Good afternoon prospect watchers. Let's get down to business.
***The big news yesterday was, of course, Homer Bailey's second career no-hitter, leading the Cincinnati Reds to a 3-0 victory over the San Francisco Giants. Here is a look at how his career developed.
***Yesterday's Minor League Ball Gameday thread.
***Boston Red Sox outfielder Jackie Bradley hit two homers for Triple-A Pawtucket yesterday, giving him a season line of .300/.387/.529 in 40 games, 170 at-bats interspersed with his 19 major league contests.
***Toronto Blue Jays prospect Marcus Stroman fanned 13 in 6.2 innings for Double-A New Hampshire against New Britain yesterday. On the season he has a 3.38 ERA with a 50/12 K/BB in 42.2 innings with 39 hits allowed. He had one bad start back on May 29th, but has otherwise been very effective all season, sharp in all eight other starts.
***Texas Rangers beast Joey Gallo hit two homers and drove in seven for Low-A Hickory yesterday, making his season lie .233/.322/.558 with 25 homers, 35 walks, and 125 strikeouts in 292 at-bats. He had been in a cold snap before yesterday, hitting .105 in his last 10 games, so it will be interesting to see if this jars him out of it. I get a lot of questions about Gallo but the answer is always the same: he has enormous power, but the contact issues are so serious that I really have no idea what he'll do at higher levels. I expect he would continue to rip in High-A, but Double-A would be a serious challenge for him. He's just 19 of course, so we will have lots of time to wonder.
***Kansas City Royals pitching prospect Daniel Stumpfthrew a seven-inning no-hitter yesterday, leading the Low-A Lexington Legends to a 1-0 victory over the Greenville Drive. The 22-year-old Stumpf has a 3.30 ERA with a 75/34 K/BB in 79 innings with 62 hits allowed. He was a ninth-round pick in 2012 from San Jacinto College North in Texas. He is a standard three-pitch lefty with an 88-92 MPH fastball, a changeup, and a breaking ball variously described as a curve or slider.
***Tampa Bay Rays 2013 second-round pick Riley Unroe hit his first professional home run yesterday in the Gulf Coast League. The shortstop is hitting .263/.364/.526 with two steals in his first five games, a miniscule sample of course but a decent enough start to his career. It should be noted that Unroe, a high school shortstop from Arizona, was one of the youngest players in the '13 draft class, not turning 18 years old until next month.
***Conor Dorney at Fishstripes discussesMiami Marlins rookie pitcher Jose Fernandez and his outstanding debut campaign, pointing out in particular his ability to rebound after a tough start.
***Andrew Shen looks at the similarities and differences between Los Angeles Dodgers phenom Yasiel Puig and one-time phenom Jeff Francoeur.
***Chris St. John examines minor league hitters who have performed well this spring despite not ranking highly on most prospect lists.
***Dan Moore at Viva El Birdos looks at St. Louis Cardinals minor league pitcher Seth Blair, currently posting a 5.01 ERA in Double-A but (possibly) showing some signs of life as a prospect again.
***Today's schedule of minor league games.