Bus Leagues Express: May 6

May 6, 2012

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Hultzen melts down: Of the three big starters in Jackson, Danny Hultzen is supposed to be the more polished and more advanced pitcher. On Saturday, he had the worst start of his brief pro career, walking seven in 4.1 innings, although he only allowed one hit and limited the damage to two runs. It’s been a bit of a weird season for Hultzen. He’s still striking out more than a batter per inning, and even though his walk rate is way too high, hitters are only batting .149 against him.

Rosenbaum outduels Gorski: Daniel Rosenbaum and Darin Gorski have been two of the most effective minor league pitchers over the last year or so even if they aren’t really prospects. Saturday, they met in a pitcher’s duel that lasted just over two hours. Rosenbaum pitched a complete game in Harrisburg’s 2-1 win, his second over four starts. Rosenbaum only has two starts that didn’t last seven or more innings, and one of them was 6.2. Gorski was very good himself, allowing just one earned run in six innings. He only walked two in this start, but his command has not been as sharp as it has been in previous seasons.

Wimmers goes down with elbow injury: Alex Wimmers hasn’t pitched in nearly a month, and it was revealed that it’s because he has a slight tear in his UCL. The Twins aren’t sure if Tommy John surgery will be necessary yet, but if that ends up being the case, it will make consecutive first rounders for the Twins needing the elbow procedure. 2009 first rounder Kyle Gibson had the surgery near the end of last season, and Minnesota hopes he can see some game action at the end of this year. After a standout career at Ohio State, Wimmers was expected to move through the system quickly, but his career has been up and down to say the least.

St. Lucie takes game one in series of FSL’s best: Dunedin and St. Lucie are running away with the North and South divisions respectively, and the Mets got the best of the Blue Jays in the first of eight they’ll play this season. This one was decided late, after starters Asher Wojciechowski and Cory Mazzoni turned in quality starts. Dunedin never led, but they were tied until the bottom of the 7th when Blake Forsythe‘s solo home run gave the Mets a 4-3 lead. Robbie Shields hit an 8th inning home run for insurance, one of three for the Mets on the day. After Dunedin tied the game at two in the 5th, slugger Cory Vaughn hit his 8th homer of the year to give St. Lucie a 3-2 lead.

Barnes dominates in high-A debut: Low-A proved to be no challenge to Matt Barnes. If his first Carolina League start is any indication, Eastern League fans might want to prepare to see him. Barnes struck out 12 in six one-run innings Saturday in a 6-4 win against Winston-Salem. Although he didn’t through four scoreless outings like he did in low-A, his performance still showed that he can handle pitching at the new level. Combined between the two levels this year, Barnes has 54 strikeouts in 32.2 innings with only five walks and two runs allowed.

Concepcion struggles again: For the second straight start, Cuban import Gerardo Concepcion didn’t see the second inning. Quad Cities tagged him for seven runs in one inning, although only two were earned because of two Peoria errors. Although that saved his ERA from skyrocketing again, the fact remains that he allowed six hits and one walk while only recording three outs. It’s been an ugly start so far, and even though it’s still a very small sample, it’s looking more and more like the Cubs really overpaid to land him.