2009 Chiefs Q & A with Nathan Baliva

[ChiefsVoice]

Sweet, Suarez pitching for Peoria and pitching well. :)

 

That would be a welcome addition to our staff. What are your guesses Raisin? Carpenter, Antigua, Shafer, Beliveau? Cabrera?

[Guest]

Sweet, Suarez pitching for Peoria and pitching well. :)

 

That would be a welcome addition to our staff. What are your guesses Raisin? Carpenter, Antigua, Shafer, Beliveau? Cabrera?

 

I'm hoping to see Shafer start out at Daytona. I'm gonna go with Carpenter / Beliveau / Searle / Leverton / Suarez. I would love to see a young guy like Antigua or Jung (or a guy with an injury history like Cabrera) start at Peoria.

[ChiefsVoice]

Sweet, Suarez pitching for Peoria and pitching well. :)

 

That would be a welcome addition to our staff. What are your guesses Raisin? Carpenter, Antigua, Shafer, Beliveau? Cabrera?

 

I'm hoping to see Shafer start out at Daytona. I'm gonna go with Carpenter / Beliveau / Searle / Leverton / Suarez. I would love to see a young guy like Antigua or Jung (or a guy with an injury history like Cabrera) start at Peoria.

 

yeah Shafer probably will skip us. Searle should be here. And I know our pitching coach is big on Antigua. He had him at instructs.

[falcon]

Nathan, With only a week left of spring training have they pretty much settled the rosters for the minor leaguers (specifically the Peoria Chiefs) ? If not, when will they announce who's going where? Did you make the trip to Mesa and are you checking out the potential Chiefs? Thanks

[ChiefsVoice]

Nathan, With only a week left of spring training have they pretty much settled the rosters for the minor leaguers (specifically the Peoria Chiefs) ? If not, when will they announce who's going where? Did you make the trip to Mesa and are you checking out the potential Chiefs? Thanks

 

Falcon - They have not settled the rosters yet (I think there are still 10 extra guys up with the big club). The last list I saw had 41 guys on it for us so there is still a lot of movement to go. Unfortunately with the economy the way it is, we are not going out to Mesa this spring as we have in the past to watch and do some work. I expect rosters to be announced either late Saturday (4/4) or early Sunday (4/5). The guys arrive in Peoria Monday night the 6th and workout at the field on the 7th and 8th.

 

Thanks!

Nathan

[Bear Cub]

Nathan, what are your thoughts on the roster?

[ChiefsVoice]

Nathan, what are your thoughts on the roster?

 

I really like our roster. Six left handed hitters. and some nice balance with young guys and veterans. Marty can mix and match a lot too because of guys who can play multiple positions like Harrison, Lake, Ridling. Andersen can play all 3 OF spots, Burke and Perez can switch LF and RF. Ridling and Harrison both played some LF for us last year.

 

And we have some veteran pitchers moving to the pen in Kreier, Whitlock and Pina to give some experience there as well. I've heard great things about Archer and Carpenter and I'm looking forward to seeing them this weekend.

 

Thanks for the question!

Nathan

[NCCubFan]

Have the Chiefs been affiliated with the Cubs long enough yet for you to be converted to a Cubs fan? :D

[falcon]

I just noticed that at 3 levels (low A, high A, double AA ) we only have 2 righthand hitting outfielders. Did the Cubs make it their goal a few years back to stock up on lefthand hitting outfielders? Low A....all lefties....Andersen,Campana.Burke,& Perez. High A....all lefties....Colvin,Johnston,Rundle,& Wyatt. Double AA.....2 lefties.....Adducci & Robnett....2 righties...Guyer & Wright. Triple AAA & the major league clubs are balanced with both.

[ChiefsVoice]

Have the Chiefs been affiliated with the Cubs long enough yet for you to be converted to a Cubs fan? :D

 

um no. but nice effort! =D>

[NCCubFan]

Have the Chiefs been affiliated with the Cubs long enough yet for you to be converted to a Cubs fan? :D

 

um no. but nice effort! =D>

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5c/DVader.jpeg

 

Turn to the Dark Side. Fulfill your destiny.

[craig]

Nathan, Shafer has had a couple of solid, strike-throwing starts. Do you have a sense for where he's at velocity-wise? Would you guess he's mostly in the 87-90 range fastball-wise? Or more 90-93 with perhaps a few faster than that?

[ChiefsVoice]

Nathan, Shafer has had a couple of solid, strike-throwing starts. Do you have a sense for where he's at velocity-wise? Would you guess he's mostly in the 87-90 range fastball-wise? Or more 90-93 with perhaps a few faster than that?

 

He has been 88-91. Sits mostly at 89-90 on our radar thats on teh scoreboard.

[craig]

Hi, Nate, thanks for the feedback. Peoria looks like it could have a lot of really good prospects, potential major leaguers. Not sure how that will play out for W-L record, but it's probably fun to see guys with a chance to become big-leaguers.

 

Question on Huseby: Huseby was a wildman last year, but in his first several outings he's got zero walks. And he's K'd 6 guys in his last 2 outings/3 innings. What can you say scouting-wise?

