June minor league game thread

Lose Remerswaal

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Went to McCoy today, 8700 in attendance per the box score, but I'd say 3000 were dressed as empty seats. Shame how many fewer folks are showing up there lately. Spoke with one usher friend who thinks it's due to the Providence gambit. Wilkerson looked good. Speed gun wasn't operating first 5 innings, but his fast ball was running at 90-91 mph, and his offspeed stuff about 10 mph slower. Must have had 20 swing and misses, mostly on the fastball (7K in 6IP). Wind was whipping in from LF, but Brentz hit a line drive shot in the 2nd inning off the RF wall for a double and scored a couple batters later for the only run of the inning. Pawsox only had 3 hits (Brentz, Solis had the other 2 and the RBI (first two hits he's had for Pawtucket). Robbie Scott baffled Louisville for 2 innings with 84 mph junk (4 Ks) and Noe Ramirez got a dp and a dribbler for the save in the 9th.
 

AlNipper49

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You got seats behind home plate to see our amazing top pitching prospect - I'm jealous, dude! But thanks for the pic
That section is mostly season ticket holders so you're usually good for a bunch of empty seats to be open. We moved up.
 

moondog80

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Went to McCoy today, 8700 in attendance per the box score, but I'd say 3000 were dressed as empty seats. Shame how many fewer folks are showing up there lately. Spoke with one usher friend who thinks it's due to the Providence gambit.
That's BS, mostly anyway. The Providence thing happened just before the 2015 season, attendance had been in decline long before that:

2005: 9561
2006: 9289
2007: 8861
2008: 9097
2009: 8937
2010: 8343
2011: 8270
2012: 7551
2013: 7827
2014: 7367
2015: 6572
 

Lose Remerswaal

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Interesting stuff. I know good seats were easier to get last year and yesterday (our first McCoy trip this season), didn't know the trend went back that far. Economy? Increase in ticket prices? Less "Blue, the frisbee chasing dog"?
 

moondog80

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Interesting stuff. I know good seats were easier to get last year and yesterday (our first McCoy trip this season), didn't know the trend went back that far. Economy? Increase in ticket prices? Less "Blue, the frisbee chasing dog"?
My pet theory is they were able to ride the wave of the renovated stadium and then the peak of Red Sox Nation, but things leveled off after a while. But who knows? I'm sure there were a few people who stopped going because of the proposed move, but like with Hobby Lobby, the people most up in arms were the people who never went there in the first place.
 

Cesar Crespo

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Chavis with a home run today. Seems like he hasn't missed a beat. I wonder what the plan is for him moving up to Salem.
I'd guess once he gets to about 150 PA and shows he is fully recoved, Chavis will be in Salem. He, Longhi and Devers will probably do the same 3 man rotation thing they did in Greenville.

It'll be interesting to see if Alejandro Basabe gets promoted to Salem when Moncada and Dubon move to Portland. If that happens, Vinicio or Lin would be demoted back to Salem. I'm guessing Ockimey will stay put for now because of the strikeouts and the glut at 1b/DH in Salem if Chavis does get promoted.
 

Byrdbrain

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Kopech with 4.1 Innings 4H/4BB/4SO but 0 runs.
Word is he was sitting mid-nineties and hit 99.
 

Lose Remerswaal

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Wilkerson with 7 strong innings last night. 5 hits, 2 walks, 1 run. If Buchholz doesn't get 'er done, or they decide to send EdRo out for more seasoning, I bet he gets the next shot. Especially because Cuevas shit the bed his last start (6 innings, 9 hits, 6 ER)
 

smastroyin

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Moncada just got promoted to Portland.

Benintendi slumped through his promotion but has been better recently.
 

