Guardians Baseball Insider

Photo credit: TCP Photography/Courtesy Lake County Captains

Lake County had an up and down roadtrip in Fort Wayne last week. They got a stellar first outing from Jack Leftwich during that trip, won an 11-10, 13 inning game, allowing the TinCaps to score six runs in the eighth inning to send it to extra innings. Alexfri Planez stayed hot through the week, as did Petey Halpin an Angel Martinez. The offense wasn’t great all week, but pretty good compared to where it has been at points this year. It was actually the pitching that struggled at times. Jack Leftwich bookended the week with another brilliant start, in his Classic Park debut on July 12.

Results

7/4: W, 6-0 at Fort Wayne
7/6: PPD
7/7: W, 11-10 (13) at Fort Wayne
7/8: L, 5-4 at Fort Wayne
7/9: L, 3-2 at Fort Wayne (Game 1); L, 6-2 at Fort Wayne (Game 2)
7/10: W, 5-2 at Fort Wayne
7/12: W, 1-0 vs Dayton

Prospect of the Week

OF Alexfri Planez: 8-22, 2B, 2 HR, 7 RBI, 7K/BB, SB – .364/.391/.682

This was a tough call as multiple hitters had good weeks and a few starters did, but Planez gets the call because he keeps his hitting streak alive at 22 games and because he drew his second walk of the season during the road trip at Fort Wayne. Not sure which one is more impressive.

Who’s Hot

OF Johnathan Rodriguez: 6-20, 2 2B, 3 HR, 7 RBI – .300/.364/.850

A two homer game highlighted Rodriguez’s week at Fort Wayne. Nothing has been particularly impressive about Rodriguez’s number or performance this season overall, but he’s had some nice stretches.

INF Angel Martinez: 7-23, 2B, 2 HR, 7 RBI, SB – .304/.360/.609

Martinez had two homers at Fort Wayne, including one early in that wild, 11-10 affair that came after an 11 pitch at bat. Nice to see some power emerging from Martinez, who has put together impressive at bats and stretches all season long.

RHP Jack Leftwich: 6IP, 2H, 11K

Leftwich pitched into the seventh inning on July 4 in his first High-A start with Lake County. He only struck out four in that outing, but in his outing, he was missing bat after bat with his slider and has yet to miss a beat in his two starts making the jump to High-A.

LHP Doug Nikhazy: 6.2IP, 2H, ER, 3BB, 11K

Nikhazy took a no-hitter into the seventh inning, down to the final batter of the game in game one of the double-header at Fort Wayne. He lost the no-hitter on his last batter on an infield single and then the bullpen gave away the lead. But this was the longest and best start of Nikhazy’s season, who continues to show flashes of brilliance between the walks. He’s certainly hard to hit when he’s on. He just needs to clean up the walks.

Who’s Not

RHP Mason Hickman: 3.1IP, 5H, 4ER, HBP, BB, 3K

Hickman continues to wobble back and forth between effective and struggling. He really could use a surge of good outings in a row to solidify his growth at High-A and maybe get him to Double-A.

1B Joe Naranjo: 4-25, 2B, 7K/3BB – .160/.250/.200

That early season power and walk surge hasn’t quite kept up throughout the year for Naranjo. He’s shown spurts again of seeing it again, but nothing sustained.

Transactions

07/11/22: CF Quentin Holmes assigned to Akron RubberDucks from Lake County Captains

07/09/22: RHP Braunny Munoz assigned to Lake County Captains from Lynchburg Hillcats

07/08/22: RHP Sergio Morillo assigned to Lynchburg Hillcats from Lake County Captains

07/06/22: LHP Jaime Arias assigned to Lake County Captains from Columbus Clippers

On Deck

7/13-7/17 HOME vs. Dayton

Break – 7/18-7/21