Minor League Discussion & Boxes 4-7-2006

[Chris]

EPATT goes deep to right-center!

 

Eric!!!!!!!!!!

[Chris]

Thanks, Nathan!

 

Appleton, WI – Three Peoria Chiefs combined on a five hit shutout and the Chiefs took advantage of four errors to knock off the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers 3-0 Friday night in 36 degree weather. The Chiefs are now 1-1 on the roadtrip and the season.

 

The outfield adventure on flyballs began in the top of the 1st and resulted in the Chiefs first lead of the season. With two outs, Robinson Chirinos doubled down the left field line. Ryan Norwood hit a flyball to centerfield that Eddy Hernandez got to but dropped allowing Chirinos to score the game’s first run.

 

Todd Blackford picked up where he left off last season when he won his only Chiefs start in the season finale. Blackford struck out a career high six and kept the Rattlers off the scoreboard over six innings. He allowed five hits and one walk.

 

The Chiefs held a 1-0 lead into the 8th when they finally cracked the Wisconsin bullpen. Chirinos drew a leadoff walk from Jeff Gilmore and Norwood followed with a single up the middle advancing Chiinos to third. A passed ball moved Norwood to 2nd and Chirinos scored on an error by first baseman Jeff Flaig. A fielders choice resulted in Norwood being tagged out but also allowed pinch runner Luis Rivera to advance to third. With one out, Jesus Valdez laid down a perfect suicide squeeze bunt single scoring Rivera and moving Dylan Johnton to second. The Chiefs then loaded the bases but didn’t score again taking a 3-0 lead into the 9th inning.

 

The relief pitching was nearly flawless for the Chiefs. Roberto Sotolongo threw two hitless innings with two strikeouts while walking just one. Left-hander Ed Campusano struck out the side in the 8th inning. In the 9th, Campusano walked one but picked up his 4th strikeout and then got a ground out to end the game and pick up his first save.

 

Pepsi Player of the Game

 

Todd Blackford (SP) – Blackford picked up the Chiefs first win of the season with five shutout innings. The Indiana native struck out a career high six and walked just one. He has won two straight with the Chiefs having picked up a win in his only appearance last September.

Notes… Sotolongo was making his professional debut…Campusano’s only other career save came last May 2nd against Fort Wayne at O’Brien Field…Brandon Taylor collected two hits for the 2nd straight night…Jake Muyco threw out the only Rattlers runner who attempted to steal…Mike Billek (0-0) takes the mound Saturday afternoon against Paul Fagan (0-0)…Game time is 1:05…The broadcast begins with the pregame show on http://www.peoriachiefs.com at 12:50.

[Laura]

Gallagher!!!!! :D

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Very impressive showing for Marmol. Always nice to see Montanez racking up hits too.

[donobr]

Great starting pitching theuout whole system.

[craig]

Ron confirms that Aardsma has been regularly clocked in the upper 90s.

 

raisin, can you expand on this from the context? I know he was clocked a number of times in the upper 90's his draft year and following.

 

Is Ron saying he's been clocked regularly in the upper 90's more recently? If so, when? This spring? Last summer when he wasn't very good?

 

The reason I'm askin is that it seemed he looked pretty good and was throwing pretty hard in spring. But my recall from last summer was that he wasn't throwing quite that well, or that effectively.

 

Has something changed, or not? Was he throwing regularly in 95-97 last year too, even when he wasn't much good? If so, it's obvious that his 95-97 is no more useful, short of improved movement or control, than it was last summer, and he's fringe prospect. But if the story is that something is changed, that for whatever reason last summer he was more 88-92, and now he's back to 91-97 again, then it's reasonable to think his prospects now are better than they were then. But if there's been no boost in his velocity, that's a differet story.

[craig]

I don't remember. Is Blackford one of the guys who profiled asa astrong groundball guy?

 

Nice starts yesterday.

 

Will be interesting to get readings on some of the relievers, too. Is Rapada goign to emerge as a serious guy? Might either Sotolongo or Campusano emerge as legit prospects?

 

Berg was mongo wildman on opener, but was 8-0 for GB/FB.

[sethuel1]

Ron confirms that Aardsma has been regularly clocked in the upper 90s.

 

raisin, can you expand on this from the context? I know he was clocked a number of times in the upper 90's his draft year and following.

 

Is Ron saying he's been clocked regularly in the upper 90's more recently? If so, when? This spring? Last summer when he wasn't very good?

 

The reason I'm askin is that it seemed he looked pretty good and was throwing pretty hard in spring. But my recall from last summer was that he wasn't throwing quite that well, or that effectively.

 

Has something changed, or not? Was he throwing regularly in 95-97 last year too, even when he wasn't much good? If so, it's obvious that his 95-97 is no more useful, short of improved movement or control, than it was last summer, and he's fringe prospect. But if the story is that something is changed, that for whatever reason last summer he was more 88-92, and now he's back to 91-97 again, then it's reasonable to think his prospects now are better than they were then. But if there's been no boost in his velocity, that's a differet story.

I'm pretty sure his velocity was down most of last year, and came back almost immediately in spring training this year. Don't remember where I heard that, though.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Ron confirms that Aardsma has been regularly clocked in the upper 90s.

 

raisin, can you expand on this from the context? I know he was clocked a number of times in the upper 90's his draft year and following.

