Diamondbacks Minor League Monday: August 14th update

It is Monday again so that means it is time to take another look at the Arizona Diamondbacks Minor Leagues.

Over the last week, the five minor league teams have a combined 13-19 record. This in itself is not the best thing to look at but some teams really held the whole group down. Three of the five teams played six games while the Reno Aces and the Hillsboro Hops both played seven.

Triple A: Reno Aces

The Reno Aces went 3-4 over the last week in a streaky fashion. They won their first three games and then proceeded to lose the last four.

Overall on the season, the Aces are 68-53 putting them one game behind the Fresno Grizzlies. Both teams have gone 3-7 over their last ten games so the Aces are stuck at one game behind Fresno.

Reno had a fair surprise in the pitching staff thanks to recent Double A call-up Taylor Clarke.

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On Wednesday the Aces got seven innings out of the young right handed pitcher. During those seven innings of work, he only allowed two runs and six hits.

In another big surprise for the team, Jimmie Sherfy had only his third blown save on the season giving up two runs in the ninth inning. On the year he has 17 saves and an ERA of 3.40.

Christian Walker continues to have a great season for the Aces. In his six games this week he had eight hits and four RBIs. Two of those hits were home runs giving him 30 on the year. The only downside for Walker is that he is a natural first baseman and that position is securely locked up for a few years to come in the Major Leagues.

Double A: Jackson Generals

The Jackson Generals went 2-4 over their six games this last week, including a 17-1 loss to the Montgomery Biscuits.

In that game, the team game up 11 runs in the first inning. The game was called in the seventh inning due to it being a double header.

The Generals then went on to lose the second game as well.

Not everything was awful for the Generals last week. On Tuesday the team had a shut out win over the Chattanooga Lookouts.

On the season, Jackson is 23-26 and are 11 games back of the division leading Lookouts. With only 21 games left until the playoffs, it is easy to say that the Jackson Generals are out of the playoff race.

Minor League A Advanced: Visalia Rawhide

The Visalia Rawhide looked the worst over the last week by going winless in six games.

The worst showing came on Sunday night in a 10-1 loss to the Stockton Ports. Starting pitcher Bo Takahashi gave up seven runs before he got his fifth out leading him to get pulled. On the season so far he is 6-9 with a 4.94 ERA.

The team as a whole despite the six game losing streak is only two games out of the division lead with a record of 23-27. With just under a month in the season left all it would take is a single hot streak for this team to be in the playoffs.

Minor League A: Kane County Cougars

Kane County is playing very well right now, winning five out of their last six games.

Their biggest win came in an 8-5 victory over the Wisconson Timber Rattlers. They were able to fight back from down four runs to send the game to extra innings.

Ramon Hernandez had a first pitch walk-off three-run homer in the tenth to give the Cougars the win.

The Cougars are 66-50 over the entire series but they are four games behind the division leader in the second half of the season. Thanks to them winning the first half of the season they already have a play off spot secured.

Minor League A Short Season: Hillsboro Hops

The Hillsboro Hops went three and four in their seven games over the week.

The big game for them was an 11-2 victory over the Salem Kaizer Volcanoes on last Tuesday. This nine run victory was made all the sweeter by Keele’s pitching giving the team six innings only giving up one run on two hits.

The most interesting thing about this game is that the Hops scored more runs than they had hits, only having ten.

During the second half of the season, the Hops are 9-9 and are in a three-way tie for the lead of the division. They already have a playoff spot thanks to winning the first half of the season.

Final thoughts.

Four of the five minor league teams we are covering are either in the playoffs already or are close to making it. The only team that will have a hard time making it would be the Jackson Generals.

Should at least three of the teams make the playoffs this year, I would say that it is a success for our farm system that was supposed to be one of the weakest in all of baseball.

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