Minor League Discussion & Boxes, 6-16-17

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Box Scores:

 

Iowa lost 7-1 Box Score

 

RF M. Zagunis 0/4, 2 K

CF J. Hannemann 2/4, R, 2B (4), K

3B-1B J. Candelario 2/4, 2 2B (20), RBI, K

C V. Caratini 2/3, BB, K

2B C. Young 0/4, 2 K

LF J. Andreoli 0/3

SP S. Hedges 5 IP, 7 H, 6 ER, 2 BB, 0 K, 8-2 GO-FO, 82-49 pitches-strikes

RP A. Acevedo 2 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, 3-0 GO-FO

RP J. Leathersich 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, 0-2 GO-FO

 

Tennessee lost 5-3 Box Score

 

RF C. Burks 1/3, RBI

SS A. Ely 1/4, R, 2B (12), K

2B D. Bote 1/4, 3B (1), K

3B J. Vosler 1/2, R, HR (12), RBI, 2 BB

LF C. Penalver 1/3, R

SP J. Pugliese 3.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R< 2 BB, 3 K, 4-1 GO-FO, 66-35 pitches-strikes

RP D. Berg 1.1 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 2-0 GO-FO

RP B. Markey 3 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, 2-3 GO-FO, E (1, pickoff)

RP R. McNeil 1 IP, 1 H, 3 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, 2-1 GO-FO

 

Myrtle Beach lost 2-0 Box Score

 

DH B. Flete 1/4, 2 K

C PJ Higgins 0/2, 2 BB, E (3, throw)

RF E. Jimenez 1/4, 2B (3), 2 K

3B J. Hodges 1/4, SB (1)

1B T. Alamo 0/4, 2 K

SS A. Monasterio 1/2, BB, K

SP M. Rucker 6 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, 1 WP, 7-3 GO-FO, 75-46 pitches-strikes

RP J. Norwood 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, 0-1 GO-FO

 

South Bend lost 6-5 Box Score

 

SS Z. Short 1/3, 2 R, 2B (16), 2 BB

C A. Mineo 2/4, 2 R, RBI, HBP, PB (4)

DH I. Paredes 1/4, K

RF C. Pieters 0/3, RBI, BB, K

LF K. Mitchell 0/2, BB

2B Y. Peguero 1/3, R, 2B (11), E (12, missed catch)

SP D. Cease 2.1 IP,3 H, 2 ER, 2 BB,2 K, 1-3 GO-FO, 48-28 pitches0strikes

RP T. Peyton 4.2 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 1 B, 6 K, 1 WP, 2 HR, 4-2 GO-FO, 76-49 pitches-strikes

 

Eugene lost 7-0 Box Score

 

SS A. Ademan 0/4, 2 K, E (1, throw)

3B R. Narea 1/4, 2 K, 2 E (2, fielding, throw)

C M. Amaya 0/4, CS: 0/2

DH J. Martarano 1/4, 2 K

1B G. Polanco 2/4, 2B (2), K

RF K-M Kwon 1/4, K

SP J. Camargo 3 IP, 2 H, 4 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 1 HBP, 3-3 GO-FO, 49-29 pitches-strikes

RP A. Rondon 2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 ER< 0 BB, 4 K, 2-0 GO-FO

 

DSL Cubs 1 lost 7-3 Box Score

 

DSL Cubs 2 won 3-0 Box Score

[davell]

Cease is working the rust out. 2.1 3 2 2 2 2, on 48 pitches. He'll get his innings limit, if he stays healthy. But this injury looks to have set him back a bit. Doubt he sees too many starts in MB this year.

[davell]

Rucker with a very solid outing. 6 3 2 1 2 6, on 75 pitches. 7/3 GO/FO.

 

That said, he gave up a single, then a steal where it looks like there were two errors and a run. Then, a walk, followed by a steal, and a single to score the other run.....I'm guessing he's got no pick off move, because I've not heard anything negative about Higgins behind the plate.....

 

At any rate, very efficient outing.

[weis21]

Rucker with a very solid outing. 6 3 2 1 2 6, on 75 pitches. 7/3 GO/FO.

 

That said, he gave up a single, then a steal where it looks like there were two errors and a run. Then, a walk, followed by a steal, and a single to score the other run.....I'm guessing he's got no pick off move, because I've not heard anything negative about Higgins behind the plate.....

 

At any rate, very efficient outing.

Maybe it was an "off night" but Higgins was terrible on defense in every facet. Horrible at blocking balls, horrible at throwing out runners, just horrible at...everything. I'm not saying Rucker had a great move, but it was average (again, IMO) and he did his due diligence at keeping runners honest. To be somewhat fair to Higgins he looked much, much better in the games I saw him earlier this year but he was really bad tonight to my uneducated eye.

 

A smarter than your average eastern NC breakdown of the game (not saying much):

 

It was quite hot. Very high humidity. An occasional breeze but generally shitty weather. The type of weather that make people like me wonder why we stay in eastern NC. Also, there were a ton of rednecks again and other than ordering two beers I didn't speak a word to anyone other than some random scout. It was "fireworks night" so there were easily 1,000 kids running around.

