Tommy Hanson’s MLB debut comes closer with each dominant start he has. Yesterday, the big righthander surrendered just one run on five hits over seven innings while striking out nine hitters. He also helped himself at the plate with a single and run scored in two AB’s. Hanson received a no-decision for his efforts, but has assuredly reiterated to the Braves that he is quite ready to make his major league debut.
In other action, Jeff Clement had two more hits, scoring three times and driving in three runs. He has been red hot during the month of May, hitting .360 with 3 HR 21 RBI 11 doubles and 17 runs scored. Clement was curiously passed over for a big league promotion after Kenji Johjima’s hamstring injury in favor of the much less potent Guillermo Quiroz. This leads me to believe that Clement’s days as a catcher, at least within the M’s organization, is coming to a close. Watching him extensively last season, I completely agree with the move.
Today’s top prospect is another catcher, in fact it is the top catching prospect in all of baseball, Matt Wieters. Shortly after receiving word that he would be making his MLB debut on Friday May 30th, Wieters went 4-4 with a double and four RBI. The month of May has been good to the 23 year old Georgia Tech alum as he has hit .330 with 4 HR 25 RBI and 20 runs scored in 25 games. During the first two months of the season, there hasn’t been many distinguishable performances from the ’09 AL rookie class. Wieters has an ample opportunity to step in and fulfill the expectations of many baseball prognositcators that predicted that his switch hitting power bat and Gold Glove defensive abilities would propel him to this year’s ROY award.
AAA Player of the Day—MATT WIETERS
Other Notable Performances
Hitting:
- Matt Wieters—4-4 2B R 4 RBI BB
- Justin Turner—3-4 2B 3R BB SB(2)
- Wilkin Ramirez—1-4 2B 2 RBI BB
- Neil Walker—2-4 2 2B
- Trevor Plouffe—1-4 HR(4) 2 RBI 2R
- David Winfree—2-4 HR(7) 3 RBi
- Lou Marson—1-3 2B 2R BB
- Drew Stubbs—2-4 2B RBI
- Brian Bogusevic—3-5
- J.R. Towles—2-4 2B 2R RBI
- Chris Johnson—2-4 2B 2 RBI R
- Josh Whitesell—3-4 R
- Jacob Hester—1-3 2R RBI BB SB(5)
- Alcides Escobar—2-4 2B R BB SB(21)
- Hernan Iribarren—3-5 2B 2R RBI
- Cole Gillespie—1-4 2B 2 RBI
- Jeff Clement—2-3 2B 3R 3 RBI BB
- Michael Saunders—2-5 2R
- Cameron Maybin—2-5 2 2B 2R
- J.P. Arencibia—2-4 RBI
- Travis Snider—1-3 R
Pitching:
- Yorman Bazardo—8 IP 3H BB 6K W (5-2)
- Drew Carpenter—7 IP 6H ER BB 4K W (2-0)
- Tommy Hanson—7 IP 5H ER 2 BB 9K…..1-2 R
- Kevin Mulvey—7 IP 6H 2 ER BB 6K
