Staten Island starts season with a loss

June 19, 2009 by Mike Axisa 53 Comments

Wilkins DeLaRosa has been placed on the DL, not sure why.

Pat Venditte is picking up some helium on this week’s Prospect Hot Sheet.

Triple-A Scranton (4-3 win over Indianapolis)
Kevin Russo: 2 for 4, 1 R, 1 2B
Austin Jackson & Shelley Duncan: both 0 for 4, 2 K
Cody Ransom, Eric Duncan & John Rodriguez: all 1 for 3 – Ransom drew a walk, drove in a run, cross the plate & committed a fielding error … J-Rod doubled, drove in three & walked
Juan Miranda & Justin Leone: both 0 for 3 – Miranda drew a walk & scored a run … Leone K’ed twice
Kevin Cash: 0 for 2, 1 R, 1 BB
Sergio Mitre: 6 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 1 HB, 12-4 GB/FB – 52 of 83 pitches were strikes (62.7%) … the GB/FB ratio is a good sign for the sinkerballer
Edwar Ramirez: 2 IP, zeroes, 4 K, 0-2 GB/FB – 19 of 30 pitches were strikes (63.3%) … vintage Edwar
Jon Albaladejo: 1 IP, zeroes, 1 K, 2-0 GB/FB – 8 of 14 pitches were strikes (57.1%)

Double-A Trenton (12-2 spanking of Binghamton)
Austin Krum: 2 for 3, 2 R, 3 BB, 1 K – I’d say the leadoff hitter did his job today
Reegie Corona: 2 for 5, 1 R, 1 2B, 1 BB
Eduardo Nunez: 2 for 3, 1 R, 1 2B, 3 RBI, 1 K
Noah Hall: 1 for 3, 1 R, 2 RBI
Jesus Montero: 3 for 5, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K – and just like that, he’s hitting .304
Chris Malec: 3 for 6, 1 R, 1 2B, 1 RBI, 1 K
Edwar Gonzalez & Marcos Vechionacci: both 2 for 6 – Edwar doubled, drove in a run, scored & K’ed twice … Vech hit a pair of jacks & drove in four
Kyle Anson: 2 for 4, 2 R, 1 BB, 1 K
Josh Schmidt: 4.2 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 1 K, 5-8 GB/FB – three spot starts, one run
Mike Dunn: 2.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 2-0 GB/FB – K/9 up to 12.41
Jose Valdez: 2 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, 2 WP, 2-1 GB/FB

High-A Tampa is off until Monday for the All-Star break. Austin Romine will be one of eight players participating in the Homerun Derby tomorrow at 6pm. You can see the All-Star rosters here.

Low-A Charleston (10-5 loss to Savannah)
Jose Pirela: 1 for 4, 1 R, 1 K, 1 E (throwing)
Ray Kruml & Chase Weems: both 2 for 4, 1 K – Kruml scored a run & drove one in
David Adams: 0 for 4, 1 K
Dan Brewer, Corban Joseph & Abe Almonte: all 0 for 3 – Brewer K’ed … Joseph drove in a run & committed a fielding error … Almonte drew a walk & K’ed
Melky Mesa: 1 for 2, 2 R, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K, 1 SB
Brett Marshall: 5 IP, 10 H, 9 R, 8 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 7-6 GB/FB – allowed three homers tonight after allowing just two homers in 63.1 IP all season
Dan Kapala: 4 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, 1 WP, 6-3 GB/FB

Short Season Staten Island (6-2 loss to Brooklyn) Opening Day, so you get the full lineup
Francisco Santana: 2 for 5, 1 K, 1 SB – yeah, I don’t know who he is either
Carmen Angelini: 1 for 5, 1 2B, 1 RBI, 1 K – drove in the first run of the season with an RBI groundout
Rob Lyerly: 0 for 3, 1 BB, 1 K, 1 E (fielding)
Luke Murton: 1 for 3, 2 K, 1 HBP – he used to hit behind Matt Wieters at Georgia Tech
Kyle Higasioka: 1 for 4
DeAngelo Mack: 0 for 3, 1 BB
Kelvin Castro: 1 for 4, 2 K, 2 E (throwing, fielding) – didn’t he used to be an infielder? I could be misremembering
Zoilo Almonte: 1 for 4, 1 R
Jimmy Paredes: 0 for 3, 1 R, 1 BB, 1 K, 1 SB
Arodys Vizcaino: 4.1 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, 1 Balk, 3-3 GB/FB
Cory Arbiso: 2.2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K, 7-0 – back for a second tour of duty with the Baby Bombers … I wonder if he’s pissed about the demotion after pitching well out of Charleston’s bullpen all year
Ben Watkins: 1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 K, 1 HB, 2-0 GB/FB

The Rookie GCL Yanks kick off their season on Tuesday.

