Lots of games on tap today
Lake County is scoreless in the 5th. Alex Royalty has allowed 1 hit walked 2 struck out 5 in 4 innings. TBD in the nightcap. Benson has a hit and was picked off. Newcomer at 2b Wilbis Santiago after 4 summers in short season ball, is 23 as he debuts for the Captains. Freeman is out, did I see an injury reported?
Re: Minor Matters
9482Garza and Gallagher to pitch for the Hillcats
Plesac and Tully for Akron. Plesac and Ducks are scoreless in the 4th. 4 2 0 0 2 5 Plesac's ERA 1.08. Johnson is 1-2, hitting 311 OPS about 1060
Wojciechowski tonight for the Clippers
Plesac and Tully for Akron. Plesac and Ducks are scoreless in the 4th. 4 2 0 0 2 5 Plesac's ERA 1.08. Johnson is 1-2, hitting 311 OPS about 1060
Wojciechowski tonight for the Clippers
Re: Minor Matters
9483Have heard nothing about Freeman, and I expect I would. So I am guessing they just gave him Game 1 off and he’ll be back in Game 2.
Re: Minor Matters
9484and you are right! Santiago is new as the utility guy, that's all. In game 2 Freeman with his first home run and 6th steal and continues to look like a real solid bat
Last edited by civ ollilavad on Sat Apr 20, 2019 5:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Minor Matters
9485captains lost the opener 1-0. Won game 2 3-1. Oviedo with his 3rd no earned runs allowed start after his flop last time out. 6 2 1 0 3 5
Re: Minor Matters
9486Lynchburg down 3-0 in the 5th. Kwan's got his average back over 400 with a single and adds his 7th walk. ObP a bit shy of 500.
Garza's success didn't last. He left after 4 1/3 charged with the 3 runs.
Garza's success didn't last. He left after 4 1/3 charged with the 3 runs.
Re: Minor Matters
9487after an 0-7 start, Akron is now at 7-9 with 2 shutout wins, 1-0 and 2-0
Johnson with 2 hits and a walk in the opener
After Plesac's 5 innings Nick Sandlin debuted for the season with an inning, no hits, a walk, 2K
Tully with a very fine start, 6 innings, no runs, 4 hits, 1 walk, 6 strikeouts.
Karnichak with his first human performance: granted he still hasn't given up a hit and he didn't walk anyone but he struck out only 1 of the 3 hitters!
Johnson with 2 hits and a walk in the opener
After Plesac's 5 innings Nick Sandlin debuted for the season with an inning, no hits, a walk, 2K
Tully with a very fine start, 6 innings, no runs, 4 hits, 1 walk, 6 strikeouts.
Karnichak with his first human performance: granted he still hasn't given up a hit and he didn't walk anyone but he struck out only 1 of the 3 hitters!
Re: Minor Matters
9488only teams in action on Monday are Akron with Hentges trying to get on track; and Lake County. MILB.com says Oviedo is pitching but he worked on Saturday. Burgos follows him in the rotation.
The other two teams played on Sunday:
Columbus lost 11-9 and Lynchburg won 8-1
Bobby Bradley with a single and a double; hitting 282 with 2 homers; striking out just under 30% of plate appearances, about his career average but down from his rate in his Columbus debut.
Mercado single, walk, caught stealing. He's at 321 with an 897 OPS.
No bullpen help on the horizon: Hu who's on the 40-man roster 5 runs in 3 innings; Goody likewise on the roster continues his horrible April, 4 runs in 1 inning, ERA 14.09. Only other pitcher here available to promote without DFA'ing someone else is Edwards and I'm not sure if he's been down here long enough for a promotion, although I believe the 10-day rule is not affected by his 26th man one game promotion.
Henry Martinez with a 1-2-3 inning.
The other two teams played on Sunday:
Columbus lost 11-9 and Lynchburg won 8-1
Bobby Bradley with a single and a double; hitting 282 with 2 homers; striking out just under 30% of plate appearances, about his career average but down from his rate in his Columbus debut.
Mercado single, walk, caught stealing. He's at 321 with an 897 OPS.
No bullpen help on the horizon: Hu who's on the 40-man roster 5 runs in 3 innings; Goody likewise on the roster continues his horrible April, 4 runs in 1 inning, ERA 14.09. Only other pitcher here available to promote without DFA'ing someone else is Edwards and I'm not sure if he's been down here long enough for a promotion, although I believe the 10-day rule is not affected by his 26th man one game promotion.
