10 (Jesus Montero is a Beast; Daniel Brewer is Rolling; Austin Romine; Dellin Betances; Sean Black; Cito Culver; Rob Segedin; Thomas Kahlne)

Minor Leagues Report — By Tom K on September 3, 2010 9:44 pm

Scranton:

Jesus Montero (yawn) hit his 20th home run of the season, and also banged out a pair of doubles for good measure in a 10-4 Scranton victory.

Jorge Vazquez, Colin Curtis, and Chad Huffman also hit home runs.

DJ Mitchell earned the victory with five innings of three run, seven hit ball. He walked one and struck out seven and is now 2-0 with a 3.57 ERA for Scranton (17.2 IP, 19 H, 7 BB, 16 K, 0 HR). In 150.2 innings this season, he has allowed 147 hits while walking 64 and striking out 112.

Montero is the Scranton version of Mark Teixiera – got off to a start that you never thought he could come back from…then, you look at the stat sheet and you see a .291 average with 34 doubles, three triples, 20 home runs, 74 runs batted in and a .518 slugging percentage.

Juan Miranda contributed three hits, including a double, and a run batted in. —————————————– Trenton:

Three players each drove in four runs as Trenton slaughtered New Britain by the score of 20-6.

Daniel Brewer went 3-for-5 with a triple, four runs batted in, five runs scored, and a walk in the win. He is all the way up to .272 with 32 doubles, three triples, 10 home runs, 82 RBI, 81 runs scored, and 29 steals in 39 attempts. He is putting himself squarely onto the prospect radar.

Austin Romine went 2-for-6 with a pair of doubles and two runs batted in (.266, 30 doubles, nine homers, 67 runs batted in) while Corban Joseph went 2-for-5 with two doubles, two RBI, two runs, and a walk. He is now hitting only .215 as a member of the Thunder.

Austin Krum & Rene Rivera were the other two who contributed four runs batted in. Krum now has 17 doubles and is hitting .232 with 16 steals in 23 attempts.

Marcos Vechionacci, who finally hit that slump we were all expecting, contributed two hits (including a double) and three runs batted in. He is now hitting .281 after spending most of the season over the .300 mark. He is in a 6-for-41 slide.

Dellin Betances started, but didn’t pitch long enough to get the win. I know it is all about development, but if I was Betances, I would still be mad at myself for not getting through five innings in a 20-6 game. He went four, allowing three runs on five hits. He walked nobody and struck out five while allowing a home run. He has a 3.77 ERA for Trenton (14.1 IP, 10 H, 3 BB, 20 K, 3 HR). In 86.1 innings overall, he has allowed 53 hits while walking 22 and striking out 108. ——————————————– Tampa: Addison Maruszak drove in a couple of runs while Sean Black continued his strong pitching in a 8-4 Tampa victory.

Zolio Almonte contributed a hit and a run batted in while Jose Pirela scored a run, drove in a run, and stole his 29th base in 36 tries.

Black pitched eight innings, giving up three runs on eight hits. He walked nobody and struck out 12 to earn his first Tampa victory. In two starts, he has thrown 13.1 innings while allowing three runs on 10 hits. He has walked one and struck out 17. Black is a guy you don’t hear very much about, but he was outstanding after being drafted in 2009 and has been very strong since a rough start in Charleston. In 25 games (24 starts), he has thrown 129.1 innings, allowing 127 hits while walking 41 and striking out 109. He is a 22-year old out of Seton Hall. —————————————— Charleston:

As the organization was exploding with offense, Charleston was left out in the cold in a 6-2 loss.

Ramon Flores had one of the four hits the Riverdogs were able to scratch out. (10-for-37 since joining the squad). Robert Lylerly walked and scored a run. (.310/.352/.427 with 36 doubles, seven homers, 70 runs batted in, 34 walks, 128 strikeouts).

Francisco Gil (21, RHP) threw a scoreless inning of relief, striking out two to lower his ERA to 1.32 in 27 games (34 IP, 32 H, 0 HR, 12 BB, 24 K) ——————————————- Staten Island:

A nice seven-spot for Staten Island tonight as they cruised to a 7-4 victory.

Cito Culver woke up his sleeping bat with a three hit performance (now 7-for-38 with Staten Island), while Gary Sanchez walked, scored a run, and stole a base. No, speed is not supposedly one of his stronger suits.

Rob Segedin went 2-for-4 with a pair of runs batted in, while Kyler Roller also went 2-for-4 with a run scored. Segedin is now 17-for-60 (.283) with a .808 OPS. Roller is at .275/.371/.407 in 236 at-bats.

Thomas Kahlne earned his second save with a scoreless inning of relief. He struck out a batter and lowered his ERA to 0.60 (15 IP, 3 H, 4 BB, 24 K). Jesse Hoover, anyone? For those who don’t know, Hoover was drafted in 2004 and promptly put up a big strikeout year (90 Ks in 55.2 IP). But he then went down with a back injury that he rehabbed for THREE years. He did comeback for a few seasons, but just wasn’t the same. Kahlne is showing more control now than Hoover showed then (though Hoover also started some games), and has to be seen as a fast-track kind of reliever.

Shane Brown went 2-for-5 with a run batted in (.236/.379/.302). I just love these kind of “weird” stat lines. How does a guy who is showing very little in terms of hitting ability so far in his brief career walk so much? ——————————————