Down On The Farm: July 16

Josh Sale is off the DL now and can hopefully stay off for the rest of the season.

AAA Durham Bulls (43-53)

Durtham's bats were largely silenced by an ensemble of Charlotte pitchers in their 4-0 loss. Simon Castro, making just his third AAA start in the White Sox organization, was pulled after three scoreless innings, and it's speculated that he could be headed for the bigs to make a spot start this week. Three relievers combined to finish the game, pitching two scoreless innings each. Lance Pendelton started for Durham, and he took his 4th loss after allowing four runs in six innings. The Bulls compiled 11 hits, but nine of them were between Henry Wrigley, Leslie Anderson and Matt Mangini who all had three each. Two of Wrigley's went for doubles, and he now has 17 in 53 games.

AA Montgomery Biscuits (14-10)

Montgomery couldn't slow down Mobile's offense Sunday in their 11-3 loss. Matt Buschmann was tagged for nine runs in six innings, including two home runs off the bat of Futures Game participant Alfredo Marte and Marc Krauss. Montgomery was only down 4-3 after four innings, but in their next three at-bats, the BayBears scored seven unanswered runs to run away with the win. The Biscuits hope that Ryan Garko's first inning homer breaks him out of a slump that's seen him collect only five hits in his last eight games. Omar Luna reached base twice in front of Garko and scored twice.

High-A Charlotte Stone Crabs (8-15)

After climbing out of a 3-0 hole in the 9th inning, Charlotte allowed a run in the bottom half in their 4-3 loss at Daytona. C.J. Riefenhauser's struggles continued, allowing three runs (two earned) in just four innings on five hits and four walks. His ERA as a starter is now 6.10, compared to 0.99 coming out of the bullpen. Riccio Torrez delivered a game tying single as a pinch hitter in the 9th, batting in the spot once occupied by Matt Joyce. Joyce batted leadoff for the Stone Crabs as their right fielder, and he went 1/3 with a double, walk, run scored, RBI and strikeout. Joyce was the only Stone Crab to reach base more than once. After Alex Koronis settled the game down with 4.1 scoreless innings, Chris Rearick walked the leadoff batter in the 9th, and he came around to score after a double and sac fly to win the game for the Cubs.

Low-A Bowling Green Hot Rods (14-9)

Josh Sale returned from the DL Sunday and contributed in Bowling Green's 4-2 win over Peoria. Playing left field, Sale walked three times and came around to score once. Jake Hager and Cam Seitzer shouldered the load for the offense with Hager reaching base twice, stealing a base and driving in two runs while Seitzer piled up four more hits in his second half surge. Felipe Rivero got the win for Bowling Green, but he did it in an unfamiliar role. Piggybacking starter Roberto Gomez, Rivero came out of the bullpen and allowed one run in three innings. Gomez threw three scoreless innings to start the game, and Charlie Cononie threw the last three to earn the save.

Short Season-A Hudson Valley Renegades (15-11)

Hudson Valley was rained out.

Rookie Princeton Rays (14-12)

Two solo home runs was all it took for the Burlington Royals to top Princeton in game one 2-0. One of them was off the bat of former Rays pick Kenny Diekroeger who's off to a fast start in his pro career, showing power that Stanford did not want him to use during his amateur career. Blake Snell's ERA increased by nearly 150% on the afternoon as he allowed the two runs in 4.2 innings of work, striking out four and allowing four hits and three walks. The P-Rays could only muster three singles against Burlington's starter Daniel Hernandez who pitched five scoreless innings. William Argo reached base twice.

Princeton rebounded in game two and went on to beat Burlington 3-1. Once again, a solo home run was the only way Burlington was able to score, this time on Fred Ford's 6th of the season. Bruedlin Suero made what was easily his best start of the young season, although that's not saying much after he allowed three or more earned runs in his first four. This time, Suero allowed just one run in five innings while striking out four. Andrew Toles was a key figure in the offense as one of two P-Rays to reach base twice. Toles drove in a run and stole the first two bases of his professional career.

