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Morning Jam: June 30
Well… it’s going to be a long year in Jamestown.
The Jammers dropped their seventh in a row, fourth of their last five by at least five runs and didn’t show much of anything after a 4-run first inning from Batavia.
Jamestown’s starter Ramon Del Orbe walked four and balked home a run in one of the ugliest first innings I’ve seen as Batavia had a total of one hit (a single) en route to scoring the four runs. Jamestown finished the game with four hits.
• Juancito Martinez had another nice day at the plate. Went 0-for-1, but walked twice and stole a bag. He’s got five steals which is third best in the league.
• Austin Nola’s day off yesterday helped. He went 2-for-4 today with a couple of well hit balls. Nola has reached base in 9-of-11 games despite the batting average under .200. He looks like one of the few players on this team. Did well at third base, too. Not sure where he projects, but third might be the better choice for him.
• Not much else to say here. Jamestown only had seven baserunners and grounded into three double plays. Kentrell Dewitt had a leadoff double in the 8th, advanced on a grounder and scored on a fly ball. Small ball from the Jammers finally, but too bad it was when they were down by seven.
• Jamestown is now batting .227 as a team with a .296 on-base percentage.
• They’ll look to avoid the sweep tonight with Mason Hope on the mound. Ben Freeman is going for Batavia. He shut down the Jammers Sunday at Diethrick Park. Tonight is at Dwyer Stadium in Batavia.
Morning Jam: Jamestown drops fourth straight
It was an ugly 8-3 loss that could have actually been much worse had Auburn not batted 3-f0r-16 with RISP. But, nonetheless, Jamestown has been routed by Auburn on back-to-back nights and with more coming up against the Doubledays next week, they better figure it out soon.
• The lone bright spot was Austin Nola had two hits to bump his average to .161. Say what you want about his struggles, but the rookie shortstop has now reached based six games in a row and eight of nine. In his last five, he’s batting .286 with a .444 OBP. Things aren’t nearly as bad as they seem for him.
• Blake Logan’s pro debut was rather special last night. After being activated earlier in the day, Logan came on in relief of Newell and threw two scoreless innings while striking out five. I still think the 13th round pick is better suited for the rotation and with the way Jamestown’s starters have been this year, I wouldn’t think it would be the worst idea.
• Miguel Fermin did throw last night much like I thought he would. He finished off the eighth, but struggled a little allowing a double and a walk.
• 7 hits and 6 walks last night, but just 3 runs. No timely hitting and another solo homerun. They offense is actually tied for fourth in homers, 7th in average and OBP, but third last (12th) in RBI and second last (13th) in runs. They’re spreading the hits out and not hitting when guys are on. Pretty simple.
• Final game of a three-game set in Auburn. A much-needed win and Jamestown will send Matt Milroy (0-0, 4.50, 2 IP) to the hill to face Pedro Encarnacion (0-0, 2-8 ERA, 4.1 IP).
• Jamestown starts a three-gamer with Batavia tomorrow, but will be doing some traveling. Batavia Thursday, Jamestown Friday, Batavia Saturday.
• Birthday wishes: A happy 20th to Jammers starting pitcher Mason Hope, a fifth round pick in the 2011 MLB Draft.
All Is Good — Through 4 Games
First of all, we’re four games in, so there’s not too much to be said here about this season yet. But there are actually some positive signs out there, and frankly, not so many negative ones. Sure, 2-2 is nothing to brag about — or to even be overly confident about going forward — but the Jammers have the feel of a contender if four games mean anything.
What I’ve liked:
• Jamestown is fourth in the NYPL in batting average at .264, which actually feels low in regard to how they’ve been hitting. A few regulars are struggling like Austin Nola and Jesus Solorano, but everyone else is hitting. In order, they’ve had 7, 9, 10 and 13 hits in their respective games this year. That will get the job done in this league. Last year, Jamestown hit .246
• They’re also third in ERA at 2.89 and third in WHIP at 1.15. Let’s just put it this way: if both of those stats stay somewhat in that area, Jamestown will be one of the best teams in the league. Again, it’s four games. But, Jamestown — which hasn’t had a starter enter the fifth inning — has shown they have a remarkably good bullpen with plenty of arms that can get outs. Now the question is do they have the starters to go longer than a few innings.
What concerns me:
• The starting pitching. Jamestown is the only team in the league not to have their starting pitcher start the fifth inning. Through four games, 21 starters in this league have gone at least five innings and another five have at least started the fifth. None of them are Jammers. I’m sure it’s a Marlins/Jammers thing since it’s early in the season and there a lot of arms down here, but I’m not so sure that can keep up.
• Of their 39 hits, only 10 of them are extra base hits and only one was a four-bagger. Again, it’s early, but Jamestown is seventh in slugging. This isn’t too big of a concern if they can keep hitting for a high average because this team does have some speed and Angel Espada has shown how much he likes to play small either via the sacrifice or the hit-and-run.
Why it doesn’t matter yet:
It’s four games. They play 76 — weather permitting. But these are some trends to keep an eye on. Does the bullpen need to get 15 or more outs every night? Can this team hit for power? We’ll see.
Coming up on Jampacked blog:
• Our next live game (via Twitter) is Sunday against Batavia at 4:05 p.m.
• Saturday: Breaking down the roster — hitters.
• Sunday morning pitching report.
• Every Sunday night will be a weekly recap around the NYPL. June 24 will be the first look.
Game 4 Recap
Well, that’s enough of Mahoning Valley for one month. The Jammers first four games (of 12) with the Scrappers ended in a 2-2 tie, but Thursday night was more of the same as the Jammers pounded out hits and received another stellar outing from the bullpen to win comfortably 6-2.
The good: Well a lot, which tends to happen in a 4-run win. Jake Esch was great in relief. He threw four innings, allowed just one hit and a walk while striking out four. And no runs as the Jammers kept adding to their lead.
Also, Jamestown had 13 hits. Five guys had multi-hit nights including Cameron Flynn who had been struggling mightily in the leadoff spot. He went 2-for-4 hitting eighth. Viosergy Rosa, Anthony Gomez, Yeison Hernandez and Jesus Solorzano also had two hits a piece. Everyone in the lineup had a hit except Austin Nola, who did at least draw a walk.
Sean Donatello also threw three solid innings, allowing just a run in the ninth, en route to grabbing an endurance save.
The bad: Nola. Only him and Solorzano have started every game, but Nola is just 1-for-17. It’s way too early to be concerned about the kid, though. Ryan Newell only went two innings and I just don’t understand the pitching patterns for the Jammers. If they only wanted two innings out of Newell, but were willing to go four with Esch, why not start Esch? Even Donatello threw three. Who knows, but the Jammers combined to throw a five hitter.
Game was over when: Esch struck out Hunter Jones to end the sixth. Jamestown had just tacked on another run in the top half of the inning to make it 5-1 and the Scrappers had runners on the corners for one of their better hitters in Jones. The strikeout ended the inning. Brian Dice hit a homerun to start the seventh and it was all over except the crying.
Next up: Back up the 90 come the Jammers. They’ll play Batavia at 7:05 p.m. at Dwyer before returning home for two against the Muckdogs on the weekend.
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