{"id":1304,"date":"2011-05-12T17:37:29","date_gmt":"2011-05-12T21:37:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=1304"},"modified":"2011-05-13T13:38:23","modified_gmt":"2011-05-13T17:38:23","slug":"minor-league-rotations-cycle-6-goodbadsoso","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=1304","title":{"rendered":"Minor League Rotations Cycle #6: good\/bad\/soso"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_1348\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/RayRobbie_natsnewsnetwork.blogspot.com_.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1348\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1348\" title=\"RayRobbie_natsnewsnetwork.blogspot.com\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/RayRobbie_natsnewsnetwork.blogspot.com_-300x232.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"232\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/RayRobbie_natsnewsnetwork.blogspot.com_-300x232.jpg 300w, https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/RayRobbie_natsnewsnetwork.blogspot.com_.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1348\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">AJ Cole may have been the &quot;name&quot; 2010 draftee debut, but Robbie Ray stole the show.  Photo: Natsnewsnetwork.blogspot.com<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Lots of interesting news for the minor league rotations this time around.\u00a0 The big news, (and I was as <a href=\"http:\/\/nationalsprospects.com\/2011\/05\/cole-and-ray-are-on-their-way\/\">surprised by this news as Sue Dinem<\/a> over at NationalsProspects.com) was the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.masnsports.com\/byron_kerr\/2011\/05\/prospects-cole-and-ray-promoted-to-single-a-hagerstown.html\">sudden promotion<\/a> of both <strong>A.J. Cole<\/strong> and <strong>Robbie Ray<\/strong> to Hagerstown.\u00a0 Cole&#8217;s promotion makes him the 3rd youngest pitcher in the Sally League (and Ray the 6th youngest) and is a fantastic indicator of the progress these guys have apparently made.\u00a0 I thought at best they&#8217;d play in extended spring until the short seasons start, and then (maybe) play in short-A ball.<\/p>\n<p>Here are the daily links from NationalsProspects, for reference below:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/nationalsprospects.com\/2011\/05\/sundays-news-notes-5\/\">Saturday 5\/7 game reviews<\/a> (Potomac DH, Selik Potomac Debut, Cole Hagerstown debut)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/nationalsprospects.com\/2011\/05\/mondays-news-notes-4\/\">Sunday 5\/8 game reviews<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/nationalsprospects.com\/2011\/05\/tuesdays-news-notes-4\/\">Monday 5\/9 game reviews<\/a> (Meyers Syracuse debut, Robbie Ray Hagerstown Debut)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/nationalsprospects.com\/2011\/05\/wednesdays-news-notes-4\/\">Tuesday 5\/10 game reviews<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/nationalsprospects.com\/2011\/05\/thursdays-news-notes-4\/\">Wednesday 5\/11 game reviews<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Good<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>We&#8217;ll give <strong>Yunesky Maya<\/strong> a &#8220;good&#8221; for his 5\/7 outing: 6\u2154 IP 5H  2R 2ER 1BB 7K.\u00a0 A &#8220;real&#8221; quality start with a K\/inning, only one walk  and a WHIP on the day &lt; 1.0.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The third consecutive effective  outing for Maya, coupled with a loss of form out of Detwiler, may be  putting Maya into the pole position for &#8220;first Chief called up&#8221; if  needed.<\/li>\n<li>Potomac Ace <strong>Denny Rosenbaum<\/strong> put in a great 5\/8 outing to salvage one win out of a four-game set against Kinston.\u00a0 His outing: 7IP 6H 1R 1ER 1BB 7K.\u00a0 Unfortunately he got a no-decision for his efforts.<\/li>\n<li>How about <strong>Robbie Ray<\/strong>&#8216;s 5\/9 Hagerstown Debut?\u00a0 No-hitter through 4, just one hit (and two batters above the minimum) through 5 complete innings.\u00a0 Per Kilgore, not only did he not walk a guy, he never went 3balls on anyone either.\u00a0 59 pitches, 46 strikes.\u00a0 Line: 5IP 1H 0R 0BB 6K.\u00a0 Yeah, that&#8217;s fantastic, especially for such a young starter.