Ryan Lavarnway’s second tour of the International League didn’t start out as smoothly his 2011 stint did, but the Red Sox catching prospect has been warming up in June with Triple-A Pawtucket.

The 24-year-old Lavarnway went 3-for-5 with a homer and two doubles for Pawtucket against Syracuse on Monday. It was Lavarnway’s sixth multi-hit effort out of 12 games this month, during which he’s hitting .360/.421/.720 in 50 at-bats. The homer, a fourth-inning solo shot off Syracuse righthander Yunesky Maya, was Lavarnway’s fourth of the month after he had just three in April and May combined.

After hitting .261 in April and .275 in May, Lavarnway’s improved his line to .291/.382/.462 for the year. His seven homers at roughly the halfway point of the season have him easily on pace for a career-low for a full season. He’s hit 21, 22 and then 34 homers last year between the minors and majors, but there is good news elsewhere. Lavarnway’s maintained his walks rate (12 percent of PAs) while improving his contact rate (struck out 21.3 percent of minor league PAs last year, 17.2 percent this year). If his power keeps coming on as it has in June, he’ll start building a case for another big league look, though the Red Sox have been getting solid production from the tandem of Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Kelly Shoppach.

Presented here are the top 10 pitcher game scores from weekend series, June 15-17, by pitchers who appear in the 2012 Baseball America Prospect Handbook.

• Reds righthander Daniel Corcino tossed eight no-hit innings against Mobile on Saturday, and reliever Wilkin de la Rosa finished the job in the ninth to give Double-A Pensacola the eighth no-hitter of the minor league season (the link above contains a chart listing all eight). Corcino appears none the worse for wear after skipping the high Class A level on his way to the Southern League.

• Astros righty Jose Cisnero threw 119 pitches in his six-strikeout two-hitter for Double-A Corpus Christi on Saturday. Hooks teammate Jonathan Villar booted what would have been the final out of the game, and then Cisnero walked the next batter, but he ultimately settled down to strike out Frisco's Ryan Strausborger to end the game. The 23-year-old has gone 4-6, 3.68 through 14 Texas League starts, and he ranks second in the league with 79 strikeouts in 71 innings. [...] Continue Reading »

Presented here are the top 10 runs created tallies for position players from weekend series, June 15-17. Players must appear in the 2012 Baseball America Prospect Handbook.

• The Indians divide shortstop responsibilities between Ronny Rodriguez and Tony Wolters with their high Class A Carolina club, and while Wolters may be the better long-term prospect, it's Rodriguez who has made the biggest initial splash in the Carolina League with his bat. He's hitting .275/.309/.424 with five homers in 236 at-bats, though his walk-to-strikeout ratio (8-to-44) should not be viewed as the firmest foundation possible.

• Low Class A Charleston catcher Gary Sanchez has improved his play on both sides of the ball as he repeats the South Atlantic League—or at least that's what the numbers indicate. He's batting .313/.361/.545 with 12 homers through 233 at-bats, ranking third in the SAL in homers and fifth in slugging, and his OPS at this moment (.906) is nearly 90 points higher than his season-ending figure last year. Just as importantly, Sanchez has dramatically reduced his rate of passed balls per game. Last year he allowed 26 in 60 games behind the plate, while though the first half this year he's accrued just five in 44 games. [...] Continue Reading »

• See Also: Florida State League All-Star Game Box Score

The Florida State League Southern Division all-stars ousted their Northern Division counterparts by scoring three runs in both the seventh and eighth innings to win 6-3 at Charlotte Sports Park, home of the Rays' high Class A affiliate based in Port Charlotte, Fla.

St. Lucie third baseman Wilmer Flores (Mets) went 3-for-4 with a walk, a run scored and three RBIs to win MVP honors for the game. He drove in one run on a single up the middle in the seventh, and then knocked home two on an opposite-field single in the eighth versus Lakeland righthander Bruce Rondon (Tigers). "I've faced him a few times this season and I knew he was going to come with another fastball," Flores told Minor League Baseball. "It was all about squaring it up and putting into play."

Just three batters collected extra-base hits in a game in which 19 of the 51 outs were recorded via strikeout. Dunedin first baseman Jon Talley (Blue Jays) connected for a pair of solo home runs for the Northern Division, pulling both to right field and providing his club with a 2-0 advantage through four innings. Daytona left fielder Nelson Perez (Cubs) doubled for the North, while right fielder Cory Vaughn (Mets) did the same for the South.

