Beaver Bats in the Pros

And the night before he was 3-for-4 with a walk hitting leadoff. So he's at .400 OBP even with an 0-fer-5. 

You know one or two games isn't a large enough sample size. Eighty or 90 might be, which is why they made the move. 

He also hit the home run to put Oregon State up 2-0:

The bases-clearing double is at the 1:06 mark.

Then, Pat Casey got all Obi-Wan Kenobi and had Steven Kwan pinch hit for Kyle Nobach.  North Carolina was so scared of Kwan that they intentionally walked him, which was Kwan's first intentional walk in more than two months.  Daniels then walked Gretler on five pitches to load the bases.  Anderson then walked on six pitches to drive in Rutschman and put Oregon State up 7-6.  In the ninth, North Carolina put in their second-best pitcher, Tyler Baum, Madrigal doubled, and Grenier bunted him over.  The Heels replaced Baum with their closer, Hiatt, who gave up the base hit to Larnach to make it 8-6.  Hiatt recovered to strike out Rutschman on three pitches, but Malone homered on a 3-2 pitch to put Oregon State up 10-6.  Preston Jones, who replaced Kwan, singled to keep the inning going, and Gretler reached on an error.  Anderson then capped off the 8-0 comeback with a base hit to right.  11-6 Oregon State.  Mulholland picked up the win by only allowing one hit over the final three innings, stranding runners in each inning and runners in scoring position the final two.

Great game.

Part of Rutschman's high OBP is intentional walks, seventh in the MLB, which inflates the OBP.  Rutschman actually has more intentional walks than the rest of the Orioles combined.  Rutschman, by himself, has earned more intentional walks than the Mets, Pirates, Rays, and Nationals.  When they have to actually pitch to him, pitchers hammer the low outside corner and pray that it clips the black.  Like Rutschman is ridiculous.  Upper 0.00001%.  Elite.

Garret Forrester skips the FCL and goes straight to A Bradenton.  Forrester started at third and hit in the cleanup spot.  Forrester reaches in four of five plate appearances.  His one out was a foul tip for strike three.  Although Forrester reached four times, he was stranded each time, including getting stranded at third three times.  Forrester caught the one ball hit his way.  

Mikey Kane draws the short straw and winds up in Glendale.  Glad that he got paid, but another year in Corvallis beats August in Glendale.


Keep telling yourself that it's a dry heat............

The Florida State League used to be considered the best "High-A" league in baseball. Reclassification now has the league at Low-A. Garrett won't be there long, he'll acclimate to the Pirate system, they will get a feel for what they have to work with and he'll be on the move.

FWIW, playing in Bradenton in July and August is no bargain - 

A bit of good news - Meckler hit his first AAA home run last night. After seven games at this level, the slash line is 308/550/538. It's a bit crazy to speculate on this, but as of today, the SF Giants are in the second wild-card spot. Do they need another outfield bat? Would Meckler have success at that in 2023? Giant outfielders are Conforto (236/329/385 w/ 335 at-bats), Austin Slater (267/343/417 w/ 120 at-bats), Luis Matos (243/307/322 w/ 152 at-bats), Joc Pederson (233/350/424 w/ 236 at-bats). Mike Yastrzemski is on IL.

Professional baseball is starting to look like one big Beaver Dam.

"Them little critters are everywhere".