Minor League Ball Gameday, November 12th

Hello baseball fans. Yesterday there was plenty of fire power on display with balls leaving the park left and right. Except for in Surprise where Mesa shut out the lowly Peoria Javelinas. On to the deets!

League Standings

TEAM	WIN	LOSS	TIE	GB
AFL EAST
Mesa Solar Sox	16	11	1	-
Salt River Rafters	16	12		0.5
Scottsdale Scorpions	10	18		6.5
AFL WEST
Surprise Saguaros	17	10	1	-
Glendale Desert Dogs	13	13	2	3.5
Peoria Javelinas	10	18		7.5

Game Recaps

Mesa 4 - Peoria 0

Starting pitcher Dallas Beeler earned his league tying fourth win by going five scoreless frames, allowing five hits, no walks and two punch outs with a wild pitch. The Solar Sox bullpen was unhittable, only allowing one base runner via a walk in four innings. Omar Duran, Corey Knebel, Mike Morin, and Seth Frankoff did the work with Duran surrendering the only walk while Knebel struck out two, and Frankoff got one on strikes. Morin only threw five pitches in his inning. Addison Russell and Albert Almora turned in three hit games with each knocking a double and two singles. Russell also scored, struck out and was picked off by the catcher. Almora also knocked in one in his four at bats. CJ Cron was 2-5 putting him in the league lead in average at .400. He also scored once and drove in one. Kris Bryant dominated at the plate going 2-3 with two walks, two doubles, and a run scored. Taylor Lindsey, Devon Travis, and Adrian Nieto each had one hit. Lindsey doubled and struck out once, Travis singled, walked once, struck out, drove in one and scored once with a stolen base. Peoria was led by Austin Hedges both on offense and defense. He was 2-4 with a double and picked off a runner at first. Cory Spangenberg doubled, walked and struck out once in his four trips. Aaron Altherr singled in three trips and Stefen Romero singled with a strike out. Starting pitcher Johnny Barbato gave up two runs on seven hits and a walk with four strike outs. He took his third loss of the fall before being replaced by Kyle Hunter. He only lasted 1.2 innings, allowing a run on two hits with a strike out. Dennis O'Grady is still yet to allow a run, throwing 1.1 innings of shut out relief, allowing three hits with two strike outs. Ken Giles set down the side in order and Austin Wright allowed one run on three walks and a hit in one inning.

Salt River 8 - Glendale 1

Salt River rode another solid start from Sam Gaviglio to an easy 8-1 win. Gaviglio got the win by allowing the only run in five innings on five hits, a walk and a home run with four strike outs. Anthony Ferrara let his control get away from him, walking three with his only out recorded a strike out. Mike Montgomery took care of 1.2 innings, not allowing a base runner with two strike outs. Matt Ramsey walked three in 0.2 innings before being lifted for Merrill Kelly who got out of the inning unscathed. He did allow two hits with a strike out in his 1.1 innings of work. Kyle Parker knocked a double and a homer in five at bats with two runs scored and three RBI. Stephen Piscotty left the yard as well, also hitting a single with a walk in five plate appearances. He scored twice and knocked in two as well. Lead off hitter Kenny Wilson, usually known for his wheels, hit one out as well, a solo shot to start off the game. He added a single later on in five at bats. Jake Lamb was 2-5 with a double and a run scored, Jacob Wilson was 2-3 with a walk and an RBI, and Cristhian Adames was 2-4 with an RBI. Left fielder Tim Wheeler made the only error, booting a ball while going 1-5 with two strike outs and a run scored at the plate.

Glendale responded to the lead off homer from Wilson with a lead off shot of their own off the bat of center fielder Jared Mitchell. Mitchell would also walk and strike out in five plate appearances. Brandon Jacobs recorded the only other extra base hit, smacking a double, also walking twice. Corey Seager and Yorman Rodriguez also worked a pair of walks, with Seager also striking out once and he hit a single and Rodriguez making a throwing error. Eddie Rosario, Colin Moran, Tucker Barnhart, and Brent Keys all had singles as well. Rosario went down on strikes twice, Moran and Barnhart once. Keys also gunned down a runner at third while manning left field. Stephen McCray took the ball to start and allowed two home runs as part of seven hits and three runs scoring with two walks and a strike out in four innings for the loss. Edgar Olmos followed with a nightmare outing, allowing four runs on five hits in one inning with a home run allowed as well. Trevor May gave up a run on two hits, a walk, and a strike out in a pair of innings. Colby Suggs and Nick Wittgren finished it off with perfect innings a piece.

