout continued that trend. Aristil has the lowest ERA among DustDevils starters but just one win to show for it thus far. That said, it's not as if he's been the most dominating mound presence this summer, either. After a long absence from the system due to TJ surgery near the beginning of 2007, Zach McClellan started the live game throwing portion of his rehab and pitched a scoreless inning in the loss.

Casper: L 0-1

Speaking of unlucky, Jeff Fischer sort of wrote the book on that early in his professional career, and there was some carryover yesterday as he took the loss despite pitching brilliantly into the sixth inning. Fischer struck out nine and allowed just three hits and a walk. Offensively, the Ghosts just couldn't get anything going, however, as Delta Cleary was the only batter with two hits.