Bus Leagues Express: July 9

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Futures Game notes

U.S. defeats World 17-5: In a game expected to be dominated by top pitching, offense ruled the day in the blowout win by the Americans. They fell behind 4-0 early as the World roster built up a lead against some top pitching, but the U.S. chipped away and punished the World for a nine run 6th inning. Jae-Hoon Ha and Jurickson Profar hit home runs for the World, and Nick Castellanos hit won and won game MVP. He barely beat out Royals prospect and hometown favorite Wil Myers who reached base three times and drove in three runs.

Ariel Pena was the victim of that big inning for the USA, and it was described by Baseball America’s J.J. Cooper as the worst Futures Game performance in history. He was charged with eight runs while only recording one out. Teams in the Futures Game had only scored eight or more runs twice in the game’s history prior to Sunday, so it’s easy to see the significance of his struggles. Pena has a 2.95 ERA and 1.24 WHIP in AA this year, and he has 93 strikeouts in 94.2 innings. He struck out 183 batters for Inland Empire in 2011.

The Phillies watched some of their future perform well for the U.S. squad Sunday, but unfortunately, that future is now representing other organizations. Jonathan Singleton went 3/4 with a walk as a first baseman and left fielder, and he impressed onlookers with his hard contact and plate approach. Anthony Gose started the game in center field, and not only did he reach base twice, he showed off his great athleticism in the field making a diving catch to rob Oscar Taveras of extra bases and nearly doubling Jurickson Profar off first base. With the Phillies struggling in last place, they may soon be regretting their aggressive trades that emptied the farm system.

Teheran bombed again in Gwinnett win: At this time last year, Julio Teheran was considered to be almost as sure of a future ace as prospects can get. Now, he doesn’t appear to be close to major league ready. Although he got credited for the win in Gwinnett’s 11-9 win over Durham Sunday, he allowed four home runs and seven runs in five innings, pushing his ERA to 4.92. Since he fired a complete game in his first start in June, Teheran has allowed 22 earned runs in 21.2 innings, good for a 9.58 ERA. He’s allowed home runs in seven of his last 10 starts.

Morris continues swinging hot stick: With 19 home runs last year, Hunter Morris looked to have good enough power to be a prospect but with other weaknesses in his game. This season in AA, he’s shown improvement in some of his weaker areas, but the power wasn’t there for much of the season. In 50 games between April and May, Morris only had three home runs. In the 35 games since, he has 11. He now has four homers in his last three games and has even tripled twice to raise his slugging percentage even more. For the season, he’s batting .314 with a .916 OPS, and his on-base percentage is up 66 points.

Kivlehan finding power stroke: Patrick Kivlehan played only one season of baseball at Rutgers after spending the rest of his time at college on the football team, and after winning the Big East triple crown with a great season, it was clear he would be one of the more interesting college bats in the draft. The Mariners popped him in the 4th round for $300,000 and sent him to Everett in the Northwest League. After a very slow start, he’s now batting .295 with five homers in his last 10 games. His K:BB ratio is a bit/very ugly at 31:1, so his approach will need a lot of work if he’s going to succeed at higher levels.

On tap today

MiLB.TV schedule

International League begins All-Star break

Pacific Coast League gets a rare day off

David Phelps returns to Trenton to stretch out

Anthony Fernandez makes 4th start with Jackson

Matt Lollis back in Lake ELsinore to make start

South Atlantic League takes a day off

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