Week in Review: Pacific Coast League Week 2

Mar 29, 2014; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; New York Mets starting pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka (16) pitches in the first inning against the Toronto Blue Jays at Olympic Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports

The Pacific Coast League recently announced it’s Players of the Week, Jonathan Singleton and Tsuyoshi Wada. Wada has made two starts for the Chicago Cubs Triple-A squad, putting in 13.1 innings, while allowing seven hits and just one run on his way to striking out 18. Singleton has four home runs and a 1.136 OPS.

While both Wada and Singleton have been fantastic, there are others who may have opened more eyes. Rafael Montero has been making a case for a call-up soon. He took a no hitter into the sixth inning on Sunday, on a day he didn’t have his best stuff as he only struck out four. He has 18 strikeouts in 17.1 innings this season, and a WHIP of 0.87. He has out-pitched fellow Mets prospect Noah Syndergaard, but he isn’t the only member of the 51’s to take a no-hitter into the sixth this season.

The day before Montero blanked the Fresno Grizzlies for six innings, Daisuke Matsuzaka did the same. Daisuke gave up his first hit in the sixth inning and pitched seven scoreless, but did not get a decision as the 51’s scored the only run by either team in the 10th inning.

The best hitting line of the week came from Brett Eibner for Omaha in a game they blew out Memphis 20-3. In that game, Eibner racked up five hits and a walk, while launching two home runs, scoring three times, and driving in nine runs. He only has two more RBIs and one more home run the rest of the season, while his five hits make up for a third of his total hits on the season.

There have been two notable call-ups from the PCL this week, both happened to come today, with Daisuke heading to New York and George Springer set to make his big league debut after hitting a home run in consecutive games including a monster game on Tuesday (more on Spring in this article).

Those two call-ups lead me to the player most primed for a call-up, and that player is Archie Bradley. Bradley has had two solid outings despite not getting the strikeouts he put up in the lower minors. While he has not been sharp enough to force the hand of Kevin Towers, who seems set on keeping Bradley in the minors until the time is right (probably after the Super Two deadline has passed), but the Arizona Diamondbacks are in need of all the help they can get. They have started the season an abysmal 4-13 and a league worst 6.14 ERA.

The random achievement of the week goes to Brett Tomko. When Tomko toed the rubber for the Omaha Storm Chasers on his 41st birthday on April 7th, he became the oldest player in the history of the Storm Chasers, and tied a PCL record as he played for his 8th different team in the league. He went six innings of one run ball, but walked three batters to only two strikeouts.He gave up three runs in his second start, upping his ERA to 3.27, but is certainly an interesting player to watch on the comeback trail.