Cristian Mena's Nine Strikeouts Highlight D-backs Minor League Roundup

Top prospect Jordan Lawlar went 0-for-4 and is now batting just .250 with a .735 OPS. He's struck out a whopping 19 times in 51 PA, (31.1%). This is why he is not yet up in the major leagues, as he requires the reps to get his bat up to par.

Reliever Kyle Amendt threw a scoreless ninth inning. He's yeet to allow a run in five appearances, five innings, allowing just two hits and two walks, and striking out seven.

Double-A Springfield Cardinals 3, Amarillo Sod Poodles 2

Avery Short allowed just one run in four innings, despite walking four batters and only throwing 38 strikes among his 73 pitches.

Tommy Troy stayed hot, going 2-for-4 with a double and a run scored. He's batting .333 with a 1.071 OPS and a 195 wRC+. Troy has a rough season in 2024, but finished the last few weeks strong and then excelled in the Arizona Fall League. His hot start is a continuation of his improvements.

22 year old catcher Christian Cerda is off to a hot start as well. He went 2-for-3 with an RBI and is batting .353 with a 1.023 OPS. He has a 159 wRC+ through five games. Last year he posted a 104 wRC+ and a 126 wRC+ the year before that.

wRC+ is a metric that takes runs created and coverts it to scale where 100 = league average. Park and league factors are taken into account. A 150 wRC+ means a batter has been about 50% better than league average.

High-A Hillsboro Hops 11, Everett Aquasox 4

Big John West, (6'8", 265 pounds) went four innings and gave up just one run on two hits while striking out seven. He lowered his ERA to 5.87 after a rough first outing in relief.

West was taken in the 12th round of last year's draft out of Boston College. West's fastball was a low 90's offering in college, but last year he opened eyes by throwing in the mid 90's when he arrived in Arizona's continuation camp.

Farm Director Chris Slivka highlighted him during spring training as a pitcher to watch. West also throws a slider, a sweeper, and a change up.

Top prospects Druw Jones, Cristofer Torin, and Jansel Luis each had two hit games. Jones is batting .400 and Torin is batting .429.

The offensive star of the game was first baseman Ben McLaughlin. He went 3-for-4 with his second homer of the season, scoring three runs and driving in two.

San Jose Giants 3, Visalia Rawhide 1

Right-hander Casey Anderson pitched into the fifth inning, giving up three runs but just two earned as he was victimized by some poor defense.

Third base prospect Yassel Soler had a base hit and a walk, and is batting .440 on 11-for-25 with a homer so far this season. Soler had an excellent run in the Arizona Complex League last year, batting .303 with six homers and an .823 OPS in 218 at bats. Just 19 years old, the D-backs have high hopes Soler can reach his potential 60 grade game power over the next few years.