Henry Martinez with a 1-2-3 inning.
Re: Minor Matters
9489Lefty Adam Scott with a good day on the mound: 5 1/3 3 1 1 1 8 ERA 3.18 K/BB 20/3 Avg against howerver is 304
Robert Broom and Kyle Nelson retain 0.00 ERAs
Kwan 1-5 slips to 365
Jones 2-3 up to 317
Oscar Gonzalez 3-4 including a triple, 4 RBI takes team lead at 377 Still has not drawn a walk.
Robert Broom and Kyle Nelson retain 0.00 ERAs
Kwan 1-5 slips to 365
Jones 2-3 up to 317
Oscar Gonzalez 3-4 including a triple, 4 RBI takes team lead at 377 Still has not drawn a walk.
Re: Minor Matters
9490BA's lines are the same as mine were:
CLE AAA Bradley, Bobby 1B 5 0 2 2 .286 2B (7)
CLE AAA Mercado, Oscar CF 4 1 1 1 .321 BB (8), CS (2)
CLE HiA Gonzalez, Oscar RF 4 2 3 4 .375 3B (2), SB (3)
CLE HiA Jones, Nolan 3B 3 2 2 0 .333
Today's their day for the weekly Hot Prospect list. I suppose Karnichak again won't rate. ; For the season 7 shutout hitless innings 2 walks 18 strirkeouts
CLE AAA Bradley, Bobby 1B 5 0 2 2 .286 2B (7)
CLE AAA Mercado, Oscar CF 4 1 1 1 .321 BB (8), CS (2)
CLE HiA Gonzalez, Oscar RF 4 2 3 4 .375 3B (2), SB (3)
CLE HiA Jones, Nolan 3B 3 2 2 0 .333
Today's their day for the weekly Hot Prospect list. I suppose Karnichak again won't rate. ; For the season 7 shutout hitless innings 2 walks 18 strirkeouts
Re: Minor Matters
9491Baseball players are creatures of habit, but RubberDucks reliever James Karinchak may have taken it to another level.
Every day it’s the same routine for the right-hander, who was taken in the ninth round of the 2017 MLB Draft. That’s because every day, the 6-foot-3, 230-pounder, who seems cut out from a cinder block, might be called upon to pitch.
It’s why he gets to the park at 1 p.m. for night games and stretches everything out until pitchers throw at 3 p.m. After that, it’s a trip to the locker room before getting to the field about an hour before first pitch.
“I try to lock in every single day and do the exact same thing,” Karinchak said. “Sometimes there will be variables. Sometimes it rains, but if you lock in every day, it creates a pretty consistent pattern. It’s been working so far.”
It’s worked to near perfection this season for Karinchak, who enters Saturday having struck out 17 batters in six innings of work. In those six innings, he hasn’t allowed a hit or run and walked only two batters. [His worst work of the year followed: struck out only one in his inning Saturday]
Karinchack, 23, had two save opportunities this season, including one in the series opener Thursday with the Bowie Baysox and has slammed the door each time. Friday’s game was postponed by rain.
“It’s helping keep his confidence level high,” Ducks manager Rouglas Odor said. “He’s looking for that release point, that drive and his arm action. He wants to have it all together and the more he does it, the more your brain will remember that.
“He believes in that and does it every single day. He does it in the weight room. He does it in the training room. He does it on the field. He does it even the days he doesn’t play.”
Armed with a 99 mph fastball, Karinchak keeps hitters honest with a solid curveball. The fact he can put both pitches in the zone has him well ahead of schedule.
Last season, he made 13 saves in 13 save opportunities and is a perfect 16-for-16 in saves in his minor-league career. He has a 2.54 career ERA in the 58 games he has appeared in over the last two-plus seasons and has struck out 129 batters.
“Throwing two pitches in the zone and being able to throw a curveball in there just out of the zone is a big help to me,” Karinchak said. “To have hitters thinking about two hitters is huge.”
That said, Karinchak isn’t looking ahead even though he has had success virtually at every level. He knows you’re only as good as your last appearance. He even looks at the one walk he gave up to Bowie in the 7-4 win over the Baysox on Thursday instead of the fact he struck out the side to pick up save No. 2.
“It’s not learning about the level, it’s learning about yourself,” Karinchak said. “This offseason, I was working on control. All the pitching coaches in the Indians organization were working on me. It’s worked so far.”
