Last Minor League Spring game

Manny Banuelos

Today was the final spring training game for the Yankees minor leaguers, they have a camp day tomorrow but I won't make it out there. Last night I had calculated that if Brett Marshall started the game today then he would be ready for opening night on Thursday, I had expected him to start for Tampa but about 2 hours prior to the game I saw a tweet stating that Banuelos would be starting instead for Tampa and Marshall would be starting for Charleston. This puts them both on track to start their respective home openers. I had been planning to watch Charleston but for obvious reasons I decided to watch Manny one last time before he goes north with Trenton.

I got to the field early because I was expecting a lot more traffic, they had the regular gate closed so I was worried that the games wouldn't be open to the public but I drove into the actual complex parking lot and realized they were having people drive through the main lot to the regular parking lot. Apparently there was an event at Raymond James and they didn't want just anyone driving through the gates.There were considerable fewer people at the field today, I guess people just got tired of the heat but I would say there was less than 20 people milling around throughout the whole afternoon.

I again got the workout groups roster and noticed that it looked drastically different. They had added a column for Extended Spring Training so the individual team rosters really have taken shape. Some people are still not where they will be to start the season but its pretty close.

Again, this is L to R Scranton, Trenton, Tampa, Charleston and now Extended ST.

Banuelos pitching

Last time I took notes on the game, I did a play by play. This time I just wrote each players individual line. I included a section for how they scored so you could see that too. If my note taking is correct then the Tampa Yankees won 3-2. 

Manny Banuelos pitched 3 innings. He allowed 1 hit, 1 BB, 1 K and 1 run. The run came in the first inning. After the leadoff batter reached on a single, he stole 2nd and a few pitches later he stole 3rd. Manny then allowed a Sac Fly to deep right field for the first run of the game. He then got an out on a fly ball to right, walked a batter and struck out the final batter to end the inning.

His second inning of work was much cleaner, allowing no hits 1 flyout and 2 groundouts. His third inning started with a 4-3 out, followed by an error on the 2nd baseman who threw wide of first though the runner stayed on first. Manny eliminated this runner inducing a ground ball for a snazzy 6-4-3 double play. His day was over after this, I dont know if he would have

pitched another inning but his pitch count would probably have been too high after that first inning.

Manny was followed by Brandon Braboy who pitched 1 inning. He struck out 2, with a walk sandwiched between strikeouts and recorded his final out on a fly ball to center.

Braboy was followed by Cory Arbiso, from Trenton who obviously stayed behind. Arbiso pitched 2 innings, he struck out 3, walked 1. He had 1 flyout and 2 groundouts.

Preston Claiborne was the fourth pitcher of the afternoon and he pitched 2 innings. Claiborne struck out 2, walked none, had 2 groundouts(including a comebacker to the mound), 1 popup to the first baseman, 1 fly out and 1 long Home Run.

The closing pitcher for Tampa, was Pat Venditte who, like Arbiso, clearly stayed behind. Venditte allowed 1 hit, 1 flyout and 2 groundouts.

The pitchers did a really good job at not allowing baserunners this afternoon.

Besides the guy who stole 3rd and the homerun, I dont think anyone else made it past 2nd base. That is good news for Trenton fans because only two of the pitchers from today will actually be in Tampa this season.

Rob Lyerly

Onto the hitting portion of the game. Here is the lineup:

Abe Almonte - CF

Carmen Angelini - SS

Rob Lyerly - 3B

Luke Murton - 1B

Taylor Grote - DH

Zoilo Almonte - LF

Kyle Higashioka/Mitch Abeita - C

DeAngelo Mack - RF

Walter Ibarra - 2B

Abe Almonte- 0-4/2K/2 grounders to short and 2nd

Carmen Angelini - 1-3/1H(1B)/1 run/1BB(stole 2nd, got caught stealing 3rd)/1 popup and 1 grounder to short.

Rob Lyerly - 1-4/1H(1B)/2K/1 grounder to 2nd

Luke Murton - 1-3/1H(1B)/1RBI/1K(looking)/grounder to short

Taylor Grote - 0-2 /1K(looking)/1BB/1 run/1 fly out to right

Zoilo Almonte - 1-3/1H(2B)/1 run/1RBI/1K/grounder to 3rd

Kyle Higashioka - 1-2/1H(1B)/grounder to 3rd

Deangelo Mack - 1-3/1H(1B)/1SB/FC- runner out at 2nd/1RBI/flyout to right

Walter Ibarra - 1-3(1B)/1K/grounder to 3rd

Mitch Abeita - 0-1/flyout to center

How they scored the runs

Bottom of the second - Taylor Grote walks, Zoilo Almonte hits a double to to left field scoring Grote. Kyle Higashioka follows Z. Almonte with a single, moving the runner to 3rd. Deangelo mack hits into a fielders choice; Higashioka out at 2nd, Z. Almonte scores.

Bottom of the sixth - Carmen Angelini hits a single up the middle, trying to pick him off 1st during the following at bat, the catcher throws the ball wide of first and down the right field line, this allowed Angelini to advance all the way to third. After Rob Lyerly struck out, Luke Murton hit a single down the left field line scoring Angelini from 3rd.

Interesting to note: Because these are spring games, they sometimes do things they wouldnt do normally. In the bottom of the second inning, after Zoilo Almonte scored, the pitching coach went to talk to the pitcher, they decided, I guess, instead of warming up another pitcher they just decided to end the inning. So the bottom of the second ended prematurely.

Brett Marshall pitching for Charleston