For this edition of FOFM, I decided to take a closer look at a couple of the guys who are bit farther away at this point. Because let's be honest, by this point in the year, we know that Devin is ready to come up and that Maloney's AAA numbers will be giving people false hope that he could come up and perform at the bigs. Now that we have a bit of a sample size in rookie ball, we'll start to see who's standing out there, as well as a few notable A-ball guys.
Tony Cingrani
Since we normally have a bit of a hitter's bias on the Farmer's Market, I thought we'd switch it up today and lead off with a pitcher, and there hasn't been many out of this year's draft who have been as good as Cingrani. Our 3rd round pick this year was a reliever in college, but has started 8 games so far this year (less than 4 IP per start), and has a 1.78 ERA in 25.1 innings. More impressively is his 36 strikeouts to only 2 walks. He's throwing strikes, which is exactly what you want to see in rookie ball.
David Vidal
Yes, he was here last week, but he deserves to still be here with a .998 OPS in his last 10 games. Reportedly, his defense at the hot corner has been pretty decent too. Are we starting to see the heir apparent to the 3B job in 2013?
Christopher Manno
I think the Jonny Gomes deal is already paying dividends. Since arriving in Bakersfield, Manno has pitched 6 times for a total of 7 1/3 innings and has yet to give up a run. 14 strikeouts to 2 walks, and opponents are hitting .080 off of him. He's faced 7 lefties and gotten 6 of them out. Stud.
Billy Hamilton/Ronald Torreyes
The Dayton double play combo saw a pretty good July, but August has seen them both cool down. Hamilton is OPSing .602 in his last 10, and Torreyes isn't much better at .607. At least B-Snax has 80 stolen bases to keep us occupied.
Lucas O'Rear
Probably still recovering from the broken ankle he suffered playing basketball at Northern Iowa this past season, he's made his transition back to rookie ball and it hasn't gone very smoothly. He's thrown 34 innings so far (10 G, 4 GS) and currently has a 8.47 ERA and more walks than strikeouts. He's still projectable with his 6'7" frame, but it's tough to see a 22-year-old struggling in low rookie ball.
On to the weekend's games...
- Louisville won 1 of their 3 games over the weekend against Indianapolis. On Friday, they lost 3-2 despite a good start by Edinson Volquez. Wagon went 7 innings, giving up 3 runs and striking out 8. Unfortunately, he didn't get any run support, except a solo home run by Devin Mesoraco. They lost another close game 5-4 on Saturday. Denis Phipps was 2-for-4 with a double and triple, and Danny Dorn had the same unusual line as well. Daryl Thompson got the start and gave up 4 runs in 6 2/3. Sunday's game looked to be more of the same, until a Mike Costanzo single in the 9th drove in 2 runs to edge a 2-1 walk-off win. Matt Maloney gave up 1 run in 7 innings pitched with 3 strikeouts, and Jared Burton pitched 2 hitless innings of relief. Up next: Bats take on Indy at 7:05.
- Carolina won 2 of their 3 games against Montgomery. A big inning ended up costing them on Friday as they lost 12-7. Henry Rodriguez was 3-for-4 with 2 doubles and Cody Puckett homered. They bounced back to win 9-4 on Saturday. Justin Lehr started, and gave up 3 runs in 4 1/3 innings, and Bill Rhinehart was 4-for-4 with 3 RBI. Neftali Soto and Eric Campbell homered. On Sunday, they won 6-2 behind a stellar performance by Pedro Villarreal. Villarreal pitched a 9-inning complete game, giving up 2 runs on 4 hits with 4 strikeouts and no walks. Only 106 pitches, which is a promising sign. Eric Campbell was 3-for-4 with a homer, and Hank-Rod and Quintin Berry homered as well. Up next: Curtis Partch takes on Montgomery at 7:15.
- Bakersfield lost 2 of their 3 weekend games. They lost 5-2 to Rancho Cucamonga on Friday despite a 3-hit night by Ryan LaMarre. J.C. Sulbaran gave up 5 runs in 6 innings with 4 strikeouts. They won 8-7 on Saturday, despite a rough start by Daniel Renken. Carlos Mendez went 4-for-4 and Jorge Jimenez homered. They lost 5-2 on Sunday. Ryan LaMarre went 2-for-4 and Brodie Greene homered. Up next: The Blaze take on Visalia at 10:30.
- Dayton won 3 of their 4 games over the weekend. On Friday, they lost 10-5 against West Michigan. Juan Duran hit his 13th homer, and Josh Smith and Luca Panerati gave up 5 runs each. They won an extra-inning affair on Saturday 2-1 in 11 innings. Mitchell Clarke got the start, and threw 5 innings of 1-run ball. They made up a rainout game from last week first on Sunday, winning that one 9-2. Tanner Robles pitched 5 innings, giving up 1 run. Donald Lutz was 3-for-5. In the second game of the doubleheader, the Dragons won 7-1 (in 7 innings). Kyle Lotzkar pitched 5 shutout innings, giving up 1 hit and striking out 4. Kurtis Muller was 3-for-4 and Juan Duran homered, his 14th of the year. Up next: Daniel Corcino takes on Lake County at 7.
- Billings split their two weekend games. They won 5-4 on Friday. Kyle McMyne and El'Hajj Muhammad pitched 3 innings each, but neither factored into the decision as Robert Maddox singled home the winning run in the 9th. Nick O'Shea, Juan Silva, and Cristobal Rodriguez had 2 hits each. They suffered a bullpen meltdown on Saturday to lose 8-5. Wes Mugarian gave up 3 runs in 4 1/3 innings and Robert Maddox doubled twice to go 2-for-4. Up next: Tony Cingrani takes the hill against Idaho Falls at 9:05.
- The AZL Reds won both of their games. They beat the AZL Cubs 9-8 as Steven Selsky and Gabriel Rosa homered. They beat the AZL Tribe by the same 9-8 score, despite Lucas O'Rear giving up 6 runs in his start. Carlos Sanchez and Steven Selsky had 3 hits each. Up next: AZL Giants at 2.