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27 year-old SS Jeff Bannon went 2 for 4 with a R. 27 year-old Tom Shearn, who has been a reliever for most of his minor league career, did quite well in his first start of 2006. Shearn pitched 4 innings gave up just 3 hits and struck out 5 while walking 2. He didn’t give up a run.
AA
Chattanooga 4, Carolina 3 in 10 innings
22 year old Joey Votto, a 2nd round pick in 2002, went 3 for 5 with 2 R. Votto is on fire in his first pass at AA, so far this year he is hitting .375/.412/.742. Votto, a first baseman, is the type of player that stat geeks like me can get very excited about, his 4 year minor league career OBP is .379. He does have one achilles heel which I don’t care about, but “baseball people” do, he strikes out about once a game.
High A
James Avery, a 5th round pick of the Reds, pitched 5 innings giving up 7 hits, and an ER. He had 4 Ks and picked up his first win of the season. Jason LaRue went 1-4 with a walk, Quinton McCracken went 3 for 5, Adam Rosales went 2 for 3 with a BB and an RBI.
LOW A
1st round pick Jay Bruce broke the RN curse and went 3 for 5 with a 3B, and a R. SS Eric Eymann a 19th round pick last year also went 3 for 5 with a 2B, 3 R, and an RBI. Eymann from the University of Illinios hit .239/.317/.389 last year at Billings in 34 games.
Philippe Valiquette a 19-year old left hander from Quebec, pitched 3 strong innings allowing just a solo homer. He has now pitched 8 innings allowing just a run with 2 BB, and 2 Ks.
I’d love to see a comeback year for Votto in AA. His poor A+ numbers last year left more than just a few people concerned. A high K-rate in the minors, especially without a good bb/k rate (which Votto’s worsened last year) is a good indicator of poor avg in the majors. I know avg isn’t everything, but it is the underlying factor for OPS, and a 230 avg in the bigs isn’t going to buy you much of an OPS.
I know Votto had a bad year last year, but the ball is DEAD in the summer in Sarasota. I saw them play 3 games last year and he looked, BY FAR, like the best hitter on the team (not that that is saying a tremendous amount).
It’s good to see Votto raise his stock. Maybe he could become attractive trade material if he stays hot.