\u00a0 WP Beat reporter <strong>Adam Kilgore<\/strong> wrote up<a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/blogs\/nationals-journal\/post\/a_dazzling_debut_for_hagerstowns_robbie_ray\/2011\/05\/10\/AF5mjyhG_blog.html?wprss=nationals-journal\"> Ray&#8217;s debut here<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Tom Milone<\/strong> had another excellent start in Syracuse on 5\/10: 7\u2154 IP 5H 3R 3ER 0BB 7K 1HR.\u00a0 He was perfect through 3 and gave up just one hit through 6.\u00a0 Oddly, after <a href=\"http:\/\/web.minorleaguebaseball.com\/milb\/stats\/stats.jsp?sid=milb&amp;t=g_log&amp;gid=2011_05_10_syraaa_noraaa_1\">giving up a few sharp hits<\/a> in the 7th he was brought back for the 8th, where he gave up a homer and a double before being taken out.\u00a0 Perhaps the AAA manager was trying to stretch him out a bit, or get him to work through some adversity.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Craig Stammen<\/strong> helped the Chiefs win their 3rd straight on 5\/11 with this line: 7\u2153 IP 5H 2R 2ER 0BB 6K 1HR.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Bad<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/nationalsprospects.com\/2011\/05\/last-night-in-harrisburg\/\">As Sue Dinem chronicled<\/a>, <strong>Ryan Tatusko<\/strong> &#8220;labored&#8221; in his latest Harrisburg start on 5\/7, giving up 9 hits (including 2 long balls) in just 3 innings pitched.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Brad Peacock<\/strong> was cruising along in his 5\/8 start, having retired 12 of the first 14 batters he faced before just falling apart in the 5th inning.\u00a0 A walk and then 5 straight hits knocked him out of the game, giving him his worst start of the year.\u00a0 Final line: 4\u2153 IP 6H 5R 5ER 2BB 6K.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Chris McKenzie<\/strong> got hammered again in Hagerstown on 5\/8: 2IP 7H 7R 7ER 2BB 3K.\u00a0 He probably loses his spot when <strong>Taylor Jordan<\/strong> comes off the 7-day DL.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Mediocre\/Inconclusive<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Cameron Selik<\/strong>&#8216;s Potomac debut on 5\/7 went ok; 6IP 4H 3R 2ER 4BB  3K 2HR.\u00a0 He must have been amped up for his appearance; 8 of his 10 outs  were recorded by fly balls, indicating that his ball was up.\u00a0 He also  issued 4 walks.\u00a0 Its hard to kill a guy on his debut after a well earned  promotion, especially if his only two earned runs were both on homers.<\/li>\n<li>Spot Starter (presumably) <strong>Evan Bronson<\/strong> was the unlucky loser on 5\/7, giving up just 1 earned run in 4 2\/3 but taking the loss in the bottom half of the double-header.\u00a0 Line: 4\u2154 IP 5H 1R 1ER 2BB 0K.\u00a0\u00a0 We&#8217;ll have to see if Bronson takes <strong>Mitchell Clegg<\/strong>&#8216;s rotation spot after a couple of serviceable outings.<\/li>\n<li><strong>A.J. Cole<\/strong>&#8216;s debut start in Hagerstown on 5\/7 went ok.\u00a0 His line: 3\u2154 IP 5H 2R 2ER 2BB 3K 1HR.\u00a0 He seemed to scatter the hits and walks well, and may have gotten a rather quick hook in the 4th (he had two outs and had <a href=\"http:\/\/web.minorleaguebaseball.com\/milb\/stats\/stats.jsp?sid=milb&amp;t=g_log&amp;gid=2011_05_07_lexafx_hagafx_1\">just given up a single<\/a>, it wasn&#8217;t as if he was getting clocked that inning).\u00a0 He&#8217;s got plenty more starts to show us what he has.<\/li>\n<li>Another mediocre start from supposed ready-for-the-majors starter <strong>Ross Detwiler<\/strong> in Syracuse on 5\/8.\u00a0 6IP 6H 4R 4ER 3BB 6K.\u00a0 He needs to do better; he should be dominating these weaker AAA hitters, not getting bounced around.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Brad Meyers<\/strong> gets a mediocre for his first AAA start on 5\/9; 5IP 5H 4R 4ER 1BB 5K.\u00a0 He gave up two quick hits and a run to open the game, then retired 10 straight before leaking a 2nd run in the 4th.\u00a0 In the 5th a leadoff walk came back to burn him, scoring on an infield grounder before a triple scored the 4th and last run he surrendered.\u00a0 All in all, his ERA will look bad (7.20 on the night) but he only gave up 6 baserunners in 5 innings.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Erik Arneson<\/strong> had a decent first AA start on 5\/9, going for 5\u2153 IP 5H 2R 2ER 1BB 6K.\u00a0 I&#8217;m putting it mediocre on account that Arneson is 27 and should be in AAA, not putting up quality starts in AA.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Michell Clegg<\/strong>&#8216;s 5\/9 start was certainly better than his last: 5IP 6H 2R 2ER 1BB 3K.