Hanigan
Triple-A: Seven Bats have 2 hits, including Ryan Hanigan's homer, as Louisville won 10-3. Hanigan will probably see quite a bit of time behind the plate in Cincinnati when/if the Reds trade David Ross or Paul Bako, and he's done a nice job from the plate so far this season. Of course, he turns 28 next month. Matt Maloney struck out 7 in 6.2 innings, and he has been on point lately. In his past 4 starts, he's allowed just 5 earned runs in 27.2 innings, striking out 29 and walking 4. He might get his shot in the bigs once Josh Fogg implodes again.
Double-A: Chris Valaika went 3 for 5 with a homer and Sean Henry homered in Chattanooga's 15-4 loss. Valaika's got a 9-game win streak in which he's batting .385. It's taken a while but he has his Double-A OPS over .800. Through 58 games with Chattanooga, he's been much better than he was last year (one fewer game) with Sarasota. Valaika has 14 homers on the year.
Low A: Neftali Soto had 2 hits, including a double, in Dayton's 9-1 win. Soto has doubled in all 3 of his games for the Dragons. Matt Klinker allowed just 1 run and 3 hits in 7 innings, striking out 5.
Others: Sarasota lost 7-3. ... Alex Buchholz homered (his first as a pro) in Billings' 11-3 loss. ... The G-Reds lost 4-2. ... Cristobal Rodriguez had 2 doubles and a single in the D-Reds' 7-4 win.
Also, according to a Dayton Daily News story, first-round pick Yonder Alonso is still a long way from signing. According to scouting director Chris Buckley:
He hasn't played for a while. If he waits much longer, he won't be able to play this year.
Terrific! It's probably not a huge deal, though -- as of a couple days ago, only 13 of the first-round picks had signed with their teams.