Pawtucket 6, Toledo 3
Dmitri Young went 2 for 2 with 2 walks and I don’t really see him spending much more time in Toledo. Humberto Sanchez started and took the loss allowing 5 runs, 4 earned, in 5 innings. He struggled with his control walking 5.
Erie 4, Bowie 1
Nick McIntyre and Don Kelly each picked up 2 hits. Brent Clevlen was 1 for 3 with a wakl. Nate Bumstead went 8 innings allowing 1 runs on 6 hits with no walks and 6 strikeouts.
St. Lucie, 4, Lakeland 1
Casper Wells homered and that was pretty much it for the offense. Jeremy Johnson lasted 5 2/3 innings allowing 2 runs on 3 hits while walking 2 and fanning 5.
West Michigan – DNP
Oneonta 6, Brooklyn 0
Scott Sizemore, who was named NYPL player of the week for last week, added 2 more hits last night. Santo De Leon, Deik Scram, and Brennan Boesch all contributed multi-hit games as well while Ryan Strieby hit his first homer. Matt O’Brien (7 IP), Randor Bierd (1 IP), and Brett Jensen (1 IP) combined for the 3 hit shut out.
GCL Tigers – DNP
That was against JJ, wasn’t it?
I think it was 1270 (possibly Caputo. I don’t remember) that reported he would be here for the Oakland series.
Detroit News speculates Young will be back for the Oakland series since (1) Oakland is starting three right-handers and (2) management will want to see him for a few games before making a decision on trading for another bat.
So who goes down? Presume they’ll keep 12 pitchers with the expectation that the starters won’t be going as deep into games as regulalry as they did in the first half. That leaves Gomez or Santiago to be sent down. I’d lean toward Santiago. He hasn’t been used that much of late. Leaves us a bit thin in the infield, but the alternative is not having a good defensive replacement for Thames (assuming Monroe continues to DH).
I wouldn’t worry about that on a short term basis. Even if we had two middle infielders go down in one game, you could still limp through the game with DY at 3B and Inge in the middle somewhere. It would be a bad infield, but it would be good enough to finish the game.
What I’m wondering is: whose spot in the lineup is DY going to take, Shelton or Monroe?
Or Thames, moving Monroe to LF?
For the time being, I’d imagine Leyland will give a different player the day off each day to get DY into the lineup. Also suspect DY will only play against right-handers to start with. Platoon with Shelton at 1st seems like a possibility in the longer term.
I can’t really see him platooning at first. I see him platooning DH with Monroe, though and starting at least two games against Oakland, maybe three. I think Thames keeps playing, hard to bench a guy with an OPS near 1.000 who hits both righties and lefties consistently. I’d rather get an outfielder who can field and hit righties, while Thames goes to DH, than I would have Young even on the team.
Concur on Santiago going down in the meantime. Infante can give infielders a day off fine.
I bet they’ll want to test him as much as possible before the deadline, but once August starts, he’ll only get the at-bats that he deserves.
August? If so, let’s hope that playing time is not for Detroit. Dude can take his garbage act somewhere else.
A johnny-come-lately streak at AAA indicates nothing about Dmitri being able to fill Detroit’s needs. He can’t play in the field and at best adds to the Monroe/Thames carousel at LF/DH. That guy is a major liability anywhere in the IF. Besides, Thames is clearly our most consistent power hitter now that he’s been on the field most everyday. I wouldn’t want to disrupt that. Get a hired gun, but leave Dmitri to battle his own demons down the stretch, not Detroit’s opponents.
I’d go so far as to think Santiago’s D is worth all the O Dmitri would supply this club with if he were recalled. Just my 0.02$.