Minor Notes: Groome returns to action, McGrath close to making history

Here are Thursday's minor league notes:

• Sixth-ranked prospect Jay Groome made his first appearance since undergoing Tommy John surgery in May of 2018. The left-hander struck out two and allowed one hit in his one inning of work on Wednesday. With the minor league season nearing an end Groome will likely only get one or two more appearances in, but seeing him healthy and succeeding is a huge step in the right direction heading into 2020. 

• Josh Herzenberg of Fangraphs.com watched the Lowell Spinners over the weekend and had good write-ups on both Noah Song and Gilberto Jimenez. He had Song's fastball up to 97, while he graded Jimenez out as "at least a 70 runner". 

• In Sam Dykstra's recent edition of the Toolshed he focuses on some minor league stats to keep an eye on over the last few weeks. One of these stats is Daniel McGrath's ERA with Portland which is now 1.35. As Dykstra notes in his article, Mark Cohoon's 1.30 ERA for Savannah in 2010 is the lowest ERA for a single full-season team with at least 90 innings pitched in the last 10 years. 

• Brett Netzer was hitting only .236/.308/.319 through July 26 as he was struggling to produce in his first taste of the upper minors. Since then he has hit .311/.366/.541 with four home runs over 21 games. Kevin Thomas of the Portland Press Herald talked with Netzer and manager Joe Oliver, and the interesting thing is that the improved results have come as he has worked to hit the ball more on a line rather than trying to elevate everything. 

• On August 19 the Sea Dogs welcomed their 10 millionth fan as they near the end of their 26th season. The fan received 2020 season tickets, and her son got to throw out the first pitch. 

Players of the Week (August 12 through August 18)

Dean Miller, OF, GCL

5 G, 19 AB, 10 H, 2 3B, 2 HR, 5 R, 5 RBI, 1 BB, 5 K, .526/.550/1.053

The strong corner outfielder who was drafted in the 24th round this year out of UC Riverside continues to hit well in the GCL. The 22-year-old is slashing .279/.357/.468 through 32 games with 12 of his 31 hits going for extra bases. He is striking out in over 30 percent of his at-bats this season after having a 27 percent strikeout rate in college, so he will need to prove that he can consistently tap into his plus raw power as he moves up in the system. 

Chris Murphy, LHP, Lowell

2 G, 8 IP, 0-0, 0.00 ERA, 5 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, 0.75 WHIP

Murphy has been a revelation since Boston drafted him in the sixth round of the 2019 draft, allowing just two earned runs over his first 26 innings, striking out 31 while walking only four. Murphy slipped to the sixth round due to control issues he had at the University of San Diego where he walked 115 batters in 214 innings over three years. He seems to have those issues straightened out right now, and he is dominating the New York-Penn League. 

Photo Credit: Chris Murphy by Kelly O'Connor

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