I should be getting to posts on the full-season minor league squads sometime soon. Call them pre-post-mortems if you will. In the meantime, there's the small matter of transactions, which Matt Wallace takes care of admirably. Most of it is normal shifting of players- the only real thing of note regarding transactions would be the promotion of Charlie Furbush to AAA Toledo and Brayan Villarreal to AA Erie.
Recap time!
Speaking of Charlie Furbush, he made his AAA debut today. Go figure. It wasn't really that bad, either. 3 earned runs on 5 hits and 2 walks with one of the hits being a homer (he does seem to be homer prone) to 7 strikeouts. All that in just 6 innings. Check your expectations- he's probably not an ace or a #2 in the making- but he's looking good, and he might just be in line to win the fifth starter job next year in Spring Training... unless he's traded. On the offensive side, Jeff Larish was 2-5 with a double and Ben Guez was 2-4 with a homer.
Another pitching prospect makes his debut in a new level. This time it's Brayan Villarreal, who also went 6 innings, giving up 2 earned runs on 4 hits and 3 walks with 5 strikeouts. The command is a worry, and he may shift to the bullpen, but I really hope he makes it as a starter. If he's not traded (God, I hate the deadline). Rawley Bishop was 2-3 with a walk (14 walks to 24 strikeouts in 93 PA- could be better on the K's but could be worse) and Audy Ciriaco was 2-3 with a walk.
Adam Wilk was uncharacteristically wild today- he gave up 2 earned runs in 7 innings on 6 hits and 2(!!!) walks with 2 strikeouts. Bryan Holaday (backup catcher of the future) went 1-3 with 2 walks. Billy Nowlin was 2-4 with a double.
A: West Michigan vs. Wisconsin suspended
Sometimes I hate recapping SS teams. The numbers are virtually meaningless, and it's tough to find good video or scouting reports on some of these guys. If you really want someone who knows the Connecticut Tigers, go to Stephen Hamel's Connecticut Tiger Den. Anyways, Clemente Mendoza went 4.1 innings, giving up 6 runs (5 earned) on 7 hits and 3 walks with 3 strikeouts. James Robbins was 4-4 with a double and a triple (he's a toolbox at 1B and he's impressing me this season, I do know that much). Ryan Enos was 2-4 with a double and a triple.
Patrick Lawson went 4 innings, giving up an earned run off of a solo homer, one of 3 hits he surrendered. He also gave up a walk and struck out 4 batters. Tyler Clark allowed an unearned run and a hit over 2 innings, striking out 2. Josh Ashenbrenner was 2-4 with a double and Matt Perry was 2-3 with a walk.