Minor League Update 4-7-12

I'm really liking that the minor league season has begun at the same time as the MLB season this year. It's usually a week after MLB starts.

Iowa Cubs

Josh Vitters was 1-3 again. He also walked again. I'm not holding my breath, but if Vitters could learn to become more patient he'd suddenly have quite a bit of value. It doesn't look like he's ever going to be the hitter that you'd expect from the best high school bat in his draft. There are questions about whether he can stick at 3rd base too. Still, it's always nice to see someone working on a huge weakness like Vitters' plate discipline. Anthony Rizzo added another 2 hits in 4 plate appearances. Brett Jackson was 1-3 with a triple and a walk. Casey Coleman threw 5 innings, allowed 5 hits, 2 of which were home runs. He allowed 4 runs, walked no one and struckout 5.

Tennessee Smokies

The Smokies only had 5 hits last night and one of them left the yard. It was the ony run scored during the game for either team. RF, Michael Burgess was 2-4 with that home run. Logan Watkins was also 2-4 and he struckout the other 2 times. Matt Cerda added the team's other hit and walk. The good news for Trey McNutt is that he allowed 2 hits in the 3.2 innings he pitched (no runs of course). Also good news is that he did strike 3 out. The bad news is that he walked 3, threw 3 wild pitches and reached 80 pitches before the 4th inning ended. Jeffry Antigua, Alberto Cabrera and Frank Batista finished the rest of the game allowing just 4 hits, a walk and strikout 5.

Daytona Cubs

Only 3 different Cubs had hits for Daytona. They had 7 of them on the night and managed to score 6 runs. DH Rubi Silva was 3-4 with 2 doubles and Arismendy Alcantara also added 3 hits in 3 at-bats. Alcantara walked, hit a home run and drove in 4 of those 6 runs. Not bad from the lineup's number 9 hitter. LF John Andreoli had the team's other hit as he went 1-1 with 3 walks. Erik Jokisch allowed 4 hits and 2 runs in 6 innings of work. He walked a batter and struckout 5. Matt Szczur was 0-3 with a walk.

Peoria Chiefs

The Chiefs had only 6 hits, which means the offense for the minor leagues was rather poor last night. They had only 26 hits in their 4 games. Zeke DeVoss and Rafael Lopez were each 1-3 with a walk. Paul Hoilman, Reggie Golden and Taiwan Easterling were each 1-4. Hoilman struckout only once last night. In the 40th round last year the Cubs drafted Patrick Francescon and he got the start for the Chiefs. In 4.2 innings he allowed just 2 hits and a run. He walked none and struckout 9. He did hit 2 batters. He's thrown only 43.1 innings in his young career, but has a ridiculous strikeout and walk ratio. He's struckout 11 batters per 9 and walked 1.7 per 9. That's good for 6.6 strikeouts per walk. It's 43 innings so you know it's a legit sample. Willengton Cruz performed last night's impression of Kerry Wood by pitching .2 innings, allowing 2 hits and 4 runs. He walked 2 and struckout no one.