This Week in the Minors: no walks by Binford; time for some roster movement?

IDAHO FALLS:

Wander Franco, who is 19 and not 20 like I said last week, had another superb week. He hit in all 5 of his games, and more than once in 3 of them. Among his 9 total hits this week were 3 doubles and a home run, leaving him with a line of .429/.487/.700 in his first 18 games in the Pioneer League. Is he the new 3B Of The Future?

DonAndre Clark, a late-round pick from California this year, had two three-hit games in part-time duty this week. He's only played 18 games, but he has an OBP of .367 and 10 steals. The "fast CF" continues to be an organizational strength.

Ryan O'Hearn did more Ryan O'Hearn things, hitting in 5 games this week and homering in Sunday evening's loss. Mike Hill had a trio of consecutive 2-hit games, followed by 3 hits on Friday.

On the mound, Torey Deshazier had another nice outing on Thursday, going 5 2-hit, shutout innings with 7 Ks and 1 walk. He has struck out just about a batter per inning through 5 games (26.2 innings) and has held opposing hitters to a .202 average.

BURLINGTON:

Not much is working for the Burlington Royals lately. Their team offense is at or near the bottom of the Appy league in almost every category. They have the fewest hits, 2nd-fewest doubles, fewest walks, lowest OBP and AVG, and 3rd-lowest SLG. I don't wish to pick on them, but it's hard to single out good performances like I usually do when the whole team is having such a rough go of things.

LEXINGTON:

The Legends got slammed with bad weather all week, with 3 postponements resulting in five 7-inning games. Poor guys.

Third baseman Mauricio Ramos had a nice week, collecting hits in 5 of 6 games. Ramos, who has been in the org since 2011, has always been slightly old for his level. Would he be a good fit in Wilmington, who have been left without a regular 3rd baseman since Hunter Dozier's promotion?

WILMINGTON:
Brandon Finnegan pitched two more perfect innings on Wednesday, in his 2nd pro appearance. Will he ever allow a baserunner?!

Raul Mondesi has a 7-game hit streak going, including his first homer of the year on Sunday.

In spite of a 3-hit Sunday, Bubba Starling had another 'meh' week. If you're GMDM or JJ Piccolo or whomever, what do you do with Starling right now?

Jonathan Dziedzic faced just two over the minimum in 7.0 IP on Friday, allowing 4 hits and a walk while striking out 3. Mark Peterson reached the 20-save mark, far and away the most in the Carolina League. He has held opponents scoreless in 9 of his last 10 outings.

NORTHWEST ARKANSAS:

#didBinfordwalkanyone? NOPE. Christian Binford had a good 7-inning outing on Wednesday, giving up 2 runs but striking out 8 with no walks, on 92 pitches.

Andy Ferguson, a collegiate 18th-rounder 3 years ago, pitched a complete game shutout on Saturday, allowing just 6 baserunners and striking out 4.

The Naturals offense was mostly tepid this week, including leaving the bases loaded with no outs in last night's 3-0 loss to Springfield.

OMAHA:
The Pacific Coast League's All-Star break coincides with MLB's, so the Chasers had an abbreviated week. When they came back, the first couple games were not pretty. Thursday, they suffered a 10-run loss on national TV, though Christian Colon did homer twice.

Friday was a fairly ho-hum 5-3 loss, aside from Justin Mawell's 3 hits. Saturday, the team scored 5 quick runs, including homers by Maxwell and Francisco Pena, but didn't score any more, and the pitching staff coughed up 9 runs to New Orleans.

Sunday's crowd saw a much better game, with the Chasers picking up a 9-2 win. Maxwell had a 4-hit game. Colon homered again, and Pedro Ciriaco had a 3-hit day, including a home run.

[Maxwellian side note: Willie Wilson was on the radio during Saturday's game, and I talked to him afterward as well. He said both times that if he had his way, Nori Aoki would be gone from KC, because Maxwell can do at least as well, and is younger, and there's not much point in keeping the older player given that choice. Do you agree?]

Sunday afternoon, John Lamb pitched 6 shutout innings. He labored a little, requiring 100 pitches and walking 3 Zephyrs, but he mixed in a few of the knee-buckling 65 mph curves that have been working well for him lately. One in particular caught the attention of seemingly everyone in the stadium and made the NOLA hitter look like Bambi trying to walk on the ice in that one scene in Bambi, and shut up, you know you know the scene I'm talking about. The point is, it was a good outing that the team needed badly after the first three games of that series.