Doug

Glad to see the nick Montero suffered yesterday didn’t keep him out of the lineup.

.304 BA is nice. 6/4 BB/K ratio is even better
- Bryan
  
  Am I the only one who thinks Edwar Ramirez’s performance in AAA has earned him another shot to be called up? Since being sent to Scranton he has pitched 18.2 IP 11 H 5 ER 25K/5BB. He didn’t show that type of control for the Yankees and if he had he never would have been sent down.
Doug

Pretty good start from Arodys. 7/1 K/BB ratio is very nice. What is his projection?
- Landon Alger
  
  compares self to Pedro Martinez in prime
  - Doug
    
    anything a little more realistic?
  - Accent Shallow
    
    And I’m sure Ryan Pope thinks of himself as Walter freakin’ Johnson 85 years later, that does not make it so.
- Bill O
  
  Nice job by Arodys. At some point this year I wouldn’t be surprised to see him in Charleston. Possibly after Marshall gets shut down after his innings limit.
Andy In Sunny Daytona

No error for Angelini? WTF?
- Tim
  
  Isn’t Staten Island a demotion for Carmen?
  - Doug
    
    yup
    - Tim
      
      Why did they demote him?
      - Tim
        
        Never mind, I used this amazing thing called google and found out he was hitting .197 in Charleston. Sorry for asking a stupid question.
      - Doug
        
        because his line in LoA was .197/.255/.258/.513. and he had a boatload of errors
        
        http://deleted RollingWave
        
        a boat load is a mild understatement, unless the boat is the Titanic.
        
        Doug
        
        was trying to be kind
http://bronxbaseballdaily.com Matt ACTY/BBD

I love Mike Dunn.
The Fallen Phoenix

It hurts to see Montgomery doing well in the Royals system in his first full pro season, considering he was presumably linked to the Yankees in the 1st round last year. I mean, you take Cole over him almost every single time given all the information the Yankees had when they picked, but…

Oh well. Hopefully it’ll be forgotten when Heathcott is slowly but surely making his way through the system.

Arodys’ line looks good. Marshall’s not so much. And if Montero isn’t a top-10 national prospect going into next year, I’m crying foul on the prospects publications (not that their opinions really matters to MLB organizations).
- Doug
  
  Well, those publications factor in position when doing their rankings. So if they don’t see him as a catcher and aren’t sure really where he’s gonna end up, that may knock him down a little bit.
  
  That said, if you had rankings based just on swinging the lumber, he’d certainly be top 10, maybe even top 5.
  - The Fallen Phoenix
    
    I guess the thing is, Lars Anderson gets a lot of praise from the publications (and rightly so), and he’s already at 1st base. And from what I can gather, he’s not exactly Mark Teixeira out there, either.
    
    So if Anderson, who is a year older than Montero – but whose bat isn’t *really* a full year ahead of his – can get consideration for top 10 status, Monterso should too.
    
    And I’m not using Anderson as an example because I’m trying to exploit so-called Red Sox favoritism, or anything of that sort – just because Montero and Anderson profile quite similarly as prospects, if you take away Montero’s position. And I know Montero gets a lot of knocks on his defense, and how he doesn’t “project” as an everyday catcher, but I seriously think that many of the publications have overstated that enough that Montero is somehow underrated nationally.
    - Andy In Sunny Daytona
      
      Two years older.
      - The Fallen Phoenix
        
        Yeah, you’re right, my mistake. I keep forgetting that Montero doesn’t turn 20 until November – which is absolutely absurd.
        
        Anyone
        
        I am always in awe after seeing Montero doing well and then when I remember his age, it makes his performance even more spectacular.
    - Doug
      
      montero’s actually 2 years younger than anderson. that’s how advanced his bat is. and anderson’s actually struggling a bit at AA so far
    - Bill O
      
      Montero should jump up the prospect rankings this year. Even if you don’t think there is a chance he can stick at C what he is doing at the plate at his age is simply remarkable. If he continues to hit at AA it would be hard to classify him as anything short of a top 20 prospect. I know some will probably still rank him outside the top 20 for whatever reason (too stubborn) but they would certainly be wrong.
      
