DePaula strikes out seven in third start

April 16, 2013 by Mike Axisa 34 Comments

RHP Chien-Ming Wang will join the Triple-A Scranton rotation on Friday, the team announced. He had been working and getting stretched out in Tampa these last few weeks. I think it’s just a coincidence he’ll be lined up on the same day as Andy Pettitte, who is battling a back issue. Wang last pitched on Saturday and Friday gives him the typical extra day of rest.

C Austin Romine, meanwhile, is day-to-day after taking a foul pitch to the arm last night according to Donnie Collins.

Triple-A Scranton (1-0 win over Rochester)

2B Corban Joseph: 1-4, 1 R, 1 K
CF Melky Mesa: 2-4, 1 3B
LF Zoilo Almonte: 0-2, 2 BB — got picked off first … 12 walks in ten games after 25 walks in 106 games last year
RF Thomas Neal: 2-4, 1 2B, 1 K
RHP Mark Montgomery: 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, 1/1 GB/FB — 19 of 32 pitches were strikes (59%) … 12 strikeouts in seven innings so far
RHP Cody Eppley: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 1/0 GB/FB — 11 of 19 pitches were strikes (58%)

Double-A Trenton (5-1 loss to Akron)

CF Ramon Flores: 2-4, 1 2B — eleven hits in his last 26 at-bats (.423)
RF Tyler Austin: 0-4, 2 K — crummy day at the plate, but he did throw runners out at second and third
C J.R. Murphy: 1-3, 1 R, 1 BB, 1 PB
RHP Zach Nuding: 4 IP, 4 H, 5 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, 3/4 GB/FB — 52 of 81 pitches were strikes (64%)
LHP Jeremy Bleich: 4 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, 6/2 GB/FB — 34 of 57 pitches were strikes (64%) … he’s still kicking around

High-A Tampa (8-6 loss to Dunedin)

CF Mason Williams: 2-5, 2 K
LF Ben Gamel: 1-5, 2 K
C Gary Sanchez: 0-2, 2 R, 1 BB, 1 HBP — no hits today, but he’s been very good in the early going
RF Eduardo Sosa: 2-3, 2 R, 1 2B, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K
RHP Corey Black: 5 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, 1 WP, 7/0 GB/FB — still not sure if the starting thing will work out long-term, but I’m encouraged by the 18/6 K/BB in 16 innings

Low-A Charleston (3-0 loss to Rome)

SS Cito Culver & 3B Dante Bichette Jr.: both 0-4 — Culver struck out twice, Bichette once … they only had two hits as a team tonight, so no one was hitting
RHP Rafael DePaula: 6 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, 1 Balk, 4/5 GB/FB — 56 of 74 pitches were strikes (76%) … 23 strikeouts in 12.1 innings

Robinson Tilapia

Nice rebound by DePaula.

It looks like Zoilo’s doing his best to make himself part of the OF conversation in 2014. Good for him.
- forensic
  
  How good has he been so far? That 0-2 with 2 BB actually LOWERED his OBP for the season.
Devin

Rough night on the farm over all. Glad to see Depaula recover from the rough first. Showed some composure
- pablos banananana sammich
  
  Rough night on the farm over all. Glad to see Depaula recover from the rough snowshovel. Showed some composure
  - matt montero
    
    Yea that snowshovel was extremely rough, I’m impressed he recovered like that.
Leg-End

Monty can’t be far away from the show now.
- NeilT
  
  +1
Richard Leo

How did Zolio learn to walk
- Bob Buttons
  
  We all do at some point.
  - Baseballnation
    
    Bravo +1
Your grandmom

Corey black follows me on twitter. ??
forensic

I think there’s a typo in that AAA box score.

They seem to have a 0 in the K column next to Mesa.
YankeeGrunt

Sanchez threw out another runner. 3/6 on the year.

Also Black was one bad inning away from having a dominant outing. If he can sustain mid-90’s into the 5th or 6th and his secondary offerings come around starting could work.
- Rick
  
  My laziness could prevent this question, but was the inning early or late?
  - YankeeGrunt
    
    3rd inning of work, so smack dab in the middle.
YankeesJunkie

Considering this is Depaula’s highest level of competition so far it is good to see that he is at least fanning a ton of batters even if he is giving up runs here and there.
- Chip
  
  We don’t know how the defense is though. For all we know, he’s having weak hit balls that are getting through. The strikeouts are great and hopefully the walks will come down a bit more. I’d be surprised if he wasn’t in Tampa by the all-star break
  - Bo Knows
    
    Walks aren’t a problem, remember 4 of his 6 walks came in his last start where he only lasted 2 innings.
    
