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Minor League Update: September 10 Edition

Welcome again to the Minor League Update. This weeks edition is, of course, abbreviated. Only five of the seven farm teams had games remaining in this coverage week, and four of those only played four games. The exception isthe Dunedin Blue Jays who qualified for the playoffs and played a thrilling three game set with the Tampa Yankees. The first game in the set was lost in the 13th when the Yankees’ SS doubled off Chris Rowley with a runner on second. The second game was also an extra inning affair. The two teams went into the 15th tied 4-4, then the Yankees fell apart. A strikeout/passed ball put DJ Davis on first to lead off the inning and from there it went walk, error on a pickoff attempt, wild pitch (score), strikeout, single (score), walk, wild pitch, walk, strikeout, error (score), walk (score), ground out. That staked the D-Jays to an 8-4 lead that held up.
The next night, the teams went to the bottom of the sixth with the Dunedin squad up 6-3 but SP Conor Fisk blew up big time and the Yankees scored six in the inning and ended up winning 9-8 after a tense 9th inning in which Max Penecost doubled home Ryan McBroom for the first run, but consecutive strikeouts followed, stranding the tying run at second.

Pitchers of the Week

1. Luis Santos (25) RHP  – Dunedin (A Advanced)

Week: 1 GS, 8 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 10 K
YTD: 27 G, 135 IP, 132 H, 57 ER, 38 BB, 127 K, 3.80 ERA, 1.26 WHIP,  8.5 K/9, 2.5 BB/9
(playoff game included)

The D-Jays loss in that first playoff game came despite a brilliant outing by Santos. While no one actually lists Santos as a prospective major leaguer, he’s a nice piece to have in your organization. He pitched well enough to hold his own in AA for most of the year, until he was squeezed out by the arrival of the recently signed Wimer Font moving down from AAA. Still, Santos is plenty good enough to be an acceptable AA rotation filler and probably wouldn’t get completely abused if they had a need for him in AAA. On this one night, however, he pitched like an ace.

2. Angel Perdomo (22) – LHP – Lansing (A)

Week: 1 GS, 6 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 7 K
YTD: 26 G, 127 IP, 101 H, 45 ER, 54 BB, 156 K 3.19 ERA, 1.22 WHIP, 11.1 K/9, 3.8 BB/9

No player has been featured in this space more this season than Perdomo, including now two weeks in a row.  You may recall that I was worried that the spike in IP might be causing him to wear down after a rough patch in August (he was spanked in three of four outings over one stretch), but he proved me wrong. Since then he has righted the ship and put up a 1.02 ERA over his last three starts of the season.

3. Justin Maese (19) –  RHP – Lansing

Week: 1 GS, 5.2 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 7 K
YTD: 15 GS, 82.2 IP, 79 H, 37 ER, 16 BB, 64 K, 2.94 ERA, 1.14 WHIP,  7.0 K/9, 1.7 BB/9

Maese pitched essentially just as well as Perdomo in his final outing of the year, which was just the bounce-back he needed after being shelled for the first time in his professional career in his previous outing. Take out that one bad result and his season ERA is 2.23 over two levels. It will be interesting to see if the organization challenges him with an assignment to Dunedin at the age of 20 next season.

Hitters of the Week

1. Rowdy Tellez (21) – 1B – New Hampshire

Week: 3/12, 1 2B, 0 3B, 2 HR, 0 SB, 2 BB, 3 K, .250/.357/.833
YTD: 130/438, 29 2B, 2 3B, 23 HR, 4 SB, 63 BB, 92 K .297/.387/.530

It’s literally redundant to put Tellez #1 again, and it may seem unusual since recognized players typically have a higher average on the week than that, but in a small field of contenders he had the best OPS thanks to being one of only two prospects who had multiple homers this week. Tellez made the second team in Baseball America’s Post-Season All Star recognition (as did Sean Reid-Foley, by the way) and will likely get some league MVP votes.

2. Dwight Smith, Jr. (23) – OF – New Hampshire

Week: 5/14, 2 2B, 0 3B, 1 HR, 1 SB, 1 BB, 2 K, .357/.400/.714
YTD: 125/471, 24 2B, 5 3B, 15 HR, 12 SB, 45 BB, 91 K, .265/.332/.433

We haven’t heard much from DSJ since he had that ridiculously great May, but he closed out the year hot, with a .745 SLG over his last 15 games. That was all part of a .314 BA and 1.131 OPS over that stretch making August his second best full month of the year.

3. Jonathan Davis (24) – OF  – Dunedin

Week: 9/23, 2 2B, 0 3B, 0 HR, 3 SB, 3 BB, 2 K, .391 /.462/ .678
YTD: 105/417 21 2B, 8 3B, 14 HR, 33 SB, 70 BB, 111 K, .252/.376/.441

I mentioned Jon “The Other” Davis way back in the first one of these weekly review posts published here at BPT, entirely on the strength of an insane April that didn’t look anything like the rest of his career to that point. In fact, he hit more homers in April (four) than he’d hit in any previous full season of his career. He then went nuts again in June and hit five more. His OPS in those two months was .968 and .988 respectively. However, in May it was .671 and in July it was .623, and his BA was under .200 both months. August was very good but not insane good, mostly because the homer spike didn’t show up this time.  I can’t tell you what to make of the undersized (5’8″) speedster, but he’ll surely get his shot at AA next year.

Other Minor Notes

Very little to report here that hasn’t already been addressed.  Watch for me to put a bow on the season that was next week by handing out some awards and honors to the deserving.

Lead Photo: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports

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