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Triple-A: Albuquerque Isotopes (27-35)
Albuquerque 3, Tacoma 2 (11 Innings)
W: Brothers (2-1, 5.14); L: Guaipe (0-3, 4.37); SV: Miller, J (4)
Eddie Butler made his Triple-A debut in a way that was way too familiar to Rockies fans. Through three innings he had thrown more balls than strikes, he finished the game having thrown 60/95 pitches for strikes, and he allowed two runs in the seventh on a series of plate appearances that just as easily could have been a 1-2-3 inning.
The bullpen came through by working four innings with one hit and no walks. Rex Brothers collected the win and is showing real signs of life, once again working in the high 90s. Over his last 10 appearances, Rex has a line of one earned run, 15 strikeouts, and six walks. If only there was a MLB team in need of a power lefty out of the pen capable of not coughing up a lead...
On offense, it was the Matt McBride show, as the freshly minted 30 year old went 4-5 with his seventh home run of the year, raising his season line to .339/.383/.557. McBride is sort of a real life Crash Davis with a career minors line of .298/.351/.494 with 107 home runs in 818 games.
Double-A: New Britain Rock Cats
New Britain 0, Binghamton 0 (Suspended, Rain; completion on June 13)
Shane Carle and Michael Fulmer were in the middle of a true pitchers duel when this one got suspended. Since the game will be resumed today, Fulmer, who had struck out five without allowing a walk or run in his four innings, and Carle, who hadn't allowed a baserunner in his three innings, won't get to finish the gems they had started.
High-A: Modesto Nuts (30-31)
W: Musgrave (7-1, 3.15); L: Misell (2-4, 5.32); SV: Daniel (3)
When Harrison Musgrave pitched last year for Grand Junction, I couldn't help but to try and see if he was any way related to Grand Junction sports legend Bill Musgrave, but I never found one.
When a 22 year old college pitcher has a 5.44 ERA in rookie ball, he won't get a ton of prospect love. If you dig a bit deeper into his rookie ball stats, however, you see that Musgrave's stats were colored by two awful starts in Orem, where he allowed eleven earned runs in five innings. In games outside of Orem, his ERA was 2.69 with a better than five to one strikeout to walk ratio. Musgrave has been pitching more like his non-Orem self this year, as this latest six inning two earned run performance brought him to a 3.21 ERA for the season.
Musgrave was backed up by an offense that pushed across four runs on ten hits. Corelle Prime's seventh home run of the year in the eighth inning ended up being the difference in this one.
Single-A: Asheville Tourists (28-33)
W: Shouse (2-0, 3.60); L: Kamplain (1-8, 5.29)
This one was a lot more like what I had expected to occur early and often in Asheville this year, but the fits and starts of the Tourists lineup is an always important reminder that prospect development is rarely a straight line.
Speaking of prospects, Ryan Castellani is turning into a very interesting one. Working on a pitch/inning limit, Castellani has been excellent. Since the start of May, the 19 year old second rounder has made eight appearances in which he has amassed a 1.82 ERA, a 7.87 K/9, and a 2.12 BB/9.
The Tourists offense wanted to remove any doubt about how this would end by scoring ten runs on fourteen hits and four walks. Every member of the Tourists reached base at least once, only two failed to do it more than once. I have mentioned how fast Asheville is. By FanGraphs' speed score, six of the eight position player starters for Asheville are rated above the excellent threshold.
Rookie: DSL Rockies
W: Concepcion, V (3-0, 1.56); L: Requena, A (1-1, 3.38)
Alejandro Requena would probably like to have this one back. After holding the opposition scoreless over the 12 innings of his first two starts, the DSL Rockies pitcher allowed seven runs, six earned, in his four innings of work last night.
Bonus Baby and soon to be Grand Junction Rockies player Carlos Herrera played second base and went 3-3, but the rest of the offense struck out eleven times without walking once, limiting the damage the offense could do.
Today's probables
Triple-A Albuquerque: John Lannan
Double-A New Britain: Bryan Evans
High-A Modesto: Antonio Senzatela
Single-A Asheville: TBD
DSL Rockies: Guess