Weekly Pebble Report: The PuRP Walk (August 19th-August 25th)

Colorado Rockies minor league report for Tuesday, August 27th, 2024

This is the new home of the Weekly Pebble Report here on Purple Row, your weekly Colorado Rockies minor league update. We have decided to make the Pebble Report a stand-alone article for ease of access and to better even out our content for our readers. Starting today, the Pebble Report will go up on Tuesday mornings.

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We’re in the home stretch here on Purple Row as our release of the midseason PuRPs prospect rankings draws to a close. If you’re reading this there is a good chance the top five prospects have been named or will be soon enough.

Meanwhile, the season itself is entering the home stretch as well. There is under a month left of minor league baseball and the big league club will wrap things up soon after. Both the Spokane Indians and Hartford Yard Goats are playoff-bound while Fresno is jockeying for a spot.

More and more debuts are happening while September roster expansion is less than a week away. With the Rockies having cemented another losing season, we look to the farm system for hope of the future.

Triple-A: Albuquerque Isotopes (3-3, 49-77 Overall)

While “Home Run Derby X” took over The Lab in Albuquerque, the Isotopes headed down to the Lone Star state to take on the dreaded Sugar Land Space Cowboys (Houston Astros). The ‘Topes surprisingly managed a series split against the division leader and a team that has had their number for most of the minor league season.

Do the Fernandez Flex: Yanquiel Fernandez (no. 5 PuRP) was the Isotopes’ player of the week as he put together his best series since being promoted to Triple-A. The powerful Cuban outfielder went 8-for-24 against the Space Cowboys with four doubles and a healthy 3:3 strikeouts to walks ratio. He finished off the series with three straight multi-hit games and is now hitting .246/.288/.333 over 17 games in Albuquerque.

Big Spleen Veen: Zac Veen (no. 4 PuRP) has earned comparisons from some of our readers to former top prospect David Dahl because of his bad injury luck early in his professional career. However, Veen—unlike Dahl—still has his spleen, and now he also has his first Triple-A starts. Veen was activated from the injured list and promptly promoted to Triple-A Albuquerque. In his second game—the series finale against the Space Cowboys—Veen went 2-for-3 with his first Triple-A home run.

Greg the Leg(s): Speedy utilityman Greg Jones (no. 26 PuRP) set a new career high for stolen bases during the series against the Space Cowboys. His 38 steals puts him among the league leaders in the PCL as well as a healthy first place among his teammates. Jones went 7-for-26 in the series with a double, a home run—putting him three away from a career high—and four stolen bases on five attempts.

Double-A: Hartford Yard Goats (3-4, 65-53 Overall)

The Yard Goats played a rare seven game set against the New Hampshire Fisher Cats (Toronto Blue Jays) as game one of the series was a make-up from back in June with Carson Palmquist as the starting pitcher of record. Ignoring that odd start, the Yard Goats essentially split the series.

I’ll Cut to the Chase: Chase Dollander (no. 2 pre-season PuRP)? Still really good. He struck out at least ten batters for the fifth time this season, and the first time since being promoted to Double-A. Dollander pitched 5 ²⁄₃ innings and gave up two earned runs on four hits and two walks.

Carry Braxton My Wayward Son: Catcher Braxton Fulford (no. 51 PuRP) made the most of three starts against the Fisher Cats. The 2021 draft pick went 4-for-11 with a double, a triple, and a home run—his tenth—while driving in three runs.

Carry Juan My Wayward Son: Yard Goats outfielder Juan Guerrero (no. T-62 PuRP) is quietly having a stand-out season, hitting .306/.345/.393 across High-A and Double-A, and has been hitting quite well since his promotion to Hartford earlier this month. Guerrero went 6-for-17 with a double against the Fisher Cats and enjoyed a three hit game on Saturday.

High-A: Spokane Indians (3-3, 71-47 Overall)

The Spokane Indians ended up with a series split against the Hillsboro Hops (Arizona Diamondbacks) after narrowly dropping the series finale. The games the Indians did win were generally in decisive fashion, not counting the thrilling pitching duel on Saturday that ended in a 1-0 Spokane victory.

Carrigg On My Wayward Son: Cole Carrigg (no. 12 PuRP) was having a mostly quiet series against the Hops before exploding with a career high four hits and four RsBI on Friday. Carrigg is hitting .277/.354/.461 with the Indians this season and has double digits in each category of extra base hit while also stealing 43 bases.

Karros On My Wayward Son: Indians third baseman Kyle Karros (no. 14 PuRP) had five walks and five strikeouts in Hillsboro but only had three total base hits. However, he made the most of one of those hits when he had the Indians’ only hit and drove in the Indians’ sole and game winning run to break up a no-hitter on Saturday.

Carry Yujanyer My Wayward Son: Right-handed starting pitcher and 2024 trade deadline acquisition Yujanyer Herrera (no. 33 PuRP) has had an incredibly strong start to his tenure with the Rockies organization. This continued on Saturday’s pitchers duel where he worked seven shutout innings, giving up just two hits and a walk while striking out six batters.

Low-A: Fresno Grizzlies (3-3, 62-57 Overall)

The Fresno Grizzlies split their final series against the Stockton Ports (Oakland Athletics) largely due to solid offensive performances. However, with just two series to go across 12 games the Grizzlies are on the outside looking in for a playoff spot.

All’s Well That Longwell: Grizzlies first baseman and Kent State product Aidan Longwell is having a fantastic second season in Low-A Fresno, hitting .310/.384/.435 with a healthy 20 walks to 27 strikeouts. Longwell put together another solid series against Stockton, going 10-for-25 with two doubles, a triple, and a home run while striking out just once.

Who You Gonna Calaz?: After ten days away, 18-year-old top prospect Robert Calaz (no. 8 PuRP) returned to the Grizzlies lineup in a big way for Sunday’s series finale. Calaz went 3-for-5 with a double and three RsBI and is now hitting .326/.396/.587 in 12 games since being promoted to Low-A.

“Usually the team that scores the most points wins the game”: Right-handed reliever Jake Madden (no. 43 PuRP) has put together nine straight shutout innings over six appearances dating back to August 10th. Madden made two scoreless appearances against the Ports to continue his streak with one walk and two hits allowed while striking out one batter. Received from the Los Angeles Angels via trade last season, Madden has a 3.60 ERA over 24 appearances and 35 innings this season with Fresno.

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