\u00a0 He&#8217;s still\u00a0 yet to really put in a dominating start in Potomac.<\/li>\n<li>I can&#8217;t quite give <strong>Shairon Martis<\/strong> a &#8220;good&#8221; outing for his quality start on 5\/10: 6IP 6H 2R 2ER 1BB 3K 1HR.\u00a0 Perhaps its because i&#8217;m holding him to a higher standard, perhaps its because he&#8217;s not really dominating AA hitters like he should.\u00a0 To me, a guy that pitched a half a season in a big-league rotation should be shutting out AA hitting.<\/li>\n<li>On the fact of it, <strong>Trevor Holder<\/strong>&#8216;s 5\/10 line in Potomac was pretty bad: 6\u2153 IP 8H 5R 4ER 0BB 2K.\u00a0 However, reading the <a href=\"http:\/\/web.minorleaguebaseball.com\/milb\/stats\/stats.jsp?sid=milb&amp;t=g_log&amp;gid=2011_05_10_potafa_wswafa_1\">game log<\/a> you get a different story.\u00a0 After giving up 2 runs in a rough 2nd inning, Holder pitched 4 relatively clean innings.\u00a0 He fell apart int he 7th though, giving up 4 straight hits and 3 runs.\u00a0 Still, not enough Ks for me.\u00a0 Holder has yet to put in a &#8220;good&#8221; line this season and it should be just a matter of time before Frias or Bronson replaces him in the Potomac rotation.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Bobby Hansen<\/strong> had a ho-hum quality start on 5\/10: 6IP 7H 3R 2ER 3BB 4K.\u00a0 Too many base-runners for me, despite his getting the win.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Erik Davis<\/strong>&#8216;s 5\/11 start was cut short after 2 innings with a knee injury.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Taylor Jordan<\/strong>&#8216;s return from the DL in Hagerstown on 5\/11 was ok: 6IP 7H 5R 2ER 0BB 0K.\u00a0 I like the 6ip with no walks, but did not like his 3rd inning; he gave up <a href=\"http:\/\/web.minorleaguebaseball.com\/milb\/stats\/stats.jsp?sid=milb&amp;t=g_log&amp;gid=2011_05_11_delafx_hagafx_1\">6 straight hits<\/a> to give up 5 runs, though only 2 were earned because of a couple errors thrown in.\u00a0 All in all, a good return back for Hagerstown&#8217;s new &#8220;Ace.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li><strong>Paul Demny<\/strong>&#8216;s 5\/11 start in Potomac was just on this side of bad: 6ip 4hits, 4runs, 2 walks and 6ks.\u00a0 He gave up two bombs but still hung on to get the victory.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Relievers of Note and other Thoughts<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>MASN&#8217;s <strong>Byron Kerr<\/strong> featured Potomac&#8217;s GWU graduate <strong>Pat Lehman<\/strong> in this <a href=\"http:\/\/www.masnsports.com\/byron_kerr\/2011\/05\/former-gw-pitcher-lehman-comfortable-in-new-role-as-closer.html\">piece<\/a>.\u00a0 He&#8217;s definitely pitching lights out as the P-Nats closer, having only given up <a href=\"http:\/\/www.minorleaguebaseball.com\/milb\/stats\/stats.jsp?pos=P&amp;sid=milb&amp;t=p_pbp&amp;pid=543440\">one run in 11 innings<\/a> so far this year.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Jimmy Barthaimer<\/strong> let Saturday&#8217;s 5\/7 Harrisburg game get completely  out of control, giving up 5 earned runs in just an inning.\u00a0 It sounds as  if some shaky defense and a missed call caused him to lose his focus.\u00a0  It happens (especially in the minors, where neither umpires or your  defense is as good as you need it to be on the mound), but you have to  work around it.\u00a0 To make matters worse, he followed this performance up on 5\/11 by giving up 5 runs in 3 relief innings (albeit with 5 Ks).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Matt Chico<\/strong>&#8216;s attempts to convert to being a reliever continue to go badly, getting shelled on 5\/11 to the tune of 2IP 5H 5R 4ER 0BB 1K 1HR.<\/li>\n<li>Selik<strong> <\/strong>seems to have taken <strong>Marcos Frias&#8217;<\/strong> rotation spot for the time being, though the rain-out\/double headers in Potomac make it somewhat difficult to tell for sure.\u00a0 Someone definitely has to make way though; I can&#8217;t see the team going to a 6 man rotation.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Jeff Mandel<\/strong> continues to look sharp in the Syracuse pen, holding a 0.57 whip through 7 innings.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Cole Kimball<\/strong> looks nearly as good in the Syracuse pen, having yet to give up a run through 11 2\/3 innings and the first week of march in the closer role.\u00a0 He&#8217;s got a bit too many walks but lots of Ks and not a lot of hits.