This Week in Prospects: The farm report April 2-April 8

In short, of course (Ed. note: Cormican may be biased here). The great thing about the Minors is that the scores and records kind of don't matter, which is wonderful because the scores and records were quite ugly this week there too. Let's look level by level and see where everyone falls. Just remember it's only a week and we can no more call Ethan Martin a bust that we can be certain the end has come for Doc. There's a lot of ball left to play.

Iron Pigs (2-3)

Cesar Hernandez got off to a good start at the plate, going 10 for 22 with 2 walks, 3 doubles and a triple (.227 ISO). With Utley in a contract year and Hernandez on the 40 man, this will be interesting to follow. General consensus is that Hernandez is a Utility guy, but weirder things have happened.

Darin Ruf had a weird .318/.304/.455 line.

Asche didn't hit well, but he took walks and hit a dinger and sported a .273 BABiP, so we can expect some improvement there.

Castro's rocking a .400/.400/.500 line, but the .444 BABiP is quite unsustainable. Still, good week.

Tommy Joseph had a pretty mixed bag. He got his first Triple-A Home Run, but no Walks, a .235 BA (with a quite low .250 BABiP) means we'll need to see more before getting too excited about any possible power surge.

On the other hand Tyson Gillies had a downright terrible week at the plate. His line: .059/.200/.059 (with a psychotic .083 BABiP). .000 ISO, though he did take 3 walks and steal a base. And honestly, that Stolen base is wonderful to see since his game is so built around his speed, it would be great to see that return.

The Pitching? Bad week. Bad, bad week. Let's start with the good: Adam Morgan went 6 Innings with 5 K's and 1 BB on Saturday. He gave up 2 Earned Runs (one on a dinger) on 6 hits (5 singles and the Homer)

Justin DeFratus, Joe Savery and Michael Stutes also had some nice outings (though in fairness it might be best to call Stutes effectively wild as he gave out Walks like candy).

BJ Rosenberg and Tyler Cloyd were pretty bad. Both lasted about 3 Innings and 20 batters. Both sport almost Joe Cowley ERAs. Eh, it's only 1 start and Cloyd was pretty unlucky. Rosenberg had some not insignificant control issues.

Jake Diekman was a little Walky in his work. Always an issue, but, man is he good when he can find the plate.

Ethan Martin went 4.1 and Walked everyone (Ed. note hyperbole, kinda). Jon Petitbone went 5.1 and struggled. He had some bad BABiP luck, but he also walked too many dudes.

Reading Fightin' Phils (3-2)

Lots of good stuff here.

Edgar Duran. No, he didn't fight Tommy Hearns or Marvin Hagler, but I'd like to see mas of this. a .334 ISO, 1 HR, 2 SB, 2 doubles. Of course, he also only had 1 walk against 4 K's and his HR, one of his doubles and both Steals are from the same game, but who cares? That's a damned fine week for an under the radar, glove first Shortstop prospect.

Anthony Hewitt both had a Walk and didn't have any errors his first week in Double-A. I would love for Hewitt to put it all together. There probably aren't better tools anywhere in the system, he just kind of was bad at baseball. Sometimes the light goes on, but he also had a near .500 BABiP, so it's way too early to get excited here.

Hooray Catchers!

Cameron Rupp and Sebastian Valle both went yard and Valle actually drew a walk. Sadly they're both striking out an awful lot and that Walk of Valle's is the only one between them so far. Still, even if Valle can hover around a 6% Walk rate that would be pretty huge and anything from Rupp is a bonus.

Who was good on the Mound? Jesse Biddle for one. He went 6 innings (Quality Start!) with 6 K's, 1 BB, 2 H (1 double) and 1 ER.

Kyle Simon. It's only 1 inning, but 2 K's are nice.

Brody Colvin was not particularly good. He went 5.1 Innings with 2 K's, 2 BB's 1 HR, 3 doubles and 3 ER.

The other guy worth mentioning is Seth Rosin who came along with Joseph from the Gints and has gotten very little attention. He went a respectable 4 innings in his first start with 6 K's, 2 BB, 1 HBP and 2 ER.

Clearwater Threshers (1-3)

Percy Garner was pretty much the lone bright spot here. Absolutely dominating over 6 Innings with 7 K, 0 BB, 1 H, 0 ER and facing the bare minimum 18 batters. While I hate to rain on things, Percy is nearly 25, which is quite old for the level and he's repeating, so he's kind of supposed to dominate. Still, that's a damned fun line to see from a guy with some potentially knock out stuff.

There aren't a ton of prospects of note in Clearwater, but here's how the few did:

Aaron Altherr .200/.250/.267, 1 SB, 31% K, 6% BB

Mikael Franco, who started slow in 2012 you may recall, .143/.250/.214, 31% K, 12.5% BB

Cameron Perkins had the lone HR on the team with a .250/.250/.438 line otherwise.

Chris Serritella .250/.250/.375

Lakewood Blueclaws (1-4)

I'm saving the best lines for last this time, cause I'm like that. So let's start on the rubber.

Shane Watson was the man. He went 6 Innings, 4 K, 0 BB, 2 H, 1 ER

Yoel Mecias suffered some bad luck, but had a decent line. He went 4 Innings with 6 K, 2 BB, 5 H (including a double and a triple), 3 ER

Speaking of bad luck, Kevin Brady had it in spades. 3.1 IP, 3 K, an astounding 5 doubles, 6 ER

At the dish, Art Charles (who we got for Scwhimer) had a very Domingo Santana 31.8% K against 18.2% BB, but not much else.

Oh, there are so many juicy lines left. Brian Pointer's BA wasn't great, but otherwise a nice week for the uber-talented kid. .167/.375/.278 (with a .214 BABiP), 2 SB

Chace Numata .357/.438/.500 with a crazily unsustainable .500 BABiP. Still even adjusted down to something in the .330 range that wouldn't be a half bad line.

Roman "Candle" Quinn did about what you'd expect. .318/.375/.364, 3 SB, 29% K, 4% BB. I'm not going to worry about the K and BB rates just yet.

My favorite line of the week? I thought double jumping Carlos Tocci was crazy. Yeah, like a fox. .263/.333/.316, 4.8% K, 9.5% BB

That's not even the best line. Not even close. Mitch Walding may have had an unsustainable .500 BABiP, but the line has more than just BABiP inflated OBP and Avg going for it. .438/.571/.500, 9.5% K, 23.8% BB