Minor League Ball Morning Report: Friday, April 6, 2018

Good morning everyone and welcome to the Minor League Ball Morning Report for Friday, April 6th, 2018. The minor league season got underway yesterday. Here are some highlights and suggested reading for the day.

A separate Gameday Thread for Friday evening baseball action will be posted this afternoon.

Click here for Minor League boxscores

YESTERDAY’S PROSPECT HIGHLIGHTS

****One pitcher we are watching closely in 2018 is New York Yankees right-hander Domingo Acevedo. Acevedo didn’t pitch for the Yankees during official spring training games since he was “building arm strength” but he threw “really well” late in camp and made enough progress to be the Opening Day starter for Double-A Trenton, going 5.1 innings, giving up three hits, three hits, and two runs, while fanning four.

****Minnesota Twins prospect Nick Gordon went 4-for-5 with a triple, a run scored, and an RBI as the starting shortstop for Double-A Chattanooga. He played in Double-A for all of 2017 so I have to think a promotion to Triple-A would come rather soon if he gets off to a hot start.

****Colorado Rockies outfield prospect Willie Abreu went 3-for-4 with a pair of home runs for High-A Lancaster in the California League.

****Kansas City Royals outfield prospect Seuly Matias went 2-for-4 with a duo of solo blasts for Low-A Lexington in the South Atlantic League.

****The Los Angeles Angels shut down 2017 second round pick Griffin Canning after drafting him out of UCLA last year, not wanting to stress his arm after the long college season. He made his pro debut yesterday and it was successful, four shutout innings for Inland Empire in the California League, giving up one hit and two walks, fanning six.

****The Harrisburg Senators and the Bowie Baysox had 2018’s first experience with the new extra-innings rule, Harrisburg pulling out the win in 13 innings. I have tried to be open-minded about this but the whole concept just rubs me the wrong way. I understand the need to preserve pitching staffs but you could do that by expanding the roster or calling ties after 14 innings or something. The runner-on-second thing, just, well, just BLAH. I’m sure people felt the same way about the DH in 1973.

TODAY’S RECOMMENDED READING

****Nick Pollack at Fangraphs looks at Tyler Mahle and his first start of the year for the Cincinnati Reds and comes away less impressed with the pitch-by-pitch reality compared to the good numbers in the boxscore.