For an in depth review of yesterday’s games please check out our minor league wrap-up which can be found here. West Virginia had off yesterday as the South Atlantic League played their All-Star game. West Virginia will resume their regular season schedule on Thursday night and the SAL resets the team records for playoff purposes in the second half. The Power finished 5 games back in the 1st half title chase. I mentioned that Bradenton started their 2nd half Monday night but the FSL actually finishes their first half today although the games this week didn’t affect the playoff outcome due to big 1st place leads in each division. Please take note of the early morning start time for Bradenton.
Nick Kingham is making his second start of the season tonight for State College. He was their opening day starter. The 2010 fourth round draft pick struggled in his first start giving up 5 runs in just 3 innings although he allowed just a single through the 1st two innings. The 19 year old righty has great size already at 6′ 5″ 220 and threw his fastball in the low 90’s when the Pirates signed him for $480k last August. He pitched 2 games last year for a total of 3 innings with the GCL Pirates and did not allow a run. Tim will be at the State College game tonight covering Kingham’s start for the site.
Rudy Owens was moved back a day according to the game notes with Sean Gallagher getting the start yesterday, so Owens will go today. Kyle McPherson gets his third AA start tonight, he went 5.2 IP in his first start giving up 3 runs for a loss but rebounded nicely his next start giving up just one run in six innings. He has walked just 7 batters all season with 68 strikeouts in 83.1 IP. His problem all season has been his low groundball rate and he has already allowed 3 homers since moving up to AA.
AAA: Indianapolis (36-37) @ Lehigh Valley (43-28) 7:05pm
Probable starter: Rudy Owens (6-5 5.00)
AA: Altoona (34-36) @ New Hampshire (42-27) 7:05pm
Probable starter: Kyle McPherson (1-1 3.09)
High-A: Bradenton (29-40) VS Jupiter (32-37) 10:00am
Probable starter: Brett Sinkbeil (0-2 5.60)
Low-A: West Virginia (35-33) @ Hickory (40-28) 7:00pm 6/23
Probable starter: All Star Break
Short Season A: State College (1-4) VS Auburn (4-1) 7:05pm
Probable starter: Nick Kingham (0-1 15.00)
Rookie: GCL Pirates (2-0) VS GCL Tigers (0-2) 12:00pm
VSL: VSL Pirates (19-12) VS VSL Rays (15-17) 11:00am
DSL: DSL Pirates (13-5) VS DSL Rays (9-9) 10:30am
