Two rain-outs down on the farm, but a double-header at Mobile and the start-up of the Dominican Summer League provide a pair of extra games to dive into. Then, of course, there was that whole thing about Zach Duke being awesome...
Snakelet of the Day:
Keon Broxton (Hi-A Visalia): 2-3, HR, 2B, BB, K, R, RBI
Triple-A: Everyone's new favorite Ace, Armando Galarraga, has his Triple-A season debut pushed back because of rain. It'll be extremely interesting to see what happens when/if he finally takes the mound for the Aces. Remember: the PCL is about as forgiving as Hannibal Lecter to fly-ball pitchers with walk issues.
Double-A (game one): Mobile 3, Jackson 2. Performance of the game goes to starter Charles Brewer, who threw a (seven-inning) complete game, allowing just two runs while striking out four, walking one, giving up a solo homer, and sporting a nifty 10:3 GO:FO ratio. Brewer keeps putting up good lines since his return from a head injury, and looks like a candidate to see big-league time later in September - or perhaps sooner if the team is in dire need of a spot-start or two from the minors. Mobile entered the bottom of the seventh down by a run, but rallied back to walk it off on an RBI single from... Your Twice-Daily Goldschmidt: Aside from the game-winning knock, though, Goldie went 0-3 with a strikeout in game one.
Double-A (game two): Mobile 7, Jackson 12. (26-23) A rough spot-start for Brad Wilson, who surrendered 11 runs, nine earned, in just 2.1 innings of work. Give Mobile credit for not letting this one stay a laugher, though, as Bryan Woodall, Billy Spottiswood, and Taylor Sinclair gave the BayBears 4.2 innings of 1-run relief and the offense fought back despite being down 11-1 to put seven runs on the board. That fight back was driven by the long-ball, with Ryan Wheeler, Marc Krauss, and Paul Goldschmidt all teeing off. Wheeler in particular was impressive, coming through with a four-hit night. Your Twice-Daily Goldschmidt: As already mentioned, Paul whacked his 17th home run of the season in the night-cap, going 2-4 with a pair of strikeouts overall.
Hi-A: Visalia 5, Stockton 6. (22-27) Finally a solid outing of results from Eric Smith, though the 3:3 K:BB ratio and homer allowed aren't exactly encouraging peripherals. Nonetheless, Smith surrendered just two runs in six innings of work, and any sign of progress is a welcome thing. Offensively, most of the damage came from the bottom half of the order, with Broxton's two-hit, one-walk evening leading the way. Unfortunately, Broxton's line at Visalia is still just .250/.330/.330 after Saturday's outburst, though that's an improvement on the sub-.600 OPS he carried with the Rawhide going into the game. His particularly poor performance at South Bend prior to joining Visalia means that his overall season line split between those two levels is currently an uber-depressing .242/.315/.309. The couple of times I watched him play with the SilverHawks this year, he just looked incapable of making solid contact, and it shows in the numbers. Jon Mark Owings and Raoul Torrez each reached base twice and hit doubles, while Rossmel Perez reached base three times.
Low-A: South Bend's game was postponed; there is a double-header scheduled for Sunday.
DSL: D-backs 3, Padres 1. (1-0) The DSL started up, bringing us plenty of obscurity and a bunch of names that most of us have never heard in our lives (and that doesn't exclude myself). Thankfully, Ben Badler on Twitter tells us that it's worth being excited about the pro debut of 17-year-old center fielder Yorman Garcia, a "high-profile sign" out of Higuerte, Venezuela. Garcia went 2-3 on the night, whacking a double and a triple. Wish I could say more about that... Anywho, Mauricio Soto threw seven strong innings for the DSL-backs, allowing one run while striking out eight and walking one. Unfortunately for Soto, he's already 22 years old, so unless he's moving to the states sometime like, say... now, it's hard to imagine - again, based on pure speculation - a big future for him.