Dunedin went 6-2 in the past week, in the midst of a 13-4 run, and in so doing has put themselves in the driver’s seat for the second half championship, but the competition is intense with three teams over .600 in their division. Most organizations consider it a boon to development to have their farm teams experience the intensity of a playoff run, so management has to be happy with the D-Jays. Oh, and Lansing. They’re on a five game winning streak, including a sweep of a major rival for playoff position. That’s good news for a team that had stumbled at times in the second half. While they are just barely over .500 for the second half, they’ve opened up a four game lead for the second playoff spot, even though they are in 4th place (two of the four in front of them already qualified in the first half).
That’s not all. Bluefield has gone 11-2 in August to seize possession of the second playoff position in their division, only two games back of first, and the GCL Jays continue to roll along in first place with an insane 30-10 record (and yet are still only one game up on their closest pursuer). There’s a legit possibility all four teams play post season games. I wouldn’t be surprised to see some Vancouver players switch teams in the last couple of weeks to give selected players the playoff experience. This includes our #2 featured pitcher below.
Pitchers of the Week
1. Ryan Borucki (22) - LHP – Lansing (A)
Week: 2 GS , 10 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 4 BB, 8 K
YTD:
A+: 6 G , 20 IP, 40 H, 32 ER, 12 BB, 10 K 14.40 ERA, 2.60 WHIP, 4.5 K/9, 5.4 BB/9
A: 16 G , 95.2 IP, 88 H, 26 ER, 21 BB, 81 K 2.45 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, 7.6 K/9, 2.0 BB/9
As you can see from the splits above, Borucki made the necessary adjustments after getting bulldozed in Dunedin early in the season. But even that doesn’t tell the entire story. The lanky 6’4″ lefty is notorious for constantly looking for the adjustment that will maximize his results, and over his last ten starts he seems to have found it. In that span he has thrown 63 innings, walked only nine and racked up an 8.3 K/9 to go with a sparkling 1.57 ERA. He has a track record of injury, but if he can stay on the field the Jays may have a really nice piece here.
2.Patrick Murphy (21)- RHP – Vancouver (Rookie Advanced)
Week: 1 GS , 7 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K
YTD: 17 G, 69.2 IP, 71 H, 24 ER, 28 BB, 56 K, 3.10 ERA, 1.42 WHIP, 7.2 K/9, 3.6 BB/9
Murphy of course has a more extensive injury history than even Borucki, as has been discussed in this space before. It stands to reason that after essentially two full seasons on the shelf there would be some rust and this was evident as he worked out of the ‘pen in Lansing to start his season. But as his command has improved starting for the Canadians, so have his overall results. He walked 14 in 21 innings at the higher level, and has now walked only 14 in 48.2 IP in Vancouver. He also gave up three homers in Lansing, yet hasn’t surrendered even one for his current team. That has resulted in an ERA that dropped from 4.29 for the ‘Nuts to 2.59 for the C’s.
3. Angel Perdomo (22) – LHP – Lansing
Week: 1 GS , 6 IP, 5 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 5 K
YTD: 22 GS, 103.2 IP, 79 H, 35 ER, 44 BB, 129 K, 3.04 ERA, 1.19 WHIP, 11.2 K/9, 3.8 BB/9
Just days after I took note of his recent regression, Perdomo goes out and has his best start in almost a month. I haven’t heard a lot of really specific scouting discussion about Perdomo, but in general he’s considered to have pretty significant upside. Still, the area that needs the most work remains command and control. It’s not awful; his BB/9 is not as bad as Sean Reid-Foley’s was in 2015 and he’s doing kinda alright this year, but it’s higher than it needs to be for him to maximize his potential. MLB ranked him #15 overall in the mid-season update, the sixth highest pitching prospect in the organization.
Hitters of the Week
1. Richard Urena (20) – SS – New Hampshire (AA)
Week: 9/24, 2 2B, 4 3B, 0 HR, 0 SB, 2 BB, 5 K, .375 AVG, .423 OBP, .792 SLG
Season: 134/428, 20 2B, 12 3B, 8 HR, 9 SB, 27 BB, 70 K .313 AVG, .354 OBP, .472 SLG
I don’t typically look to recognize a player two weeks in a row, let alone as number one two weeks in a row, but when a guy does something by himself that his team, collectively, has never done before in franchise history, whatchagonnado? On Wednesday night, Urena drilled a first inning, one-out triple and later scored on a wild pitch. Then in the fifth Urena tripled again, driving in a run and scoring himself on a fielder’s choice shortly after. Finally in the seventh, he hit another one-out triple and scored another run immediately thereafter. Not only has no Fisher Cat player ever had three triples in a game, no Fisher Cat team has ever accomplished the feat.
