Minor League Roundup – August 18th

The Good

Kenny Wilson – New Hampshire (Double A)

1/3 - 1 HR, 1 SB, 1 BB

Back to back appearances on the Roundup for Kenny Wilson.  Wilson posted a combo-meal (a HR & SB), extended his hitting streak to 8 games, and put up his 5^th walk in his past 5 games.

K.C. Hobson – Dunedin (High Single A)

2/4 – 1 HR, 1 2B

K.C. Hobson was a rare high school draft pick during the JP Ricciardi era, being taken in the 6^th round in JP’s final season running the draft (2009).  After getting to Lansing in 2010, he stalled out there, spending the next two seasons at the Low A level, which seemed to belie the modest prospect status he had.  This year up until the All-Star break in July I had pretty much written him off as a prospect given that he was hitting a pitiful .189/.228/.370, even though he had his 12 home runs in the difficult hitting environment that is the Florida State League. 

Since then he’s really turned things around dramatically.  In the past month, he’s showing perhaps there is still some promise in his bat, because he’s really gone on a tear going .291/.339/.545, and piling on another 6 HRs.  Since he’s just 22, and likely to start next year at AA, we’ll see how things go, but the lesson here might be that its really difficult to project how high school draft picks will develop.

Dwight Smith Jr. – Lansing (Low Single A)

3/6 – 1 2B, 1 K

A solid if unspectacular game from one of the legacy players in the Jays system. 

The Bad

Ryan Goins – Buffalo (Triple A)

0/3 – 3 K

Goins posted a golden sombrero on Sunday night.  He’s now gone the entire weekend without posting a hit.  He did manage one walk on Friday, but aside from that it was 11 outs in the other 11 at bats.

Sean Nolin – Buffalo (Triple A)

5.1 IP – 7 H, 2 R, 4 BB, 4 K

In his debut in Triple A, Nolin didn’t get off to the start you’d like to see, walking as many as he struck out.  I was thinking we might get a look at Nolin in September, but I’m starting to reevaluate that plan, given not only his struggles in the AAA debut, but also the fact Kyle Drabek & Drew Hutchison are probably more likely to fill any rotation holes that crop up in the last month of the season.