Prospect Notes

• Clearwater lefty Jesse Biddle (Phillies) worked around two hits by striking out three batters during his inning of work for the North. [...] Continue Reading »

The Triple-A Reno Aces have completed roughly half their season schedule and one of the club's position players leads the minors in hitting. Unlike outfielders A.J. Pollock or Adam Eaton or third baseman Ryan Wheeler, you won't find the identity of said batting leader on any Diamondbacks pre-season prospect list.

Yet 25-year-old middle infielder Jake Elmore, a righthanded hitter and 34th-round draft pick from Arizona State in 2008, has opened a nine-point lead on the Tigers' Nick Castellanos in the race to claim the minor league batting title. He ranks second to Red Sox prospect Jackie Bradley (.477) in the on-base percentage department.

On the season, Elmore is batting .391/.471/.528 with 19 doubles, 23 steals and a 39-to-25 walk-to-strikeout ratio in 233 at-bats. He's collected a hit in 25 consecutive games and reached base in 40 straight, both Reno franchise records. However, Elmore would need to hit in 36 more games in a row to match the Pacific Coast League record of 61 set by Joe DiMaggio in 1933.

Elmore's on-base streak began on May 3 and from that day forward he's gone 68-for-159 (.428) with 15 doubles, five triples and 25 walks, while striking out just 11 times and going 20-for-21 in stolen bases. He has split his time evenly at second base (24 games) and shortstop (27) with Reno this season, though he's also appeared at third and on both outfield corners during his hit streak. [...] Continue Reading »

The Reds thought Daniel Corcino could handle a jump from low Class A last season to Double-A in 2012, and 21-year-old righthander justified Cincinnati's reasoning yesterday by completing the first eight innings of a dual no-hitter for Pensacola. Corcino struck out nine Mobile batters and walked three while delivering eight innings of no-hit, no-run baseball in 110 pitches. He lowered his season ERA to 3.34 through 13 starts.

Lefty Wilkin de la Rosa struck out the side in the ninth inning, walking one, to complete the first no-hitter in the Southern League this season, and the league's first in exactly one year. Montgomery lefty Matt Moore threw a no-hitter on June 17, 2011, also victimizing Mobile.

Pensacola manager Jim Riggleman removed Corcino from the game when his spot came up in the Pensacola batting order in the bottom of the eighth inning. Pinch-hitter Josh Fellhauer singled and drove in a run that contributed to the Blue Wahoos' eventual 6-0 victory.

"We were not going to let him go past 110 (pitches)," Riggleman told the Pensacola News Journal after the game. "And another little thing to throw in is the (Southern League) all-star game is coming up (Tuesday), and he is supposed to pitch in that on really short rest if he does pitch in that game." [...] Continue Reading »

Angel Villalona, the Giants first baseman whose career was derailed when he was charged with murder in 2009, played in his first professional game today in three years.

Villalona, who hasn't been able to enter the United States reportedly due to visa problems, went 1-for-4 with a strikeout today in the Dominican Summer League.

Villalona, 21, had been charged with the September 2009 murder of 25-year-old Mario Felix de Jesus Velete at a bar in La Romana in the Dominican Republic. Villalona reportedly settled with the family of de Jesus Velete for approximately $139,000. A prosecutor had planned to continue with the case, but eventually the charges were dropped.

Villalona, who signed with the Giants for $2.1 million when he was 16 in 2006, had sued the Giants for breach of contract for $5 million in a Dominican court, but the two sides reportedly settled. Major League Baseball removed Villalona from the restricted list and the Giants placed him on their 40-man roster.

Had the Giants not done so, Villalona would have been exposed to the Rule 5 draft, though it's unlikely any team would have selected him, given his history and diminishing prospect status. It's hard to know if or when the U.S. Consulate might grant Villalona a visa, but it wouldn't be a surprise if he spent the rest of the year in the DSL. 

After the 2010 season, Phillies second baseman Cesar Hernandez looked like a potential breakout prospect. 

Hernandez hit .325/.390/.392 for short-season Williamsport that year as a 20-year-old, but he struggled last year in an aggressive assignment to skip a level to high Class A Clearwater.

