The MLB non-waiver trade deadline is fast approaching and the first of what should be many deals happened yesterday with the Houston Astros and Oakland A’s swapping players. Houston acquired LHP Scott Kazmir for “a pair of minor-leaguers” who were both playing with the Lancaster Jethawks,
The A’s received C Jacob Nottingham and P Daniel Mengden, both of whom were assigned to the Stockton Ports. Nottingham had recently been promoted to Lancaster from Quad Cities where he batted .326/.387/.543 with 10 homers in 59 games. In 17 games at Lancaster, it was more of the same: .324/.368/.606 with 4 homers.
Mengden had also made the jump from Quad Cities to Lancaster and last pitched against San Jose on Monday. After a great showing in eight games (six starts) with QC, Mengden was finding it a little tougher in the Cal League. His opponents’ batting average had jumped from .216 to .298 while his WHIP went from 0.98 at loA to 1.55 at Lancaster.
MLB.com placed Mengden at #13 on Oakland’s top prospects list and Nottingham at #5.
The Ports and Jethawks opened a four-game series Thursday night in Lancaster with Nottingham going 1-for-4 from the #5 hole in Stockton’s lineup. Lancaster won the game 6-1.
Standby for more player movement as the MLB deals go down over the next week.
GODLEY STYMIES BREWERS IN MLB DEBUT
Zack Godley, who made his last appearance for the Visalia Rawhide on June 19th, got called up for a start with the Arizona Diamondbacks yesterday and made the absolute most of the opportunity. Godley is the talk of baseball today after throwing six shutout innings and striking out seven with no walks in the Diamondbacks’ 8-3 win over Milwaukee. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, he is the first pitcher in the modern era (since 1900) to debut with at least six scoreless innings, no walks and at least seven strikeouts.
After going 8-3 for the Rawhide, Godley got promoted to AA Mobile and made three starts there. A mid-season promotion is what every prospect wants. But the out-of-nowhere jump to the bigs came due to an endless string of injuries to Arizona’s starting pitchers, most recently Chase Anderson. Godley seized the moment.
Among his seven strikeouts were two whiffs of slugger Ryan Braun. The second one was Godley’s last out, a long, drawn-out AB where Braun fouled off several two-strike pitches.
With a 6-0 lead and a runner on second, Godley’s pitch count was approaching 80 as Braun stepped in with two outs. Godley got ahead 0-2 and after six pitches it was 2-2. Braun fouled off the next five pitches before waving at a curveball in the dirt for strike three.
Godley finished the game having thrown 88 pitches with 66 of them strikes.
THURSDAY SCOREBOARD
LANCASTER 6, STOCKTON 1
HIGH DESERT 5, LAKE ELSINORE 0
MODESTO 4, VISALIA 2 (10 innings)
INLAND EMPIRE 7, RANCHO CUCAMONGA 6
BAKERSFIELD 8, SAN JOSE 5
