Jose Barrero homered for the second straight day and Jason Vosler crushed his 20th homer of the year in Louisville’s win. Chattanooga lost their regular season finale, but they’ll get a day off on Monday before beginning the the first round of the playoffs.
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The Louisville Bats won 10-7. Box Score
- Stuart Fairchild (rehab) went 2-3 with a run. He was hit by 2 pitches.
- Kevin Newman (rehab) went 2-5 with 2 runs and an RBI.
- Alejo Lopez went 1-4 with a walk, double, and a run.
- Jason Vosler went 2-5 with a home run (20) and 2 RBI.
- Henry Ramos went 1-5 with a steal (6) and a run.
- Matt Reynolds went 0-3 with 2 walks and 2 runs.
- Jose Barrero went 2-4 with a home run (16), steal (18), 2 runs, and 2 RBI. He was also hit by a pitch.
- Chuckie Robinson went 2-5 with a double and an RBI.
- Evan Kravetz threw a perfect inning.
- Ricky Karcher threw 2.0 shutout innings with a walk and 2 strikeouts.
- Casey Legumina threw a shutout inning with 2 strikeouts.
- Tony Santillan threw a shutout inning with a walk and a strikeout.
Game Notes
Jose Barrero homered for the second straight game. He is up to 16 home runs in just 74 games. He’s also up to 18 steals. That’s about half of a season worth of games with some good counting numbers in those two categories. He’s only hitting .248, and he has 20 walks and 99 strikeouts in 310 plate appearances – that’s a 32% strikeout rate and just a 6.5% walk rate.
Alejo Lopez kept his hot hitting alive in September, picking up a double and a walk. He’s hitting .357/.426/.452 in the month with five walks and just two strikeouts in 11 games played with the Bats.
Jason Vosler hit his 20th homer of the minor league season. He’s the 6th player in the farm system to reach 20 homers this season. Three of those players spent time in the big leagues – Vosler, Matt Reynolds, and Christian Encarnacion-Strand.
Henry Ramos extended his hitting streak to eight games. He’s hitting .315/.431/.593 in 15 games with Louisville in September.
Ricky Karcher he allowed two runs since the start of August. He’s thrown 18.2 innings, giving him a 0.96 ERA in that time frame. He’s allowed just six hits, but he’s walked 16 batters, hit two more, and he’s struck out 23.
Tony Santillan has not allowed a run in six straight outings, walking just two batters, and he’s struck out 10 in those 6.0 innings.
The Bats will wrap up their regular season with a 6-game series at home against Iowa this week.
Top Pitch Velocity: Tony Santillan – 97.2 MPH (strike)
Top Exit Velocity: Henry Ramos – 105.7 MPH (lineout)
Furthest Hit Baseball: Jose Barrero – 393 feet (home run)
The Chattanooga Lookouts lost 7-4. Box Score
- Quincy McAfee went 0-2 with 2 walks, a steal(10), and a run.
- James Free went 1-3 with a double, run, and an RBI.
- Mat Nelson went 1-3 with an RBI.
- Tyler Callihan went 2-4.
- Jose Torres went 1-4 with a run.
- Manuel Cachutt threw 3.0 perfect innings with 4 strikeouts.
- Jake Gozzo threw 1.2 perfect innings with 3 strikeouts.
- Spencer Stockton threw a perfect inning with a strikeout.
- Vin Timpanelli threw a shutout inning with a strikeout.
Game Notes
Chattanooga dropped their regular season finale. They finish the season 70-67. They will have Monday off before hitting the road for game one of their playoff series with Tennessee. Wednesday is an off-day, with games two and three (if necessary) in Chattanooga on Thursday and Friday.
James Free ended the season riding a 5-game hitting streak. Each of those games included at least one extra-base hit. He finished the year with 24 doubles, 2 triples, and 17 home runs in his 117 games played – all with Chattanooga.
Spencer Stockton pitched well back in the month of June after having a rough month of May. But he went on the injured list at the end of June and didn’t return to the mound until September. Over his 12 games since the end of May he threw 20.1 innings and allowed five runs (2.21 ERA) while giving up 12 hits, no homers, walking seven, and striking out 19.
Vin Timpanelli allowed four runs in 0.1 innings on August 2nd. Since then he’s allowed one run in 14.2 innings (0.62 ERA) while giving up 9 hits, walking 7, and striking out 15.