Now in Double-A Reading, Hernandez is showing the offensive signs of life he flashed earlier in his career. Hernandez, 22, went a combined 4-for-6 with a triple yesterday in a doubleheader, bringing him to .325/.358/.459 through 58 games. He's a switch-hitter who has a better swing from the left side, where he has more ability to put some sock into the ball, but he's always going to be more of a line-drive guy than a power hitter. There probably isn't huge upside with Hernandez, but he gets the most out of his tools, can play in the middle of the diamond and has good bat control, so there should be some type of role for him in the big leagues within the next few years, either as an everyday guy or someone coming off the bench.

When the Royals signed Yordano Ventura out of the Dominican Republic after the 2008 season, he was a short righthander who reached the high-80s with his fastball and had some issues with his delivery that needed to be addressed. Not exactly your classic projection, but for $28,000, the risk for the Royals was minimal.

Ventura, 21, has morphed into a different animal since then. After putting on weight and ironing out his mechanics, Ventura's fastball now regularly registers in the mid-90s and has flashed as high as 100 mph. He's been dominant for high Class A Wilmington, including yesterday (5 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 8 SO) to drop his ERA to 3.10 in 61 innings with 78 strikeouts, second in the Carolina League only to Rangers righthander Cody Buckel (91).

With Ventura's size, there may be a temptation for some scouts to label him as a bullpen arm, but he's more than just big numbers on the radar gun, as his fastball also has good life, he throws strikes and has a breaking ball that works as an out pitch for him at times. He probably could make for a terrific weapon as a reliever, but there are plenty of ingredients here for him to be even more valuable in a starting role.

Minor league pitching instructors spend their lives drilling the importance of fastball command into the heads of their young pitchers. For Athletics righthander A.J. Griffin, that's never been a problem.

Griffin, 24, used his strike-throwing ability yesterday to throw a rare nine-inning complete game for Triple-A Sacramento, allowing one run and six hits without issuing a walk and striking out six. He threw 72 strikes in 93 pitches and gathered 14 groundouts.

Given his polish, there's a reasonable chance Griffin could be looking at a major league promotion after the all-star break. He has a 2.78 ERA in 45 1/3 innings in Triple-A, with 38 strikeouts and six walks after posting a 2.49 ERA in 43 1/3 innings with Double-A Midland to start the year. The fastball is average, but he spots it well and has an out pitch in his above-average changeup, so he could slide into the back or eventually the middle of a big league rotation very soon.

The 53rd annual South Atlantic League all-star game will be held at Joseph P. Riley Jr. Ballpark, home of low Class A Charleston RiverDogs. Festivities commence on June 18 with the first round of the home run derby taking place on the deck of the USS Yorktown, an inoperative World War II-vintage aircraft carrier. The derby will conclude before the all-star game begins at 7:30 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday, June 19.

Let's take a closer look at this year's participants, noting age, acquisition history and performance through June 11. Charleston outfielder Mason Williams has been added to the Southern Division roster as a replacement for Greenville's Keury de la Cruz. We'll keep you updated with changes to rosters brought about by injuries or by players being promoted.

Key to notations: *bats/throws lefthanded. #switch-hitter.
Probable starters in bold, with best guesses for starting pitchers and outfield alignment.

Coaching Staff: David Berg, manager, Greensboro (Marlins); Blake McGinley, pitching coach, Greensboro; Chris Olson, trainer, Greensboro. [...] Continue Reading »

If everything had gone the way Kansas City has hoped, Danny Duffy, John Lamb and Mike Montgomery would be starting in Kansas City these days and the team would be tamping down speculation of when Chris Dwyer would join them.

Duffy and Lamb are both out with injured elbows, Montgomery has stagnated at Triple-A Omaha and Dwyer is stuck a level below that with a 6.26 ERA for Double-A Northwest Arkansas. The Royals rotation of the future hasn't yet worked out the way they had planned.

But the Royals do have Jake Odorizzi. And while the rest of the rotation of the future is either injured or struggling, Odorizzi once again on Tuesday night showed that he's close to ready for a big league job.

Odorizzi, one of the key players in the Royals-Brewers Zack Greinke trade, allowed two runs in 5 1/3 innings as he walked one and struck out seven. It was the fifth time in eight Triple-A starts that Odorizzi has struck out at least seven. His also solid control has remained impeccable as well–he's walking 2.7 batters per nine innings which is identical to his career walk rate.

Odorizzi generally doesn't throw as hard as Duffy, Montgomery or Dwyer, but his combination of command, stuff and feel for pitching has made him the Royals' pitching prospect most ready to help out if Kansas City looks for a callup in the second half of the season.

Add A.J. Cole to the list of pitchers chewed up and spit out by the California League.

