Minor League Recap: Lawrie's got this.

Las Vegas (won 4-3):

I honestly think Brett Lawrie just wants to get to the majors as soon as possible. I think he got on the phone with Alex Anthopoulos and the conversation was something like this:

Lawrie: "Alex, my man, when am I going to be called up?"

Anthopoulos: "When you show more patience at the plate Brett, while still hitting home runs. Do that and I'll call you up."

Lawrie: "So walks and home runs, anything else I can get you?"

Anthopoulos: "That's pretty much it."

Lawrie "Ok, I got this."

Our top prospect (is there any doubt that he is?) went 1-for-2 yesterday, with a double, three walks, and a strikeout. In his last four games, Lawrie has walked 6 times, struck out three times, hit two homers and a double. He has no singles over that period. Dude's now hitting .331/.386/.592 on the season. He is just 21! Most guys at 21 would be two levels lower in Dunedin. Not Lawrie, because Lawrie wants to be in the big leagues. He's seen enough of these so called minor league pitchers. He can hit them. Can he hit major league pitchers? Who knows.

In other new Eric Thames went 3-for-5 with three doubles and a strikeout. He is now hitting .343/.417/.608. He has done nothing but hit in the minor leagues. His patience at the plate might be questionable but the power certainly isn't. Over his last 10 games he has 5 singles, compared to 10 extra base hits. He is older than Lawrie, and most likely offers less defensive value. But his performance with the bat at the highest minor league level makes him one of our better prospects, one who was underrated before this season. If he keeps this up, he will go unnoticed no longer.

Travis Snider is struggling. Whether it has to do with him adjusting his swing I don't know, I can't watch the actual games. But I do know that he's hitting just .238/.298/.310 in his last 10 games. He is young enough to figure it out and make us all happy again. But that's not yet the case. Yesterday he went 2-for-4 with a walk and a strikeout, but they were groundball singles, with one of them dubbed a "soft ground ball".

Brad Mills went 7 innings, giving up 3 runs while striking out five, walking none and getting 54.5% groundballs. His solid performances continue, but I think a trade is more likely than a call-up at this point.

New Hampshire (won 13-10):

Adeiny Hechavarria went 1-for-4 with a walk and a strikeout. He has now drawn 5 walks over his last 7 games, after he drew only 3 walks in 20 games in April. He hit a home run yesterday and he has hit .243/.333/.378 in his last 10 games. And that's with a .250 BABIP. Considering his defence, he doesn't have to hit much, and the bat does seem to be coming around.

Anthony Gose, the other premium defender on the Fisher Cats, is swinging an even hotter bat. He went 2-for-3 with 2 walks, a strikeout, and a home run (first on the season) yesterday and is now .303/.410/.455 over his last 10 games. Gose already had a decent walk rate, but the strikeouts, the low line drive rate and the power were concerns. He's eased those concerns a bit, and considering he's just 20 and adapting to AA (always a big step) his performances of late are very promising.

Michael McDade has been hitting for power lately, and went 1-for-4 with a walk, 2 strikeouts and a home run yesterday. He is now hitting .324/.370/.507 on the season. The batting average will most likely come down as McDade still strikes out a lot. But he has good power, that we know for sure. Ultimately I think he may go down the Brett Wallace road: getting traded because his value as a first baseman isn't that high, and AA knows this. Though he's young enough to improve his walk and strikeout ratios so that he can be a good hitter even for a first baseman.

Moises Sierra was 0-for-4 with a walk and two strikeouts. Those two Ks are uncharacteristic for Sierra, who has just 14 on the season. Sierra has lately drawn a bit more walks, but he has also not hit for power. It'll probably come back, and Sierra is hitting for a decent average, so it's looking bright on the Sierra front.

Travis d'Arnaud went 2-for-5 with a strikeout and a double. He has not played a lot of games yet since an injury kept him out for a while, but he's now had three multihit games in a row. His April line (13 games) was .188/.235/.313. His May line (just 6 games) is .409/.435/.615. He has hit for decent power but his BB/K ratio is ugly at 3/12 on the season.

Dunedin (lost 4-9):

Henderson Alvarez was pretty solid with a 2-run, 6 inning outing, striking out just 2 while walking one and hitting a batter, but he got 70.6% groundballs. He has only just turned 21, so he could stay in Dunedin the rest of the season and not be behind schedule, but he's probably going to AA at some point.

A.J. Jimenez was 1-for-3, lowering (yes, lowering) his line to .364/.404/.514 on the season. He doesn't draw too many walks, but his power is decent and he makes solid contact.

Brad Glenn has been tearing the cover off the ball, hitting .410/.425/.821 over his last 10 games. At 24, he should be up higher, but his BB/K rate is 6/37 and he's blocked in RF by Moises Sierra.

Asher Wojciechowski had his best (and weirdest start) on friday, when he went 6 innings, gave up 1 run, struck out 7, but somehow also gave up 7 line drives. I'm not sure what to make of that.

Lansing (won 7-6, lost 1-4 in doubleheader):

Carlos Perez is slumping. The catcher has struck out 14 times in his last 10 games, hitting .209/.271/.302 in those games. And he started the year so well, hopefully he comes out of this slump quickly.

Marcus Knecht was 3-for-6 with a double, 2 walks and 2 strikeouts in the doubleheader. Somehow he keeps defying BABIP laws. He is now hitting .323/.407/.495 on the season.

Michael Crouse went 2-for-6 with a walk and 2 strikeouts. He is now at .248/.344/.495 but has no extra base hits in his last 5 games.

Jake Marisnick went 0-for-2 with a walk and a strikeout in the one game he played. Marisnick is hitless in his last three games and has hit just .189/.295/.324 in those games. I'm not concerned.

Bryson Namba, a 20 year old third baseman, has been hot: .344/.417/.531 over his last 10. He might get some more playing time now over non-prospect Fuenmayor.