EL Jeffe

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I was able to see Benintendi Saturday evening as Portland came to town against Richmond. Awesome evening of baseball:

  • AB had two hits: one was a grounder that leaked pass the 2nd baseman; wasn't particularly well struck and a play I'd imagine most MLB 2nd basemen would make. He showed good wheels on the basepaths after that though as he went from 1st to 3rd on a hit and run single and then scored on a suicide squeeze. The luck evened out later though when he lined out to the pitcher on a really well hit ball. His 2nd hit of the evening was an absolute rocket of a HR to right center field. Dead center is 402' in Richmond, and Benintendi's blast cleared the wall easily. The power is real.
  • Defense was as advertised but he didn't have to make any difficult plays. He did appear to lose one lazy fly ball in the sun and had to make a sliding basket-catch, but the rest of his night in CF was uneventful.
  • My family was able to meet him after the game; the Portland bus happened to be parked near where we were parked so we waited a few minutes for the players to come out. He took a pic with my son and he signed everything that fans gave him. He was really patient and cool about the small crowd, so it was nice to see he's still hubmle.
Couple of other notes:

  • Maddox got the start and looked solid. Not a ton of juice in the arm and he sat 90-92; hit change-up missed bats and sat 83. Smooth looking delivery and Richmond didn't hit anything hard off him.
  • Ysla sat about 94mph but the delivery wasn't nearly as smooth as Maddox's. He got hit pretty hard, the control wasn't great and he wasn't missing many bats. I know Sox Prospects is high on him, so hopefully I just caught him on a bad night.
 

jmm57

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This isn't a Red Sox prospect, but there were a lot of people on here that hoped the Red Sox would get Austin Meadows in his draft. After a tough start this year coming back from the broken orbital bone, Meadows is absolutely scorching.

In his last 24 games (hit streak) at AA he went .404/.441/.851(!), and then followed it up by going 4-9 with a HR and a triple in his first two games at AAA. 7 HR, 7 3B and 12 2B in the 26 games.
 

Cesar Crespo

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In 161 PA since April 27, Luis Alejandro Basabe: .331/.435/.515. 24bb/32k 17xbh, 10sb/2cs.

Tate Matheny, the Redsox 4th round pick last year, is now hitting .313/.355/.464 in 213 PA. At 22, he is a bit old for Greenville and really struggled last year. He has 19bb/44k. Pretty much all of his production has come in the month of June, where he his hitting .392/.466/.647 with 2 Hrs, 6bb/13k in 57 PA. Austin Rei, the teams 3rd round pick, has been awful and combined with last years result, isn't look like a good pick. .216/.346/.301 over 185 PA. His pro career to date: .200/.321/.298 in 315 PA.

Ockimey is now at .297/.435/.531 for the year. However, in 48 PA vs lefties, he is only hitting .250/.313/.386. In 213 PA vs R, he is slashing .309/.463/.570.

The other Basabe had an absolutely dreadful May suppressing his overall line but the strike outs are very alarming, with a 29.5% k rate. He has bounced back a bit in June, posting a .288/.373/.462 line in 59 PA. Unfortunately, he also has 15ks in those 59 PA. Ultimately, he's looking like the same exact player he was last year and is putting up a similar performance.

Kyri Washington is also having an interesting year in Greenville but will be 22 in a month and doesn't have much of a pedigree. He is at .282/.309/.530 for the year, with 8bb/53k in 191 PA. He has 9 Hrs and 9 Sb.

Dubon is at .306/.387/379 with 33bb/25k in 279 PA. He is 24/28 in SB. Nick Longhi continues to build on a solid career and is slashing .280/.357/.384 in Salem, while still only being 20 years old.

2015 7th round pick Ben Taylor has a 2.60era in 45ip with 56k/10bb in Salem. He is 23 so should be promoted soon. 6th round pick Travis Lakins has 59k/24bb in 57.1ip but has been hit pretty hard to the tune of a 5.65 era.

2014 3rd round pick Jake Cosart has 51k/19bb in 34 innings and has been unhittable, but the walks are a huge concern.

