Author: scott

By Scott Barancik, Editor Here are your minor-league highlights from the week of June 5-11, 2017. Members of Team Israel’s 2017 squad are marked with an asterisk: Jewish Baseball News Hitter of the Week: Cody Decker* 1B Cody Decker* (Mets/AA) hit .250 (3-for-12) with 2 HRs, 6 RBIs and a walk. With 7 HRs in 101 at-bats, he’s averaging one round-tripper…

By Ron Kaplan, contributor The “good” Scott Feldman showed up yesterday, throwing seven shutout innings, giving up four hits and no walks, and striking out four to lead the Cincinnati Reds (29-30) to a 5-2 win to sweep the four-game series over the visiting St. Louis Cardinals. Feldman’s win, his fifth, was only the 13th…

By Ron Kaplan, contributor Kevin Pillar launched a two-out, three-run homer (his 8th) in the top of the second to give the Toronto Blue Jays a 4-1 lead over the Oakland As. The home team came back to tie things up and send the game into extra innings. The Jays (29-31) ended up with a…

By Ron Kaplan, contributor Welcome back, Kinsler. Ian returned to action for the Detroit Tigers last night. He hit his seventh double and walked in five trips to the plate in a 5-3 loss to the visiting LA Angels. The loss pushed the Tigers to a game under the .500 mark, at 28-29. Brad Ausmus’ concerns?…

By Ron Kaplan, contributor Short and sweet: Just two MOTs in action last night. Alex Bregman entered the game between the Houston Astros (42-16) and host KC Royals as a defensive replacement. He singled in his only at bat and scored a run as his team stretched their winning streak to 11 with a 7-2…

By Ron Kaplan, contributor Danny Valencia had the best weekend of the JMLs as the Seattle Mariners (28-30) swept the visiting Tampa Bay Rays. On Friday, he drove in a season-high five RBIs thanks to a three-run homer, bases-loaded walk and RBI single (see video below). He also added his ninth double in the 12-4…

By Ron Kaplan, contributor Oh-no. Only two MOTs played last night, and they went a collective 0-for-8. Kevin Pillar‘s batting woes continued as the Toronto Blue Jays were blasted by the visiting NY Yankees, 12-2. Pillar was 0-for4. He will be making a donation to two Toronto-area LGBTQ organizations as an apology for his use…

By Ron Kaplan, contributor Mazel of the Day: Alex Bregman hit his third home run in three games and fifth in his last 10, one of six the Houston Astros (38-16) launched in their 17-6 pummeling of the host Minnesota Twins (26-23). He also singled and drove in a second run in six trips to the…

By Ron Kaplan, contributor With three MOTs on the disabled list, two others sitting in bullpens, and Scott Feldman starting every fifth game, there’s slim pickings when it comes to reporting on who did what these days. The Houston Astros keep tinkering with Alex Bregman’s spot in the lineup, including batting 9th last night. He…

By Ron Kaplan, contributor It had to happen sooner or later: Craig Breslow had a bad outing. Although looking at the highlights of the game, it seems the Minnesota Twins’ (26-21) defense let him down. They scored seven runs in the fifth against Alex Bregman and the Houston Astros to take a 7-2 lead. But…

By Scott Barancik, Editor Here are your minor-league highlights from the week of May 22-28, 2017. Members of Team Israel’s 2017 squad are marked with an asterisk: Jewish Baseball News Hitter of the Week: Nate Freiman* 1B Nate Freiman*, a former Major Leaguer playing for Pericos de Puebla of the Mexican League, hit .471 (8-for-17) with 2 HRs, a double,…

By Ron Kaplan, contributor Kevin Pillar was 0-for-5 on Friday, striking out twice as the Toronto Blue Jays (23-27) held off the visiting Texas Rangers, 7-6. The Rangers scored three in the top of the ninth to make things interesting. On Saturday, Pillar was 0-for-4 with another strikeout in a 3-1 win.  He doubled and…

By Ron Kaplan, contributor Another shvach day for the fellas. Bad news for Ryan Braun: He left the Milwaukee Brewer’s 4-0 loss to the visiting Arizona Diamondbacks with a recurrence of that calf injury which put him on the disabled list. Looks like he’s heading back there. He was 0-for-1 before coming out in the…

By Ron Kaplan, contributor Now that’s more like it. The boys went for a combined 7-for-18 yesterday with two doubles, two homers, and four runs scored. Kevin Pillar was one of four Toronto Blue Jays (21-26) who posted round-trippers in an 8-4 win over the host Milwaukee Brewers (25-21). His seventh of the season —…

By Ron Kaplan, contributor By default, the best performance of the day came from Richard Bleier, who made his second appearance in two days to pitch the final two innings as the Baltimore Orioles (25-19) were shut out by the visiting Minnesota Twins, 2-0. Bleier was perfect in his stint, striking out two. Craig Breslow…

By Ron Kaplan, contributor Mazel of the Day: Looks like we got the Jekyll version of Scott Feldman last night. He picked up his third win for the Cincinnati Reds (21-23), going six strong innings in a 5-1 victory over the visiting Cleveland Indians. Feldman allowed just four hits, including a homer by Jason Kipnis…

By Scott Barancik, Editor Here are your minor-league highlights from the week of May 15-21, 2017. It was a particularly good stretch for members of Team Israel’s 2017 squad, who we’ve marked with an asterisk: Jewish Baseball News Hitter of the Week: Zach Borenstein* LF Zach Borenstein* (Diamondbacks/AAA) had a modest 7 hits in 26 at-bats last week (.269) but made them count,…

By Ron Kaplan, contributor Ryan Braun returned to action from the disabled list on Sunday against the host Chicago Cubs, going o-for-5 with an RBI on a ball hit softly to the pitcher. The Milwaukee Brewers (25-19) lost this one, 13-6, after beating the Cubs on Friday, 6-3. The Saturday game was postponed by rain….