Top 25 Prospects Rundown
9/18 Game Preview
| Team | Record | Time (ET) | Probable | Box Score | Listen | Watch |
| Louisville | 72-70 | OFF | DAY | Here | Here | Here |
| Chattanooga | 70-67 | Playoffs | Tuesday | Here | Here | Here |
| Dayton | 67-65 | Season | Complete | Here | Here | Here |
| Daytona | 56-72 | Season | Complete | Here | Here | N/A |
| ACL Reds | 28-28 | Season | Complete | Here | N/A | N/A |
| DSL Reds | 28-26 | Season | Complete | Here | N/A | N/A |
Joe Boyle made his debut this weekend.
He tossed 3 shutout innings with 1 hit, 2 walks, and 4 K’s.
Saw that too….ugh. That being said Moll has helped us way more than that. No clue why the heck Bell pitched him last night in a 8-4 game with 1 inning left. No way he can go tonight or maybe even tomorrow after pitching 4/5 days. Maybe he knew Young was gonna be reinstated tonight but still Moll has been lights out with a 0.90 ERA sub 1 whip and 1.1 bWAR
This is a good landing spot for Joe Boyle. Oakland is probably not too concerned about wins the next 2 or 3 years. This gives Boyle time to figure out his control issues.
On the down side: Only 2 swinging strikes in 58 pitches.
I would love to see Free get some 3B time, and a bit of C time next season in AAA. He’d could make a good 13th man if they increase his versatility.
Or at least some reps at less demanding positions than C and 3B like corner OF. But usually when a guy’s progression lands him at 1B/DH it’s for a reason (Sean Casey managed it though). I always overlook Free as a switch hitter. And a 20% K rate with 13% BB rate is pretty darn good. Perhaps he’s earned a place in the AZ Fall Keague. I’d support that, putting on a team of players equal to him so he doesn’t have to assume so much responsibility, ie hitting cleanup. I do think the ship of him catching has sailed. Trautwein and Hunter are now the lead C/OF/1B candidates.
I see Trautwein as a similar player to Free. He’s someone I can see as a 13th man. I think Hunter can be a C in a regular platoon. Hopefully Duno will be that high end C to take over for Stephenson in the future.
Trautwein is more athletic than Free. He plays a really serviceable corner OF and beat out Nelson (offensively and defensively) at Dayton before being promoted. I like Free’s bat more but Trautwein is much more proficient in the field. Hunter may be more athletic than both, and a platoon job is well within reach.
Need the Bats to finish at least 3 and 3 to get a winning season.
Tough for Chattanooga to head into the playoffs having lost Dunn and quite possibly Hinds.. Arroyo, Callihan, Hunter and Nelson are up from Dayton, and Cerda and Urbaez have returned, but still. That’s a lot of production to have disappear. I half thought they might drop Hurtubise back down for the playoff experience. Seems doubtful now.
I think the Boyle trade will be one we question a lot in the future. You dealt a SP with high upside stuff for a middle reliever. Likely won’t go down as one of Krall’s best moves..
It may work out fine. If Boyle sticks as a starter, certainly a lost trade. If Boyle makes it as a reliever, perhaps a lost trade, but consider that they have Moll for 4 years. Barring injury or complete collapse, 4 years of a fair to good LH reliever is still valuable. Still – the Boyle ceiling remains undetermined.
I really don’t think so. And, even if even somewhat true, we have many pitching prospects that had passed him by in the org. He was expendable.
Boyle has never had anything but poor control, and likely never will. College as well as pro ball. Most scouting reports still see his ceiling as a reliever, at best. If the A’s can do what no one has done before, and fix him, Boyle may see the very back end of a rotation. More power to them. But there’s a lot to fix.
My best guess is we’d still be waiting for him in three years if we had kept him.
Answering Jim, not Optimist
This is about it – doubt the A’s can fix it all, but if he can top out as a “wild-thing” kind of closer – that will have great value. Will be watching next season – they will clearly give him many more chances than the Reds, which is probably best for all concerned.
The chances that Boyle is a big league starting pitcher are the same as me getting married to Anna Kendrick. While it’s not impossible, it’s like one in a few million. His control simply is nowhere near good enough to be a big league starter.
I also think you have to consider that the Reds had years to figure out Boyle’s control issues and couldn’t. If the As figured it out, good for them. I don’t think Boyle ever had an MLB future with the Reds, and in return, we got 4+ years of a valuable reliever. This may be a win-win trade, even if one side wins more than the other.
Anna Kendrick Gray? Sounds good..make it happen Doug.
Feels like the Reds have half a dozen guys like Boyle. Great swing and miss stuff..can’t find the plate. Roa, Richardson, Abel, Sandridge, Heatherly…most teams prol have half a dozen guys like that really.
I would put the chances that he ever becomes a MLB regular starter (ie at least 25 games started and 125 innings and sub 5 ERA) is around 10% and that may be generous. Course I’m much nicer than Doug!