July 4th Eve DotF

Sorry folks, going to take the quick way out of this one tonight…

• Triple-A Scranton won. Jesus Montero had the day off, but Eduardo Nunez went hitless while Juan Miranda and Jorge Vazquez picked up one and two hits, respectively. Eric Bruntlett and Chad Moeller went deep. Zach McAllister gave up three runs in six innings, and Jon Albaladejo closed it out with a four out save.
• Double-A Trenton won. Austin Romine hit a solo bomb, his first of the year at home. Brandon Laird singled, but Luis Nunez, Dan Brewer, and Jose Gil each went deep. D.J. Mitchell was blah in six innings, but Tim Norton nailed down the win with two perfect innings.
• High-A Tampa was rained out.
• Low-A Charleston lost. Slade Heathcott and J.R. Murphy each picked up a pairs of hit, and no one on the pitching staff did anything noteworthy.
• Short Season Staten Island won. Eduardo Sosa and Kevin Mahoney each had two hits, Francisco Arcia three. Shane Greene threw six scoreless.
• Rookie GCL Yankees loss. Gary Sanchez singled three times, Ramon Flores twice. Evan DeLuca gave up four runs in four innings.

I was at the SI Yanks game, so here’s some observations…

• Sosa was the best player on the field. He’s a bit of a hacker, but he can really run. Beat out two infield singles, one to the second baseman. Also, dude’s a total ballhawk in center, caught everything hit in his general direction and then some.
• Kelvin DeLeon hasn’t met a pitch he won’t swing at, but the ball made a different sound off his bat, as cliche as it sounds. He didn’t pick up a hit, but he just missed a homer right down the leftfield line.
• Kyle Roller is a big boy. Hit a ball off the top of the right-centerfield wall and it bounced away from the outfielders for a triple. That’s the only way that guy is getting three bases on one hit.
• Kevin Mahoney reminds me of Nick Johnson, just super calm, very managed at-bats. He ripped a pair of doubles.
• Jeff Farnham got an error when he threw a ball into center on a stolen base attempt. Of course, neither the second baseman or shortstop bothered to cover. Seriously, there was no one at the base except the runner. Gotta love A-ball defense.
• If Luis Parache gets above A-ball, I’ll be surprised. He doesn’t swing, he just kind of flicks the bat at the ball, almost as if he’s got two strikes and is just trying to protect, except all the time.
• Shane Greene was very good, took a perfect game into the third and no-hitter into I think the fourth. Lots of ugly swings at whatever the hell kind of offspeed pitch he was throwing, maybe a changeup.
• Chase Whitley loaded the bases with no outs in the 9th, then struck out side. He must have thrown 90% sliders, no joke.
• The seats at MCU Park in Coney Island are a good three or four inches wider than the ones at the New Stadium. How the hell does that happen?
• The Beach Bums are a nice touch. Nothing wrong with scantily clad women dancing on top of the dugouts between at-bats and innings. More teams should embrace the concept.