Minors Report 4/13/13: Sanchez Hits a Pair; Jose Campos Starts; Mason Williams: 2 Doubles

Minors Report for 6/24/10 (Brandon Laird Has Huge Day; Austin Romine; Hector Noesi; Andrew Brackman & Zolio Almonte Promoted)

In promotion news, Andrew Brackman was promoted to Trenton & Zolio Almonte was promoted to Tampa. Almonte is a 21-year old center-fielder. This is quite the leap for the young man. On the opposite side of the spectrum, Neil Medchill was demoted from Tampa to Charleston.

I am going to break from the normal format and start in Trenton, where a lot of today’s action was.

Trenton:

Brandon Laird hit two home runs and drove in seven as Trenton put up an 11-2 victory.

Laird had three hits overall, including a grand slam and a three-run home run. He is hitting .293/.344/.558 with 17 doubles, two triples, 18 home runs and 76 RBI. He’s even 2-for-2 stealing bases, for good measure. He has eight home runs in 82 June at-bats.

Austin Romine couldn’t quite live up to that, but went 2-for-4 with two runs scored and two runs batted in. Romine is now up to .294/.360/.447 on the season and has put up a 2-for-4 game in each of his last three games. To show how bad his slump was prior to this, he is now hitting .224 in June.

Hector Noesi threw another solid game. Noesi tossed seven innings of four-hit ball. He allowed two runs, walked three and struck out 10. He is now 4-1 with a 2.20 ERA for Trenton (45 IP, 36 H, 9 BB, 44 K, 5 HR). He allowed five earned runs in his first start for Trenton – he has allowed only six in his last six starts combined. Tim Norton continued his impressive relief work, throwing a scoreless inning while walking one and striking out two (5 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 9 K since promotion to Trenton). Norton is older (27) but is having a solid season that is hard to ignore (1,32 ERA; 5 BB, 41 K in 27.1 innings) ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————- Scranton:

Eduardo Nunez went 2-for-4 with a run scored, a double, and an RBI as Scranton won, 5-1. Nunez is now hitting .320 on the season. Reegie Corona contributed two hits (including a home run) and two runs scored to the winning effort. Corona is still only hitting .232/.301/.350 on the season, but is hitting .324/.343/.588 in his last 10 games and .259/.302/.420 in June. Corona’s numbers are weighted down a bit by an awful April (.488 OPS), but has picked it up a bit since then. He’s only 23, and a strong showing in Scranton could potentially put him on the trade radar as he has played short & second in his minor league career. The win went to Tim Redding, and that’s as far as we’ll go there. —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— Tampa:

The Shaeffer Hall Express continues to cruise through minor league lineups. Hall went six innings tonight, allowed two unearned runs on seven hits to lead Tampa to a 5-2 victory. He walked nobody and struck out six. Hall has been unbelievable since Day 1 this year. For Tampa, he is now 4-0 with a 0.77 ERA in 4 starts (23.1 IP, 20 H, 2 BB, 23 K). Overall, he is 6-2 with a 1.58 ERA (14 starts, 91.1 innings, 72 H, 13 BB, 69 K). As always, I am not sure what to make of him; other than the fact that all he does is dominate in every game he pitches.

In his debut, Zolio Almonte went 1-for-2 with an RBI, two walks, and a stolen base. The raw talent this kid has is really impressive.

21-year old shortstop Jose Pirela contributed three hits to the cause, driving in one and scoring one. He also drew a walk. Pirela is hitting .238 overall but is hitting .343 in the month of June. —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— Charleston:

JR Murphy is still playing here instead of in Staten Island…and tonight, he made a bid to make sure he stays here. Murphy went 2-for-5 with a double and an RBI but Charleston ultimately lost, 7-6. Slade Heathcott, who also has hung around Charleston, contributed a 1-for-4 night with a run scored. Heathcott is hitting .292 on the season. Murphy has his average up to .250 thanks to a 10-for-26 run (.385).

20-year old catching prospect Kyle Higashioka hit his 4th home run of the season in the losing effort.

Francisco Gil (21) pitched three innings of scoreless relief, allowing one hit. He walked nobody and struck out two (6 games, 0-0, 1.59 ERA, 11.1 IP, 11 H, 0 BB, 6 K) Gil has a very good arm, and just needs to stay healthy. Easier said than done sometimes. He missed the entire 2008 season due to surgery on his right elbow. He missed the beginning of 2010 as well. He threw 45 effective innings for the GCL Yankees last year. —————————————————- GCL Yankees:

Anderson Felix, a 18-year old second baseman, went 3-for-5 today to raise his average to .500 (9-for-18) with four doubles, a triple, and two RBI. 18-year old OF/1B Ramon Flores also improved to .500 today (8-for-16) with three hits of his own. Flores even got to play in a game for Tampa earlier this year.