 

Rucker: He's short and stocky. Even composure. Was being squeezed in the early stages, perhaps a call or two later in the game went his way. I spoke with a scout (only one I saw around) that was actually a Diamondbacks scout but was scouting for the Rangers (Wood Ducks are TEX affiliate) - is that a thing? It seemed weird but I asked him twice to make sure and he confirmed. Anyway, this scout wasn't (obviously) scouting Rucker because when I introduced myself and asked what Rucker was sitting and/or topping out at and he said "97". I laughed. He assumed I was asking about Jonathan Hernandez of DE but I wasn't and he said "Do you need me to track this guy's speed?". I said "No, but it would be cool if you did and I'd appreciate it". Rucker was 88-92 and sat 90-91 per said scout when I spoke to him a couple innings later. He pitched into some bad luck and I think he got thrown off by the errors. Not a scout's take or anything but he quickly settled down. His offspeed stuff looked solid. He finished quite strong. He certainly did not fade towards the end of his (hot temperature) night - he finished strong and started strong. I was impressed, honestly. He gave up a few hard hit balls, but I was impressed. Again, small sample size alert, I thought he looked much better than Hatch. But a one game sample size amounts to pretty much nothing.

 

Eloy: Dude is a physical specimen. I thought he'd be more Soler (i.e., huge dude that can hit the ball a ton - not so much athlete). He's not obviously a speedster or anything but he was much more athletic than I thought. He laced a double down the line on the (tough) Wood Ducks pitcher in his first at bat. He struck out twice after that and then flied out to pretty much the warning track after that. If anyone can give me easy directions for how to upload a video I have two (one of his double). I asked the ARZ scout about Eloy and he said "we will wait and see" - to which I replied "yeah, but he's pretty impressive" to which he replied "yes, but let's what and see". I suppose on some level we are both right but I hoped he could give me a little more info. But maybe they are just jealous.

 

Other than that the only thing of note was Mitch was kind of good? He got bailed out by two good plays. One by Hodges and one by the SS Monastero (sp?). Monastero is not a good hitter (at least tonight) but I was glad he got that sweet play - it was "javy-ish". He seemed really down on himself when striking out in a big-ish spot.

[weis21]

And to be clear, I'm not saying I think Rucker is a better prospect than Hatch or his stuff looked way better or anything like that. Hatch just got hit much, much harder by the Wood Ducks than Rucker did last night. But, that was early in the year and it was just one game of course. I honestly think with better defense (especially behind the plate) Rucker could have shut them out. The second run he gave up was on a broken bat flare that had no business being a hit. He had a few hard hit balls of course but there was lots and lots of soft contact and broken bats.

[davell]

Thanks man. Not happy hearing he was sitting 90-91. He's been 92-94, touching 96, in 2-3 inning stints. So, either he started out at that level and couldn't hold it, he loses that much moving to the rotation, or the heat affected him last night. Could legitimately be a combo of all of it.

 

Glad he looked good, that's obviously the most important thing, but I'll keep an eye out for more reports on him too. If he's 90-91 consistently as a starter, that's going to ding him quite a bit on my end, unless he proves he can pitch with success at the higher levels at those speeds.

[weis21]

Thanks man. Not happy hearing he was sitting 90-91. He's been 92-94, touching 96, in 2-3 inning stints. So, either he started out at that level and couldn't hold it, he loses that much moving to the rotation, or the heat affected him last night. Could legitimately be a combo of all of it.

 

Glad he looked good, that's obviously the most important thing, but I'll keep an eye out for more reports on him too. If he's 90-91 consistently as a starter, that's going to ding him quite a bit on my end, unless he proves he can pitch with success at the higher levels at those speeds.

Agreed. And to be honest the guy only turned on the gun at my request so it could've been a 10-15 pitch sequence for his sample.

 

If Hernandez for DEWD was hitting 97 then IMO Rucker was not much further behind that at times. I was surprised when he said Hernandez was hitting that. I would bet money he at least hit 94 if Hernandez was reaching 97 - again, all with a grain of salt. He never looked at his times until the 4th inning.

 

To your point, though, he did seem to die off a bit in velocity as the night wore on I thought. Which is partially what impressed me. If he can get a bit stronger (he has the mass to get stronger) he could easily sustain a bit longer. But, he still was able to get a ton of soft contact even despite that (I threw out a Hendricks "reference" (not a comp) to the scout a la "pitchability" but he didn't really know horsefeathers about Rucker so it was whatever). Basically, he just seemed like he knew exactly what he wanted to do and had a solid game plan.

 

I wasn't able to go tonight because of daddy duty later and tomorrow is the little guy's second birthday (along with father's day obviously) so i won't be able to make that one either. MB will be back 6/30-7/3 so I will for sure get back for at least one or more of them.

 

Henry (my son) did find my Cubs helmet that was the giveaway prize from the time I went to Wrigley when i was seven and put it on backwards so that was pretty cool today. At this point this is starting to sound like a diary so I'll call it quits. : )