 

Is Ron saying he's been clocked regularly in the upper 90's more recently? If so, when? This spring? Last summer when he wasn't very good?

 

The reason I'm askin is that it seemed he looked pretty good and was throwing pretty hard in spring. But my recall from last summer was that he wasn't throwing quite that well, or that effectively.

 

Has something changed, or not? Was he throwing regularly in 95-97 last year too, even when he wasn't much good? If so, it's obvious that his 95-97 is no more useful, short of improved movement or control, than it was last summer, and he's fringe prospect. But if the story is that something is changed, that for whatever reason last summer he was more 88-92, and now he's back to 91-97 again, then it's reasonable to think his prospects now are better than they were then. But if there's been no boost in his velocity, that's a differet story.

 

Yes, Ron said Aardsma's velocity was down last year but this spring it had returned to the mid/upper 90s, topping out at 97.

[ChiefsVoice]

Hopefully we'll hear Dope's x-ray results tomorrow.

 

During the Chiefs' game, Nate said that Dope had a sprained knee I do believe. Hopefully it is only a mild one, but those can be hard to recover from; especially for a power hitter who puts so much stress on his knees.

 

Nope, that was Harvey I was talking about, I didn't even know Dopirak was injured....

[Athletics36]

Can confirm that through-out the Game Sean was mid-90's most of the night with "nasty" curve and slider. He was actually throwing harder than Rogers who is ranked as the Brewers #1 prospect.

[Laura]

Thanks for the report. Have the Cubs given him the green light on the slider this season?

[texascub]

Hopefully we'll hear Dope's x-ray results tomorrow.

 

During the Chiefs' game, Nate said that Dope had a sprained knee I do believe. Hopefully it is only a mild one, but those can be hard to recover from; especially for a power hitter who puts so much stress on his knees.

 

Nope, that was Harvey I was talking about, I didn't even know Dopirak was injured....

 

Ok, I must have heard wrong. With all of the commotion around my house yesterday I was having a hard time following the game.

[Outshined_One]

Can confirm that through-out the Game Sean was mid-90's most of the night with "nasty" curve and slider. He was actually throwing harder than Rogers who is ranked as the Brewers #1 prospect.

 

They let Sean bring back his slider? Yeowza.

 

Also, if he is throwing in the mid-90s, some scouts have some 'splainin to do since they said he wouldn't be adding velocity due to his frame already being filled out.

[craig]

Wow, very interesting details.

*Thanks, Peoria, for notes on gallagher. The hesitation on him has always involved the question of whether his fastball was enough, and whether his breaking stuff will be enough versus better hitters. Related was the Q of GB/FB; last year he got a lot of outs on fly balls, I believe, and even though he didn't allow many HR's it raised the Q of whether big-leaguers might hit them. BA didn't rank his curve as all that special, either, IIRC.

 

Last night he got a lot of GB outs, and that would jive with mixing in the slider. Being able to mix things up with the slider as well could help him a lot, especially since he seems to have the brains to probably know how to use what he has, and seems to have the control to perhaps have a shot to be able to control multiple pitches.

 

Last night is opener, he's undoubtedly psyched to get off to a good start, his arm isn't tired yet, yada yada, so if there's any day to hit 94-95, opening day when it's not too cold is as good as there is. Still, if he can get mid-90's on a good day, then hopefully he can rest in the 89-92 range even on average days, which is more than enough for a guy with good control, good brains, and good offspeed stuff.

 

Outshined, that's a great point about the scouting uncertainty. They always project more speed for lanky guys, and not for thicker guys. But it seems there have been many examples of guys who haven't filled out all that much who have still added velocity. If Gallagher is one, Nolasco is certainly another. His velocity seemed to increase as much or more than lots of the projection guys. It's a pretty uncertain science.

 

CalRaisin, thanks much for the Aardsma stuff. If he's got his arm back, and his velocity is significatly upgraded from last year, that makes him a way more legit prospect. The stuff I recall from last year was mostly 88-92 range, and in fact that's what the February VineLine said about him. 88-92 is good for a control pitcher with a good breaking ball, but that ain't Aardsma! But if his velocity is back consistently in the 91-97 range, he may not need such great control to contribute in the majors. Thanks for the good news.

[Athletics36]

Just to chime in that Sean has been throwing his slider but the best thing about him is that he knows when to throw it. Yes he did have a lot of GB'S outs last night but he also was ahead in the counts most of the game and threw lots of 1st pitch strikes. You will also see that he had 2 of the hitters 0-2 and they ended up getting hits which he has to put these guys away. I will say also that when Sean was being scouted in 2004 most scouts agreed that his "Power slider" was probably his best pitch. I think you will see him throwing it this year but rarely and only when the count merits.

[Outshined_One]

Just to chime in that Sean has been throwing his slider but the best thing about him is that he knows when to throw it. Yes he did have a lot of GB'S outs last night but he also was ahead in the counts most of the game and threw lots of 1st pitch strikes. You will also see that he had 2 of the hitters 0-2 and they ended up getting hits which he has to put these guys away. I will say also that when Sean was being scouted in 2004 most scouts agreed that his "Power slider" was probably his best pitch. I think you will see him throwing it this year but rarely and only when the count merits.

 

Is that you Mr. Gallagher? ;)