Autumn Dreamin

Elko just crushed another one oppo ? Quero nabbed a runner at the plate trying to advance from 3rd on a WP to help Thompson out of a jam in the previous half inning. Maybe more of mental mistake by the runner, but I just want to point out again that he's noticeably quick to recover balls that sneak away from him.

They don't like prospects going over 30-35 pitches in an inning. He walked his last batter to load the bases with 2 outs after passing that mark, so he got the hook.

No Harris or Gonzo for Kannapolis tonight. Solid day for org pitching though, with McDougal, Carela, Thompson, and Dominguez going.

Cannon gets the W in Birmingham. He looked pretty good and I felt like he was getting more whiffs than usual, but a few long ABs drove the pitch count up. 5IP, 1ER, 5H, 5K, no walks. Post-game, he said he was working with a new version of his slider at 84-86mph. The cutter is 89-92mph. Nice to see him settle in this month after a rough start as a Baron following the promotion. 4ER in 15IP across his 3 August starts so far. Veras is staying hot. He was 2-4 with a HR and a 2B off the wall that just missed going out. Montgomery was 2-4 with 3 RBI. A head cold is what had him out for a bit, apparently. Elko hit his first AA homer today, but you can kind of see that he's still adjusting to the pitching at this level. Had a couple of pretty athletic plays at 1B though, including a nice basket catch on a foul ball and a 3-6-3 DP.

Camilletti walks it off for the Ballers with a 3RBI bases clearing double. They had trailed 10-8 headed into the ninth. Shane Murphy and 10th round pick Zach Franklin got roughed up early, so they were down 10-4 after 5 innings. The back end of the pen held things down, and the offense scored 7 unanswered for the 11-10 walkoff. Anderson Comas has yet to give up a run of his own in A ball, although he did fail to strand the runners after coming into a bases loaded 2 outs situation (single, balk, WP). Gonzalez was 2-5 with 2RBI. Harris 1-3 with a walk. Camilletti was a menace and went 3-4 with 2BB and 5RBI in all.

Wolkow got the ACL Sox in the board with an RBI single. Vera started the game and went two innings with 1K and a barrel of groundballs. 3rd round pick Keener added 2IP scoreless of his own, 1H, 1BB, 4K. Oppor in now.

DJ hits another, his 3rd in 2 games.

Veras hits one out oppo just out of reach of the leaping CF. Just kept carrying. Elko hits one out dead center one batter later. His first at AA.

Cousin turned in a very solid start: 6IP, 2ER, 8H, 0BB, 5K. His longest outing of the year.

Back to back doubles from Chappy and Baldwin, then DJ goes yard for his second in 2 games.

It's going to be a while before we can really judge Quero's game calling and such, but...Nastrini's excellent start was followed up with no baserunners allowed by the pen over 3IP. 15K and 1BB for Barons pitching in all against a solid offensive team. There were a couple sliders in the dirt that escaped Quero's reach, but he was quick enough to gather them to hold runners. Caught a pair of foul pops. I know he's supposed to be "bat first," but I'm really not concerned about his ability to defend and stick at C.

6IP, 1ER, 6H, 1BB, 10K for Nastrini. Maybe two of those hits were solid contact? The others were just kind of unlucky bloops, including the one that scored. Half of his Ks were in his final two innings. Held his velo pretty well at 94ish by the end, breaking stuff got a lot of whiffs late. Cannon tomorrow, Thompson Friday, Bush Saturday, Eder Sunday.

Nick "Nasty" Nastrini annihilates the side in the 5th. Maybe back out for the 6th? He's at 76 pitches or so.

Really like the way Nastrini doesn't seem to wilt under pressure. He's had some little ticky tack contact fall in a few times, and just pitches through it. Over in WS, McCullough gets the win as local product Jordan Mikel completes the shutout with 3K and 2H over his 2IP.

McCullough out after 7IP. No runs, no walks, 3H, 6K.

Some home plate views of Nastrini.

Sorry...both for all of the time you've missed AND all of the time you're about to spend watching from here on out ?

Nastrini through 2 with 2K. The slider looks pretty good, FB hitting 95-96. He made a solid play on a grounder hit back to him, and Quero followed up with a nifty sliding catch on a popup behind the plate.

Local product DJ Gladney hits a 3 run no doubter to RF. Turner goes back to back with a HR to left. 6-0 Dash, plenty of run support for McCullough who comes back out for the 6th at just 53 pitches. @South Side Hit Men I watch certain players more closely than others, but since they added MiLB games to MLB.tv, I can just flip between games whenever something interesting is happening. Glad you find it helpful! We definitely have some guys in the system now.

McCullough has his good stuff tonight in WS, faced the minimum through 5. Only baserunner was a single, erased by a DP on the next pitch.

Also Batista for Kannapolis. He had a solid debut for us last week.

The org outscores their opposition 67-22 in a cumulative 7-0 day. No team scored fewer than 5 runs, and no team gave up more than 5 runs. Fun stuff.

Supreme crosstown pettiness at work sitting Luis vs. the Brewers to lose that series and then having him return to crush baseballs vs. the Cubs.