Like Daniel Bard, Tyler Matzek and several others before him, Cole found his first taste of the hitter-friendly league to be a disaster. He was roughed up to the tune of an 0-7, 7.82 record with high Class A Stockton before the A's decided they'd seen enough. He was shipped back to low Class A after giving up 10 hits in back-to-back-to-back games.

Cole gave up 12 hits in his first start for Burlington, but since then he's shown a lot of signs of being the pitcher the A's thought they were getting in last offseason's Gio Gonzalez trade. Cole has not allowed more than one earned run in a start since. On Tuesday night, he held Cedar Rapids to three hits and one run while striking out six in six innings.

In Bard's case, the Red Sox's ended up skipping him over high Class A after he straightened himself out. Matzek is doing much better in his second try at the California League. It's way too soon to say that Cole is ready for a return trip, but the hue of his season looks a whole lot rosier now than it did a month ago.

Garrett Gould started his season in the high Class A California League by a having a of couple months to forget. He can take solace in the knowledge that that hardly makes him unique among pitchers to come through the minors’ most hitter-friendly league, and the better news for the Dodgers righthander is that his last two starts have been more encouraging.

Gould, 20, was just 1-5, 5.19 entering his June 6 start for Rancho Cucamonga, when he struck out seven over five innings, allowing two runs on five hits. He followed that up with one of his best outings of the year Monday, permitting just two hits and one run over six innings against Lancaster. He struck out six and handed out only one walk.

Gould didn’t figure in the decision and remains stuck on one win in 13 outings, but he’s lowered his ERA to 4.71. His strikeout rate has remained solid with 67 in 63 innings, but part of his problems can be traced to his groundout/airout ratio of 1.33, which is down from a career mark of 1.60e. But once again, he’s been more proficient over his last two outings, inducing eight groundouts Monday and a 12-4 groundout/fly out rate over his last two starts.
 

We often talk about players needing to show they’ve mastered a level before they’re ready to move up. It’s not exactly going out on a limb to say that Anthony Rizzo has mastered Triple-A, but his last two games have further underscored the point.

The Cubs prospect hit two home runs on Sunday for Triple-A Iowa then belted two more on Monday, part of a 3-for-4 night in which he also added a double and had four RBIs. The lefthanded-hitting Rizzo homered to center field in the second inning Monday—three of his last five homers have gone to center—and then hit a three-run shot to right in the fifth. The 22-year-old’s outburst has vaulted him to the top of the Pacific Coast League with 22 homers and put him in a tie with Wil Myers for second in the minors, trailing only Toledo slugger Brad Eldred’s 24.

Rizzo hit .331/.404/.652 in Triple-A with Tucson last season and has been even better this year despite moving to the less hitter-happy American Conference of the PCL as a result his being traded from the Padres to the Cubs in the offseason. He’s up to .363/.422/.721 through 215 at-bats with Iowa and has nearly matched his 2011 Triple-A homer total of 26. He’s not walking as frequently (10.4 percent of PAs last year, 8.4 percent this year) but has improved his strikeout rate (17.7 percent of PAs, down from 21.5 percent of PAs last year), and he’s hitting a combined .343/.411/678 at the Triple-A level between the 2011-12 seasons combined.
 

Don’t look for Edwar Cabrera to defend his 2011 minor league strike out crown, but the Rockies lefthander is still having a quality year with Double-A Tulsa. On Monday, he followed one of his worst outings of the season with one of his best, tossing seven one-hit, shutout innings against Northwest Arkansas, striking out five and walking two.

Five days earlier, on June 6, Cabrera was tagged for five earned runs on eight hits in 5 2/3 innings by Springfield, but he found a groove quickly on Monday. The 24-year-old retired the first 12 hitters he faced and didn’t yield his first hit until a one-out single by the Cardinals’ Yem Prades in the sixth. Prades’ hit was one of just two balls that left the infield against Cabrera, as he induced 11 groundouts to go with the five punchouts.

As we detailed in a recent Prospect Bulletin (BA subscription required), Cabrera has emphasized the development of his curveball. His strikeout numbers haven’t been as gaudy as last year, when he had 217 in 167 innings, but he does lead the Texas League in WHIP (0.94) and rank second in opponents’ average (.192) on the strength of his devastating changeup. He’s limited righthanded hitters to a paltry .186 average in 210 at-bats. He picked up the win Monday to move to 6-4, 3.25, putting him seventh in the TL in ERA. The downside? Cabrera’s been punished hard for his mistakes. Despite his otherwise strong numbers, Cabrera is tied for the minor league lead in the dubious category of home runs allowed with 14.

