• Presented here are the top pitcher game scores from weekend series. Any prospect with a game score greater than 65 is displayed.

• Augusta lefty Edwin Escobar has registered the weekend's top game score in consecutive starts, and he's gone 3-0, 0.94 with 15 hits allowed and a 29-7 K-BB ratio over 28 2/3 innings in August. Perhaps it's just low Class A batters wearing down after a grueling season, but whatever the case the Giants prospect has ended his season on a strong note. Escobar (8.6 whiffs per nine innings) and GreenJackets teammates Kyle Crick (10.3) and Clayton Blackburn (9.8) rank among the South Atlantic League's top strikeout pitchers.

• Julio Teheran's game scores have careened from 26 to 77 to 13 to 81 in his last four starts for Triple-A Gwinnett, highlighting why the Braves, even after losing Ben Sheets and Brandon Beachy and weathering inconsistencies from Tommy Hanson and Mike Minor, probably will not turn over critical innings to the 21-year-old this September.

• A couple top-tier pitching prospects set benchmarks at new levels this weekend. Mets righty Zack Wheeler pitched a seven-inning complete game for Triple-A Buffalo, striking out seven in seven innings and allowing three hits at home against Rochester. Pirates righty Jameson Taillon has yet to allow a run or a walk in two starts with Double-A Altoona while striking out 13 in 11 innings.

Other Notable Performance

Acquired by the Astros in the 10-player mega-deal with the Blue Jays, lefty David Rollins fanned a season-high 10 batters over 7 2/3 innings for low Class A Lexington on Saturday. The 22-year-old has notched a 4.6-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio in five starts since the trade . . . Mets righty Hansel Robles continued to deconstruct New York-Penn League competition with his third straight scoreless start (seven innings, three hits, eight whiffs) for short-season Brooklyn. The 21-year-old leads the league in ERA (1.20) and WHIP (0.75) after his recent trio of starts has included 18 strikeouts, two walks and six hits allowed over 21 innings.

Worst Game Score By A Prospect

The honor technically goes to Indians righty Dillon Howard, a 2011 second-rounder who allowed nine runs on eight hits over 2 1/3 innings in the Rookie-level Arizona League (game score: 8). But one could just as easily pin the distinction on Blue Jays lefty Daniel Norris (eight runs, nine hits in 3 1/3 innings for short-season Vancouver) or Athletics righthander Michael Ynoa (eight runs, four hits in 1 1/3 innings for short-season Vermont).

• Presented here are the top runs created tallies from weekend series. All prospects with more than 3.5 runs created are displayed.

• Triple-A Nashville scored 21 runs in three games at Round Rock over the weekend (while facing Zach Jackson, Martin Perez and Justin Grimm) and Caleb Gindl and Eric Farris led the charge for the Sounds, going a combined 15-for-27 (.556) with a homer, seven doubles and a triple. Both players are on the Brewers' 40-man roster so look for them in Milwaukee next month.

• Wilmer Flores reached Double-A Binghamton in late June at age 20 after winning MVP honors at the high Class A Florida State League all-star game. Between the two stops, Flores has cracked a career-high 16 homers in 463 at-bats. In fact, his composite batting line this season (.302/.351/.473) is eerily similar to the one he compiled four years ago (.307/.347/.468) when he ranked as the No. 2 prospect in the Rookie-level Appalachian League. Flores doesn't play shortstop anymore—he spends most of his time at third base—but the power projections of his youth no longer appear greatly exaggerated as they once did.

• Rockies right fielder Kyle Parker has smacked 22 homers in just 97 games for high Class A Modesto, and his .415 on-base percentage leads the Cal League.

Other Notable Performances

Phillies Double-A first baseman Darin Ruf has hit .354 with 17 homers in 26 games this month to wrap up the Eastern League MVP award. The 26-year-old leads the loop with 35 homers and shares the RBI lead with 95, but with a .316 average he'd need to climb over Brock Holt (.322) and Chun Chen (.320) to win the batting title . . . Rookie-level Johnson City shortstop Bruce Caldwell smacked a pair of homers, a pair of doubles and went 7-for-13 with eight RBIs in three games. The Cardinals 15th-rounder from Spartanburg Methodist (S.C.) JC has hit a robust .319/.380/.546 in 42 games as Johnson City seeks its third straight Appy League title.

Rough Stretch

Two of the year's top breakout prospects endured a tough weekend. Angels third baseman Kaleb Cowart went 0-for-14 with six whiffs for high Class A Inland Empire, while Rays right fielder Drew Vettleson went hitless with seven strikeouts in 13 at-bats, though he walked once and scored a run.

Bill James' game score calculation (Wikipedia entry) rewards pitchers who work deep into games without allowing many runs or hits while providing extra credit for dominance (strikeouts) and control (few walks).

The Bill James-devised runs created metric (Wikipedia entry explains ’02 version) rewards batters for avoiding outs and reaching base safely (on-base percentage) and for accumulating total bases (slugging percentage), two factors that correlate strongly with run scoring, and for obvious reasons.