Dan Ortmeier had two hits, including a double and a pair of RBI, but the Sky Sox were mostly shut down by Ramon Ortiz and the Grizzlies.
Chaz Roe pitched pretty well. He's had a high walk rate this season but has been more effective at preventing runs. Is it just luck? Since 2007, his ERA has been better than his FIP, so even though he appears to be somewhat lucky this season, I'm doubting that he's been the one and a half runs of ERA (3.30 vs. 4.74 in 2009) lucky the difference between the two would indicate. Daniel Mayora had a pair of hits, and raised his average to .309 for the year. Mayora hits well, a lot of singles some walks, not much power, at home and on the road, against RHP's and LHP's. He is a Texas League version of Freddy Sanchez, only probably less of an asset on defense.
Christian Friedrich is number one on Baseball America's Prospect Hot Sheet this week, and another dominating performance last night at Rancho Cucamonga is part of the reason. What separates Friedrich right now from Brian Matusz is mainly the lack of a quality changeup.
Matt Repec, Jeff Cunningham and Jason Van Kooten homered in the loss. Scott Beerer, after starting slow, has really started heating up at the plate with three more hits last night.
The two quick promotions from Tri-City this season, Beerer and Mike Zuanich, have both thrived with their new teams, and give the Rockies a pair of interesting polished bats that are still old for where they're currently assigned but seemingly talented enough not to write off. As the younger of the two, Zuanich intrigues me a bit more right now. He's been murder on left handed pitching and an extremely tough out against RHP's. He already has three HBP's at Asheville in just 40 PA's, meaning right handed pitchers are trying to bust him inside to little success so far. Zuanich is just four months younger than Modesto's Cunningham, both are a couple of years or so younger than Paulk and Kindel at Tulsa.
Tri-City: L 5-9
We don't talk enough about Tim Wheeler or Ben Paulsen. Nice work at Tri-City by both so far. Rob Scahill threw four solid innings yesterday, striking out seven and giving up two runs. He's had two terrible appearances and six great ones so far, the inconsistency is a little frustrating, but that's definitely the ratio you would rather see than the other way around. He's probably had the fourth or fifth best debut of our 2009 draftees, although now that I think of it, how would I rate that? Keep in mind that this isn't a ranking of these guys as prospects, or Nolan Arenado would be listed, just a ranking of how their 2009 professional debuts have impacted their status as prospects:
- Chris Balcom-Miller
- Rex Brothers
- Rob Scahill
- Tim Wheeler
- Ben Paulsen
- Jared Clark
- Charlie Ruiz
- Rhett Ballard
- Dan Perkins
- Avery Barnes
Am I forgetting anybody? Maybe Dustin Garneau, and Paul Bargas has pitched alright. Kent Matthes started out well, but fizzled, Joe Sanders hasn't been able to translate to wood that well thus far. Matt Sanders and Joey Wong haven't had much success yet, either. Anyway, I'm curious how other people see our 2009 draftees performing so far.
Brandon Whitby hit a bases clearing triple as the Ghosts scored four runs in the bottom of the seventh for the walk off win in the first game. They got shut out in the second game, but Edwar Cabrera does look like he might finally be pitching like he did in the Dominican as he came on with 2.2 innings, striking out five and just walking one in relief of Clint Tilford. I might actually have the order of these games reversed. I'm tired and just want to make sure I publish something Pebble Report-esque today.