With guru Tony Arnold as the Ducks pitching coach, things should only get better the rest of the way. “He understands baseball is a game of adversity,” Odor said. “He knows there will be times you go out and don’t have your best stuff. When you give him the ball, you have a pretty good chance of winning the ball game. That’s just him. He’s that type of pitcher.
“He’s a big-league pitcher to me. He’s going to be able to pitch in back ends of games. There’s a lot of room for improvement. He’ll continue to learn and continue to find he can be more consistent on the mound. ... He has the type of stuff and ability to get people out.”
Every day it’s the same routine for the right-hander, who was taken in the ninth round of the 2017 MLB Draft. That’s because every day, the 6-foot-3, 230-pounder, who seems cut out from a cinder block, might be called upon to pitch.
It’s why he gets to the park at 1 p.m. for night games and stretches everything out until pitchers throw at 3 p.m. After that, it’s a trip to the locker room before getting to the field about an hour before first pitch.
“I try to lock in every single day and do the exact same thing,” Karinchak said. “Sometimes there will be variables. Sometimes it rains, but if you lock in every day, it creates a pretty consistent pattern. It’s been working so far.”
It’s worked to near perfection this season for Karinchak, who enters Saturday having struck out 17 batters in six innings of work. In those six innings, he hasn’t allowed a hit or run and walked only two batters. [His worst work of the year followed: struck out only one in his inning Saturday]
Karinchack, 23, had two save opportunities this season, including one in the series opener Thursday with the Bowie Baysox and has slammed the door each time. Friday’s game was postponed by rain.
“It’s helping keep his confidence level high,” Ducks manager Rouglas Odor said. “He’s looking for that release point, that drive and his arm action. He wants to have it all together and the more he does it, the more your brain will remember that.
“He believes in that and does it every single day. He does it in the weight room. He does it in the training room. He does it on the field. He does it even the days he doesn’t play.”
Armed with a 99 mph fastball, Karinchak keeps hitters honest with a solid curveball. The fact he can put both pitches in the zone has him well ahead of schedule.
Last season, he made 13 saves in 13 save opportunities and is a perfect 16-for-16 in saves in his minor-league career. He has a 2.54 career ERA in the 58 games he has appeared in over the last two-plus seasons and has struck out 129 batters.
“Throwing two pitches in the zone and being able to throw a curveball in there just out of the zone is a big help to me,” Karinchak said. “To have hitters thinking about two hitters is huge.”
That said, Karinchak isn’t looking ahead even though he has had success virtually at every level. He knows you’re only as good as your last appearance. He even looks at the one walk he gave up to Bowie in the 7-4 win over the Baysox on Thursday instead of the fact he struck out the side to pick up save No. 2.
“It’s not learning about the level, it’s learning about yourself,” Karinchak said. “This offseason, I was working on control. All the pitching coaches in the Indians organization were working on me. It’s worked so far.”
With guru Tony Arnold as the Ducks pitching coach, things should only get better the rest of the way. “He understands baseball is a game of adversity,” Odor said. “He knows there will be times you go out and don’t have your best stuff. When you give him the ball, you have a pretty good chance of winning the ball game. That’s just him. He’s that type of pitcher.
“He’s a big-league pitcher to me. He’s going to be able to pitch in back ends of games. There’s a lot of room for improvement. He’ll continue to learn and continue to find he can be more consistent on the mound. ... He has the type of stuff and ability to get people out.”
Re: Minor Matters
9492that was from the Beacon Journal; this if from "baseball essential" whatever it is
When I look at the Cleveland Indians farm system, there are three guys that stand out to me. The first, as I’ve mentioned, is Double-A second baseman Ernie Clement, and the second is Ryan Broom, a right-handed pitcher who was selected in the 2018 draft. The third guy, however, might be the most impressive of the trio.
In the ninth round of the 2017 draft, the Indians selected James Karinchak, right-handed relief prospect out of Bryant University. Karinchak is a reliever with a plus 12-to-6 breaking ball and a fastball that typically sits between 93 and 96 mph. He also brings a changeup, but realistically it’s no more than an extra pitch and will probably be scrapped altogether now that he’s exclusively pitching out of the bullpen.