Rookie Gulf Coast League Rays (9-14)

The GCL Rays were off.

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Star of the day- Is Henry Wrigley now a potential bench bat in the majors?

Goat of the day- C.J. Riefenhauser's struggles in the rotation continued.

Today's games (probables courtesy of milb.com)

Durham v. Lehigh Valley 7:05 PM (MiLB.TV)
Chris Archer* (5-8, 4.68) v. Tyler Cloyd* (8-1, 2.01)

Montgomery v. Mobile 8:05 PM
Nick Barnese* (1-0, 3.57) v. Mike Bolsinger* (2-2, 4.74)

Charlotte @ Daytona 7:05 PM
Braulio Lara* (4-8, 6.26) v. Kyler Burke (1-2, 3.60)

Bowling Green @ Peoria 12 PM
Trevor Shull (2-4, 5.29) v. Starling Peralta (2-4, 3.14)

Hudson Valley v. Mahoning Valley 11:05 AM DOUBLEHEADER
Jeff Ames* (2-0, 1.13) v. Jake Sisco (0-1, 2.52)
Jesse Hahn* (0-2, 6.57) v. Luis DeJesus* (2-0, 1.29)

Princeton v. Burlington 7:05 PM
TBA v. TBA

GCL Rays @ GCL Red Sox 10 AM DOUBLEHEADER
TBA v. TBA
TBA v. TBA

*Listed as TBA on MiLB.com

Scouting the opposition

Lehigh Valley IronPigs (Philadelphia)
53-42 (1st in IL North)
Offense: 372 R (13th) .688 OPS (12th)
Pitching: 3.63 ERA (4th) 1.34 WHIP (6th)
Top 30 Prospects: RHP Phillippe Aumont (4)

Mobile BayBears (Arizona)
11-13 (3rd in SL South)
Offense: 405 R (4th) .706 OPS (6th)
Pitching: 3.93 ERA (8th) 1.38 WHIP (5th)
Top 30 Prospects: 3B Matt Davidson (4), LHP David Holmberg (6), SS Chris Owings (7), OF Bobby Borchering (10), RHP Brett Marshall (15), OF Marc Krauss (16), RHP Kevin Munson (19), RHP Yonata Ortega (20), 2B David Nick (23), RHP Brett Lorin (28)

Daytona Cubs
11-13 (5th in FSL North)
Offense: 442 R (2nd) .713 OPS (3rd)
Pitching: 4.02 ERA (9th) 1.33 WHIP (4th)
Top 30 Prospects: OF Matt Szczur (3), RHP Robert Whitenack (19), 2B Ronald Torreyes

Peoria Chiefs (Cubs)
9-14 (7th in MWL West)
Offense: 379 R (15th) .683 OPS (12th)
Pitching: 3.62 ERA (5th) 1.30 WHIP (5th)
Top 30 Prospects: SS Javier Baez (2), 2B Zeke DeVoss (14), OF Reggie Golden (17), RHP Jose Rosario (22), RHP Ben Wells (25), OF Taiwan Easterling (28)

Mahoning Valley Scrappers (Cleveland)
13-13 (4th in Pinckney)
Offense: 112 R (10th) .667 OPS (9th)
Pitching: 3.44 ERA (7th) 1.29 WHIP (6th)
Top 30 Prospects: RHP Jake Sisco (14), OF Tyler Naquin

Burlington Royals
14-8 (2nd in APP East)
Offense: 123 R (5th) .761 OPS (3rd)
Pitching: 4.07 ERA (6th) 1.24 WHIP (3rd)
Top 30 Prospects: OF Bubba Starling (2), C Cam Gallagher (23), SS Humberto Arteaga (29), 2B Kenny Diekroeger

GCL Red Sox
12-11 (2nd in GCL South)
Offense: 92 R (9th) .619 OPS (13th)
Pitching: 3.19 ERA (6th) 1.26 WHIP (8th)
Top 30 Prospects: None