LIVE: Pipeline Game of the Month features Lawlar, Carter, Acuña … calf fries?
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The 2023 Minor League season is in full bloom, and as temperatures begin to heat throughout the nation from Portland, Me., to Lake Elsinore, Calif., one thing else is coming again, too – the baseball street journey!
We’ve documented loads of methods you’ll be able to plan and begin your odyssey via the Minors with the Ballpark Guide sequence, and now it’s about time we additionally present you what it’s like on the market on the path to the Majors that’s Minor League Baseball. With that in thoughts, the MLB Pipeline Game of the Month is again for 2023. We’re beginning the sequence up once more at Double-A Amarillo’s HODGETOWN on Thursday, April 27.
To stroll you thru what to anticipate from the April Game of the Month, we’re going to borrow some lyrics from Texas native Willie Nelson:
Each month this season, a minimum of one member of the MLB Pipeline crew will journey to a ballpark as a part of the Game of the Month sequence, the place we’ll carry you a great deal of content material in regards to the gamers, groups, stadiums and atmospheres that make Minor League Baseball so particular.
The sport itself will likely be our Free Game of the Day on Thursday and will likely be simply streamed on MLB.com, no matter whether or not you might have an MiLB.TV or MLB At Bat subscription (though you completely ought to to get each different televised Minor League contest this summer season).
You’ll wish to tune into this one too. The Sod Poodles boast No. 9 general prospect Jordan Lawlar, the highest-ranked participant within the Texas League, and now have strong hitters in Deyvison De Los Santos (AZ No. 4), A.J. Vukovich (AZ No. 12) and Ryan Bliss (AZ No. 30). The visiting Frisco RoughRiders simply occur to have a roster MLB Pipeline named as essentially the most loaded in baseball with 4 Top 100 prospects of their very own, led by No. 36 general expertise Evan Carter, who enters the week with a .525 OBP in Texas League play, and No. 65 Luisangel Acuña, the youthful brother of Braves outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr.
Goin’ locations that I’ve by no means been
HODGETOWN is among the Minors’ latest ballparks, having opened in 2019. We’ll be recording a ballpark tour that’ll take followers contained in the nooks and crannies of the Sod Poodles’ stadium. That will embrace a culinary sampling of the membership’s (gulp) Calf Fries, made well-known by their viral alternate id for the 2023 season.
In addition, NFL Hall of Famer Troy Aikman will likely be making an look and pouring beer as a part of Thirsty Thursday.
We’ll even be conducting interviews with gamers from Amarillo and Frisco that you could find on the @MLBPipeline and @MiLB social media channels. Down the street, we’ll have an on-camera pitching breakdown with one of many groups’ greatest pitching prospects that will likely be utilized in a future Pitching Lab story on MLB.com, so you’ll want to circle again for that.
Have a query for D-backs prospects Lawlar or Vukovich? Wondering how Owen White throws his breaking pitches? Let us know what questions you wish to be answered on Twitter @SamDykstraMiLB or @MLBPipeline, and we’ll get you solutions from the Texas panhandle.
Seein’ issues that I could by no means see once more
Amarillo has shortly change into probably the most hitter-friendly environments in the entire Minor Leagues, that means we may witness some really crooked numbers come Thursday.
To show the purpose, have a look at final yr’s splits. Amarillo batters had a collective .396/.376/.511 slash line over 69 residence video games final yr. They went deep 116 occasions (most within the Texas League) in that span for a price of 1.78 homers per sport at HODGETOWN. That dropped to 0.93 HR/G on the street, the place they’d a way more mundane .258/.327/.396 line in 68 contests. Amarillo pitchers had a 7.46 ERA at residence in 2022 and a 4.65 on the street. Already this season, Amarillo has hosted a pair of 13-10 video games … inside two days of one another on April 12 and 14.
A mixture of elevation and constant wind results in the funky numbers in Amarillo, and it is doable we may get a loopy rating on Thursday, particularly with the standard of hitters on show. Slugfests like these must be seen to be believed, so ensure you preserve it tuned into the printed.
And I can’t wait to get on the street once more.
As we’ve stated, that is simply the beginning of the Game of the Month sequence for 2023. Last yr, we headed to Somerset, Altoona, Norfolk, Durham and New Hampshire. We’ll test off Amarillo on Thursday, after which comes the favourite query of each Minor League street journey – the place to subsequent?
