Minor League Ball Gameday, April 30

Good morning prospect watchers. I give you this day your daily thread. May it bless you and keep you.

THINGS THAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY

***Yesterday's Gameday thread has the typical group discussion and highlights from minor league action.

***Orioles prospect Dylan Bundy will rest his ailing elbow for six weeks after having some blood platelets injected into his arm. I'm not a doctor and won't speculate what happens next. A good research project would be to study how often rest and rehab actually works with elbow injuries and how often Tommy John ends up being the result.

***The Miami Marlins promoted outfield prospect Marcell Ozuna to the major leagues to replace the injured Giancarlo Stanton. Ozuna will be Prospect of the Day on tomorrow, with Seth Maness of the St. Louis Cardinals moving to Thursday. Alex Torres of the Tampa Bay Rays will probably be Friday, pending anything timely or critical with another prospect.

***Kansas City Royals prospect Kyle Zimmer is human after all, getting knocked around a bit yesterday for High-A Wilmington, giving up six hits and five runs in four innings against Salem. This spiked his ERA to 4.76, although his peripherals still look good with a 34/9 K/BB in 23 innings.

***Twins prospect J.O. Berrios dominated in his second start for Low-A Cedar Rapids, allowing one run in 6.2 innings against Lansing, fanning eight.

***Chicago Cubs slugging first base prospects Dan Vogelbach and Rock Shoulders each homered for Low-A Kane County. Vogelbach is now hitting .289/.333/.446 with four homers, while Shoulders stands at a robust .368/.455/.632 with five long balls.

***Two more homers for Pirates prospect Stetson Allie, bringing his line for Low-A West Virginia up to .351/.409/.660. Keep in mind that while Allie failed as a pitching prospect, he was a significant talent as a hitter in high school and would have been drafted on the strength of his bat alone if pitching wasn't an option, though probably not as high as he was. His strikeout rate (33 whiffs in 97 at-bats) is high enough to be concerning and we need to see if he can maintain his batting average/OBP at higher levels, but the power is real. More about Allie below.

***Five more shutout innings for Rays prospect Jake Odorizzi, currently holding a 3.33 ERA with a 36/9 K/BB in 27 innings for Triple-A Durham. I don't think he has a lot left to prove at this level, but keep in mind that Odorizzi's usual pattern is to struggle in his first look at new competition, make adjustments, and then run up solid performances. It would not surprise me at all to see this same pattern in the majors: he'll get beat up a bit at first, but if he maintains his confidence and health I still expect him to be a solid inning-soaking control pitcher.

THINGS THAT WILL HAPPEN TODAY

***Today's slate of minor league games includes a great deal of late morning action. I don't remember there being this many morning games in the past but perhaps I just wasn't paying enough attention. They seem more common out east, but in the Midwest where I see most of my games they are a lot rarer.

***Pitchers to watch today include Ethan Martin (RHP, Phillies, Triple-A Lehigh Valley), Rubby De La Rosa (RHP, Red Sox, Triple-A Pawtucket), Chris Archer (RHP, Rays, Triple-A Durham), Michael Ynoa (RHP, Athletics, Low-A Beloit), Victor Sanchez (RHP, Mariners, Low-A Clinton), Walker Weickel (RHP, Padres, Low-A Fort Wayne), Robert Osuna (RHP, Blue Jays, Low-A Lansing), Zack Wheeler (RHP, Mets, Triple-A Las Vegas), and Domingo Tapia (RHP, Mets, High-A St. Lucie).

ITEMS OF INTEREST

***Andrew Ball asks "How Many Future Aces are in the Minor Leagues?"

***Rob Neyer asks "which young pitcher do you want?"

***Everything you ever wanted to know about Steve Stone but were afraid to ask. Includes Playgirl photo.

***Mike Newman at Fangraphs has more about Stetson Allie. This one is a must-read and includes some quotes from Pirates assistant GM Kyle Stark about how they were trying to help Allie find "what about baseball brings him joy." I don't think I've ever heard a team official or player development person speak in terms of joy before but it makes sense.

***My laptop finally bit the dust, so I'm going to be having to do some workarounds until I can replace it.