June minor league game thread

rymflaherty

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Upcoming Pawtucket weather is a potential bummer.
I moved to Norfolk within the past year, and this weekend is their only stop here this season, but there's potential thunderstorms the next four days.

I have tickets for Sunday, but not sure if I should try to make it another night as well since Sunday may be the worst of it...I've been looking forward to seeing my first PawSox game and it kind of felt like a little piece of home (or at least New England) was coming to Virginia.
 

RoDaddy

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No doubt but I wonder how much of his inconsistency this year is due to working on weaker parts of his game. This is the part of following the minor leagues that is most frustrating for me - when are players working on their weaknesses. This came up during the Devers discussion where one poster made the excellent point that his struggles this year might be due in part to his working on being a more patient hitter. So it's possible that Espin's weak showing yesterday was simply due to, say, emphasizing his secondary stuff to improve it.
 

j44thor

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Slump appears over .. 4-6 with 4 doubles in tonight's DH.
Three more doubles and two walks in his last game. 7 for his last 10, all doubles and his 32SB of the season. Safe to say slump over. He is going to be a fun player to watch.
Defense still needs work but bat appears ready for AA.
 

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Three more doubles and two walks in his last game. 7 for his last 10, all doubles and his 32SB of the season. Safe to say slump over. He is going to be a fun player to watch.
Defense still needs work but bat appears ready for AA.
I just wonder when/if they're going to move him off of 2B, at least part time.
 

shaggydog2000

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Where do they send him? Does he have the arm for third?
He is a five tool guy with the arm to play any position according to his scouting reports. Soxprospects.com has him profiling best as a 3B or CF, but this is based on scouting tools and not watching a lot of innings at these positions I would assume, because there is very little game film of him being anything but a 2B from what I've heard/seen.
 

rymflaherty

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Just got back from the PawSox game. Wound up not raining at all (yet) this weekend.

Elias had the complete game win against a garbage Norfolk team.
LaMarre had a Home Run out to LF
I don't think he's thought of highly as a prospect but Vinicio (2b) stood out today at the plate and in the field. Flashed lots of speed/athleticism and he came up with 2 outs bases loaded and delivered a 2 run single.

I brought a ball and got there early in case there was a chance anyone was signing. Wound up getting Witte, Vinicio, Maxwell and Light who all came over and took the time to sign some stuff for people.

Got some autographs. Rain stayed away. PawSox won...turned out to be a great day.
 

rymflaherty

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^
I did notice the DOB for Vinicio, so he was still age appropriate for AAA in terms of being a guy with potential.
I did a check of SoxProspects when I got home and I didn't see him listed in their top 60 which is what prompted my comment and assumption that he may not be highly thought of.

Outside of what I mentioned. He had two successful sac bunt attempts - one which actually resulted in a hit. Turned a nice double play. And also wound up catching a popfly out in LF, which was rather impressive.

He looked rather small, but he did successfully do the things you'd expect someone of his stature to be able to do. Maybe I happened to catch him on a real good day, but as I said, he was one of the guys that stood out today.
 

Cesar Crespo

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He was a fringe prospect long ago but is really now nothing more than organizational filler.
 

RoDaddy

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Kind of a disappointing Sox minor league season so far, isn't it? Outside of Moncada and Ochimey, what quality prospects do we have whose performances have been real exciting? Benintendi looked good for a while but he's been struggling the last month. Travis looked good but is now out for the year. Kopech has been hurt. Devers and Luis Alex Basabe have been flat out bad. Johnson, Owens, Marrero and Elias look like they've taken a step back. Justin Haley and Bobby Poyner have played very well but they're fringe prospects. I dunno, maybe I'm just spoiled by the many great performances we've seen the last several years, some of whom have graduated to the bigs.
 

simplicio

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Kind of a disappointing Sox minor league season so far, isn't it? Outside of Moncada and Ochimey, what quality prospects do we have whose performances have been real exciting? Benintendi looked good for a while but he's been struggling the last month. Travis looked good but is now out for the year. Kopech has been hurt. Devers and Luis Alex Basabe have been flat out bad. Johnson, Owens, Marrero and Elias look like they've taken a step back. Justin Haley and Bobby Poyner have played very well but they're fringe prospects. I dunno, maybe I'm just spoiled by the many great performances we've seen the last several years, some of whom have graduated to the bigs.
The word on Devers from the scouts is that he looks really good, even if the box score is shoddy. Results should come around; he's been unlucky this year, but he's also doubled his walk rate over last year and kept Ks about the same.
 

Cuzittt

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Just remember one thing. Travis Shaw was a fringe prospect... until he wasn't. Don't sell off a Poyner or a Haley because they are fringee. Because, maybe they aren't.
 

smastroyin

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Chavis played both halves of the doubleheader yesterday (1/7 with a HBP). Playing two games in one day seems to indicate that his injury is behind him. Let's hope he picks up where he left off.
 

simplicio

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From the "minor leaguers are a bunch of dumb kids" bureau (via milb.com):

Outfielder Stone Garrett is expected to miss 8-10 weeks with a lacerated right thumb and first baseman Josh Naylor has been suspended without pay for at least a week by the Miami Marlins after he cut his roommate in a prank that went awry. According to the Greensboro News & Record, Garrett needed three sutures to close the cut and flew to Miami on Monday to see the organization's hand specialist. Naylor is ranked by MLB.com as the Marlins' No. 2 prospect, while Garrett is tabbed as the team's No. 4 prospect.
 

smastroyin

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I'll admit that after that intro to the post, I thought it was going to be another Kopech update.
 

Montana Fan

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Smas, what about moving this discussion to the main board. Since there's not a daily thread this place is a ghost town.

My man Wilkerson last pitched an inning of relief on 6/7 in a Joe Kelly game.
 

smastroyin

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We're trying to work on a way to make it less of a ghost town, and this is where the Cuz feed is located so I'd hate even less eyes in this forum. But your point is well noted and correct of course.
 

RoDaddy

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Elias pitching another gem. Finally some of the AAA depth is starting to look good.
Yeah looks like he's ready for Boston if needed

Benintendi with his first big offensive game in AA as far as I know (3 hits, HR, double) - finally! Of course, the move up to AA is considered a very tough one, but I just thought that it would be much less of an issue for an elite hitter like him