5/15 Gameday Thread: Kutter, Jake, & Dedgar; Espinal on fire

Man, the state of the farm is helpless right now...There's nothing for me to look forward to. I mean when the highlight of the day is a 23 years old infielder in A+ ball and a future 22 years old reliever in Low A, you know the situation is not optimal to put it mildly.
The DSL can't start soon enough...

Danny Diaz: Our Lord and Savior, save us from the darkness of being mentioned in the same breath as the Orioles and Royals.

Renda was not in Indy ball. He was in camp with the Diamondbacks and got cut. And putting a 27yo who reached AA in 2015 back at that level, I'd expect him to hit well. Keep in mind this is a guy with MLB experience.

At any rate, I don't see any real similarity in the rest of that group such that we can draw any conclusion from it.
- Hill had been playing professionally for 12 years, including parts of 2010-12 and 2014, before he went and made two indy starts in 2015 after being cut by the Nats, before then signing again with the Sox.
- Urrutia has never played independent ball, at least prior to this season. He was in AAA and got cut, and the Sox signed him to be a stopgap.
- Barfield had a great season with Portland as a 28 year old and this year has been pretty bad in Pawtucket such that he's either getting demoted to Portland or released.

For shiggles, here's the list of guys they've signed from Indy ball the past few years, now that I'm interested in seeing it. Who's ready for a trip down memory lane??

2018: Ryan Fitzgerald (XST)
2017: Justin Pacchioli (played 5 games for Salem, cut before ST 2018); Conrad Gregor (hit well in 30 games for Salem last year, cut after 12 poor games with Portland this year); Elih Villanueva (pitched 57.1 poor innings for Portland in 2017, was not re-signed); Jeremy Barfield
2016: Dakota Smith (pitched for Lowell and Greenville over 2 seasons, cut this January); Rob Wort (28 ok innings in AA in 2016); Jayce Ray (was ok in Salem and Greenville at age 26; cut in camp in 2017 - I vaguely remember an injury); Ryan Court (pretty reliable org IF/UT for a couple seasons, left as a FA this offseason)
2015: Michael Blanke (2 games for Portland as a stopgap when Michael Brenly retired to be Boston's bullpen catcher); Rich Hill
2014: Aaron Wilkerson (last good Indy find; traded with Wendell Rijo for Aaron Hill in 2016, still with Milwaukee in AAA)
2013: Eric Niesen (20 relief IP between AA/AAA); Aaron King (fill-in for Lowell that year, cut after a few games with Greenville in 2014)
2012: Ben Klafczynski (never appeared in a game); Mike MacDonald (54.2 poor innings between AA/AAA); Jason Urquidez (47.1 poor innings in AA); Matt Nevarez (never appeared in a game); Nathan Striz (pitched well for Greenville at age 23, in 2013 was decent for Salem, left as a FA)
2011: Ruben Flores (36.1 ok innings in Salem); Joey Gathright (doesn't count - professional September/October pinch runner at that point who'd bide his time in Indy ball until someone came calling); Jeff Howell (caught 10 games for AA); Matt Rusch (21.3 poor AA innings); TJ Hose (10.2 poor A+ innings); Robby Scott (there ya go); Michael Olmsted (deserves more space than this; was super intriguing for two seasons, left as a FA to sign with Milwaukee where he got an MLB deal but he forgot how to throw strikes, came back in 2014 and still couldn't throw strikes; was one of the first "BUT THIS GUY HAS AWESOME STATS" guys who didn't have great stuff and, as predicted, didn't do anything); Chris Martin (now we're talkin'); Matt Kramer (former catcher, tried to convert to pitching, it didn't work)

Also, doing this made me so thankful to Matt Picard for coming in and standardizing our language on the transactions page.

So long story short, I got Indy ball mixed up with guys that were cut and then signed to a lower level. Good job me.

As long as this doesn't get there first...

Interesting, I thought Pedroia was going to be the DH in tonight's game.

these minor league games are a joke. crawford pitches well, so take him out and let a reliever blow it for him. Game, set, and match.

The point of minor league baseball is to develop individual players. Getting the win means zero for Crawford's development.

This feels like a trick question. Because they didn't want him throwing "30 some odd pitches" more tonight?

He's already about halfway to his 2017 innings total.