Niemann, Hellickson, Moore all shine

Durham Bulls: Jeff Niemann was clearly the star, tossing a complete game shutout. He surrendered just 4 hits, struck out 6, and perhaps most importantly, did not walk a batter. He's now 8-5 with a 3.54 ERA on the year, but he's still been inconsistent from start to start(in his last outing, he walked 6 in 4.2 innings). John Jaso walked three times and hit a home run, his 4th at AAA. In his last ten games, he's walked 9 times and struck out just three. After going 2-4 in his AAA debut, Chris Nowak added a 2-3 day yesterday. He's also walked once in each game.

Montgomery Biscuits: Jeremy Hellickson has had some trouble adjusting to AA, but he's also shown evidence he can handle. Last night, both sides were on display, as he pitched 5 innings, allowed 8 hits, 2 earned runs, struck out 5, and walked 1. Both runs were scored on a 2-run home run, which has been Hellickson's bugaboo in AA, as he's now allowed 13 in 64 innings. The good news: His AA strikeout:walk ratio is about 6:1, and his hit rate is probably going to come down a bit. He just needs to corral the gopher balls. The Biscuits lineup lacks any half-decent prospects with Nowak's promotion.

Vero Beach Devil Rays: Postponed due to wet grounds.

Columbus Catfish: Mike McCormick hit his 10th home run and Stephen Vogt added two extra-base hits.

Hudson Valley Renegades: All-Star break, set to resume league play today.

Princeton Devil Rays: Matt Moore is still here. For some reason. He turned in 5 more brilliant innings last night, giving up no runs on 1 hit with 2 walks and 9 strikeouts. For the season, he's allowed 27 hits in 49 innings, walked 18, and struck out a whopping 73. His ERA stands at 1.82. Tim Beckham and Ty Morrison each collected a hit.