Mike Trout and Alexi Amarista hit well over the Memorial Day Weekend

AngelsWin.com Minor League Report: 6-1-2010

Salt Lake Bees

The Good: Peter Bourjos (.268) had a hit in each game over the Memorial Day weekend (eight overall), going 3-4 on Sunday while stealing his 7th base and hitting his 2nd home run of the season on Monday. Terry Evans (.264) went 2-4 and stole his 10th base. Mark Trumbo (.277) who sports a seven-game hitting streak, clubbed his 12th home run of the season on Monday. Hank Conger went 2-4 with an RBI and walk on Saturday, a day after walking  twice on Friday. Paul McAnulty (.444) went 1-4 with a walk and two runs scored in his first game with the Bees, then smacked a three more hits on Monday. Michael Kohn picked up the win on Saturday after another scoreless frame on Friday. Kohn gave up his first run of the season with a home run to C Steve Holm in Saturday’s contest.

The Bad: Will Smith was lit up on Friday in a matchup against Giants’ prospect Madison Bumgarner. Smith gave up seven runs on 13 hits in just 4.1 innings of work. Hank Conger gave up nine stolen bases out of 11 attempts over the weekend. He did pick off one and had another one dropped by 1B Mark Trumbo for an error. Trevor Reckling had another poor start on Monday, with six free passes and and five hits which resulted in giving up four runs in 4 1/3 innings of work.

Noteworthy: Hainley Statia was placed on the DL and will be out 4-6 weeks. The Bees received Paul McAnulty from the Travelers on Saturday after Robb Quinlan was promoted to the big league club. Brandon Wood went 1-5 with a strikeout in his first start of the season with the Bees.

The Good: Roberto Lopez was promoted to the Arkansas Travelers over the weekend and went 1-2 with a home run and walk as the DH in his Double-A debut on Sunday, before going 0-4 with an RBI on Monday. Lopez leads the organization with 44 RBI’s. Jeremy Thorne went seven innings, giving up just one run on five hits on Sunday. Robert Fish notched his second hold while with the Travelers with 2/3 innings of work on Sunday, before Jordan Walden came in to shut the door against Corpus Christi with a scoreless 1.1 innings, striking out two and earning his fourth save of the season.

The Bad: Since Ryan Brasier’s no hitter on April 29th the righthander has given up 27 earned runs in his last five starts, resulting in a 6.94 ERA overall.

Noteworthy: Eddie Bane had the following to say about Jordan Walden in our chat last week. “Jordan’s ERA is higher than I would like it, but when you come out of the pen one bad outing kills your ERA. Jordan is doing fine and will be a heck of a pitcher in the big leagues. It is funny to listen to the daily minor league reports and hear Bobby Mags at 2A describe Walden, “Jordan Walden, fastball 95-100 with solid life.” That is cool. You don’t get to hear 100mph very often.”

The Good: Tyler Chatwood didn’t have command of his pitches on Monday, giving up seven walks, but he allowed just one run on two hits. Chatwood’s ERA sits at 1.94 on the season. Check the noteworthy section for more on Chatwood from Eddie Bane. Pat Corbin made his first start since his promotion from Cedar Rapids and didn’t factor in on the decision, keeping in tact his 8-0 record. Corbin went 5 2/3 innings, giving up two earned runs on six hits, while striking out four. Matt Shoemaker (4.26) went the distance, giving up just one run on four hits, while striking out 12 over nine solid innings of work. Darwin Perez went 4-4 on Friday night. Alexi Amarista has posted five straight multi-hit contests, including seven hits over the holiday weekend which raised his average up to .358 on the season. Amarista also stole three bases over  the weekend, giving him 13 so far out of 21 attempts. Luis Jimenez who was promoted from Cedar Rapids went 3-8 over the weekend, including hitting his third home run of the season. Tyson Auer (.298)went 5-15 over the weekend with two more stolen bases, giving him 28 on the season.

The Bad: Orangel Arenas High-A ball debut wasn’t what he’s used to seeing while with the Cedar Rapids Kernels after posting a 2.01 ERA through nine starts. Arenas gave up five runs on five hits, while issuing five walks in just four innings of work on Sunday.

Noteworthy: Eddie Bane had the following to say about Tyler Chatwood in yesterday’s live chat. “Chat has had several games where his fastball ranged from 90-97 mph. He rides the fastball really well and creates angle even for a guy that is 5’11. His curve is at least a 70 on our grading scale where the top grade is 80. He has shown even better command this year than last in CR. Remember a lot of the Cy Young winners were not 6’5″ guys. Look at Pedro, Cone, Maddux and others. As long as you can create an angle to the plate it does not matter. Plus Chat is an incredible young man.”

The Good: Mike Trout (.362) was scorching hot over the weekend with going 8-17, posting at least two hits in each of his last four games (Fri-Mon). Trout also had two doubles, two RBI’s and three stolen bases over the weekend. Casey Haerther (.294) went 3-3 with two doubles and two RBI’s on Monday. Garrett Richards (2.91) hurled six stellar innings, giving up just four hits and no runs, while striking out 11. on Ariel Pena pitched a lot better after he was sent down a level to Cedar Rapids, going six innings, while giving up just one run on two hits, while fanning five. Tyler Skaggs (2.51) went five innings, giving up just two runs, while striking out five on Saturday. Tyler Kehrer (5.70) followed him up with four strong innings, giving up just one run while earning the save. The 6’9 hard-throwing Jon Hellweg earned his 5th save over the weekend. Hellweg has struck out 20 batters in 13 innings thus far this season.

The Bad: After being named #1 on our AngelsWin.com prospect hotlist on Friday, Segura went 1-11 over the Memorial Day weekend. He did steal three bases however.

Noteworthy: Lots of new faces on the Cedar Rapids club with a few more most likely to join the club soon with short-season A ball starting later on this month. LHP Stephen Locke, OF Jeremy Cruz and 3B Michael Wing joined the Kernels from the Arizona Instructional League and Ariel Pena and Manaurys Correa were demoted from High-A to Low-A ball, joining the Kernels over the weekend. When asked about Mike Trout possibly moving up a level, Eddie Bane had this to day. “Mike has plenty to do in CR and anyhow that is up to my esteemed colleague, Abe Flores. But, it is fun to see the pundits that questioned his selection at 25 and now they rank him at 10 in all of baseball.”

Prospect of the Weekend: Alexi Amarista, 2B RC Quakes & Mike Trout, OF CR Kernels.