His first look in pro-ball wasn’t encouraging, as he posted a 5.79 ERA over 23.1 innings in Short Season. Regardless, the Indians brass showed confidence in him and assigned him to full season A ball to begin the 2018 season. He responded by pitching 11.1 innings of one-run ball, earning himself a promotion to Class A Advanced, where his success continued and he allowed just three earned runs over 27 innings, good for a 1.00 ERA. As the season wound down, he earned a late-season call-up to Double-A Akron where he continued to impress, posting a 2.61 ERA over 10.1 innings.
Based on this performance, prospect analysts began taking note, but were troubled by his control and considered him to be a high-risk relief prospect who had the ceiling of a lockdown late-inning arm, but a more likely outcome of a high-octane taxi guy.
Fast forward to the present day: He began 2019 in Double-A and has since logged five innings of relief without allowing a run. While impressive, five scoreless innings for a reliever in Double-A isn’t necessarily a feat worthy of an entire write-up, so what’s all the hype?
Well, first of all, those five innings have not only been scoreless; he has not allowed a single hit while walking just one batter. Out of 16 batters faced, only one of them has reached base. The real kicker here, however, is that of the 15 guys who were unsuccessful against Karinchak, only one of them put the ball in play!
That’s right, James Karinchak has struck out 14 of the 16 batters he has faced. That’s an 87.5 percent strikeout rate and a 93.3 percent strikeout rate among all outs recorded.
Now, obviously, this level of production is not going to continue, but the fact of the matter is James Karinchak is legit and should be able to help the Indians bullpen by the end of the 2019 season. Make sure you monitor him as the season continues.
When I look at the Cleveland Indians farm system, there are three guys that stand out to me. The first, as I’ve mentioned, is Double-A second baseman Ernie Clement, and the second is Ryan Broom, a right-handed pitcher who was selected in the 2018 draft. The third guy, however, might be the most impressive of the trio.
In the ninth round of the 2017 draft, the Indians selected James Karinchak, right-handed relief prospect out of Bryant University. Karinchak is a reliever with a plus 12-to-6 breaking ball and a fastball that typically sits between 93 and 96 mph. He also brings a changeup, but realistically it’s no more than an extra pitch and will probably be scrapped altogether now that he’s exclusively pitching out of the bullpen.
His first look in pro-ball wasn’t encouraging, as he posted a 5.79 ERA over 23.1 innings in Short Season. Regardless, the Indians brass showed confidence in him and assigned him to full season A ball to begin the 2018 season. He responded by pitching 11.1 innings of one-run ball, earning himself a promotion to Class A Advanced, where his success continued and he allowed just three earned runs over 27 innings, good for a 1.00 ERA. As the season wound down, he earned a late-season call-up to Double-A Akron where he continued to impress, posting a 2.61 ERA over 10.1 innings.
Based on this performance, prospect analysts began taking note, but were troubled by his control and considered him to be a high-risk relief prospect who had the ceiling of a lockdown late-inning arm, but a more likely outcome of a high-octane taxi guy.
Fast forward to the present day: He began 2019 in Double-A and has since logged five innings of relief without allowing a run. While impressive, five scoreless innings for a reliever in Double-A isn’t necessarily a feat worthy of an entire write-up, so what’s all the hype?
Well, first of all, those five innings have not only been scoreless; he has not allowed a single hit while walking just one batter. Out of 16 batters faced, only one of them has reached base. The real kicker here, however, is that of the 15 guys who were unsuccessful against Karinchak, only one of them put the ball in play!
That’s right, James Karinchak has struck out 14 of the 16 batters he has faced. That’s an 87.5 percent strikeout rate and a 93.3 percent strikeout rate among all outs recorded.
Now, obviously, this level of production is not going to continue, but the fact of the matter is James Karinchak is legit and should be able to help the Indians bullpen by the end of the 2019 season. Make sure you monitor him as the season continues.
Re: Minor Matters
9493the Ryan Brown Mr. Essential likes is actually Robert Broom. Not sure why he's so excited about Clement when we have Jones and Freeman but to each his own,.
Re: Minor Matters
9494So far this year Tyler Freeman has walked 4 times for every time he's struck out.
4.0 BB/K Ratio.
How good is that? The next best guy in our system is Ryan Flaherty, who is at 1.18 BB/K ratio.
4.0 BB/K Ratio.
How good is that? The next best guy in our system is Ryan Flaherty, who is at 1.18 BB/K ratio.
Re: Minor Matters
9495Does Karinchak really hit 99 with his fastball? If so, it's hard to see why he's not much higher up on prospect lists, although relievers are always discounted from the top ranks.