Louisville won 1-0. Box Score

• Homer Bailey allowed 4 hits and a walk in 5.2 innings and he struck out 7. He threw 64 strikes and just 26 balls (71% strikes).
• Bill Bray struck out 3 in 1.1 hitless innings while walking 1.
• Jim Brower walked 2 and allowed a hit in 2 innings as he struck out 3.
• Jerry Hariston went 2-4 with a run.
• Jay Bruce went 1-4 with a double and RBI.
• Jolbert Cabrera went 1-4.
• Paul Janish went 2-3 with a double.

Chattanooga lost 6-5 in extra innings. Box Score

• Daryl Thompson walked 1 and allowed 2 hits in 6 shutout innings. He struck out 8.
• Justin Mallet struck out 2 in 1 inning of work.
• Luis Bolivar went 3-6 with a double and a run.
• Drew Anderson (IF) went 1-5 with 2 runs and a solo HR (1)
• Craig Tatum went 2-5 with 2 RBI.
• Cody Strait went 3-5 with a double.
• Michael Griffin went 1-2 with a double and 2 RBI.

Sarasota won 7-3. Box Score 

• Jordan Smith pitched 7 shutout innings, allowed 5 hits, no walks and 7 strikeouts.
• Sean Henry went 1-3 with a walk and a run.
• Chris Heisey went 1-4 with a triple, 2 runs and an RBI.
• Juan Francisco went 2-4 with a double, run and RBI.
• Drew Stubbs went 1-4.
• Jason Louwsma went 1-3 with a run and RBI.

Dayton won 5-4. Box Score

• Philippe Valiquette pitched 3.2 perfect innings with 4 strikeouts out of the bullpen.
• Terrell Young struck out 2, allowed a hit and a walk in 0.2 innings.
• Joseph Krebs struck out 2 and allowed a hit in 1.1 scoreless innings.
• Todd Frazier went 2-4 with 3 runs score and 2 HR (3), including a walk off HR in the bottom of the 9th inning.
• Brandon Waring went 1-3 with a 2 run HR (3).

(Photo: Lisas Lounge/Flickr.com)

Drew Stubbs is one of the more intriguing prospects in all of baseball. The scout crowd love him for his bag of tools, while the ’stats’ crowd is down on him for his strikeouts and performance thus far. Personally, I like to think I have a nice mix of both stats and scouting in my opinions of players. Still, he is a spark for debate among the prospecting community.

Last year he hit just .270/.364/.421 in Low A Dayton. One of the most concerning things about his year was the 142 strikeouts. Last year in Dayton, Stubbs was batting in the leadoff spot for a majority of the time. In the leadoff spot he hit just .255/.358/.385 while striking out 26.1% of the time. He did however get 125 plate appearances outside of the leadoff spot. In those appearances he hit .313/.368/.509 while striking out just 20% of the time, cutting off 6% from his overall strikeout rate.

One of the things I had thought was a bad idea for Stubbs, despite his incredible speed, was batting him leadoff with his strikeout problems. Leadoff hitters generally have it in their mind that they need to take pitches to let their other hitters see what the pitcher is throwing. When a player has contact problems, taking strikes is not always the best idea. While it was just 125 times at the plate, it seems that once outside of the leadoff spot his contact rates really improved.

This year, Stubbs has been hitting 5th in the lineup for Sarasota. Its early, but his strikeout rate is again down a bit at 19% and he is drawing walks at a great rate early on. I have said it all winter and spring, but I really think this is the year Drew Stubbs quiets most of his doubters. He is in a league that is notorious for eating hitters alive, but I don’t expect him to be there all year.