<\/li>\n<li>There must have been something in the water in Harrisburg on Sunday; after Peacock fell apart both <strong>Matt Chico<\/strong> and <strong>Carlos Martinez<\/strong> both got hammered as well, contributing to a 15-6 loss.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Josh Smoker<\/strong> may be finally putting it together in Potomac; he has 1 ER in 11 2\/3 innings through 5\/8.\u00a0 A bit too many walks, but he&#8217;s also getting lots of Ks.\u00a0 He worked out of a jam quite nicely on 5\/10.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Christopher Manno<\/strong> keeps on cruising; 2 scoreless innings and another 2Ks on 5\/8 give him a fairly ridiculous line on the season right now.\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.minorleaguebaseball.com\/milb\/stats\/stats.jsp?t=t_ibp&amp;did=milb&amp;cid=563\">22ks versus 2bbs<\/a> in 14 1\/3 innings as of 5\/8.\u00a0 There are guys in the Potomac bullpen holding on by a thread (<strong>Wort<\/strong> and <strong>Olbrychowski <\/strong>in particular) that could make way, soon.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Ryan Mattheus<\/strong>, a AA reclamation project at this point in his career, is pitching pretty well post-surgery.\u00a0 One run allowed in 12 innings on the season so far.\u00a0 He&#8217;s a former 40-man member and is probably a bit too experienced for AA, but it is a good sign that he&#8217;s pitching well.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Matt Grace<\/strong> seems to have lost his rotation spot with Jordan&#8217;s return from the DL and the promotions of Cole and Ray.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Trends<\/p>\n<p>AAA trends (in rotation order)<br \/>\nMaya\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0bad,soso,soso,good,great,good<br \/>\nDetwiler\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0good,good,soso,soso,bad,soso<br \/>\nMeyers\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0soso<br \/>\nMilone\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0good,soso,soso,bad,great,good<br \/>\nStammen\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0good,soso,great,bad,soso,good<\/p>\n<p>AA Trends:<br \/>\nMartis \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0bad,bad,soso,soso<br \/>\nEDavis\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0good,soso,good,bad,soso,incomplete (knee injury)<br \/>\nTatusko\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0soso,bad,bad,soso,good,bad<br \/>\nPeacock\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0soso,good,great,good,very good,bad<br \/>\nArneson\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0soso<\/p>\n<p>High-A Trends:<br \/>\nRosenbaum\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0soso,good,good,soso,good,good<br \/>\nClegg\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0soso,soso,soso,unbelievably bad,soso<br \/>\nHolder\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0soso,bad,bad,soso,soso,soso<br \/>\nDemny\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0good,bad,good,good,soso<br \/>\nSelik\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0soso<\/p>\n<p>Low-A Trends:<br \/>\nJordan\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0good,soso,good,good-&gt;dl,soso<br \/>\nCole\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0soso<br \/>\nMcKenzie\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0good,bad,bad,bad,good<br \/>\nRay\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0great<br \/>\nHansen\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0soso,good,very bad,very good,soso,soso<\/p>\n<p>Top 5 deserving promotion: Manno, Rosenbaum, Lehman, Kimball, Mattheus<br \/>\nTop 5 whose jobs are in jeopardy: McKenzie, Wort, Olbrychowski, Barthmaier, Tatusko<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lots of interesting news for the minor league rotations this time around.\u00a0 The big news, (and I was as surprised by this news as Sue Dinem over at NationalsProspects.com) was the sudden promotion of both A.J. Cole and Robbie Ray to Hagerstown.\u00a0 Cole&#8217;s promotion makes him the 3rd youngest pitcher in the Sally League (and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-minorspitching","category-minorleaguerotationreviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1304"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1398,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1304\/revisions\/1398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}