 

87-89 fastball with a nice curve that goes for the strikes? Or on the outings when he's getting guys out and K'ing people, does he touch up into the 90's?

 

How about Archer? Any scouting thoughts on him?

[Guest]

I'm also curious what Ryan Buchter is throwing to get 10 K's in 4 IP.

[falcon]

Nathan, I read on the play by play of today's game that Cliff Andesen had a single to left field and had to come out of the game with a leg injury. Any update on this?

[chattbaseball]

Nathan, is there any system of archiving your radio broadcasts? I'd love to be able to go back and hear some of the calls since I rarely get to listen online. Thanks in advance.

[Guest]

I'd like to piggy back on Craig's question and hear your thoughts on Huseby's stuff especially in relation to his stellar early season performance. Do you think he can translate his relief success to the starting rotation soon?

[ChiefsVoice]

Hi, Nate, thanks for the feedback. Peoria looks like it could have a lot of really good prospects, potential major leaguers. Not sure how that will play out for W-L record, but it's probably fun to see guys with a chance to become big-leaguers.

 

Question on Huseby: Huseby was a wildman last year, but in his first several outings he's got zero walks. And he's K'd 6 guys in his last 2 outings/3 innings. What can you say scouting-wise?

 

87-89 fastball with a nice curve that goes for the strikes? Or on the outings when he's getting guys out and K'ing people, does he touch up into the 90's?

 

How about Archer? Any scouting thoughts on him?

 

Looks like I fell a bit behind on the questions, sorry about that. Crazy week with Miller Park, road trips and a double header.

 

Huseby throws strikes. I know he had a rep for being wild the last couple of years but he has been dynamite out of our pen. Very reliable in a pen that doesn't throw strikes. He is very confident and you can see that on the mound. Seems like he has been at 90 or 91 but I don;t know that for sure. The radars in most of these parks (ours included) are not all that reliable. I'll check on Archer Monday. he is very good when he throws strikes but also very inconsistent. Walks and hit batters have been a big issue for him. HOpefully he learned something from his last good outing on Tuesday.

[ChiefsVoice]

I'm also curious what Ryan Buchter is throwing to get 10 K's in 4 IP.

 

Hey Tim, Ryan has four pitches, FB, SL, CH, Curve and has been either really on, or really off. 11 K in 7 2/3 but he had one outing where he threw 12 pitches, all balls. Need to see a bit more on him to get a true report.

[ChiefsVoice]

Nathan, I read on the play by play of today's game that Cliff Andesen had a single to left field and had to come out of the game with a leg injury. Any update on this?

 

Hi Falcon. Cliff pulled up a first base in that game with a strained left hamstring. He is expected to miss two weeks and will hopefully be ready to go when we return home on May 12. He had the best spring out of our outfielders and was starting to get on base regularly when he got hurt. He did some light jogging today (Saturday) at Cedar Rapids and is scheduled to swing the bat and hit off a tee on Monday I believe.

[ChiefsVoice]

Nathan, is there any system of archiving your radio broadcasts? I'd love to be able to go back and hear some of the calls since I rarely get to listen online. Thanks in advance.

 

Unfortunately MILB is not archiving games this year. I am trying to get some up on our site (Under Multimedia, click on Highlights & Interviews) as often as I can. Right now just the Miller Park game is up. If you ever want to hear any you can private message me and I'll try to find way to send them to you. I do have highlights up and I think both of Kyler's homers are there too.

[ChiefsVoice]

I'd like to piggy back on Craig's question and hear your thoughts on Huseby's stuff especially in relation to his stellar early season performance. Do you think he can translate his relief success to the starting rotation soon?

 

I honestly don't know what the plan is for Chris right now except to get him throwing strikes and raise his confidence which is working. We have seven starters now (Archer, Shafer, Hatley, Carp, Cabrera, Bristow, Beliveau) and I would guess that if for some reason we needed a spot start that Kreier would be next in line since he has thrown over 3 innings in a relief outing already.

 

I can tell you that Huseby looks great out of the pen and in long relief right now or even in 2 inning stints it is very confident to see him coming in and you can't say that about all of our guys.

[chattbaseball]

Nathan, is there any system of archiving your radio broadcasts? I'd love to be able to go back and hear some of the calls since I rarely get to listen online. Thanks in advance.

 

Unfortunately MILB is not archiving games this year. I am trying to get some up on our site (Under Multimedia, click on Highlights & Interviews) as often as I can. Right now just the Miller Park game is up. If you ever want to hear any you can private message me and I'll try to find way to send them to you. I do have highlights up and I think both of Kyler's homers are there too.

 

Ok, great! Thanks for the info. I know you guys are somewhat limited by MiLB, but keep up the good work. I enjoy listening and keeping up from down here in the Volunteer state!

[falcon]

Nathan, I noticed that the minor league teams don't seem to give access to the defensive stats of the players (fielding %, etc).They list errors but I think that's all. Do you have any idea where to get this info ? Thanks