Farmers Only Farmer's Market: Breeding losers from the bottom up

Despite a rough weekend by most of the minor league teams (1-10 combined weekend record), there are still individuals performing.  Here are the fresh and stale players in this week's Farmer's Market:

Chris Valaika

Chris took a 5 game hitting streak into Sunday's game, and is OPSing .986 over his last 10 games.  Could he be an answer to the offensive woes in Cincy?

Matt Klinker

Over two starts this week, Matt's pitched 12 2/3 innings and given up 2 runs with 11 strikeouts.  He hasn't given up more than 2 runs in a start all year, and has 20 strikeouts to 5 walks, good for 4th in the Southern League (behind two first round picks, Andrew Cashner and Mike Minor).  He's one of the few on that team having any success, hopefully some of the others down there will start to pick their games up too.

Aroldis Chapman

Despite his high walk totals, his 18 strikeouts in 3 starts are 11th in the IL.  Also, with IL pitchers with 3 starts instead of 4, Chapman is 3rd in the IL behind Matt Maloney and Travis Wood.  I know we've heard plenty about his wildness and his scoreboard heroics, but 1 earned run in 15 innings is impressive.  If he keeps it up, he could be an answer at the big league level before long.

Wladimir Balentien

My Wladdy Balentien has fallen on hard times, hasn't he?  He's currently hitting .048/.091/.139 in 21 at-bats in Louisville so far.  That's 1 hit, 1 walk, and 7 strikeouts.  Step it up, young man.

Jose Castro

The Carolina 2B is only hitting .143 on the season, and is 3 for his last 27 at the plate.  The young Puerto Rican has some potential, but could be passed up by the likes of Jake Kahaulelio and Alex Buchholz on the depth chart before long.

Sean Watson

Godlord, Sean.  In his last two outings, he's failed to finish the inning he started, and gave up 5 runs in both outings.  His ERA right now is an even 33.00.  Not good.

In minor league injury news, two stand out from the past week.  Matt Maloney hits the shelf with a blister on his finger, and Yonder Alonso is currently sidelined with a shoulder contusion from crashing into the outfield wall.  I think he might still have much to learn about his new position.

• Louisville lost both of their games, a 6-1 loss on Friday and a 6-1 loss on Sunday.  They got rained out Saturday, but it can be assumed that they would have lost 6-1.  Justin Lehr was on the hook for Friday's loss, his 3rd of the year.  He gave up 3 runs in 4 1/3 innings.  Drew Sutton, Juan Francisco, and Chris Valaika all had 2 hits each.  Sam LeCure started Sunday's game, giving up 4 runs on 10 hits in 6 innings.  Logan Ondrusek and Jon Adkins had scoreless innings of the bullpen.  Chris Burke had two hits, including a triple, but there wasn't much else going on offensively.  Up next: Travis Wood takes on Indy at 7:05.
  
• Carolina lost all three of their games over the weekend, making it 7 losses in a row, and 11 losses in their last 13 games after starting the season 4-0.  Their loss on Friday was a 16-7 blowout in which Alexander Smit and Daryl Harang gave up 9 and 6 runs respectively.  Eric Eymann hit a 3-run shot, his first of the year, and Jake Kahaulelio added a solo shot for his first as well.  Despite 9 hits on Saturday, the Mudcats were shut out 6-0 by Jacksonville, even with a solid outing by Matt Klinker.  Klinker went 5 2/3 innings and gave up 1 ER and struck out 8.  Michael Griffin went 3-for-4 with a double, but it didn't translate to any runs.  Sunday's game was another blowout, an 8-2 loss with Dallas Buck getting the start.  His 3 runs given up in 5 innings wasn't the story, but Sean Watson imploded for 5 runs in the 6th and that was that.  Chris Denove hit his 1st homer of the year.  Up next: Tom Cochran takes the hill in just a little bit, a 11:05 start against Jacksonville.
• Lynchburg lost their weekend series with Potomac, the second to last stop on their 13 game road trip.  The win came on Friday night, where 6 strong innings from Mark Serrano led the Hillcats to an 8-2 win.  Andrew Bowman and Justin Freeman helped out with perfect relief outings as well.  The top 3 Hillcat hitters, Josh Fellhauer, Dave Sappelt, and Neftali Soto, all had two hits, and Justin Reed knocked his first homer of the year.  Lance Janke's start on Saturday was solid, but the bullpen blew a lead en route to a 4-3 loss.  Carlos Mendez had two hits, and Jeremy Horst earned his second loss of the year out of the bullpen.  Lynchburg lost in extras on Sunday, a 6-4 loss in 10.  Mendez had another good game, going 3-for-5 with a double.  Devin Mesoraco also had a 3-run homer, already his 4th of the season.  Matt Fairel was okay in his start, going 4 2/3 innings of 4-run ball with 6 strikeouts.  Up next: The Hillcats get an off day on Monday before going to the last stop in their trip, Kinston.
• Dayton also got swept over the weekend, a 5-2 loss on Friday, a 9-8 10-inning loss on Saturday, and a 7-3 loss on Sunday, all of them in Lansing.  Chris Richburg and Mariekson Gregorius both had two hits on Friday, and Josh Ravin gave up no earned runs in 5 innings.  On Saturday, Richburg drove in 3 runs and Andrew Means drove in 2, but the bullpen had a rough time of things after a solid start by Pedro Villarreal.  Brian Pearl got shelled on Sunday, with 7 runs given up in only 3 1/3 innings pitched.  Mark Fleury had 2 doubles, but it wasn't nearly enough.  Up next: Dayton has a day off too.