Here is an update on area products in affiliated baseball. All stats are through Sunday night.
Tim Mayza is having the best season of his six-year major league career. The 2010 Quakertown Blazer appeared in his 300th major league game on Aug. 7, tossing .2 shutout innings at Cleveland. Mayza currently has a 1.05 ERA in 42.2 innings, which is on pace to shatter his career best.
Mayza’s Blazer teammate, Lou Trivino (Upper Bucks Christian) acquired by the New York Yankees last Aug. 1, has not pitched this season due to injury. Trivino needs 15 more games for his 300th big league appearance.
Like Trivino, Nick Bitsko is out for the season and did not pitch this year. The CB East graduate was the 2020 first-round pick of the Tampa Bay Rays.
Levi Stoudt (2017 Blazers) made his major league debut on April 19 starting for the Cincinnati Reds when they hosted the Tampa Bay Rays. Stoudt is currently in Triple-A Louisville, the Reds’ affiliate. MLB.com recently ranked Stoudt, who has made 17 Triple-A starts this year, as the Reds’ 10th best prospect.
The Colorado Rockies recalled Nolan Jones (Langhorne/Holy Ghost Prep) on Memorial Day weekend and he instantly integrated with the Blake Street Bombers. Traded from Cleveland to Colorado in the offseason, outfielder Jones was hitting .279 with 12 homers and an .860 OPS. Jones thumped two homers in Colorado’s Aug. 8 7-3 win at Milwaukee.
Two Council Rock North products are winding down their minor league seasons. Mets’ farmhand Brandon McIlwain was promoted from Double-A Binghamton to AAA Syracuse on Aug. 2, where he homered twice in his first two weeks. The outfielder hit .260 with 47 RBIs in 85 games for Binghamton. Former Central Florida pitcher Zack Austin signed a free agent contract with the Atlanta Braves in July. He made his debut for Atlanta’s Class A Augusta affiliate on Aug. 9.
Three members of the 2018 Blazers hope to yield fruit on the farm. All Twins’ catcher Andrew Cossetti did in April was win the Florida State League Player of the Month. That earned him a promotion to High-A Cedar Rapids, where he hit .365 and slugged .615 in the month of July.
Cossetti’s batterymate Matt Svanson was traded from Toronto to the St. Louis organization at the deadline as part of the swap that sent shortstop Paul DeJong to the True North. Svanson was assigned to Double-A Springfield; he dominated hitters at High-A Vancouver (Toronto) this year by posting a 1.23 ERA in 24 appearances.
Fellow pitcher Jimmy Kingsbury is closing in on 30 appearances this season for Seattle’s High-A Everett affiliate. Kingsbury had a 2.40 ERA in June, tossing 15 innings in eight games.
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