Sorry, I ended up at Uncle Phil’s and he has no online capability. By the way, “Ending up at Uncle Phil’s” would be a fine way to describe the games where the offense refuses to show up.
Anyhoo, 4 homers and Chris Sale made short work of the Friars despite Kinley’s best attempt to channel Boom Boom Bobby (Yes, I’m old).
On to Baltimore!
On the one hand, Mauricio Dubon, everyone’s favorite hustle player — was there any doubt he would score from first on Jim Jarvis’ RF double on Wednesday night? — made his second unfortunate outfield miscue in the last week.
On the other hand, because he is the six-tool, go-getting player that he is, in yesterday’s game he surged into the major league lead in reaching base on catcher’s interference. His second of the San Diego series puts him alone, on top, with two, at least if Gemini within Google is to be trusted. He scored on both of them, too (I think). Coincidence that it is Mauricio who has recently added this sixth tool to his box? I don’t think so ….
Is this guy fun to watch, or what?
If it were me, I would extend him now for 3 years. I think he will get more interest than we think.
RE: Jarvis
As the founding and, well, only member of the Charles Thomas Fan Club, I’ve been burned before about expecting too much from non-prospects in the mid-20’s playing well. But with Jarvis, you at least have the speed and defense at a position where you need defense. He’s got a .357 BABIP, so that’s cause for alarm. But it’s not like he’s been hitting cheap home runs or something to pad his OPS. If he lost, say, 30 points on his BABIP and therefore 60 or so points off of his OPS, he’d still have a .700 OPS, which is perfectly fine for shortstop, especially with his speed and defense.
I’d love to see a Jarvis to Southisene bridge at SS. Southisene also looks fantastic. Not impressed with Lodise.
As a certified member of the Lodise is a future utility player club I have to admit that I’m somewhat impressed by the progress he has made so far this season. The team’s goals for him were to improve his plate coverage and cut down on the whiffs. He has seen improvements in these goals every month so far and if he were at AA and producing at the current rate I would be excited.
He hasn’t moved up, of course. This is not entirely his own fault! The middle infield at Rome of Gil and Southisene are not ready for promotion themselves and the development team does not want Lodise to skip A+ entirely. Southesine’s goal before he moves up is to reduce his in-zone whiff % which is way high because his swing is geared to low zone contact and he just can’t catch up to elevated fastballs. That might not be fixed until the off-season. Gil needs to improve his chase % out of the zone. He has actually been getting worse at that as the season has progressed, sigh.
He’s also not walking. But he didn’t really have trouble with plate discipline in the minors, so I’ll just chalk it up to the league peppering him with fastballs in the zone.
Trevor Rogers, the opposing pitcher tonight, is a potential trade candidate. Expiring cheap contract, having a good year.
If y’all missed this one, you missed a good one. Recapped