Tue. 5/2 - Four Road Trip Openers, and Morning Starts (Central Time) for Mudcats and Sounds

[Jim Goulart]

Thread will be utilized for any minor league news Tuesday, lineup updates, etc.

Organizational Scoreboard including starting pitcher info, game times, MiLB TV links, and box scores

[Ro Mueller]

Low-A Carolina takes on Orioles’ affiliate Delmarva in a road series this week. RHP Jacob Misiorowski (1.93 ERA, 0.86 WHIP, 15.4 K/9 in 4.2 IP) starts the opener, but is amazingly overshadowed by 18-year old CF Luis Lara (.726 OPS in DSL last year) making his full season affiliate debut. 

[Joseph Zarr]

Middendorf promoted and Cam Robinson demoted (ongoing control issues in 2023) is not what I would have placed a Futures prop bet on in early 2022. Hopefully both pitchers keep grinding and improving.

[Jake McKibbin]

Judging from the gameday app, this seems an insanely tight strike zone for both pitchers. Misiorowski being really squeezed, unfortunate not to have racked up three quick strikeouts

[Ro Mueller]

The AAA Sounds do battle in St. Paul against the Twins’ affiliate this week. RHP Caleb Boushley (1 ER in last 10.1 IP) aims for a 3rd straight solid start. LF Keston Hiura (.325 AVG, 1.070 OPS in 94 PAs) has been in excellent form. 

[Joseph Zarr]

I believe Jadher Areinamo just stole home. 3-0 Mudcats here in the 3rd. Misiorowski again went scoreless thru 2 IP - 0 H, 1 BB, 3K.

[Joseph Zarr]

OMG, Guillarte just followed suit! I don't believe I've ever seen two stolen runs in one game let alone one inning! 4-0 Mudcats.

[Jake McKibbin]

Misiorowski out to start the third for the first time

[Ro Mueller]

What a turnaround in the bottom of 6th / top of 7th in the Delmarva Peninsula. RHP Jeferson Figueroa entered down 6-5 with 2-on, nobody out and proceeded to K ‘em all. Then a Daniel Guilarte single, Luis Lara single, Matt Wood 3-run shot. 8-6 Mudcats. Close it out, men!

[Ro Mueller]

They’re mainly throwing high pitches to Hiura today, which is what would happen in the majors. This is decent progress (battling until a mistake), even if it’s not exactly what we’re hoping for: 

[Joseph Zarr]

RHP Ryan Middendorf continues his up-and-down 2023 in his Sounds debut:

1 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 2K, 1 ER.

He is still punching guys out at that high clip but he is just slightly off in the early going.

Sounds still lead 7-4

[Joseph Zarr]

That's my guy, Mr. Cam Devanney puts some serious hurt on the Saints with a two-on two-out three run bomb off of old Sound and friend RHP Connor Sadzeck here in the 8th. Glorious. He now has 4 rbi on the afternoon and it is suddenly 11-4 Sounds!

[Joseph Zarr]

RHP Gua Varland is now on the hill trying to reclaim his stuff from earlier in 2023. He struggled quite a but with his T-Rats rehab stint. We could use a clean inning for the young fireballer.

[Joseph Zarr]

A rare error by INF Cam Devanney at 2B sees a botched double play ball turn into two men on and one down. That would have been a nice out for Varland but he has more work to do now. Varland is touching 99 on the heater. Sitting 96--97.

[Joseph Zarr]

Varland delivers his second walk of his outing. Bases are juiced. And the Devanney error proves costly. His low 90's slider is his current challenge - a lot of wild out of the zone pitches with that one. I still see a heater that doesn't have the movement it had earlier in the season even though he's ripping 99 regularly.

[markedman5]

Outside of the typical great production at the AAA level…….is there any reason to get excited that Hiura may be able have success at the big league level now?

[Joseph Zarr]

And Varland gets the 4-6-3 dp as Devanney flips to Monasterio who barehands the throw to 1B for the 2nd out by 6-9 feet. Heck of a way to escape!

[Joseph Zarr]

1 minute ago, markedman5 said:

Outside of the typical great production at the AAA level…….is there any reason to get excited that Hiura may be able have success at the big league level now?

I think the above post by @damuelleshowcases some of the improvement we're seeing - staying off the high heat. He's been reducing that K rate to boot. Still the Hiura power we've grown accustomed to - especially at Triple-A. In addition to the adjustments to his leg lift and swing in general, I'd say it's the more patient approach high in the zone. He's really having a fantastic year at the dish. If you remember, when he was sent down in the past year plus he was K'ng at a ridiculous 40-50% rate for Nashville. The fact he's found his patience and re-discovered that power stroke is just a plus any way you look at it.

[Ro Mueller]

12 minutes ago, markedman5 said:

Outside of the typical great production at the AAA level…….is there any reason to get excited that Hiura may be able have success at the big league level now?

I’m tempering enthusiasm until we see him face and hit high strikes. At present, by seeing pitches better and murdering mistakes, he’d be an improvement over Voit at the plate, but not in the field.

The fear is that most MLB starters would pinpoint those high strikes and Keston would end up struggling.

The lack of high strikes from opposing pitchers (even today, they’re mostly just throwing high balls) feels like an International League conspiracy at this point, even if it’s just what you get at AAA level.

[Joseph Zarr]

For as good as Big Jon Singleton was defensively in 2022, he's been extremely inconsistent in 2023. He botches a catch on a routine low throw from Monasterio at SS allowing the lead-off runner to get aboard. I've seen numerous misplays by Jon early in 2023 - I don't know what it is. Hopefully, he turns it around as his glove hand, in particular, is just unreliable in 2023 so far. That's just a play any 1B has to make. 

[Jake McKibbin]

1 hour ago, damuelle said:

They’re mainly throwing high pitches to Hiura today, which is what would happen in the majors. This is decent progress (battling until a mistake), even if it’s not exactly what we’re hoping for: 

Just watching the AB's today, and I'm no guru on these things but last season it almost looked like the exact same swing for every pitch, he seems to be flatter to the ball up in the zone while maintaining his golf swing for those down in the zone. He battled really well for that homer 

[Joseph Zarr]

Really awesome to see so many promotions today so early in the season. It's nice to see the organization taking advantage of a run of success and rewarding these guys with salary promotions; new levels of difficulty; and a new challenge overall. Here's hoping they all hit the ground running!

[Brewcrew82]

19 minutes ago, Jake McKibbin said:

Just watching the AB's today, and I'm no guru on these things but last season it almost looked like the exact same swing for every pitch, he seems to be flatter to the ball up in the zone while maintaining his golf swing for those down in the zone. He battled really well for that homer 

Yep. All he needs to do is just find a way to foul those pitches off and/or lay off them entirely and keep the at-bat going...I think we're getting closer to seeing Keston get one more opportunity with the Brewers given Voit's struggles. Huge SSA, but Keston's slash line against LHP is: .370/.433/.815...

[SF70]

1 hour ago, Joseph Zarr said:

And Varland gets the 4-6-3 dp as Devanney flips to Monasterio who barehands the throw to 1B for the 2nd out by 6-9 feet. Heck of a way to escape!

Varland can either get traded for (if the team really likes him) and optioned or sent back to LAD. 

[wiguy94]

4 hours ago, Jake McKibbin said:

Judging from the gameday app, this seems an insanely tight strike zone for both pitchers. Misiorowski being really squeezed, unfortunate not to have racked up three quick strikeouts

Gameday for minor leagues is historically inaccurate. Like the pitches aren't even remotely close to where they actually are in real life.