Other fringe guys having ok years: Aneury Tavarez seems to fair better when he repeats a league and is hitting .300/.359/.418 in Portland. His problem has always been plate discipline. Henry Ramos is now in AAA and has always had a ton of potential but saw his last 2 seasons lost with injury. He is hitting .286/.330/.403 for the year. Ramos is a switch hitter and Tavarez bats lefty so it's possible one of the two could be in Boston at some point this year, probably Ramos. 23 yo Chandler Shepherd has 39k/10bb in 30ip at AA this year. His era is 1.80.

And then there is Aaron Wilkerson, the 27 year old who has put up a combined 75.1ip between AA and AAA. For his minor league career, he is now at 262ip, 276k/72bb with 10 HRA and an era of 2.47. He has only given up 193 hits.
 

nvalvo

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Benintendi has an OPS of .966 in has last two weeks (13 games). 17/58, 6 2B, 3 HR, 48 BB/K. I'd say he's made the transition.
 

MyDaughterLovesTomGordon

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You guys gotta come see more games in Portland. Moncada leading off, Benintendi hitting 3rd.

Team is basically awful, but these guys hit the ball hard all the time.

Moncada's first AA bomb tonight was a laser opposite field, and Benintendi doubled to the base of the wall. Both are fun to watch.

But, man, team as a whole only has 29 homers... Reading tonight had 3-4 hitters with 19 and 20 respectively.
 

Cesar Crespo

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Raudes bounced back from his worst professional start. Most likely done, 5ip, 3h, 1 hr, 1 er, 6k/0bb.
Ball through 5: 5ip, 2 hits, 5k/1bb.

Ramos also continues to hit, which is promising. .323/.333/.508 in 65 at bats in AAA. He was a legit prospect before all the injuries derailed him in 2014 and 2015.
 

wade boggs chicken dinner

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Here's life in the minors. Salem has 2 hits but goes up by six runs after:

Error, error, single, force out (run scored), sac fly, error, walk, walk (run scored), double (three runs scored, batter is out at 3rd).

Ball with a nice game so far.
 

LuckyBen

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Ball finishes with 7ip 2h,0r, 6k, 2bb.
He has really done well this season, repeating the same level again or not. In the few videos that I have seen of him, he seems to have really matured from last year. Locating his pitches and refining his off speed.
 

Cesar Crespo

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He has really done well this season, repeating the same level again or not. In the few videos that I have seen of him, he seems to have really matured from last year. Locating his pitches and refining his off speed.
His peripherals aren't very good. 38k/29bb in 59 innings. He has only given up 2hr which is a big improvement over last year but is also probably fluky. The one thing that does pop out at you this year is the 1.49 GO/AO rate, where the last 3 years were .67, .75 and .74 respectively. Does anyone know a site that shows actual groundball rates for minor league pitchers? GO/AO isn't the greatest.
 

RoDaddy

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Yeah, the lack of domination is what bothers me about him. He doesn't strike out many batters, and up until this year, gave up too many hits. This year, hits are down so that's good but as you say, too little Ks and too many walks. Today was his best game this year and a rare dominant outting so there's some hope

10D with 3 hits and a walk today - good to see him adjusting to AA pitching. Predictably, the top Salem guys moving up (10D, Moncada, Dubon) have been a shot in the arm to Portland
 

Chainsaw318

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His peripherals aren't very good. 38k/29bb in 59 innings. He has only given up 2hr which is a big improvement over last year but is also probably fluky. The one thing that does pop out at you this year is the 1.49 GO/AO rate, where the last 3 years were .67, .75 and .74 respectively. Does anyone know a site that shows actual groundball rates for minor league pitchers? GO/AO isn't the greatest.
Per Sox Prospects sabermetric stats, he is 50% GB, 21% FB, 20% LD. Don't know if that includes today.

http://www.soxprospects.com/stats/pitching.php?split=0&page=1&sortby=RCa&team=414&year=2016&type=3&min=0