The International League released its All Star team and the Bats had two players named to the team, Chris Valaika and Travis Wood. Wood of course gets the start today against the Cubs and likely won’t be around for the game.
The Southern League also released its All Star team and despite a poor record in the first half, the Carolina Mudcats placed 6 players on the team. Jake Kahaulelio, Mike Costanzo, Sean Henry, Dave Sappelt, Tom Cochran and Matt Klinker all will represent the Mudcats.
Kevin Goldstein ranks Aroldis Chapman as the 9th best prospect in baseball. He notes that while the performance hasn’t been great, the stuff has been undeniable for the most part and we could see him around the All Star break out of the bullpen in a temporary move.
Devin Mesoraco is hitting an impressive .318/.383/.605 between Lynchburg and Carolina this year and he is also throwing out 51% of attempted base stealers between the two levels. Given where the Reds are at (that is 1st place for those not keeping track lol), where do you stand on dealing Mesoraco to improve the team? Is he untouchable? Is he available only in the right deal? Where do you guys stand?
I am going to add the organizational leaderboard to this post in a little bit. But I wanted to publish this before the game begins so we have somewhere to talk about Travis Wood’s debut.
Organizational Leaderboard (Next week I will begin to add rookie ball guys)
| Stat | 1st | 2nd | 3rd |
| Hitting Leaders (Min 175 PA) | |||
| AVG | Dave Sappelt (.318) | Devin Mesoraco (.318) | Sean Henry (.300) |
| OBP | Devin Mesoraco (.383) | Drew Sutton (.374) | Dave Sappelt (.366) |
| SLG | Devin Mesoraco (.605) | Cody Puckett (.508) | Dave Sappelt (.461) |
| OPS | Devin Mesoraco (.988) | Cody Puckett (.861) | Dave Sappelt (.826) |
| Runs | Chris Negron (49) | Zack Cozart (49) | Devin Mesoraco (44) |
| Doubles | Cody Puckett (23) | Henry Rodriguez (23) | Josh Fellhauer (21) |
| Triples | DiDi Gregorius (8) | Ronald Torreyes (5) | Dave Sappelt (5) |
| HR | Devin Mesoraco (16) | Todd Frazier (12) | Wladimir Balentien (11) |
| XBH | Cody Puckett (37) | Devin Mesoraco (33) | Zack Cozart (32) |
| RBI | Henry Rodriguez (45) | Devin Mesoraco (43) | Neftali Soto (43) |
| SB | Kris Negron (22) | Dave Sappelt (20) | Zack Cozart (16) |
| BB% | Drew Sutton (11.6%) | Mark Fleury (10.9%) | Kris Negron (10.6%) |
| K% | Shane Carlson (8.8%) | Jose Castro (9.6%) | Henry Rodriguez (11.7%) |
| K/BB | Chris Burke (1.5) | Shane Carlson (1.6) | Jake Kahaulelio (1.6) |
| Pitching Leaders (Min 58ip) | |||
| Wins | Matt Fairel (6) | Matt Maloney (6) | Matt Klinker (6) |
| ERA | Matt Klinker (2.10) | Scott Carroll (2.15) | Tom Cochran (2.32) |
| Saves | Donnie Joseph (12) | Jon Adkins (10) | Jordan Smith (9) |
| IP | Travis Wood (98) | Matt Klinker (94.1) | Matt Fairel (85.1) |
| WHIP | Matt Klinker (1.04) | Travis Wood (1.08) | Tom Cochran (1.15) |
| BB% | Justin Walker (3.4%) | Matt Klinker (5.5%) | Mark Serrano (5.6%) |
| K% | Aroldis Chapman (27.1%) | Brad Boxberger (26.5%) | Travis Wood (24.6%) |
| K/BB | Justin Walker (6.36) | Mark Serrano (4.36) | Travis Wood (4.22) |
| GB% | Scott Carroll (62%) | Jacob Johnson (56%) | Curtis Partch (54%) |