Surprise 8 - Scottsdale 2

Will Lamb stumbled out of the gate but pitched well enough to get the win today for the Saguaros. He worked around four walks and three hits, allowing two runs with a strike out and a wild pitch in four innings. Nick McBride handled 1.2 innings, giving up two hits and a walk but no runs. The rest of the pen was lights out, allowing one man to reach. Tim Berry worked 1.1 innings, striking out one then Kevin Shackelford took the ball and struck out two, setting down the side in order. Jason Gurka finished it off with a walk and a strike out in his inning of work. The big knock came off the bat of league RBI leader Mitch Haniger as he hit a grand slam in the third. It was his only hit of the day as he also struck out twice and walked once. Tyler Naquin and Garin Cecchini recorded three hits games each, with Naquin knocking a triple, walked, struck out, scored twice and drove in one. Cecchini walked twice, scored once, was caught stealing and drove in one as well. First baseman Brett Nicholas was 2-3 with a walk, double, and two runs scored, and catcher Adam Weisenberg doubled, scored, knocked in one and struck out twice in four at bats. Mookie Betts and Henry Urrutia had a single a piece, with Betts also striking out and scoring a run while Urrutia drove in one.

The Scorpions couldn't crawl back after the big blow from Haniger and did not score after the third inning. Starting pitcher Hansel Robles allowed four runs on four hits, a walk, the slam and four punch outs in three innings, also getting tagged with the loss. Zack Thornton followed with a pair of runs allowed himself on three hits with two strike outs. Shae Simmons got an extended look, going two innings with two walks and two strike outs but no hits or runs. John Cornely gave up one run on two walks and two hits with a strike out in one inning. Cody Hall also gave up one but on three hits with two punch outs. Fred Lewis touched it off by setting the side down in order. The Scottsdale offense only managed five hits, with Kyle Kubitza and Mason Williams each hitting a double. Williams also walked twice, struck out once and scored one run. Kubitza drove in one, struck out once and booted a ball at third. Andrew Susac, Alex Dickerson and Cory Vaughn were the only others to get a hit, all singling. Susac also walked, and Vaughn stole a base, scored once and had one strike out. Cam Maron didn't get a hit but did walk twice along with a strike out.

Probable Starters

Glendale @ Salt River - 2:35 PM EST

Glendale - RHP Michael Lorenzen (0-2, 14.1 IP, 23 H, 19 R, 18 ER, 10 BB, 4 K, 4 HR, 1.69 GO/FO)

Salt River - RHP Drew Hutchison (1-1, 17.2 IP, 14 H, 9 R, 7 ER, 3 BB, 16 K, 2 HR, 1.24 GO/FO)

Scottsdale @ Surprise - 2:35 PM EST

Scottsdale - RHP Phil Irwin (1-2, 11.2 IP, 15 H, 10 R/ER, 5 BB, 11 K, 2 HR, 0.92 GO/FO)

Surprise - RHP Taylor Jungmann (0-0, 5.1 IP, 7 H, 4 R/ER, 3 BB, 5 K, 0 HR, 2.67 GO/FO)

Peoria @ Mesa - 2:35 PM EST

Peoria - RHP Brandon Maurer (1-1, 17.2 IP, 16 H, 9 R/ER, 8 BB, 17 K, 0 HR, 0.52 GO/FO)

Mesa - LHP Blaine Hardy (1-0, 12 IP, 15 H, 6 R/ER, 5 BB, 13 K, 1 HR, 1.10 GO/FO)

Linkage

****Bullpen Banter is kicking off their Top 10 prospect lists with the Chicago Cubs. Javier Baez takes home the top spot and #2 overall pick Kris Bryant comes in fourth in their version.

****Speaking of Bryant, David Laurila at FanGraphs had a Q&A with the masher.

****Baseball America had a punch of great pieces posted. A cool series they are doing are the SKLZ training videos. This week they went over fielding drills.

****Ask BA looked at the correlation between AFL success and that performance carrying over to the bigs.

****They also looked at the 13 players who received Qualifying Offers ($14.1M) this winter and which teams stand to gain draft picks. The defending champs and the Yankees each have three players, while the Reds, Cardinals, Rangers, Indians, Braves, Mariners and Royals have one player a piece.

****Bernie Pleskoff profiled AFL hits leader Tyler Naquin and sees him as a top-of-the-order and could see him complimenting 2013 first round pick Clint Frazier well in the future.

****Chris Haft opened his inbox with Giants related questions for MLB.com

****Dodgers relief pitcher Onelki Garcia had surgery to clean up his pitching elbow after trying to play through the pain in the AFL

****Compensation Round A has been set now that all Qualifying Offers have been decided. The Yankees could pick at 18, 33, 34, and 35 if Cano, Granderson and Kuroda sign elsewhere. The Red Sox could be making their picks at 30, 41, 42, and 43 if Stephen Drew, Ellsbury and Napoli leave town. The Mariners get the first pick of the compensation round at 32 if Kendrys Morales plays elsewhere next year.

****Craig Durham ran down the highlights from the Australian Baseball League this past week.

****Mike Rosenbaum listed the 10 prospects with the best odds of winning Rookie of the Year in 2014 at Bleacher Report. The slideshow is unavoidable unfortunately.

****Rosenbaum also did some rosterbation in regards to the Tulo/Cardinals rumors swirling. Scroll down to skip the slides.

****Jeff Moore did the Minor League Update for the AFL and the foreign winter leagues behind the paywall at BP. He went over games from the 8th, 9th and 10th of November.