It’s been another great week of baseball in the California League, with the ball flying despite the fact that the extreme heat hasn’t hit us yet. Tonight’s action was typical of the circuit, with the winners scoring 12, 9, 8, 6 and 3 runs. Only one shootout, as High Desert scored 8 runs in a loss, but the weather is heating up and the offenses are getting in gear as well. Here are the final scores from tonight’s action:
IE 8 – Lancaster 3
San Jose 6 – Visalia 2
Lake Elsinore 9 – Rancho Cucamonga 1
Modesto 3 – Stockton 2
Bakersfield 12 – High Desert 8
Those results have impacted the standing as follows:
The Blaze have a 3-game lead on the Rawhide in the North, with the rest of the division back near the .500 mark or below. Meanwhile, Lake Elsinore has a little separation themselves in the South after tonight’s win and the losses of Lancaster and High Desert. The Storm now have a 2-game lead on the Jethawks.
TRENDING
The whole North Division has been around .500 over the last 10 games and the Blaze (31-17) and Rawhide (29-20) have remained embattled for the top spot despite their recent break-even play.
In the South Division, Lake Elsinore (29-20) has gone 7-3 over the last 10 contests and that has been good enough to stay ahead of Lancaster and High Desert. Other than the Storm, only the charging Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, at 6-4, have played over .500 for the last 10 games and Rancho is digging itself out of an early-season hole. The Quakes remain in fourth place with a record just now approaching .500 at 23-26.
LIVELY APPEARS TO BE MORTAL AFTERALL
Blaze RHP Ben Lively has been too much for the high-octane California League bats this early season, but he got some negative feedback tonight, if you want to call it that. Lively’s line tonight against High Desert was shocking, only in that it appeared on his nearly-pristine stat sheet. While earning his league-leading 8th win, Lively went 5 1/3 innings and allowed four hits and two walks along with <gasp!> 2 earned runs. Eight more strikeouts added to his league-leading total and some early Bakersfield offense meant that the game was never in doubt.
But it is noteworthy when a 2-time California League Pitcher of the Week steps down from domination to have an opposing team mount an offense against him.
Also in the mix is that High Desert’s D.J. Peterson put Lively behind in the top of the first with a solo homerun.
But after an uneven performance in the early innings, Lively rebounded to become an out machine after a couple of innings, so this outing appears to be just a part of the growth process. And Peterson went yard again in the 7th off of reliever Sean Lucas, so he had a hot bat tonight as well.
SEAGER, KEMP SCARING PITCHERS
Corey Seager is the Dodgers’ top organizational prospect, and you can see that in what he’s been doing to Cal League pitching this season. The 2012 first-round pick is lighting up the boxscore almost every night and he now leads the league in OPS at 1.106. How’s a line of .371/.418/.599 look after 40 games? That’s what the Dodgers are looking for and Seager may not be playing at LoanMart Field too much longer.
Anthony Kemp is doing the same kind of damage from the top of the order for the Lancaster Jethawks. The Vanderbilt product is leading the league with a .430 OBP and his 53 runs scored total essentially laps the field. The second-highest runs scored total is 38 and Kemp is all over the leaderboards in significant offensive categories. The Cal League is known for offense, and that usually means the long ball. But Kemp is making starting pitchers nervous on the bullpen mound as they get ready to start the game, knowing they need to keep him off the bases before the likes of Carlos Correa and Rio Ruiz step into the box.
KIVLEHAN, SHERFY AT AA
Two prominent Cal Leaguers got the call recently and headed on up to AA. They got that call, not just based on organizational need, but because they were putting up lights-out numbers at hiA. But things have proven to be tougher at the next level for Patrick Kivlehan and Jimmie Sherfy.
Kivlehan had success against Cal League pitching for High Desert and earned Player of the Week honors before getting the call to AA Jacksonville earlier this month. But his nine homers and an .895 OPS didn’t go with him to the Southern League, at least not to this point. Cal League fans will be surprised to see Kivlehean’s line of .140/.264/.209 after 12 games but that is what the Mariners’ #12 prospect has been able to do so far.
It’s early, of course there’s some adjustment to be made. Kivlehan’s likely to lock in like he did at High Desert and in two previous successful pro seasons. It’s just another indicator that climbing the ladder in minor league baseball isn’t a breeze, even for some of the most talented hitters.
Add Sherfy to the discussion. The former Oregon Duck came out of the Visalia bullpen 11 times and ended games in dominant fashion most of the time. Sherfy got the call to AA Mobile and in seven appearances in the Southern League it hasn’t been as easy. After posting a BB/K split of 5/23 in the Cal League, Sherfy is sitting at 8/8 through six appearances with Mobile with an ERA of 7.50.
Nobody said getting to the bigs is easy and here are two good examples. My opinion is that they’ll both work it out and keep moving. But everybody has to face the music on the way up.
NUTS GETTING IT GOING
The Modesto Nuts have now won four of five and the 5-5 record over the last 10 games that shows on the Standings page looks absolutely beautiful on the heels of the brutal start to this season. Even with the recent success, the Nuts sit at 15-34 overall and have an elimination number of 5 to be aced from the first-half race.
The pitching has hamstrung the club in the early going, but there has been some improvement there. And surely the team suffered with the injury to Rockies’ #3 prospect SS Rosell Herrera.
But INF Pat Valaika was promoted to the Nuts after leading the loA SAL in hitting at .370 and it added to a potent mix of organizational prospects. Herrera is ranked by Baseball America as Colorado’s #3 prospect, but he sits out with a wrist injury and isn’t expected back until some time around the All Star break.
Trevor Story is #9 on the same list and plays SS as well, but he has seen time at 3B to accommodate Herrera. On the offensive side, Story is among the Cal League leaders in hitting with a .323 batting average and .410 OBP.
Add Valaika to the mix and you have three potentially elite infield prospects. In five games with the Nuts, Valaika’s doing ok so far: .370/.407/.575.
Minor league baseball is, of course, all about player development. Modesto’s dismal win-loss record early on isn’t what fans want to see, but there’s a bigger picture that this all fits into. It will be interesting to see how the organization works to develop these three infielders, as well as Matt Wessinger while they’re all at the same level.
Regardless of the results on the field, one of the endearing qualities of the California League is the support of the local communities. Modesto comes out strong for their hometown team every night and the 4,602 that jammed John Thurman Field for tonight’s win is a testament to that support. Holding down last place in the North by a wide margin, the crowds come out anyway. I don’t believe the recent wins have impacted the attendance. This is what they do in this community and the league’s attendance page bears this out.
