Some quick highlights from the minors:
AAA Albuquerque
- Josh Willingham is tearing it up. He's hitting about .340 with an onbase percentage over .450. He has 19 homers, a .726 slugging percentage, and about as many walks as strikeouts.
- Matt Perisho (no, not "Mike", Jack) did ultimately accept the demotion to the minors. He's only made one appearance so far, and has an ERA of 27.00 to show for it.
- Jim Crowell, who did not look this impressive in the bigs, has a 1.54 ERA in 23 appearances.
- Later this week they're having Dukes-retro night in Albuquerque, which sounds very cool.
- Jeremy Hermida seems to be doing everything in his power to earn himself a job on the big club by next season. His line to date: .312/.457/.551. He also has 13 homers, 16 steals, and more walks than strikeouts.
- I know nothing about Mike Flannery, but he's got some nice numbers so far out of the bullpen. 23.1 innings in 19 outings with an ERA of 2.31. Having only allowed 14 hits and 5 walks, his WHIP is well below one. He's also struck out 29 batters (more than one per inning) for an impressive strikeout-to-walk ratio of nearly 6-to-1.
- Reggie Abercrombie is tearing the cover off the ball too. His average and OBP (.289 and .338) aren't great, but he's flashing power (13 HR) and speed (16 SB). He's pushing 25 though, so he's a little too old for this competition - probably not anything to get too excited about.
- Jason Vargas's numbers aren't too overwhelming, but his 60 strikeouts and 14 walks in 55.1 innings are impressive.
- Lots of power and free-swinger combinations here; McCann, Carroll, and Fulton are all good examples. Nothing too exciting, at least to my quick-looking eyes.
- Taylor Tankersley, a high pick just last year, is just getting going this season - after some injury issues. In two outings he's amassed 11 innings and 12 strikeouts (against only two walks).
- Jeff Allison has made 4 starts so far and amassed 20.2 innings. His ERA is a shade under four and he's striking out three for every one that he walks. That all seems solid enough, all things considered, but nothing spectacular. On the whole, I think this is as much as anyone could expect from the young man right now.