Not much has changed at the major-league level. MLB continues its PR assault on the players via strategic leaks without actually making an actual proposal, knowing full well that when push comes to shove, the fans side with the billionaires over the millionaires.
Meanwhile, in the minor leagues, Kevin Reichard at Ballpark Digest makes the valid point that SI’s story “conflates anxiety caused by the coronavirus with anxiety about contraction and tries to make economic worries as something unique to Minor League Baseball.” My only counterpoint to Mr. Reichard is that that anxiety has to be compounded by the simple fact that teams are scrambling to be in the “120.”
Syracuse 2 Rochester 0 – 2011
• Milone (W, 3-3) 7IP 3H 0R 0BB 9K
• Carr (H, 1) 1+ IP 0R 0H 1BB 0K
• Mandel (S, 2) 1IP 1H 0R 1BB 0K
• Brown 2-4, 2B
• Solano 2-4, RBI
Tom Milone, Adam Carr, and Jeff Mandel combined to shut out the Red Wings, 2-0, as the Chiefs won their sixth straight ballgame. Milone allowed just three hits over seven innings with no walks and nine strikeouts to even his record at 3-3. Carr and Mandel each threw an inning to notch the hold and save respectively. Corey Brown and Jhonatan Solano both went 2-for-4 to lead the Syracuse offense. Just months after being added to the 40-man, Carr would go down with a labrum injury in early June 2011 and lose his spot in September 2011. While he was able to work his way back to High-A the following summer, he became an MLFA in November 2012. Carr would retire at the age of 29 after one month in the Atlantic League in 2013.
Harrisburg 8 Erie 2 (6½ inn.) – 2013
• Clay (W, 4-2) 6IP, 5H, 2R, 1ER, 0BB, 3K
• Head 3-4, 2R, 2-2B
• Bloxom 1-3, R, BB, 2RBI
• Hood 2-3, R, 2B, HR, 3RBI
Harrisburg went deep three times in an 8-2 pummeling of Erie for the Senators’ fifth straight win. Josh Johnson, Jeff Howell, and Destin Hood each went solo but the “band” filled the scorebook with 15 hits, led by Jerad Head’s single and two doubles. Caleb Clay rebounded from a run of three bad outings with six strong innings, giving up both Seawolves runs on five hits and no walks for his fourth win. Ricky Hague’s hot stretch continued with another multihit game, his seventh in a row and eighth straight games with a hit overall — a 16-for-29 streak that’s raised his batting average from .220 to .286. This was the second of three seasons at Harrisburg for the 2009 11th Rd. pick Justin Bloxom. He was released in May of 2014 and hooked on for two months with the Lynchburg Hillcats, but hit just .244/.330/.388 despite being more than three years older than the league average.
Potomac 6 Down East 3 – 2019
• Johnston (W, 5-4) 6IP, 4H, 2R, 2ER, 0BB, 5K, HR, WP
• Bonnell (SV, 1) 1IP, 2H, 0R, 0BB, 1K
• Corredor 3-5, R, RBI
• Masters 1-3, R, BB, 2RBI, 2K
• Harrison 0-3, BB, SF, RBI; 8PO, 0A, 0E, 0CS at C
Kyle Johnston’s dominance of the “W’s”—Wilmington, Winston-Salem, Wood Ducks ;-)—continues as he spun his fourth straight quality start in a 6-3 P-Nats win. Johnson has also won his last four starts as he let in two on four hits (one HR) without a walk and struck out five over six innings to improve to 5-4 on the year. Bryan Bonnell cordero’d his way through the 9th as he gave up two hits to bring the tying run to the plate but kept them from scoring to earn his first save. Aldrem Corredor remains hot as the sturdy first baseman went 3-for-5 to improve his BA to .314 for the month of May and lead the Potomac offense. While we were excited at the time at the prospect of Harrison playing more at catcher, this would be one of just three regular-season games the former Beaver would play behind the plate in 2019.
Greensboro 4 Hagerstown 2 – 2016
• DeRosier (L, 1-2) 5IP, 6H, 2R, 0ER, BB, 6K
• Pantoja 3IP, 5H, 2R, 2ER, BB, K
• Robles 1-4, R, HR, RBI, OF assist at 3B
• Lora 1-3, R, RBI, SB(5)
Presumably the weather forecast shifted the makeup to today as they played nine yesterday, with the ‘Hoppers eclipsing the Suns again by a 4-2 score. Matt DeRosier took the loss as he gave up two (unearned) runs on six hits and a walk while striking out six over the first five innings. Jorge Pantoja was stung for two runs on five hits and a walk over the final three innings. Victor Robles homered in the 8th while Edwin Lora drove in Jorge Tillero with an RBI single in 5th to account for the two Hagerstown runs. Picked in 2013 at the age of 18 (turning 19 in July), DeRosier toiled at Auburn and Hagerstown for five seasons before he finally made it to High-A in June 2018. He would make six ineffective appearances with the P-Nats and was released in July 2018 at the age of 24.