Urena is just ridiculously hot since his promotion, with a 1.183 OPS over nine games, but he was hitting .365 (with a .937 OPS) over his last 49 games in Dunedin before promotion.
2. Rowdy Tellez (21) – 1B – New Hampshire
Week: 7/21, 2 2B, 0 3B, 3 HR, 0 SB, 6 BB, 4 K, .333 AVG, .481 OBP, .857 SLG
YTD: 102/345, 21 2B, 2 3B, 16 HR, 4 SB, 52 BB, 74 K, .296 AVG, .388 OBP, .507 SLG
The game of the week for Tellez came last Sunday when he jacked two two-run homers to power the Fisher Cats win. Since he found his stroke in early May, Tellez has just gotten better and better, with an average and OBP that climbs every month. Just as a reminder, he’s now up to .349/.417/.589 in 72 games since May 9. I’m not convinced he couldn’t out-hit Justin Smoak in the majors right now.
3. Christian Lopes (23) – 2B – New Hampshire
Week: 10/18, 2 2B, 0 3B, 1 HR, 2 SB, 0 BB, 1 K, .555 AVG, .555 OBP, .833 SLG
YTD: 99/364, 27 2B, 2 3B, 5 HR, 8 SB, 35 BB, 70 K, .272 AVG, .343 OBP, .398 SLG
New Hampshire is three for three on the featured hitters this week. I may have said some of this the last time I featured Lopes in this series but I’ve got a soft spot for keystone-sacker. Back when he was drafted (7th round) in 2011 he was considered one of the best high school hitters in the country, and he’d have gone higher if he wasn’t defensively limited to second base. When he got into the pro ranks he was very impressive in Bluefield, posting an .827 OPS and giving me visions of writing “2B of the future” blogs in the near future. Then he stopped hitting. For two seasons he hit under .250 with an OPS well under .700 and he fell off anyone’s prospect radar. He picked it up in his second go at Dunedin in 2015, posting a line very similar to his AA line this year(.296/.354/.403). More noticeably, perhaps, if we forgive an adjustment period after his promotion from Dunedin and set the (arbitrary) start point at May 22, you get slash lines of .312/.351/.431 in 68 games. Even if the “2B of the future” title is no longer vacant, he might be turning himself at least into a trade chip with some marginal value if he can keep this up.
Other Minor Notes
- In correction of last weeks note, Bo Bichette remains on the DL, but word is his appendix episode was not, in fact, addressed with surgery.
- There’s still no word on what’s going on with Clinton Hollon, or what the injury to Mitch Nay was/is, but it seems clear now that both will likely miss the rest of the year.
- Matt Smoral, one-time intriguing prospect, isn’t injured officially but hasn’t pitched in two weeks and remains a mess, alternating between three shutout innings, and giving up four runs without recording an out, then striking out the side in order.
- T.J. Zeuch was stretched to five innings pitched in his last outing, four of them them shutout innings and the other a series of dinks and doings which led to a trio of runs.
Other Players of Interest
HITTERS
Dalton Pompey – CF – Not getting promoted will be a mental test
Jason Leblebijian – IF – Regressing to a more expected line
Anthony Alford – CF – Solid, not spectacular, week
Reese McGuire – C – Hitting ever-so-slightly better in a tiny sample
Dan Jansen – C – Six game hitting streak, .357 OBP
Juan Kelly - 1B – Nine game hitting streak
Lane Thomas – CF – Looking to end injury-marred season hot.
JB Woodman – CF – Continues a mild regression, possible fatigue?
Joshua Palacios – CF – A productive week
Cavan Biggio – 2B – Has picked-up the pace again recently
Vlad Guerrero, Jr – 3B – Remains productive despite being only 17
Harold Ramirez and Max Pentecost remain on the DL along with Bo)
PITCHERS
Conner Greene – RHP – Laid an egg (remember, my weeks run Fri-.Thur.)
Sean Reid-Foley – RHP – His worst AA outing this week
Jon Harris – RHP – Another very solid outing
Francisco Rios – RHP – Good game, but didn’t take next regular turn
Jordan Romano – RHP – Pattern of regression last two or three starts
Justin Maese RHP – Five shutout innings, looking for K rate to catch up at this level
TJ Zuech - RHP – 4.25/1 K/BB ratio, 1.00 WHIP
Yensy Diaz – RHP – Got roughed up
Wilfri Alerton – LHP – First time he’s allowed more than 1 run since June
Lead Photo: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports