Tony Cingrani
With a guy like Billy Hamilton on your team, it's easy to see why Cingrani has gone under the radar, but what a year he's having right now. He's currently the owner of a 0.32 ERA in 28 innings, with a 37/6 K/BB ratio. In the 79 innings he's pitched since being drafted in the 3rd round of last year's draft, he's struck out 117 and walked 12. That is INSANE. If he can keep this up, could he be a big leaguer next year?
Donald Lutz
The Knockwurst is having a decent year, but has come on especially well lately. In his last 10 games, he's OPSing 1.043, with 8 of his 11 hits in that span of the extra-base variety. He's also got 5 homers in that span, which is what we were hoping to see.
J.C. Sulbaran
He had a slow start, but he's come on lately. His 7 shutout inning performance in his last start was a good example of that, with 9 strikeouts in that game, making 16 in his last 2 starts. Let's hope his shaky start is behind him.
Yorman Rodriguez
Is it time to panic? Yorman's hitting .156/.181/.200 so far. He's 0-for-May and has no homers, but plate discipline is the most discouraging. He's already struck out 39 times, with only 3 walks, which is squarely into END territory. Time to get it together before Yorman becomes Yorordertakeratburgerking.
Felix Perez
With the whole "lefty bat off the bench" problem that's plagued the Reds all year, it's only natural that the lefty bats on the Bats would try and step up and earn a spot. Felix Perez looked ok in the spring, but is not playing himself into the conversation. He's hitting .203 with 1 extra base hit, and is OPSing .434 in his last 10 games. Woof.
The Entire Dayton Dragons Roster
7 straight losses, including getting outscored 19-1 over the weekend. Despite being in the top half of the league in pitching, they're second to last hitting .233 as a team and are now in dead last in the MWL East. We knew it was going to be bad in Dayton, but not this bad.
- Louisville lost all 3 of their games over the weekend. They lost 7-1 to Durham on Friday as Scott Carroll got shelled in a relief outing. Saturday's game against Indianapolis might have been worse, as the Bats got blanked 4-0, only collecting 5 hits on the day. Sunday's game was the best showing of the weekend, as Brett Tomko held the Indians to 2 runs in his 6 innings of work. Unfortunately, Josh Judy gave up the tie game in the 8th to lose 4-2. Chris Valaika and Neftali Soto had two hits each. Up next: The Bats take on Norfolk at 6:35, with the starter TBA.
- Pensacola won 2 of their 3 games. They lost 10-2 against Jackson on Friday, as Brodie Greene was 3-for-4 to lead the team. Unfortunately, Tim Crabbe and Clayton Tanner got shelled. Luckily, they shut out the Generals 4-0 on Saturday behind a dominant pitching performance by J.C. Sulbaran. Superstar pitched 7 shutout innings with 9 strikeouts (!) and 0 walks (!!). Justin Freeman pitched 2 shutout innings of relief to nail down the win, and P.J. Phillips and Cody Puckett hit homers to put the Wahoos ahead. It took 12 innings, but Pensacola managed to beat Mississippi 4-3. Henry Rodriguez was 4-for-5, and Josh Fellhauer and Didi Gregorius had 3 hits each. Tim Gustafson gave up 2 runs in his 6 innings in his start. Up next: Mark Serrano takes on Mississippi at 8.
- Bakersfield lost 2 of their 3 games. On Friday, they lost 4-2 to Modesto. Donald Lutz homered and Daniel Renken had a decent start, but the bullpen blew it in the 8th. They squeaked out a 7-6 win on Saturday, as Juan Duran clubbed his 3rd homer of the year. Josh Smith had a quality start on Sunday, but it wasn't enough as his bullpen blew up to lose 8-4. Knockwurst hit his 9th homer of the year and drove in all 4 runs. Up next: The Blaze start a new series against Lancaster, starting at 10.
- Dayton had a pitiful weekend, losing 5-0, 3-0, and 11-1. Daniel Tuttle had a quality start on Friday, and Tanner Robles wasn't bad on Saturday, but the offense didn't get anything going. Bad news. Up next: Dan Jensen takes on Fort Wayne at 7.