Hot Pitcher: Matt Long. Long had a great week for the Barons, making two starts and throwing a combined 12 shutout innings. He picked up the win in both starts to improve his record on the season to 5-6, although he is 3-0 in his last three starts with 19 shutout innings. His line for the week was; 2-0, 0.00 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, 8 K/3 BB in 12 innings pitched. Long made a terrible start to the year at Winston-Salem going 0-3 with an 8.37 ERA in 5 starts, he was then promoted to Birmingham’s bullpen where he pitched OK (4.08 ERA), but since making the switch back to the rotation on July 19th he’s been great (1.74 ERA, 1.03 WHIP).

Hot Hitter: C.J. Retherford. C.J. continued his strong season by having another great week for the Barons. In six games he went a combined 10-24 (.417), with two walks (.462 OBP) and 4 doubles (.583 SLG) which was good for a 1.045 OPS. Retherford combines strong defense, gritty attitude and solid doubles power to make him a legitimate Major League prospect.

Cold Pitcher: Jacob Rasner. This was the easiest pick of the week. In Rasner’s last two starts he gave up a combined 13 earned runs in 8.1 innings giving him a 14.05 ERA over that span with a 2.52 WHIP. Jacob was having a solid season for the Dash putting himself firmly onto our radar but his last 6 starts have been very poor. Rasner is still just 22 though, so there is time for him.

Cold Hitter: Seth Loman. Seth Loman and Brent Morel have been two of the very few bright spots in an otherwise anaemic Winston-Salem Dash offense, but even your best hitters aren’t immune to slumps, as was proven by Seth Loman this past week. Since August 12th Loman has picked up just 2 hits in 25 AB’s (.080 BA) with 2 walks (.148 OBP) and 1 double (.120 SLG), giving him a .268 OPS.