DePaula strikes out six in latest start

April 27, 2013 by Mike Axisa 24 Comments

RHP Graham Stoneburner has been bumped back up to Triple-A Scranton in the wake of the LHP Vidal Nuno promotion, reports Mike Ashmore. LHP Josh Romanski was activated off the DL to fill the Double-A Trenton roster spot.

Triple-A Scranton was rained out. They’re going to play a doubleheader tomorrow.

Double-A Trenton (6-0 loss to Portland)

LF Ramon Flores: 2-4, 2 K
RF Tyler Austin: 0-4, 3 K
C J.R. Murphy: 0-3, 1 BB, 1 HBP
CF Slade Heathcott: 0-3, 3 K — that’s 20 strikeouts in 62 at-bats … he’s been pretty overmatched so far
RHP Zach Nuding: 6 IP, 8 H, 5 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, 8/3 GB/FB, 2 E (both throwing) — 62 of 94 pitches were strikes (66%)
RHP Tommy Kahnle: 1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 1 K, 0/1 GB/FB — only 13 of 29 pitches were strikes (45%) … seven strikeouts and six walks in his last three innings

High-A Tampa (6-5 loss to Clearwater)

CF Mason Williams: 1-5, 1 K
2B Rob Refsnyder: 3-3, 1 R, 2 2B, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 1 HBP, 1 E (throwing) — good that he’s mashing, but that’s also his fifth error in nine (!) games at this level
LF Ben Gamel: 0-5, 1 R, 2 K
C Gary Sanchez: 1-4, 1 R, 2 RBI, 1 BB — the best prospect in the system, but he’s almost like a forgotten man right now … just keeps plugging along and producing
RHP Corey Black: 5 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, 1 WP, 5/6 GB/FB — 25 strikeouts in 25.2 innings
RHP Matt Daley: 2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, 1 HB, 0/1 GB/FB — first outing since 2011 thanks to a shoulder injury that has sidelined him for the last 18 months or so … he’ll work his way up to Triple-A eventually

Low-A Charleston (15-5 win over Kannapolis)

RF Jake Cave: 2-5, 2 R, 1 3B, 1 RBI — eight hits in 22 at-bats (.364) since the promotion
SS Cito Culver: 0-4, 3 R, 2 BB, 3 K
1B Greg Bird: 4-6, 3 R, 1 2B, 2 RBI, 1 K — had four hits in his previous 23 at-bats (.174) combined
3B Dante Bichette Jr.: 2-5, 1 R, 1 2B, 1 RBI, 2 K
C Peter O’Brien: 1-5, 1 R, 1 HR, 5 RBI, 2 K — 12 of his 18 hits are for extra-bases (nine doubles and three homers)
CF Taylor Dugas: 1-1, 2 R, 1 2B, 1 RBI, 2 BB, 1 HBP — dude is just an on-base machine
RHP Rafael DePaula: 5 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, 1/3 GB/FB — 50 of 82 pitches were strikes (61%) … up to 39 strikeouts in 22.1 innings (15.7 K/9)

CONservative governMENt

Loving our positional prospects this year. Hoping some pitchers emerge this year to join DePaula. Ramirez could do it.
Josh

Going to Triple A game tomorrow in Charlotte, hoping to get a pic with CMW
- Stan the Man
  
  Hopefully it won’t be rained out again today. If it is rained out will they just do back to back doubleheaders?
Jacob the OG

Dugas is the guy someone said would be one half of a platoon correct? Guy is an OBP machine and I would love to see him hit the bigs
- Laz
  
  Would love to see him as a regular. His problem is that he is a powerless, unspeedy LFer. If he can keep his obp high enough he should be able to stay on a roster though.
Jacob the OG

and where is aune?
- Cool Lester Smooth
  
  He’s in Florida, waiting for the NY-Penn League season to start.
alex C

The link to the Charleston box score goes to Ashmore’s Twitter lol.
your mom

Slade’s looked like shit so far.
Now Batting

Sucks seeing a Boston prospect in AA dominate our prospects, even if he is a bit older.
forensic

Is Anthony Ranaudo as good as he showed today in the Trenton game, and this season, or is it a little bit of a fluke? Last year his ERA was nearly 7 with as many walks as strikeouts.

