- Leave it to the Cardinals who always seem to get the best from their low round draft picks. Balestrieri was a 26th round pick in 2017, and from scanning his stats during his pro debut with short-season State College, last nights performance would seem to be light years away. The organization aggressively assigned the 6’0″ 210 lb right-hander out of Cornell University to HiA Palm Beach, to start 2018, where he made 5 relief appearances (9.82 ERA in just 3.2 IP). Sent down to Peoria mid-last month, Balestrieri continued to find rough waters with a 6.92 ERA (10 ER in 13 IP) in the 4 apps (3 starts) prior to last nights gem. Sans an error in the 1st inning against Kane County (D-Backs), Balestrieri would have had the perfect game. This outing was the first time the 23 year-old has pitched past the sixth inning.
- Flirting with throwing a no-hit outing twice this season, Alexy pulled it off last night versus Kannapolis (White Sox) over 6 innings. This isn’t anything new for the 11th round pick in 2016 (Dodgers), who sports a stingy 6.4 H/9 rate in 152.1 innings of work. Alexy would have occupied the final #5 UTR Organizational All-Star slot with the Dodgers if it wasnt for the Yu Darvish trade that sent him to Texas. Over his last 5 starts, the 6’4″ 195 lb right-hander has a 0.44 ERA (1 ER in 20.1 IP) with 28 strikeouts and limited opponents bats to a .134 BA.
Top Relief Pitcher Performance RHP Braden Bristo (LoA Charleston – New York Yankees) 23 years old 2 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 1.64 ERA, Save (3)
RADAR BLIP RHP Joe Cavallaro (LoA Columbia – New York Mets) 22 years old 7 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 9 K, 2.26 ERA
Under The Radar Minors 