    Your right on everything else though I do think that he’ll be in Tampa by June
Pseudoyanks

I hope Culver didn’t read KLaw’s scouting report. He has sucked ever since.
- Cool Lester Smooth
  
  He went 2-3 last night…
  - Pseudoyanks
    
    Cool Lester Smooth and his damn facts!!!
    
    {Searching for the Sarcasm font.}
    - Cool Lester Smooth
      
      Haha, I try.
CS Yankee

Some good…Monty has one bad pitch this season, thought he had already pitched 9 though so far this year.
Some real good…Flores & Murph’ are on it.
Some bad…Romine no XBH & is Chavez brittle, Slade needing bubble wrap.
Some ugly…Tyler Austin & Gumbs
Some real, real ugly…Dbich and his sidekick Cito Butterburger Culvers

Not understanding the love for DePaula, K’s aren’t too impressive (at this level) and his ERA was a 4.5 tonight. Is he all that?
- Bo Knows
  
  The K’s and his peripherals are very impressive, ERA in the low minors is almost completely unreliable because the fields are no where near the quality of MLB fields and the defenses are porous to say the least. Also it’s not like De Paula is going through a ton of pitches either, he could easily have been in all his games longer, but its evident the Yankees are giving him an inning/pitch limit per game.
  - https://twitter.com/AngeloInNY Angelo
    
    This.
    
    Plus, 23 K’s in 12 innings is plenty impressive for someone who hasn’t pitched in the states or on a higher competition level than this.
    - Rick
      
      +1. 23 k’s in 12 inning is impressive at ANY level. Tough crowd. 18 k’s per nine, pssh it’s like everyone can do that.
- Voice of Reason
  
  I hope you’re joking about De Paula. ERA is never the most telling stat, judging anyone on it at this juncture is laughable – gonna go out on a limb here and say he’s not going sustain that .450 or so BABIP. And how are the Ks not impressive? Is that a general comment about Ks? If so, that makes no sense. If you mean De Paula specifically then it makes even less sense, I’m certain he has the highest K rate in the SAL by a wide margin.
Warfield 42

Some of you guys are brutal on Cito man. Give the kid a break – yes, he was over drafted. But he was because of the Yankees ties to him at such an early age (for one). Second – he’s a witch defensively. These early errors are not the norm, he’s VERY good defensively. He hasn’t shown weakness in the field until this little 3 week hiccup – cut him some slack. And you’re all correct in bemoaning his batting line to this point BUT…don’t forget he played in the NE (less than many of his peers) and our league isn’t exactly stacked with players of nearly his caliber to compete against. Since dropping the switch at the plate he’s been what we’ve been hoping to see (small sample size). He’s a great kid. I didn’t get the opportunity to coach him or against him (from the same town/suburb)as my son played East, Cito – West Irondequoit at the same time, because he did camps in the summers for elite players (but we know Chris and have watched him from very early on – my son played against him in HS a few times). Got a soft spot for the young man & the NE kids generally take an extra year or so to catch up…both to the talent level they are competing against, as well as the amount of AB’s they have missed by playing up North. He’s comin’ along about as I would expect. I know patience isn’t a good Yankees fan trait – I certainly don’t have any for this mess the Yanks are trottin’ out this year (who are playing WAAAY above my expectations this early) – but Cito works his Azzzz off, is as die-hard a Yankee fan as there is on the planet, and wants this more than you can possibly know. He is just simply a really good young man. Sorry for the rant…..
- jsbrendog
  
  working your ass off and being a good man and a yankee fan means nothing. nor does it mean people should go easy on him saying he sucks as a prospect if the evidence backs that up, which it does.
  - Rick
    
    Correct. Unfortunately working my ass off, being a good person, and a huge Yankee fan didn’t even get me to the minor leagues.
    - Peter Lacock
      
      Tell us how hard you worked your ass off to get to the minor leagues?
      
      I’d bet my life most people don’t know what truly working their ass off even means.
      
      I wish Cito were a lazy criminal. That would mean something, that would be better.
      
      Great points (Paul) Warfield. Cito is just s kid. I hope those that are judging him now get the same treatment and thrown under the bus if they get to be 20.
coolerking101

Saxon Butler got promoted to High A yesterday? That was quick.
- YankeeGrunt
  
  Matt Snyder is on the 7-day DL. Butler could stay there when Snyder gets back, but as of now he’s an injury replacement.
The Real Me

Nice to see the Yankees are continuing to add to their AAA pitching depth, even if he is an “unknown” …

“RHP Chien-Ming Wing will join the Triple-A Scranton rotation ” ;-)