GCL Yanks wrap up season as Irene distrupts schedule

Apparently Jesus Montero hit a bunch of homers while I was on vacation, because he was named the fourth hottest prospect in the minors in this week’s Prospect Hot Sheet. Here’s some other stuff that happened while I was gone…

• Jorge Vazquez hit his 30th homerun of the season, tying Shelley Duncan’s Scranton/Wilkes-Barre single-season franchise record. He’s got another week-and-a-half to break it.
• Graham Stoneburner will not be playing in the Arizona Fall League despite missing all that time with the neck strain. I thought he was a shoo-in.
• No Yankees farmhands were named to the Double-A Eastern League All-Star Team. That’s the fancy end-of-season team, not the team that played the All-Star Game or anything like that.
• Triple-A Scranton’s run of four consecutive division titles will almost certainly come to an end. One more loss or one more Pawtucket win will knock them out of the race. Lehigh Valley’s magic number for the wildcard is two, so the Yankees are going to need some serious help to make the playoffs. The season ends on September 5th.
• Low-A Charleston was mathematically eliminated from postseason play. Double-A Trenton and High-A Tampa are both still alive but need to make a big run in the next week and a half. It’s entirely possible that all four full season affiliates will miss the playoffs (in the same season) for the first time in basically forever.

Triple-A Scranton was postponed due to Hurricane Irene. They’re going to play two on Monday.

Double-A Trenton Game One (7-4 loss to New Britain in seven innings)
Austin Krum, CF & Yadil Mujica, 3B: both 0 for 3 – Mujica whiffed
Corban Joseph, 2B: 1 for 2, 1 R, 1 2B, 1 BB, 1 E (fielding) – 11 for his last 29 (.379)
Austin Romine, C: 1 for 3, 1 R, 1 HR, 2 RBI – ISO is “up” to .088 this year after .134 last year
Rob Lyerly, 1B: 1 for 3, 1 K
Melky Mesa, RF: 1 for 2, 1 R
Damon Sublett, LF: 1 for 3, 1 R, 1 3B, 1 RBI, 2 K – Sublett committed a throwing error, and he’s now got more triples (seven) than doubles (six) or homers (two)
Jose Pirela, SS & Addison Maruszak, 1B: both 0 for 2 – Pirela drove in a run … Maruszak walked and whiffed
Jeff Marquez, RHP: 6 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 10-5 GB/FB – recently outrighted, so he can probably forget about a September call-up if he was expecting one
Kanekoa Texeira, RHP: 1 IP, 2 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 0 K, 1-2 GB/FB

Double-A Trenton Game Two got Irene’d. This was actually supposed to be Sunday’s game, which was moved up a day because of the storm. They play New Britain in the final series of the season, so I’m guessing they’ll make it up then.

High-A Tampa (6-5 loss to Brevard County)
Abe Almonte, CF: 1 for 5, 1 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 1 K – that’s his fifth homer, or the same amount he hit in 2009 and 2010 combined
Walt Ibarra, SS: 2 for 4, 1 2B, 1 RBI, 1 BB – 14 for his last 36 (.389)
DeAngelo Mack, RF: 1 for 5, 1 K
Luke Murton, 1B: 0 for 4, 1 K
Kyle Roller, DH & Neil Medchill, LF: both 0 for 3, 1 BB, 1 K – Medchill scored a run
Rob Segedin, 3B: 2 for 4, 2 R, 1 2B, 1 K – nine for his last 22 (.409)
Tyson Blaser, C: 2 for 3 – Cody Johnson pinch-hit for him in the ninth, then came around to score after reaching on a fielder’s choice … Blaser allowed a passed ball before that
Kelvin Castro, 2B: 1 for 3, 3 RBI, 1 K, 1 E (throwing)
Brett Marshall, RHP: 5 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, 7-3 GB/FB – 45-11 K/BB in his last 49.2 IP with a 2.21 GB/FB ratio
Kramer Sneed, LHP: 2 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, 1-1 GB/FB
Reinier Casanova, RHP: 2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 2-2 GB/FB