      Jackson’s play at AAA should also warrant a move up the rankings as he’ll be one of the best ML ready prospects.
http://bronxbaseballdaily.com Matt ACTY/BBD

Good line for Kapa in relief; as for Melky Mesa: he’s just an org. filler guy, right?
- YankeeGrunt
  
  As I understand it he profiles as having plus power, he just K’s at a ridiculous rate. He’s gotten ever so slightly more patient this year, I think in response to coaches criticism, so if he can become a little more selective he could start moving through the system. He may settle down into a AAA outfielder, but he’s only 22 and has decent upside.
  - pat
    
    Agreed. Kid has ridonkulous batspeed. He can hit any fastball thrown his way. The curved ball is his problem, he will routinely miss a breaked ball by a few feet or so.
http://www.theyankeeuniverse.com/ The Artist

Wow, is that an ugly line for Marshall. But I do like the idea they let him take his lumps and keep pushing through it.
- Todd
  
  Yes. I think people tend to forget that the minors is for development, not particularly results. While results are nice, the important thing is that he develops his pitches–which sometimes takes players out of their comfort zone.
Accent Shallow

How long before we see Dunn in the majors? September?
- RalphieD
  
  i wish they would bump him up to AAA
daneptizl

The box score has Castro as a 2B.
- http://www.riveraveblues.com Mike Axisa
  
  Epic fail. He was sandwiched between the LF and RF, so I must have gotten confused. My bad.
  - daneptizl
    
    I don’t really care, just trying to help you get unconfused.
BklynJt

Good to see that a couple of guys from this years draft have already signed and started short season ball. Can we get a list of prospecs to keep an eye on in SI yanks
- J
  
  I’ll be following Gavin Brooks, Arodys Vizcaino, Kyle Higashioka, Angelini and Mack.
  
  I think Lyerly and Murton are going to put up numbers but I’m wary of their prospect status.
daneptizl

Dunn forged his age too. Just go look at his player page… dude looks at least 60.
TurnTwo

i feel like RAB has gotten a little lazy with the prospects coverage this year compared to last… especially with the draft coverage and profiles of the players taken compared with nomaas. it didnt seem like this year’s actual draft and post-draft coverage compared to last year’s.

maybe its just me, though.
- TurnTwo
  
  i also dont think i couldve fit “compared” any more in this passage if i really tried.
- Jake K.
  
  You should ask for your money back.
  - TurnTwo
    
    nothing wrong with a little constructive criticism.
    
    dont get me wrong… DotF is my favorite feature on RAB. i just feel like i had a better grasp on the draft class from RABs coverage last year than i did this year.
    - Jake K.
      
      Sure. But when considering Mike’s laziness let’s keep in mind that he does this everyday…for free.
      - http://www.riveraveblues.com Mike Axisa
        
        It’s not laziness, I just haven’t had any time. I’ve been planning to write up a draft recap for a week now, but I just haven’t been able too.
        
        TurnTwo
        
        which is what my guess would have been.
      - TurnTwo
        
        i never said anything personally about anyone on RAB; just a general comment. thanks.
        
        Todd
        
        I think you said what you said in a very respectful manner. I just think that if you have nothing nice to say, don’t say anything at all. Particularly when someone is providing a free service as a labor of love. Sometimes a simple “thank you for what you ARE doing” is better than concstructive criticism.
        
        Nomaas has excellent draft coverage FYI.
        
        emac2
        
        Does this post qualify as one that you shouldn’t ave made?
        
        Anyone who creates content is well served to have input from the people who “comsume” said content.
        
        Many people actually pay money for this input and if it is respectfully presented it should be respectfully received.
        
        There is no need for vigilante readers to protect the writers from reader comments and no benefit for anyone in having these comments discouraged.
Conan the Barack O’Brian

Whatever happened to Francisco Castillo? I know he popped up last year with GCL I think, but wasn’t he the Arodys Vizcaino of 2005?
- http://www.baby-bombers.com/ RPimpsner
  
  Castillo pitched earlier this year for the Newark Bears but is no longer with them.
Chris

Mike,
The Trenton box score shows Montero as 2 for 5, plus a reached on E. I think they may have changed the scoring on his third inning at bat (not like it matters much either way).
Drew

What’s more surprising, Ajax 0-4 or Marshall allowing ten hits 8 ER in 5 innings?
http://www.teamnerdrage.com leokitty

I was at the Cyclones/SI game tonight (going tomorrow too).

Angelini didn’t look clueless at SS, but I’d never actually seen him in person before. I go to a fair amount of SI games so we’re going to get acquainted pretty well, I’m sure. I have no idea what any of his errors have looked like outside of the boxscore so I have nothing to compare it to (were they errors because of range/was he rushing/etc).

One thing I noticed was that he is seriously taking his time on throws. I think is a sign that they were working on that sort of stuff with him specifically during his stay in EST.
- Rick in Boston
  
  I believe it was the throws that were causing him trouble, but to be certain I’d have to go through all of Mike’s DotF columns from earlier this year. If he is slowing himself down and controlling himself when throwing it’ll help. I’m hoping he does well with the bat and the glove this year so he can do better in his second go-around in Charleston next year.