Working on a Kentucky farm (2035-12)

[Fat Nige]

May 19th, 2035

With the minor league season some 40 games old it’s time to look at how the Louisville farm system is shaping up this year. The franchise as a whole has been fairly injury free so far with none in the majors but A-ball Ocala has been the worse hit with six players having spent time on the DL and only 3B Keith Beard having returned at the moment. The biggest blow is the loss of #4 prospect 18-yr-old shortstop Joey O’Brien who suffered a severe hip strain at the start of May, it is hoped he won’t suffer any long-term effects but is not expected back until early August at the earliest. The Genius had identified him as Jaime Ramirez’s long-term successor and he had been making a decent start in his first year in Double-A Alabama, hitting .344/.413/.523 with five homers and 21 RBI.

O'Brien will miss three months after suffering a severe hip strain in Double-A Triple-A Missouri are currently 22-20 with a hot 12-5 streak in May. Top hitting prospect Doug Glover Jr has shown some improvement to his OPS but still the coaches are demanding he make some considerable improvement to his OBP, to really succeed in Louisville the fans and management demand OBP & OPS as a minimum with defence and speed sprinkled in. At 21 Doug still has time to stake his claim to the Sluggers hot corner but unless he bucks his ideas up Louisville may look elsewhere. The Blues have had to rebuild their outfield after the Sluggers promoted Pedro Saldana & Scott Martin and have been impressed with the start 20-yr-old Abay Omoruyi has made in centrefield. Lou Cotton, in his second year in Missouri, is still producing sterling defence work at second and leads the team with eight homers but could do with some work on his skills at the plate average wise. Catcher Andrew van Antwerpen, a late minor league free agent singing, has been a solid bat but the manager has been frowning on his inability to throw runners out, only three out of 20 attempts so far. Mike Singleton (2-4) and Alexander Hudon (1-5) have been disappointing in 2035 but lefty Keith Huber has impressed, reducing his WHIP & BB/9 as will as posting a 5-2 record with a 2.92 ERA. He leads the team in wins and strikeouts with 42. 24-yr-old Julio Barajas after three years at Triple-A seems to be the next cab off the rank if Louisville loses patience with some of their underperforming arms at BBA level. He has been making improvements to his homers and walks per 9 with keeping his strikeout rate up.

Double-A Alabama are just one game back at 25-17 despite O’Brien’s loss. 25-yr-old pitcher Eisaku Matsumoto after a disastrous 2034 at Triple=A where he went 1-7 seems to be happy back at Double-A posting a 5-1 record; he will be heading back later to Triple-A in what could be a do or die situation. If he fails this time he could be on his way out of the franchise. 21-yr-old Pedro Debesa, squeezed out of Missouri after a solid 2034, could be on the way back there too as he opened 2035 hitting 11 homers, 38 RBI with a .343 batting average. In fact the bats are all hot in Alabama with five of the starters hitting .300 or more and the team’s 65 homers being good enough for third overall in the DRK. 21-yr-old Alberto Delgardo will get a chance now to show what he can do in center field, he has the pace to play there but maybe his range is a bit limited. Anyway, a spell there will show whether he can handle it or not, it would certainly help his value if he could become more versatile in the outfield. Fellow 21-yr-old Antonio Rios will slide over to left, he is already solid in left & centre and is very close to a promotion to Triple-A after a solid performance with the bat this season.

Ocala has dealt with their injury woes and are still second in the division, four games back with a 23-19 record. 2031 eighth round draft pick and #2 overall pitching prospect, 21-yr-old Wilson Padilla, has opened his first A-ball season on fire. Posting a 5-0 record with a 2.17 ERA he has a 0.72 WHIP and 31 strikeouts while only walking three and more than halving his HR/9 and BB/9. The number 1 pitching prospect, 18-yr-old Augusto Sanchez (2034 third round pick), currently resides in Caracas waiting for the SA season to start in five-weeks time. Masahiko Ito, acquired from Hawaii last August, is currently owning a 2-5 record but is making great strides in all his key performance ratios and his FIP- is currently 93. There are four starting pitchers on the long-term DL but only one of those is gone for the season, the other three should be back no later than the start of July. 23-yr-old third baseman Vincent Leonard, a nineteenth round pick in the 2033 draft, has his third promotion so far in his short pro career and is impressing with his year on year improvement in plate discipline and OPS. He also looks to be developing into a consistent double-digit home run hitter, don’t be surprised if he achieves his fourth promotion before the season is over.

[Fat Nige]

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