Thursday BAPR + ROBO UMPS!

[Feature Image]( Baseball America Prospect Report -- 8/22/19 [SEE ALL PLAYERS]( [Sean Murphy]( C, Athletics. Murphy made an emphatic return from his recent knee injury, as he mashed two home runs and drove in six. Murphy has now homered in five consecutive Las Vegas games and has eight home runs in those five games -- he just had a three week gap between this game and the previous one because of his knee injury. [Raudy Read]( 1B, Nationals. Read homered twice on Wednesday, which gave him a career-high 18. [Clarke Schmidt]( RHP, Yankees. In Schmidt's first Double-A start, he allowed nine hits and five runs in 5.1 innings. He showed on Wednesday that the level is not too much for him. Schmidt allowed only two hits and walked no one while striking out nine in 6.2 scoreless innings. [Kyle Funkhouser]( RHP, Tigers. Funkhouser's wild season hit another pothole on Wednesday. After struggling in Triple-A, he pitched well in a demotion to Double-A. Back to Triple-A, he once again failed to make it out of the first inning. He allowed four hits, four walks and seven runs in just 0.2 innings. Funkhouser's damage control is a problem for him. This is the third start of the season where he failed to make it out of the first inning. He had another start where he didn't get out of the second. [A.J. Puk]( LHP, Athletics. Puk made his MLB debut last night in a limited relief role. He faced three batters and two of them reached--one on a walk and one on a hit. [Jay Groome]( LHP, Red Sox. Groome made his first official appearance since his Tommy John surgery. He showed a 93-94 mph fastball in his return as he threw one scoreless inning. His return coming so late in the season means everything is really aimed to having him at full speed for spring training, but he should be able to enter the offseason on a normal offseason schedule. [Julio Rodriguez]( OF, Mariners. Rodriguez has been exceptional in his first five games since his promotion to high Class A Modesto. Rodriguez doubled and tripled on Wednesday. He's hitting .563/.588/1.000 in those five games. [Will Smith]( C, Dodgers. Smith his his 12th home run for the Dodgers. He's averaging a home run every 7.3 at-bats in the majors, proving he's yet another Dodgers development success story. [SEE ALL PLAYERS]( [alt text]( [alt text]( [alt text]( [The Impact Of Robo Umps]( It's an imperfect system, no doubt. But computerized balls and strikes are already making a clear impact on pitchers in the Atlantic League. [Read More...]( [alt text]( [A Changing Of The Strike Zone?]( Should MLB continue with the computerized balls and strike experiment, it will have to determine how it defines the modern strike zone. [Read More...]( [alt text]( [Much Ado About Nothing]( Much like MiLB pitch clocks, the furor surrounding the rule changes implemented in the Atlantic League seems to have quickly subsided. [Read More...]( [JOIN NOW]( Connect With Us: [Facebook]( • [Twitter]( • [Google+]( • [Instagram]( • [YouTube]( If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can [Unsubscribe](. Baseball America Enterprises • 4319 S. Alston Ave, Ste. 103, Durham, NC 27713 Copyright © 2018 Baseball America Enterprises. All rights reserved. [Privacy Policy](www.baseballamerica.com/privacy-policy/) • [Terms of Use](www.baseballamerica.com/terms-of-use/)