A’s Farmhand Of The Day
PACIFIC COAST LEAGUE (TRIPLE-A)
Tucson Padres 8
Sacramento River Cats 4
(LP – Godfrey 9-1 / 3.29)
Farmhand Of The Game:
Catcher Anthony Recker
(2 for 4 / Double / 1 RBI / 2 Runs)
Worth Noting: Starter Graham Godfrey allowed 6 runs over 5 1/3 innings to take his 1st loss of the season against 9 wins. Catcher Anthony Recker singled, doubled, drove in a run and scored twice, while second baseman Wes Timmons, in his first game back in over a month, collected 2 hits and drove in a pair of runs.
TEXAS LEAGUE (DOUBLE-A)
Midland RockHounds 8
San Antonio Missions 3
(WP – Smith 6-6 / 4.39)
Farmhand Of The Game:
Designated Hitter Matt Rizzotti
(3 for 4 / Home Run / 2 RBIs / 3 Runs)
Worth Noting: Designated hitter Matt Rizzotti, who was recently signed by the A’s after being cut lose by Philadelphia, had his biggest game so far for the RockHounds, collecting 3 hits, including his 1st home run for the team, while driving in 2 runs and scoring 3 times. Starter Murphy Smith allowed 2 runs over 5 innings to earn his 6th win.
CALIFORNIA LEAGUE (HIGH-A)
High Desert Mavericks 8
Stockton Ports 3
(LP – Long 3-1 / 3.23)
Farmhand Of The Game:
Outfielder Josh Whitaker
(Home Run)
Worth Noting: Left-hander Brett Anderson made his first rehab start on Saturday, and allowed 2 runs on 4 hits over 2 innings of work, while right-hander Nate Long gave up 3 runs, 2 earned, over 2 innings to take the loss. Outfielder Josh Whitaker homered in the 3rd inning to briefly give the Ports the lead, while outfielder Dusty Robinson collected 2 doubles, and first baseman A.J. Kirby-Jones doubled and drove in a run in the loss.
MIDWEST LEAGUE (CLASS-A)
Burlington Bees 0
West Michigan Whitecaps 5
(LP – Granier 10-6 / 3.14)
Farmhand Of The Game:
Pitcher Drew Granier
(7 IP / 1 ER / 4 K)
Worth Noting: Starter Drew Granier had another solid outing, allowing 1 run on just 3 hits over 7 innings but still took the loss. Burlington managed only 5 hits in the game, 2 off the bat of catcher Nick Rickles who doubled for the Bees only extra base hit of the night.
NEW YORK-PENN LEAGUE (CLASS-A SHORT-SEASON)
Vermont Lake Monsters 3
Tri-City ValleyCats 7
(LP – Avila 0-3 / 4.41)
Farmhand Of The Game:
Second Baseman Chris Bostick
(Home Run)
Worth Noting: Second baseman Chris Bostick homered in the top of the 1st inning to briefly give Vermont the lead, while shortstop Wilfredo Solano doubled in 2 runs in the 9th. Starter Andres Avila had a rough outing, allowing 7 runs, 5 earned, over 3 2/3 innings to take the loss.
ARIZONA LEAGUE (ROOKIE SHORT-SEASON)
AZL Athletics 4
AZL Giants 8
(LP – Ynoa 0-1 / 7.71)
Farmhand Of The Game:
Third Baseman Daniel Robertson
(1 for 3 / 2 RBIs)
Worth Noting: Starter Michael Ynoa allowed 4 runs, 3 earned, over 2 innings of work to take the loss, while third baseman Daniel Robertson drove in 2 runs on the night.
Sunday’s Games:
Tucson @ Sacramento – 1:05pm PT
(TBD vs. TBD)
Midland @ San Antonio – 6:05pm CT
(Gray vs. Beard)
HighDesert @ Stockton – 6:05pm PT
(TBD vs. TBD)
Burlington @ West Michigan – 12:00pm CT
(TBD vs. TBD)
Vermont @ Tri-City – 5:00pm ET
(TBD vs. TBD)
AZL Mariners @ AZL Athletics – 7:00pm PT
(TBD vs. TBD)
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A’s fan, living in South Texas…I attended the Hounds game Sat. night and thought I’d pass along some observations (for what they’re worth).
Both SPs had a bit of trouble locating at the outset; first two full innings took almost an hour. Batters on both sides were patient, though–and overall, the Hounds worked the count well and got good results–6 for 15 with RISP…but also 9 strikeouts. Repeating what Fuson said above about the move to Double-A: Head had a single, and a hard out on a 5-3 grounder–but also three strikeouts, two of them with mighty swings on the third strike. (Choice was also badly fooled on a change-up in his first AB.) Geer, the SA starter, is a 4A pitcher in training; has a bit of MLB experience (three wins), and his fastball rarely touched 90. So clearly he had Head (and others!) fooled a bit at times, as Fuson’s analysis would predict. Geer also got Aliotti on a big third-strike whiff on a 87-mph pitch, but of course Aliotti had a pretty good night otherwise.
Choice got hit by Geer in the 2nd–I didn’t see the pitch, but he took his base, so it didn’t look too bad. Still, he was taken out between innings, and isn’t in the line-up on Sunday. Seems to be day-to-day.
Rizzotti is a classic huge, lumbering 1B or C type. His homer was effortless–easy swing. His hands are very quiet/swing mechanics are simple and unbusy. I suppose the question with him may be whether he can speed up his swing enough against pitchers with higher velocity than 90.
Horton the SS had a nice leadoff double in the 9th, on an 85-mph pitch. In the field, he seems to need to get rid of the ball pretty quickly because his arm strength didn’t seem stellar. Nor accurate–one throw to Aliotti was a bit high and toward the OF side of first, but the latter pulled it in in time. Also, Horton charged a slow grounder at the start of the 7th and bobbled it–but it was scored a hit. Perhaps the scorer felt the SA hitter was going to reach anyway, but it was a mishandled grounder nonetheless (FWIW). Maybe Horton just had one of those nights.
LF Crumbliss and C Taylor both had loud outs–stung it in both cases.
2B Ladendorf really worked the count in his first AB–fouled off several pitches before stinging a single. Had 2 RBIs overall, and also made a nice play and throw to 1B in the 2nd.
Barfield looks most like the type of player you see on TV. He’s rangy and athletic. Fooled pretty bad by a Geer change-up (like other Hounds) in the 3rd before blasting a double off the fence a couple of pitches later.
Smith’s start got better as the night went on. A bit under 60% of his pitches (almost 100) were strikes overall; got twice as many ground outs as fly outs. In the 4th, when SA threatened, he was throwing 92-94–then came back the next inning and threw mostly high 80s; seemed in other words to throw with more velocity when things got sticky. McSwain, the second pitcher, had a sort of Eck-like delivery–the leg action is more deliberate than the follow-through, which is a whip-like, low-3/4 delivery. Changed speeds, and threw strikes, but also gave up a run. Simmons looked good and had the best velocity of the three pitchers.
Tried to focus on things not visible in the boxscore–hope the comments will be useful in some way…
L
Thanks for the extra insights!