The IronPigs are back home this week, but which team will show up? Will it be the team that lost six straight games in early April or the one that won five straight in late April? The results in early May have been good with Lehigh Valley winning five of six games in Syracuse (NY Mets) to move their record back above the .500 mark at 17-15.

Jake Cave joined the team last week in Syracuse after being optioned to Lehigh Valley from Philadelphia and hit .409 (9-for-22) in five games. The last road trip started in Jacksonville (Marlins) before heading to Syracuse and Simon Muzziotti was tearing up opposing pitchers with a .457 average in 11 games with two home runs and nine RBI on the trip. Muzziotti is now batting .381 this season with 17 RBIs and has been a bright spot as a prospect for Lehigh Valley.

Weston Wilson struggled in the Florida sunshine but enjoyed the cooler Syracuse weather. Overall, though, he went 8-for-40 (.200) on the trip but did hit two home runs and drive in 10 runs, all of which came against the Mets.

T.J. Zeuch made two starts on the road, pitching 12 1/3 innings and posting a 2.92 ERA against Jacksonville and Syracuse. The ‘Pigs hope that Zeuch is turning a corner after struggling through the early weeks of the season. He now has a 2-2 record and the road trip lowered his ERA to 4.60, so the homestand will be interesting for him.

The Memphis Redbirds (Cardinals) are in town for their inaugural trip to the Lehigh Valley this week. They feature Cardinals top prospect Jordan Walker, who has played in just nine games with the ‘birds and is batting only .182. Walker, a third baseman who is converting to the outfield, is a definite prospect, who played at Double-A Springfield last season and is the number-four prospect in all of baseball.

The 50th best prospect in baseball, shortstop Masyn Winn is also a member of the Redbirds. Winn has played in 33 games with Memphis and is batting .257 with five home runs and 14 RBI in his first attempt at playing Triple-A ball. Last season was split between High-A Peoria and Springfield for Winn and he combined to hit 12 home runs and drive in 63 with a .283 average.

For top pitching prospects, Memphis features Gordon Graceffo, who has started five games this season and has struggled in his first shot at Triple-A with a 1-2 record and 4.91 ERA. Graceffo pitched for Villanova in college and jumped from being the Cardinals 24th best prospect in 2022 all the way up to number-four this season.

St. Louis is struggling at the major league level, but Memphis features three of the parent club’s top five prospects all came from the 2020 Draft, while Graceffo was drafted a year later in the fifth round.

ROBOT REVOLUTION… Hope you got your share of yelling at the umpire about ball and strike calls because those days are coming to an end. If you look around the club level at Coca-Cola Park, just above the glass front of the suites, you will find cameras. No, they are not policing anyone taking home a foul ball. They are policing the home plate umpire as part of the Hawk Eye system that is now being used in Triple-A baseball. Their Lehigh Valley debut comes this week as baseball experiments with two varieties of the Auto Ball-Strike System. The first is in effect Tuesday through Thursday and the “robo-umps” as they are referred to will be making the calls on balls and strikes. There will still be a home plate umpire, but he will just be relaying what the system tells him to call. Friday through Sunday games feature a challenge system allowing the batter, catcher or pitcher to make a challenge to the umpire’s call by tapping their head immediately after the pitch. That puts the robo-ump in charge and what they say goes. If you would like, you can always yell at the robot.

STANDINGS… Lehigh Valley is seven games behind Norfolk (Orioles) in the IL East and tied for third place with Durham (White Sox). Jacksonville is in second, 6 ½ games out. At 20-13, Memphis leads the IL West by ½ game over Iowa (Cubs) and one game over St. Paul (Twins).