Caleb Bonemer’s week was strong enough to land him on Baseball America’s Hot Sheet, even if his final game included a three-strikeout night against Columbus.
Bonemer checked in 15th on the 20-player list after putting together a .381/.519/.810 line over the past week. The strikeouts weren’t ideal, but they came with a lot less damage than they might have seemed at first glance: that three-strikeout game accounted for 75 percent of his punchouts across six games against the Columbus Clingstones.
Baseball America’s writeup pointed to the progress he’s made since moving up to Double-A. “After a strikeout heavy showing in High-A Bonemer has been better since his promotion to Double-A.
Bonemer has cut his strikeout rate to 23.6% while dropping his swinging strike rate from 14.4% to 10.7%. There’s been little drop in power to coincide with the increased contact.
This week Bonemer was locked in filling out the box score. Bonemer had hits in five out of six games and had to multi-extra base hit games.
Bonemer has shown a wide range of offensive skills that could translate to an impactful bat-first profile.”
The Birmingham game was part of a 5-3 loss to Columbus, and Bonemer’s night ended with the collar and silver sombrero. Anthony DePino provided the lone homer for Birmingham, going 1-for-3 with a walk, while Colby Shelton finished 0-for-3 with a walk and two strikeouts. Connor McCullough allowed three runs, two earned, over 4.2 innings, and Pierce George gave up two runs in one inning of work.
Charlotte fell 7-5 to Rochester despite a solid day from Edgar Quero, who DH’d and went 3-for-5 with a double. Junior Pérez was 2-for-5 with a double and a strikeout, while Rikuu Nishida went 0-for-4 with a walk and a strikeout. Jonathan Cannon lasted five innings and was tagged for five earned runs on seven hits, with three walks, eight strikeouts, two home runs and two hit batters.
Winston-Salem picked up a 7-4 win over Greensboro behind big power from Jeral Perez and George Wolkow. Perez went 4-for-5 with two homers and two doubles, and Wolkow added his 19th homer in a 2-for-4 night that also included a walk. Kyle Lodise went 0-for-3 with two walks, two strikeouts and a caught stealing, and Javier Mogollón finished 0-for-5.
Kannapolis needed 13 innings but came away with a 6-5 win over Hickory. Jaden Fauske went 2-for-6 with a double and two strikeouts, Matthew Boughton was 1-for-5 with a walk, Christian Gonzalez entered as a pinch runner and later walked, and Alexander Albertus went 0-for-4 with a strikeout.
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