Most minor league records are fossils.

They're wonderful to look at, but thanks to the changes in the game, most minor league record feats can be considered untouchable.

Joe Bauman's 72 home runs in a season (in the 1954 Class C Longhorn League) isn't going to be threatened anytime soon–a 40-home run season in the minors now would be cause for celebration. Nolan Arenado led the minors in RBIs last year with 122, but Bob Crues and his record 254 RBIs in 1948 for Amarillo West didn't have much of a reason to feel threatened. And as impressive as Matt Moore's two minor league strikeout crowns and a second-place finish in a three-year stretch were, you'd have to add up all three of Moore's seasons to top the single-season strikeout record of Grover Lowdermilk's 465 Ks in 1907.

Gary Redus' record-setting .462 season with Billings in 1978 and Vince Coleman's 145 stolen bases with Macon in 1983 are the only two minor league single-season records of any significance that have been broken in the past 50 years.

Since Coleman and Donnell Nixon held a furious race to nab the stolen base record in 1983, not one significant minor league single-season record has even been threatened. In fact, not one single-season performance since then ranks in the Top 10 for all-time single-season leaders. The career records are equally untouchable.

All of that makes what Reds shortstop prospect Billy Hamilton is doing this year all the more special. For the first time in a long time, we may see a run at a record. Hamilton, who plays for high Class A Bakersfield, has 71 steals in 63 team games. At his current pace of 1.13 steals per team game, Hamilton is on pace to steal 157 bases, 12 more than Coleman's record. [...] Continue Reading »

Presented here are the top 10 pitcher game scores from weekend series, June 8-10, by pitchers who appear in the 2012 Baseball America Prospect Handbook.

• Twins righty Liam Hendriks came within one out of notching his second straight complete game for Triple-A Rochester, though the first came in an abbreviated seven-inning affair. He threw 124 pitches Saturday and came out of the game after allowing a two-out single to Indianapolis center fielder Starling Marte in the ninth inning. Hendriks has gone 5-0, 1.94 with a 0.91 WHIP in seven starts for the Red Wings, in sharp contrast to his 9.00 ERA in four starts for the Twins.

• Mariners Double-A lefty Danny Hultzen registered his first 80+ game score of the season on Friday, limiting Jacksonville to two hits in eight innings. His 1.28 ERA through 12 starts ranks fifth in the minors, while no qualified starter has allowed a lower opponent average (.145). [...] Continue Reading »

Presented here are the top 10 runs created tallies for position players from weekend series, June 8-10. Players must appear in the 2012 Baseball America Prospect Handbook.

• Logan Schafer carries a .417 on-base percentage (13-for-33 with two walks) through 10 June games with Triple-A Nashville (and a .344 mark on the season), a performance that the Brewers surely must be monitoring. Milwaukee center fielders have hit .243/.292/.350 this season.

• Mets Double-A center fielder Matt den Dekker is having one of the great under-the-radar seasons, batting .340/.397/.563 with eight homers in 238 at-bats for Binghamton. He leads the Eastern League in average, doubles (21), slugging, extra-base hits (33) and runs (47). He turns 25 in August and has no Triple-A experience, but he has tools that will play in the big leagues—namely defensive range, speed and more power than perhaps anyone realized. [...] Continue Reading »

High Class A Jupiter outfielder Marcell Ozuna enhanced his OPS by more than 200 points in May (.892) compared with his April output (.651). The needle continues trending up for the 21-year-old Marlins slugger so far in June. Ozuna went 3-for-4 Sunday versus Bradenton and connected for three home runs, a rare occurrence in Florida State League play.

Ozuna hit all three home runs to left field, smashing a three-run shot in the first inning against Marauders righthander Tyler Waldron, then victimizing Waldron for a solo shot in the third, then taking righty Hunter Strickland deep for a two-run shot in the seventh. Ozuna drove in six runs, and in his other two plate appearances he struck out and got hit by a pitch.

Ozuna's outburst thrust him into the FSL lead with 13 home runs. He won a home run title previously in the 2010 short-season New York-Penn League.

Of the 11 three-homer games in the minors this season, three occurred in the California League and three more happened in the Pacific Coast League. The International League has two entries and the Eastern and South Atlantic leagues make one appearance each.