Hosmer bobblehead via KC Royals

It’s Eric Hosmer bobblehead night here in Wilmington (and no that photo is not a picture of the actual bobblehead). Hosmer spent the second half of 2009 as a Blue Rock (and struggled mightily to hit just .206 in 27 games) and the first half of 2012 in Wilmington (where he made adjustments and hit .354 in 87 games).

It’s also a beautiful night for baseball, though pop-up storms are expected to roll through (fingers crossed that they come after the game). Tonight, the Blue Rocks finish their seven-game homestand and four-game series with Carolina, the High-A affiliate of the Cleveland Indians. So far, the Blue Rocks have won two of the first three games of the series after losing three of four last week in Carolina.

The Mudcats are 27-31 and seven games out of first place in the Carolina League’s Southern Division. The Blue Rocks are 28-30 and just 1.5 games back of Lynchburg for the Northern Division title. Wilmington heads to Winston-Salem to face the Dash on Friday for a short three-game series before returning home to finish the first half against Salem and Winston-Salem (who are battling for the Southern Division title).

On the mound for the Blue Rocks will be hard-throwing right-hander Yordano Ventura. This will be the first time I will be seeing him pitch and I now have seen every Blue Rocks pitcher throw (except the new reliever Nick Graffeo). Ventura is 3-4 with a 2.82 ERA and will be making his 12^th start of the season. He has struck out 67 to just 19 walks in 54.1 innings. This will be Ventura’s first start against Carolina.

Getting the ball in the finale for the Mudcats is Michael Goodnight. He is 1-6 with a 4.88 ERA in 11 games (ten starts). Opponents are hitting .298 against him and he has walked 28 to just 38 strikeouts in 55.1 innings. His lone victory came in his first start of the season back on April 14^th. He faced the Blue Rocks last week in Carolina (May 28^th) and allowed four runs on ten hits over seven innings. He struck out nine in the loss.

Lineups:

Mudcats: Tyler Holt (CF), Tony Wolters (2B), Giovanny Urshela (3B), Carlos Moncrief (RF), Anthony Gallas (DH), Ronny Rodriguez  (SS), Justin Toole (1B), Tyler Cannon (C), and Delvi Cid (LF).

Blue Rocks: Angel Franco (2B), Geulin Beltre (DH), Whit Merrifield (CF), Brian Fletcher (LF), Cheslor Cuthbert (3B), Kevin David (C), Roman Hernandez (LF), Juan Graterol (1B), and Alex McClure (SS).

For those who follow the Blue Rocks, you will notice a few lineup changes. Merrifield is back in centerfield and batting in the three-spot. Fletcher is in left field with Hernandez moving to right field. There is no Brett Eibner tonight.

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After spending three weeks focused on the Idaho Falls Chukars, it’s finally time to move on. The next logical step is the Burlington Royals so that is where we’re heading. As you can surmise from the title, today I’m breaking down the pitchers and in the next column I’ll delve into the position players.

All 14 of the pitchers on the Burlington roster have been introduced to the Royals system in the last 4 years. 3 came in 2008, 5 in 2010 and 6 in 2011. 9 pitchers were added via the draft, 2 were international free agents, 2 were non-drafted free agents and one was acquired via trade. In Baseball America’s 2011 Prospect Handbook, RHP Robinson Yambati cracked Kansas City’s pre-season top-30 (#16) and RHP Eric Cantrell made the organizational depth chart but the rest of the pack haven’t received much pub as of yet. (more…)