Haven’t done one of these in a while, so let’s check in on the farm clubs.
Indianapolis
Andrew McCutchen broke out of his slump nicely and is sitting at .284/.350/.466. It’s not quite the “domination” that some wanted to see, but his increase in extra base hits make for an improvement over his line with Indy last year. (.283/.372/.398). Hard to complain about that. Steve Pearce has also woken up in a big way after his slow start and is now hitting .271/.373/.451 with six homers. Not much to write home about in their rotation, but Virgil Vasquez could make decent rotation filler and Dan McCutchen is off to a decent start. Both are allowing a lot of homers (10 for Vasquez, six for McCutchen), and that might not be a great sign if either is called up this year.
Altoona
Brad Lincoln threw a complete-game two-hit shutout last night and looks really good in general. His ERA is down to 2.31, his WHIP is 1.05, and he’s struck out 40 hitters with only 11 walks in 46 2/3 innings. He turns 24 on Monday and he might not ever be an ace, but he looks like a pretty good prospect right now. Brian Friday is still hitting well and Danny Moskos has made a few nice starts in a row, though his ratios aren’t terribly promising right now.
Lynchburg
Very slowly, Pedro Alvarez seems to be coming around. He’s hitting .282 in his last ten games and his OPS is almost back up to .800. I’m going to go ahead and predict a breakout month of June for him. Kris Watts (.466 OBP, 1.103) is begging for a promotion to Altoona right now, as his hot start hasn’t cooled off much, and Jordy Mercer (.667 OPS) is starting to struggle. On the pitching side of things, Ronald Uviedo has been impressive (3.27 ERA, 35/6 K/BB in 41 1/3 innings over eight starts), but 2008 fifth rounder Justin Wilson is struggling a bit (6.46, 1.66 WHIP, 24/13 K/BB in 30 2/3 innings).
West Virginia
Chase D’Arnaud (.885 OPS) and Calvin Anderson (.945) — both 2008 draft picks — are raking at the plate and Robbie Grossman’s .366 OBP is pretty impressive for a guy that was in high school last year. Beyond that, a lot of the State College disaster from last year has just moved up a level. It’s clear that Huntington still has his work cut out for him.
