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Minor League update: 5/22 E-mail
Written by Pat Lackey   
Friday, 22 May 2009 11:54

Haven't done one of these in a while, so let's check in on the farm clubs.

Indianapolis

Andrew McCutchen broke out of his slump nicely and is sitting at .284/.350/.466. It's not quite the "domination" that some wanted to see, but his increase in extra base hits make for an improvement over his line with Indy last year. (.283/.372/.398). Hard to complain about that. Steve Pearce has also woken up in a big way after his slow start and is now hitting .271/.373/.451 with six homers. Not much to write home about in their rotation, but Virgil Vasquez could make decent rotation filler and Dan McCutchen is off to a decent start. Both are allowing a lot of homers (10 for Vasquez, six for McCutchen), and that might not be a great sign if either is called up this year.

Altoona

Brad Lincoln threw a complete-game two-hit shutout last night and looks really good in general. His ERA is down to 2.31, his WHIP is 1.05, and he's struck out 40 hitters with only 11 walks in 46 2/3 innings. He turns 24 on Monday and he might not ever be an ace, but he looks like a pretty good prospect right now. Brian Friday is still hitting well and Danny Moskos has made a few nice starts in a row, though his ratios aren't terribly promising right now.

Lynchburg

Very slowly, Pedro Alvarez seems to be coming around. He's hitting .282 in his last ten games and his OPS is almost back up to .800. I'm going to go ahead and predict a breakout month of June for him. Kris Watts (.466 OBP, 1.103) is begging for a promotion to Altoona right now, as his hot start hasn't cooled off much, and Jordy Mercer (.667 OPS) is starting to struggle. On the pitching side of things, Ronald Uviedo has been impressive (3.27 ERA, 35/6 K/BB in 41 1/3 innings over eight starts), but 2008 fifth rounder Justin Wilson is struggling a bit (6.46, 1.66 WHIP, 24/13 K/BB in 30 2/3 innings).

West Virginia

Chase D'Arnaud (.885 OPS) and Calvin Anderson (.945) -- both 2008 draft picks -- are raking at the plate and Robbie Grossman's .366 OBP is pretty impressive for a guy that was in high school last year. Beyond that, a lot of the State College disaster from last year has just moved up a level. It's clear that Huntington still has his work cut out for him.


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Comments (5)add comment

JerryG said:

...
I'm really liking what Brad Lincoln's done the last three starts. I predict he'll be in Indy by the end of next month. If he keeps pitching like this, there's no reason to hold him back in Altoona at his age. Another thing about the complete game shut out, if management is keeping minor league pitchers to strict pitch count limits, then he must have been very, very effective last night.

Nice to see Pedro finally put up some better numbers. I like your June break out prediction. If that happens, I'll be willing to predict that he'll be in Altoona by mid-July.
 
May 22, 2009
Votes: +0

BigE said:

...
Shame about the WV team is that ppl were excited about getting the Pirate affiliation back until they saw what they got. The three you mention are nice prospects, tho.

Some did know about the State College disaster, but hoped for the better.
 
May 22, 2009
Votes: +0

nicolas said:

...
I'll tack on a few more names that pat left out (you all can look up the stats for yourselves):

West Virginia: Latimore, Alvarado, Owens

Lynchburg: Most of the bullpen? (Molleken, Cullen, Dubee, Colla)

Altoona: i'll go the opposite and point out that Negrych's numbers have dipped and he finally snapped an 0-for-23 skid last night

Indy: juan mateo, perhaps?
 
May 22, 2009
Votes: +0

Alex said:

...
Calvin Anderson is becoming my new Bucco minor league folk hero. I seriously do think it's a good sign that Bucs scouts were able to find a guy like him at a small HSBC as opposed to just drafting toolsy high schoolers, SEC, ACC and Pac 10 guys. Tells me they're really looking every place possible for talents that might be under the radar
 
May 23, 2009
Votes: +0

Jeff said:

Calvin Anderson can rake
Watching Anderson play here is like watching a man playing among boys. I wouldn't think he'll be low Class A much longer.
 
May 26, 2009
Votes: +0

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