I assume the answer will be ‘He’s somewhere in between’ but I thought I’d ask anyway.
- Laz
  
  Roughly the Sox 15th best prospect, and former high pick. Probably has a decent ceiling, but alot of issues to work out.
- Lester Bangs
  
  I hear he could be the next Casey Kelly.
  - SeventhAce
    
    I heard he could be the next ~~Casey Kelly~~ Cy Young.
forensic

I was going to say something about how Austin’s K% is actually a tick higher than Heathcott’s, who you said is overmatched…

But then I looked at Heathcott’s slash line. Wow, that sub-.500 OPS is much worse than I thought. I knew he was struggling a bit, but that’s insane.
- Bo Knows
  
  check this out, this is slades statistical breakdown he’s currently hitting well over 63% of the balls on the ground, which is just impossible to keep up, he also has a 9% line drive rate.
  
  http://minorleaguecentral.com/player?pid=571761
  - forensic
    
    It’s hard to stay that high on grounders (though extreme groundballers like Jeter will hang out up there) and the line drive % is low, but really all that’s telling me is how poor the contact that he’s actually making is and that he is getting kind of overmatched by what he’s seeing there at the moment. If he had a history at this level with better numbers and these were way off, I could come to a different conclusion, but that isn’t the case (which is part of the problem with people trying to anayze minor leaguers anyway).
    
    Also, people always wants to point at BABIP and just say it’s bad luck to explain someones bad performance that they don’t want to believe in (not saying you’re doing that since you didn’t mention BABIP specifically, just commenting in general), but sometimes that player is just being beaten by the pitches and pitchers and there’s more to it than luck.
    
    It could just be that he’s not quite at the skill level needed here at this point. Maybe his injury history (or even off-the-field stuff) is catching up to him and slowing his development down to where he’s not quite ready for this yet. Maybe it’s just that he’s slow adapting and adjusting to the level.
    
    Either way, it’s not good timing as he’s been around so long and is now Rule 5 eligible after the season. There’s a ton of time left in the season of course, but if he can’t adjust and improve at this level, or even needs a demotion at his age, it’s likely not even worth adding him to the 40-man.
    
    I’m far from a prospect guy, but it seems like the Yankees add a guy or two to the 40-man every year to avoid the rule 5 who maybe shouldn’t deserve the spot, and then they run into 40-man clog-ups and issue like they’re having this season.
    
    But I digress, just looking down the road a little bit with him. These issues are part of why I’ve never been as high on him as so may others here, just too many things going against him in my opinion.
    - Laz
      
      Every team has a near full 40 man because of the same reason. Everyone on the 40 man is either in MLB, or could eventually have an impact. If he is showing enough talent a team like Houston could take a shot on him, they have nothing to lose.
    - Bo Knows
      
      I’ll put this way, Cito Culver has a rate in 40’s, even Jose Iglesias a player everyone knows can’t hit a lick and has never hit a lick has a GB% in the mid-50’s and a career LD rate of 13%.
      
      I’m not saying its BABPIP or whatever, I’m stating that Slade’s GB rate is way too high, and his line drive rate is way to low. These aren’t numbers based on luck, its how he’s hitting the ball No professional player is going to have those numbers that absurd. It also means that there is a hitch in his swing, because he’s either popping up, or hitting it on the ground that’s messing up his timing. that big discrepancy combined with the fact that he’s maintained he’s decreased his swing and misses dramatically as well as the same looking strikes supports the idea there is a hitch. He sees the ball, but just isn’t getting the sweetspot yet.
Sean

Was at the thunder game last night. Renaudo was simply dominating with his fb. Most thunder batters could not keep up with his fb, which he was running up to 96 most of the night. Slade was most overmatched, lots of swing and misses on renaudo’s fb. What I found more troubling was his demeanor. After two of the strikeouts, he turned smiling and dragging his feet back to the dugout. This tells me he feels lost at the plate right now, although I think it’s more a combination of being a little overmatched at this level for now and being a little lost. Making the jump to double a is one of the toughest, and he still doesn’t have a ton of minor league ab’s due to lost time. I’d give his some time, should figure out.
- I’m not the droids you’re looking for…
  
  What has he demonstrated in prior promotions? Haven’t followed closely enough. Is he one of those guys who needs an adjustment period before figuring it out or has he been straight line prior to now?
http://riveraveblues sandy g

could someone come up with a list of Yankees farmhands who are draft V eligible this winter ?
qwerty

As of this moment I am really only interested in one prospect. The rest of the farm is either a complete mess or an utter disappointment. When you don’t draft well, don’t develop well or don’t scout well, then you have to go out and trade well. Evidently, the yankees aren’t very good at that either. All they apparently know how to do well is pick up scrap heap players and apply another bandaid for another season. Rinse and repeat.
- jackhandy
  
  if they didn’t scout well they wouldn’t be so successful at reclamation projects.
  
  if they didn’t draft well guys like tyler austin would never be in the system.
  
  if they didn’t develop well guys like the Wanger or Brett Gritner would never make the majors.
  
  in short….you’re a flippin’ ijit.