• Peter Bourjos, cf, Angels. The fleet Bourjos hit .306 with power in April, in the form of five triples and three doubles for Triple-A Salt Lake. But in the subsequent 50 games, he's managed to hit just .230/.285/.351 over 191 at-bats. The 23-year-old cracked a home run last week—one of four he's hit in June, actually—and with six on the year he's on pace to surpass the nine he hit for high Class A Rancho Cucamonga in 2008. It's just that little else has been working for Bourjos. Last week, he went 4-for-31 (.129) with six whiffs and two walks.

• Aaron Crow, rhp, Royals. Special mention here to Rockies Double-A lefty Christian Friedrich and his June swoon with Tulsa: 0-2, 6.75 with a 14-to-9 strikeout-to-walk ratio over 24 innings. But in terms of frightening pitching performances, no one can match Double-A Northwest Arkansas' Crow, who has seen his ERA double with each successive month. It's jumped from 3.94 in April to 5.97 in May to 11.66 in June.

In his past five starts, Crow has allowed 28 runs on 30 hits over 18 2/3 innings. Despite a 12.54 ERA, he still managed to go 2-2 while striking out 17 batters and allowing only one home run in that stretch. Needless to say, it's going to be tough for Crow, 23, to thrive if he continues to average 2.3 baserunners per inning, as he has in this recent downturn. The one bright spot in Crow's debut season with the Royals is his stellar 3.37 groundout-to-flyout ratio, which leads all qualified minor league starters.

• Adeiny Hechavarria, ss, Blue Jays: The Blue Jays gave Hechavarria a four-year, $10 million deal in April, hoping the 21-year-old Cuban would start at high Class A Dunedin and move quickly to Double-A New Hampshire. Slow down there. International scouts' concerns about Hechavarria's ability to hit have proven to be spot on, as Hechavarria has scuffled his way to a .190/.212/.279 mark in 37 games with Dunedin. His impatience has made him an out machine with just four walks in 151 plate appearances. As one National League scout explained, "He has a late trigger. In BP, he's great. In a game, he has a late start to the ball. He's a good athlete, he can run and he has a good arm, but I just wasn't thrilled by him."


• Rick Porcello, rhp, Tigers: The Tigers' decision to vault Porcello straight from high Class A to the majors in 2009 paid off handsomely when he put together a solid and sometimes dominant rookie season. But the 21-year-old's second season has not gone nearly as well, which led to a demotion to Triple-A Toledo for some remedial work. Porcello's slider was never his best pitch, but it's taken a step back this season. After his first Triple-A start, he's either gotten some things fixed or found that the level won't tax him enough to resolve the problems—he held Louisville to one hit and one run in eight innings.

• Joe Cruz, rhp, Rays. Cruz signed for $100,000 as a 30th-round pick out of East Los Angeles JC in 2007, but he'd have better luck moving mountains than getting noticed among the Rays' legion of pitching prospects. But with each strong start he turns in for high Class A Charlotte, Cruz edges a littler closer to recognition. See: last week, when the 6-foot-4, 21-year-old righty completed a pair of eight-inning gems. In 16 innings total, he allowed just four runs on 13 hits, while striking out 15 and walking one. While Cruz has been slow to develop—he spent two seasons with Rookie-level Princeton and another full year with low Class A Bowling Green—he may prove to be worth the wait.