Farmers Only: Bonus baseball for Louisville!

by BK on May 10, 2011 8:00 AM EDT in Farmers only

Louisville lost a marathon game to Rochester 7-6 in 18 innings, to tie a club record. Let's start with the offense. Yonder Alonso led off in this one (!) and went 3-for-8 with 2 doubles, and Daniel Dorn led the charge with a 4-for-8 night. Jeremy Hermida was 3-for-6 with 2 walks, and Juan Francisco was 2-for-6 with a double and an RBI in his rehab start. The only Bat starter to not get a hit in this one was Devin Mesoraco, who went 0-for-8. Dontrelle Willis got the start, going 5 2/3 innings and giving up 5 runs (3 earned). Jerry Gil pitched next and pitched a scoreless 1 1/3. After Louisville took the lead in the top of the 8th, Carlos Fisher gave up a run in his first inning of two, to leave the score knotted at 6. From there, David Johnson, Jeremy Horst, and Joseph Krebs pitched 8 shutout innings of relief. Daniel Ray Herrera came out for the 18th and retired the first two batters quickly, but a flare shot, two infield hits, and another base hit gave the Red Wings the walk-off victory. Up next: The depleted Bats will take on Rochester again, with Scott Carroll taking the hill at 7:05.
Carolina beat Birmingham 8-7. Quintin Berry led the team with 2 hits, and somehow the Mudcats scored 8 runs on 6 hits overall, with Felix Perez and Jake Kahaulelio driving in 2 runs each. Matt Klinker gave up 5 runs in 5 innings in his start, and the bullpen really stepped it up in the later innings, with James Adkins, Nick Christiani, and Donnie Joseph combining for 3 shutout innings to secure the win. Up next: Daryl Thompson takes the hill against Birmingham at 8:05.
Bakersfield had an off day yesterday. They'll take on Visalia at 10.
Dayton lost 5-4 to West Michigan. Josh Smith had a kind of rough outing, giving up 4 runs in 3 2/3 innings, although 2 of them were unearned. David Vidal and Dominic D'Anna had two hits each, with the latter hitting his 2nd homer of the season. Billy Hamilton was 0-for-5 with 3 strikeouts, but still managed to steal his 23rd bag of the season. Up next: Daniel Corcino leads the bounce-back effort against Lake County at 7.

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I guess Corky sees some action tonight

Mesoraco caught all 18 innings.

Hamilton’s starting to worry me. Errors 13 and 14 last night.

When you come to the fork in the road, take it.

by poojols on May 10, 2011 8:07 AM EDT via mobile reply actions

18 innings? That's ridiculous.

I’ll be surprised if the guy still has any knee fluid left when the Reds finally call him up.

by FordhamRam on May 10, 2011 8:28 AM EDT up reply actions

Corky's catching about 30%

with Meso at DH 1-2 times a week. So it’s not like he’s normally overworked behind the plate. Still, 18 innings in one night?

You're never as bad as you look when you lose. You're never as good as you look when you win.

by JasperRed on May 10, 2011 6:15 PM EDT up reply actions

Errors in the minors can be deceptive.

Dave Concepcion made 35 errors as a 21-year-old in A-AA ball. Omar Vizquel made 25 errors in back-to-back seasons as a 20-21 year old. Both of those guys turned out alright. Variables from field quality to how much help your 1B gives you can really make a player look good or bad defensively.

Also, don’t forget that defense slumps just like offense. He could just be going through a bad stretch right now.

I wouldn’t worry about high error counts unless it’s consistently a problem year after year.

Follow on Twitter: @jluckhaupt. Buy The Wire-to-Wire Reds and The MSP Reds Annual today!

by Slyde on May 10, 2011 10:40 AM EDT up reply actions

Depends on the errors, yes ...

If they are throwing errors, he can be taught to improve that and will get some help with a quality 1B. Fielding errors do depend some on the field but that’s not the issue it once was. Most minor-league infields are up to snuff now. (snuff snuff).

Hamilton has some good range and he may be in too big a hurry to get outs that he has no business trying to get, simply because he got to a ball that should have been a hit anyhow.

Case in point: Starlin Castro.

One way or the other – there is no middle ground on BCB – either you are in a coma from drinking the kool-aid or you are holding a cute sign while waiting for gravity to kick in…

by johnu1 on May 10, 2011 11:10 AM EDT up reply actions

The biggest reason it concerns me is that Hamilton is seen to have questions regarding whether he can stick at shortstop

And the biggest is that his arm is fringy. I would like to know what specifically the errors have been, if some have been because he’s thrown the ball away because he’s trying to muscle the throws, there’s concern there that his arm isnt good enough for the position. If the errors are more fielding oriented, perhaps his talent will eventually bare out and he will correct them. hes still a mighty raw prospect, so I give him the entire year at short, since I think a move to second is all that drastic a move from short. hopefully he is able to straighten this part of his game out, but if he’s the heir apparent to phillips at 2nd, I can live with that.

by pack_fan on May 10, 2011 3:47 PM EDT up reply actions