Houston has finally cut loose with Jose Abreu, who will collect another $30 million from the team over the next season and a half. Jonathan Singleton was tabbed by manager Joe Espada to be the everyday first baseman, but that’s just, like, his opinion, man. Singleton is a free agent at the end of the season, too Joey Loperfido it’s there in Triple-A. He’s hitting at a 39.5 percent clip in 43 big league plate appearances, but he’s also slashing .333/.381/.436 with a 138 wRC+ in that stretch. Singleton’s wRC+ in 174 plate appearances is 92, down from 79 just last month. I’m all for reviving the man’s work, but I doubt that’s what we’re seeing here. Abreu was bad enough that even Singleton was upgraded, but it doesn’t make a lot of sense to eat $30 million just to play Jon Singleton every day while Joey Loperfido waits in the wings during what could be a lost season. As of Saturday morning, Houston is 32 and 38, eight games behind Seattle in the division and six games out of the wild card race.
Orioles 3B Coby Mayo homered during his second rehab game with High-A Aberdeen. Now that he is healthy again, we can continue to wait to see him in the big leagues. The list of guys that Baltimore let down this season (Holliday, Kjerstad, Stowers, Norby) would be a great crop of prospects for any other organization.
Talking about it Orioles SS Jackson Holliday, the club placed him on the injured list with swelling in his right elbow. Perhaps this could explain some of his problems this season. He was still playing well for a 20-year-old in Triple-A, which is Weurtz, slashing .270/.433/.466 with a 1.00 BB/K rate, but we might have expected more home runs than seven games. 50 for Triple-A, although I think we wouldn’t expect him to get 50 games for Triple-A.
It has been taken Rays RHP Shane Baz a little bit to find his sea legs after missing almost two seasons to Tommy John surgery, but he shouldn’t be in the minor leagues for long after another excellent outing on Friday. He has now thrown 15 innings in June and has a 1.20 ERA and 1.00 WHIP with a 22-to-5 walk ratio. Zach Littell gave the club everything it could have hoped for and more during his time as a rotation mainstay, but he gave up eight hits, seven runs and two homers in two innings against the Braves in a tough loss on Friday, upping his season high. WHIP to 1.38. Another week like this, and we’ll get to the point where it’s unfair to the organization to start Littell over Baz. Tampa has to scratch and claw for every win this year like we haven’t seen in a long time, so they won’t be able to run on their hopes as much as they’d like.
Red Sox SS Kristian Campbell (21, AA) locked in now rewriting his prospect profile. A fourth-round pick out of Georgia Tech at 132 overall, Campbell was promoted from the minor leagues to High-A in his draft season and opened the 2024 season at the same level. He forced a promotion after 40 games and looks ready for his next challenge after just ten games in Double-A. He homered twice Friday night and is hitting .390/.468/.707 with five walks and five strikeouts. He feels like he’s in the middle of nowhere as his talent tries to find its footing. It’s unusual enough in the game that it’s probably my favorite thing about this gig. Is the player on fire right now, or is he steadily rising to a new level? Let’s find out.
Tigers 2B Hao-Yu Lee (21, AA) is in the same bucket as he continues to be hot as Conan on Hot Ones. In his last 32 games, he is slashing .333/.410/.642 with nine home runs, two stolen bases and a 14.6% strikeout rate. Over his last 16 games, he is hitting .422/.474/.750 with five home runs and a 13.2 percent batting average. I haven’t seen all of Lee’s games by any means, but he seems to use his communication skills to hunt down pitches, and we’ve seen how that kind of approach can work when someone (Isaac Paredes) really commits. in it.
At 5’7” 195 lbs, Cubs C Moises Ballesteros (20, AA) presents a small strikeout zone with mixed contact skills, and could be eligible for a promotion to Triple-A if he stays in the timeline the team previously used for him. He has played 87 games in two seasons in Low-A, 56 games in High-A, and now 60 games in two seasons in Double-A, where he has hit just 14.6 percent this season while hitting -.305/.379 /.505 with nine home runs. In his last 15 games, he is hitting .414/.455/.707 with four home runs. Could he be an option in redraft leagues? The Cubs have been brutal in pitching this year. Miguel Amaya is hitting .190 with a 57 wRC+. Yan Gomes is at .149 with a wRC+ of 16. Amaya has been good defensively, and it’s not uncommon for a young catcher to lose his skis for a season or two in the majors, but Ballesteros looks like something special with the bat, the kind of cat who hits right away and catches a ton of love from fans along the way. You might be thinking of Alejandro Kirk as a computer here, and that makes sense, but the irony is, this guy has a little dead weight. Ballesteros sports a nice lefty swing that looks more athletic than Captain Kirk’s to me.
Mariners’ Lazaro Montes (19, A) has been impressive with the Low-A Modesto Nuts this season, but his teammate. SS Michael Arroyo (19, A) has been similarly impressive recently. He is slashing .311/.470/.662 with seven home runs, six stolen bases, 18 walks and 18 strikeouts in his last 19 games. I think they will be promoted together after their All-Star break.
Happy Father’s Day!
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