Low-A Charleston (15-3 loss to Savannah)
Jose Toussen, 2B: 2 for 5, 1 2B, 2 RBI, 1 K – had just one hit in his previous 27 plate appearances (.037)
Ramon Flores, DH: 1 for 4, 1 BB
Shane Brown, LF, Kevin Mahoney, 1B, Garrison Lassiter, 3B & Mike Ferraro, CF: all 0 for 3 – Brown walked and threw a runner out at third … Mahoney walked and whiffed twice … Lassiter walked, scored, and struck out … Ferraro got hit by a pitch, scored and struck out
Jose Mojica, SS: 2 for 4, 1 R, 1 K – third two-hit game in his last four contests
Wes Wilson, C & Taylor Grote, RF: both 0 for 4 – Grote struck out all four times, giving him 124 in 386 plate appearances (32.%) … he did throw a runner out at second though, so that’s good
Nathan Forer, RHP: 4 IP, 9 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 2 HB, 4-3 GB/FB – gave up two homers, so that’s eleven allowed in 64.2 IP (1.53 HR/9) this year
Francisco Rondon, LHP: 1.2 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 1 K, 1 WP, 1 HB, 1-2 GB/FB
Scottie Allen, RHP: 2.1 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 0 K, 4-2 GB/FB – first game in more than three weeks because of some injury

Short Season Staten Island got Irene’d. Sunday’s game had already been postponed and rescheduled as part of a doubleheader on Monday, but I don’t know what they’re going to do with this game since they don’t play Aberdeen again after Monday. They may just not make it up.

Rookie GCL Yanks (14-9 loss to GCL Pirates) last game of the season!
Jose Rosario, SS: 3 for 5, 2 R, 1 2B, 1 RBI, 1 K – Tyler Anderson replaced him late in the game and walked in his only plate appearance
Danny Lopez, CF: 0 for 2 – left the game after tracking down a fly ball in the fourth
Henry Pena, PH-CF: 1 for 3, 1 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 2 K – waited until the last day of the season for his first jack
Isaias Tejeda, C: 2 for 4, 3 R, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 1 HBP, 1 E (throwing) – finished the year at .331/.404/.568
Dante Bichette Jr., 3B: 2 for 4, 1 2B, 1 RBI, 1 BB – finished the year at .342/.446/.505 … second in the league in AVG and OBP, fourth in OPS (Tejeda is third)
Matt Duran, DH: 3 for 4, 2 R, 1 3B, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 1 BB – ten for his last 23 (.435)
Jackson Valera, 1B: 1 for 5, 1 E (throwing)
Fu-Lin Kuo, 2B: 1 for 4, 2 RBI, 1 BB
Jorge Alcantara, RF: 1 for 3, 1 R, 1 2B, 1 K, 1 SB, 1 HBP
Justin James, LF: 0 for 4, 1 HBP – threw a runner out at the dish … hitless in his last 15 at-bats
Hayden Sharp, RHP: 1.1 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, 1 WP, 1 HB, 4-0 GB/FB – not the prettiest start to his career, but it happens
George Isabel, RHP: 2.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, 1 WP, 2-2 GB/FB
Leonel Vinas, RHP: 1.2 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 1 K, 2-2 GB/FB
Corey Maines, RHP: 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K, 3-0 GB/FB
Adam Smith, RHP: 0 IP, 0 H, 4 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 0 K, 2-0 GB/FB – wow
Kenedy Agramonte, RHP: 1.2 IP, zeroes, 2 K, 1-0 GB/FB – allowed two of the three batters he inherited from Smith to score … he also got ejected for an unknown reason
Joel De La Cruz, RHP: 0.1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 K

As I said, the GCL season is over. The Yankees went 37-23 and led the league in AVG (.298), OBP (.378), SLG (.466), OPS (.843), runs (388), hits (625), doubles (150), triples (28), homers (51), total bases (975, second place team had 773 (!!!)), and stolen bases (116), not by a small margin either. They’ll take on the GCL Orioles in a one-game playoff sometime tomorrow. The winner of that game will advance to the finals and play the winner of the GCL Pirates-GCL Marlins one-game playoff in a best-of-three for the league title. Got it? Good.