Dbacks Minor League Round-Up 7/15: Flores Just Misses Cycle

Sunday it was Sean Jamieson who just missed hitting for the cycle. Last night it was South Bend's Rudy Flores who just missed it, and like Jamieson, he had a double, a triple and a home run. He drove in two runs in the 1st with a double. He hit a solo home run in the 3rd. He then struck out in both the 5th and 6th innings before tripling to center for his 4th RBI. Flores is an interesting prospect. He was drafted in the 21st round of the 2012 draft out of Florida International and spent most of the summer in Missoula hitting .296 with an .807 OPS. He moved up to South Bend this year but didn't make his season debut until mid-May due to injury. He's been flashing some serious power skills with 11 home runs in 49 games and a .582 slugging for a .924 OPS which leads the current roster. The big negative on Flores is he just strikes out too much with a horrible K rate of 36%. I've never understood how you can strike out so much and still post such an impressive OPS but Flores is doing it. If he ever gets the swing-and-miss under control there might be something there. Until then it will be wait and see.

Snake Stars
3 Stars: Rudy Flores, South Bend 3 for 5, 1 R, 1 DBL, 1 TPL, 1 HR (11), 4 RBI
2 Stars: Brandon Drury, South Bend 2 for 5, 2 R, 1 TPL, 4 RBI
1 Star: Jose Queliz, Missoula 3 for 4, 2 DBL, 1 RBI
0 Stars: Tyler Skaggs, Visalia 5.2 IP, 5 H, 8 BB, 8 K, 4 R, 3 ER

Triple A: Reno - Off Day

Double A: Mobile - Off Day

High A: Visalia 5 Inland Empire 4. Tyler Skaggs made a minor league start for Visalia to stay on schedule for his next major league start and it wasn't the most impressive outing. I gave him the zero stars award because he walked an incredible 8 batters. He was headed for a loss until the Rawhide offense bailed him out with 3 runs in the 8th to tie the game at 4-4, mostly due to Steve Rodriguez's 2-run double. They won it in the 10th when Sean Jamieson scored on a wild pitch. Jamieson went 2 for 3 with 2 walks and 2 runs scored. Rodriguez went 2 for 5 and Evan Marzilli went 2 for 4.

Low A: South Bend 8 Clinton 2. Rudy Flores powered the offense to 8 runs with a near-cycle game in which he missed out on the single. Brandon Dury had the other 4 RBI with 2 hits including a triple. Brandon Sinnery had another solid outing allowing 2 runs over 7 innings 3 hits and a walk. Breland Almadova had 2 hits with a double and Socrates Brito stayed hot with 2 more hits.

Short Season A: Hillsboro 4 Boise 7. Ross Gerdeman got bounced around for 5 runs in 6 innings and the offense could only come up with 4 runs of their own. Three of the runs came on a Josh Parr 3-run homer in the 9th after the game was no longer in doubt. Taylor Ratliff went 2 for 5 with a double and Yogey Perez-Ramos went 2 for 3 with a walk.

Rookie: Missoula 1 Idaho Falls 5. Carlos Hernandez surrendered 4 runs on 5 hits and 6 walks in 5 innings and the offense had no answer for that. Jose Queliz went 3 for 4 with 2 doubles and Chuck Taylor went 2 for 4 after missing a week to injury.