When we last left our heroes, the Eastern League East Division crown was fading away in the midst of a June swoon. Not much has changed in five games for the Hartford Yard Goats (41-33)—they’re now 11.5 games behind Reading (54-23) instead of just 10—but the roster has gone through a number of changes.
News and Notes, June 21 - July 5
Date | H/A | Opponent | Result | Date | H/A | Opponent | Time (MT) | |
June 21 | v | Richmond (in NH) | L 3-11 | June 28 | @ | New Hampshire | 5:05 pm | |
June 22 | v | Richmond (in NH) | W 7-6 | June 29 | @ | New Hampshire | 5:05 pm | |
June 23 | v | Richmond (in NH) | W 4-2 | June 30 | @ | Portland | 5:00 pm | |
June 24 | OFF DAY | July 1 | @ | Portland (Game 1) | 4:00 pm | |||
June 25 | v | Erie (Game 1) | W 2-1 | July 2 | @ | Portland (Game 2) | TBD | |
June 25 | v | Erie (Game 2) | L 4-6 | July 3 | @ | Portland | 4:00 pm | |
June 26 | v | Erie | L 2-5 | July 4 | v | Binghamton | 4:05 pm | |
June 27 | @ | New Hampshire | W 8-2 | July 5 | v | Binghamton | 4:05 pm |
David Dahl (No. 2 PuRP) had another productive week, knocking out four singles and a double in five games, plus two walks. He’s kept his OPS right around .900 for the month of June and is now hitting .287/.379/.522 overall.
Ryan McMahon (No. 5 PuRP) had a big night on Monday, recording his first multi-hit game since June 12. It will be a long slog for Ryan to bring his overall line up to what many expected him to have (if it happens at all this season). For his part, McMahon is working on it. From a recent MiLB.com article:
"[I'm] just getting back in the cage, working it out, starting to get back to the things I used to work on the last couple of years. I had kind of gotten away from it, been trying new things, which I really don't know why I did that. So I'm just getting back, having a good approach, putting in my usual work in the cage."
For now, keep in mind he is still only 21 years old and is three-and-a-half years younger than the average Eastern League player.
In one of his final columns for the Denver Post, Irv Moss had a brief profile of Raimel Tapia (No. 6 PuRP), who continues to light up the Eastern League. He has now worked his way to third in the league with a .317 batting average and has yet to go two days in a row without a hit in the month of June.
In 11 starts in Modesto, Sam Howard (HM PuRP) used an ability to miss bats to earn himself a California League All-Star nod and a promotion to Double-A. Since that promotion that skill seems to have diminished a bit. His batting average against has jumped (.184 to .323) and his strikeout rate has dropped (10.0 to 5.14 K/9), but he’s still managed to keep runs off the board so far (3.86 ERA in 21 innings). Howard certainly earned his promotion but he’ll have to rediscover some of what got him to Double-A if he is going to find success in the Eastern League.
German Marquez continued his stellar 2016 season with a great start on Thursday. After a great start on Thursday (6.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R/ER, 2 BB, 7 K), he has lowered his ERA to 2.65 with 80 strikeouts in 85 innings.
With Matt Carasiti continuing to close out ballgames for the Yard Goats (he now has 21 saves in 24 opportunities with 35 strikeouts in 29⅔ innings), recent promotion Jerry Vasto has been relegated to set-up man duty. He had two more appearances this week, securing his first win of 2016 on June 23. He now has 42 strikeouts in 30 innings between Modesto and Hartford this season.
Spotlight On: Roster Shuffle
The biggest news of the week was all the roster shuffling over the weekend. Alex Balog (No. 22 PuRP) became the latest promotion/escapee from Modesto when he moved up from High-A on June 24. He made his Hartford debut the next day against Erie and threw five innings of shutout baseball. He allowed seven hits and walked two but he also struck out four.
The Balog promotion was necessary to fill the rotation spot vacated by Kyle Freeland, who was slotted into the Albuquerque rotation on June 25. Freeland (No. 8 PuRP) gave up four runs on 11 hits in six innings in his debut for AAABQ. With the ever-changing rotation and bullpen situation for the big league club, Freeland very well may end up staying in Triple-A for the rest of the season despite his middling results for Hartford. Apparently the Rockies are unconcerned by the peripherals and have see what they want to see in his development, but it would have been nice to see Freeland force his way up a little more convincingly.
Speaking of PuRP’s, we haven’t seen or heard much news about Antonio Senzatela (No. 9 PuRP) since he was removed early from his start back on June 15. We finally got some news, as he was placed on the 7-day disabled list on June 25. This is Antonio’s second stint on the disabled list this season; he missed over a month after he was removed from his start in April 14. He has made only seven starts this year but has put up good numbers when he’s played, with a 1.82 ERA, 1.04 WHIP, 7.0 K/9 and 3.0 K/BB. Again, we can only hope his recovery is quick.
Carlos Hernandez, who was placed on the Temporarily Inactive List back on June 10, joins the rotation and takes Senzatela’s spot on the active roster.
Dunkin Donuts Park Update
Countdown to Opening Day: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
John Altavilla, reporter for the Hartford Courant, attended some games this past weekend in Norwich to get an update on the Yard Goats. It’s a fine read, especially this quote from manager Darin Everson on an under-the-radar impact of the endless roadtrip:
"Honestly, as we've pushed back it's gotten increasingly harder for the players," Everson said. "When we were pushed back the second time we were really feeling good about getting into the ball park at some point, maybe by the first of June. The families of our players were starting to set up schedules to come up here. That's been the hardest part. Not knowing where you are and not knowing where you are going to be is the hardest part."
Their home away from home is now occupied by the Connecticut Tigers, so you may have missed your chance to see the Yard Goats in Connecticut in 2016. Never fear, though. If you’re wondering what Dodd Stadium is like, Michael James wrote a fantastic piece about the in-game experience in Norwich.
Looking Ahead
The Yard Goats have left Connecticut, and it’s unclear when they may return again. They’ll spend the next week in Manchester, New Hampshire, Portland, Maine, and Binghamton, New York. Fortunately these are all teams chasing the Yard Goats in the standings so they may be able gain some ground on Reading.
For more Yard Goats news, links, coverage and Twitter, check out the links below. If you have any questions or requests of what you'd like to see in this column, drop me a line in the comments, on Twitter (@playerTBNL), or via email (adamedpeterson@gmail.com).
#EatItUp
Hartford Yard Goats |
2016 Links |
Twitter Follows |