Minor League Ball Gameday, July 12

Good afternoon prospect watchers. A big weekend coming up, with the 2013 MLB All Star Futures Game taking place Sunday afternoon. I wrote up a couple of roster previews for you:

2013 MLB All Star Futures Game World Roster Analysis
2013 MLB All Star Futures Game United States Roster Analysis

I plan to live-blog the game on Sunday.

***Yesterday's Minor League Ball Gameday thread.

***San Diego Padres pitching prospect Donn Roach has had an up-and-down campaign for Double-A San Antonio in the Texas League, with a 3.93 ERA and a 57/34 K/BB in 94 innings with 99 hits allowed. The ground ball specialist has a 2.55 GO/AO. After a rough patch in early June he has pitched well in his last three starts, including yesterday when he gave up just one hit in six innings against Midland, fanning four. Roach attributes the improvement to a mechanical adjustment, plus more aggressive use of a four-seam fastball rather than his regular two-seam sinker.

***Washington Nationals prospect Robbie Ray threw a nine-inning shutout for Double-A Harrsiburg yesterday, fanning 11. He now has a 2.76 ERA with a 119/45 K/BB in 98 innings between Double-A and High-A. Considering how badly he pitched in 2012 (6.59 ERA in High-A), this sort of improvement really stands out. A 12th round pick in 2010 from high school in Brentwood, Tennessee, he's added polish to his slider and changeup to go with an average fastball.

***Jason Hunt takes a look at another Nationals prospect, Tommy John rehabber Lucas Giolito.

***The next thing I'm working on is "If I were running the Futures Game" although that might not be the exact title. That should go up tomorrow.