A solo homerun from Eric Duncan (who went 3-for-4) in the bottom of the 8th inning broke the 1-1 tie, as Northwest Arkansas beat Arkansas, 2-1. Jon Keck picked up his first Double-A victory, as he pitched two hitless innings of relief.

Elisaul Pimentel got the start and allowed one run on five hits and four walks over six innings. He struck out five.

The Naturals made a few roster moves prior to the game. Tim Sexton was added from extended spring training. He took the place of reliever Kendal Volz, who was placed on the DL.

The Wilmington Blue Rocks lost to Carolina, 5-2. Tyler Sample was solid on Wednesday night (despite the four walks), but left with the game tied at 2-2 after six innings. Lynchburg finally ended their losing streak, as they beat Myrtle Beach to increase their lead in the Northern Division of the Carolina League to 1.5 games over the Blue Rocks.

The Blue Rocks went just 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position. Roman Hernandez is starting to figure out Carolina League pitching, as his 3-for-4 raised his average to .229.

A four-run 3rd inning held up, as Kane County beat Quad Cities, 4-3. Daniel Mateo hit a three-run homerun in that inning. Kenny Swab was the only Cougar with a multi-hit game (2-for-3).

That one inning burst of offense made a winner of Aaron Brooks, who allowed three runs on six hits over seven innings. Matt Ridings picked up his first save for the Cougars, as he allowed just one hit over two scoreless innings of work.

It’s been a rough week.

But fret not. There are some things to be positive about, even some at the big league level. But first, a few Royals farmhands are having excellent starts to their 2012 seasons.

Jason Adam (photo via Clint Scoles at PinetarPress.com

Most impressive early on is Jason Adam. The 2010 fifth round pick out of Kansas City spent most of last year in Low A Kane County and had an up and down but reasonable season. For starting out in A ball shortly after high school, he held his own.

Adam was assigned to High A Wilmington to start the season and has been great so far. Through three starts, he has a 0.51 ERA in 17.2 innings pitched. With that, he has a 16/5 K/BB ratio and in today’s start, he was a ground ball machine. Before the season, he talked about improving his delivery to the plate and controlling the running game and it seems his delivery may be faster to the plate than it was last year. According to Jason Parks, he broke five bats in Wednesday’s start and two of the hits against him could have been ruled errors. Impressive stuff.

In Adam’s old stomping grounds, the Kane County Cougars are hitting the ball all over the place. The quartet of Lane Adams, Daniel Mateo, Justin Trapp and Jorge Bonifacio have a combined 69 hits in 196 at bats. Adams has driven in 14 runs to the lead the team and Bonifacio – a popular breakout pick – has found a new patience at the plate. Last year he walked 16 times in 258 plate appearances. In 2012 he’s already walked nine times. On the pitching side of things, Edwin Carl is following his up his ridiculous 2011 (76 strikeouts in 36 innings). He has 14 strikeouts through 13.1 innings with a 2.70 ERA and only three walks allowed.

Thankfully, Alan Barrington’s scouting report on Wil Myers and the Naturals seems to be the anomaly, as the Royals top hitting prospect is off to a good start in Double A. He leads Northwest Arkansas with three homers and has a .318/.348/.614  line. The only downside is that he’s struck out 17 times in 44 at bats. That could catch up to him if he doesn’t adjust. Yem Prades has hit as well, with a .342/.375/.421 line in 10 games.

The defending Pacific Coast League champion Omaha Storm Chasers are off to another good start, lead by Tony Abreu and Max Ramirez. Abreu has a 1.003 OPS through 13 games with eight extra base hits. Ramirez has 19 RBI and five homers. The Robinsons – Clint and Derrick – are doing well too. Clint Robinson is still mashing minor league pitching, carrying a .903 OPS into tonight’s game and Derrick Robinson has a .364 average during a 10 game hitting streak.

On the mound, Nathan Adcock has had three good starts, putting up a 1.27 ERA in 18 innings. We can hope that continues, as he’s  walked seven batters, hit three more, and only given up 11 hits. If the control continues to be an issue, he may regress. But we’re staying positive here, so he may be an emergency option if the Royals suffer injuries in the starting rotation. In 60.1 big league innings as a Rule 5 pick, Adcock had a 4.62 ERA, which isn’t good, but considering his situation, it’s not bad either. Jeremy Jeffress and Franciseley Bueno are doing well out of the bullpen in Omaha too. Jeffress has 11 innings pitched and has given up just two runs. Bueno  has a 9/1 K/BB ratio in 8.1 innings. His ERA stands at 1.08 after four appearances.

So it’s not all doom and gloom in the Royals organization. There are some significant names doing some damage in the minors. While the big league team tries to get out of a losing streak, there’s still good baseball down on the farm.

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Last year, with what turned out to be the top-ranked farm system in baseball by the writers of Baseball America, the Royals cleaned up, landing multiple prospects on many of their respective leagues’ lists.

This year, it’s a bit different, but that’s to be expected when a team ends the season with eight of its top 20 prospects spending significant time in the majors.*

*Namely, Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas, Johnny Giavotella, Salvador Perez, Louis Coleman, Danny Duffy, Tim Collins and Aaron Crow.

Nonetheless, BA has covered the Pioneer League, Midwest League and Carolina League so far, and placed a Royals prospect on each list:

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On July 16th I wrote extensively about Henry Moreno and Darian Sandford who were notable as they were the only two players on the Chukars roster that made the Royals organizational depth chart in Baseball America’s 2011 Prospect Handbook. Last week on the 23rd, I covered the 14 players who were new to the Royals organization and assigned to Idaho Falls. These players included 5 NDFA’s signed this summer, 8 2011 draft picks and Runey Davis who played in the Chicago Cubs system the last 2 years.

There’s so much more I’d like to write about when it comes to the current Chukars roster – but I don’t want to neglect the other affiliates forever – so this week will be the last in Idaho Falls for a while. Before we move on however, there are 3 position players I’ve yet to cover that are putting up some numbers worth mentioning. (more…)

Hello again! For the last month I’ve been standing on the banks of Lake Kauffman. From time to time I’ve dipped my toes in the water but have been unable to take the plunge and publish my first article here since November 11th of last year. Now, things have changed.

As you have read, Jeff Herr has moved on to head up our network’s KU coverage over on Through the Phog. His departure leaves a gap in the minor league coverage on this site, but if you’re a long time reader of Kings of Kauffman you may remember my days as this site’s lead. You may also remember that I spent a lot of time writing about prospects and the draft. Since leaving KoK, my nomadic writing tendencies have taken me to several sites, but at all of my stops I’ve tried to work in coverage of the minor leagues as it has always been a facet of the game that I love to follow and write about.

With the launch of Seedlings to Stars just over a month ago, I’ve been able to hone my content focus more fully to minor league coverage. So when Jeff notified us that he was leaving KoK and S2S to take a lead position, it seemed natural that I pick up the baton and carry forward the weekly minor league feature here on this site. (more…)