Stars of the Day: May 28

Lots of good stuff yesterday.

At Visalia,   Bakersfield second baseman Jose Miguel Vallejo (.295 / .352 / .486)  posted  what stands, without question, as the box score line of the year for an offensive player in this system, going 3-4 with a triple, two homers, two walks,  four RBIs,  four runs scored and a stolen base as the Blaze posted a 13-7 victory over the Oaks.

Vallejo, whose physical maturity started to catch up to his mental and emotional maturity this past off-season,  came into the season with five career homers in 1382 minor league at-bats.   This year, he has nine bombs in 220 at-bats.   His outstanding base running has not suffered in spite of the fact that he's packed probably 15 pounds of muscle on to his frame.  He's nabbed 19 bags while being caught just three times.  And he remains probably the most outstanding defensive infielder in the system, Elvis and Joaquin notwithstanding.

Now in his third full year as a switch hitter, Vallejo is hitting .316 / .355 / .579 from his natural right side and .288 / .352 / .454 from his 'weaker' left side.    Impressive stuff all the way around.   Between the physical gifts and the makeup, Vallejo is a bonafide jewel.

If not for Vallejo's freakfest, we'd be leading off this edition of Stars with Julio Borbon (.330 / .379 / .436) who homered, doubled and walked in a 2-5 outing from the top of the Bakersfield order, driving in three, scoring three runs and stealing his 19th bag of the season.

Can someone buy Julio a ticket to Frisco already?

Evan Reed (4-2;  5.15) was the beneficiary of the Blaze lineup's big performance, but he didn't need anywhere near half of their production.    He held the Oaks to a run on four hits and five walks over six.

The best thing about minor league Spring Training isn't seeing the guys you went there to see, but finding the guy you didn't know about.   My friend Jamey Newberg and I will live off of our tales of realizing that an obscure 17th round shortstop from Missouri was 'actually a pretty big deal,'  back in 2004.    I'll never forget seeing Edison Volquez pitch for the first time and thinking that he was, by far, the most talented pitcher in camp back in 2005.

This year, the day after I'd watched Wilmer Font and Neftali Feliz light up the radar gun in the high 90's, I saw a skinny Dominican kid stride to the mound and make hitters look sillier than either of his more heralded flamethrowing teammates had the day before.

And on March 15, I wrote:   "The most interesting young pitching prospect to take the mound today was perhaps Kennil Gomez,  a 6'3" 165 lb. 19 year old who posted a 9.96 K/9 for the Arizona League club last summer (3.15 ERA & 1.17 WHIP).   He threw a 90ish fastball with explosive life and he's obviously in love with his slider, which features sharp, hard late break and he throws it for strikes."

Two weeks later, Gomez was dispatched to Clinton, Iowa and now five weeks after making his MWL debut, everyone knows about him.

Yesterday, Kennil Gomez (2.21 ERA) held Beloit scoreless on one hit for seven innings, fanning four and getting ten ground ball outs as Clinton topped the Snappers in ten innings.

Gomez isn't posting huge strikeout figures (7.11  K/9), but he's holding the MWL to a .196 batting average, getting 2.26 grounders for every ball hit in the air, and has a 0.91 WHIP.  

It won't be long before Gomez moves on to Bakersfield.

OK, so he doesn't lead the National League in about five pitching categories or sport one of the ten best ERAs in the American League at the tender age of 23 years and one month,  but D-1 has still got skills, and it won't be long before he joins he's making noise in the bigs like his old buddies Edinson and John.

Thomas Diamond made his second start in an official game since undergoing Tommy John surgery a little more than  one year ago and held Tulsa to one earned run on three hits and two walks in five innings while racking up seven strikeouts as Frisco opened a six-game homestand and the confluence of Dallas Tollway and Highway 121 with a 6-3 victory over the Drillers.

Emerson Frostad (.281 / .343 / .475) paced the RoughRiders attack, going 3-4 with a double to drive in two and Max Ramirez (.374 / .455 / .678)  made his first start of the year at first base and went 0-2 with a pair of walks.