Durham Bulls 4, Gwinnett Braves 3 (12 innings)The Bulls picked up an exciting extra-innings walk-off win to kick of the 2012 season. The Bulls jumped out to an early lead by scoring a run in the first on an RBI single by Matt Mangini. They added to their lead an inning later on an RBI single by Chris Gimenez to put the Bulls ahead 2-0. The Braves cut the lead in half in the third and later tied the game in the eighth. The game would remain tied until the top of the 12th inning when the Braves scored a solo run. But the Bulls rallied in the home half of the 12th to avoid the loss. Tim Beckham drove home the tying run on a ground ball to the pitcher. Then Shawn O'Malley reached on an error to score Will Rhymes and give the Bulls a 4-3 win. The Bulls pitching staff notched 18 strikeouts on the night with Alex Cobb leading the way with eight of them. Ryan Reid picked up the win for the Bulls.
Pensacola Blue Wahoos 3, Montgomery Biscuits 1The Biscuits fell to the Blue Wahoos 3-1 in the Blue Wahoos inaugural year home opener in Pensacola. The Blue Wahoos took the lead right from the start by scoring in the first inning. The Biscuits battled back to tie the game in the third by opening the inning with back to back doubles. Isaias Velasquez doubled to left to lead off the inning and was then drove home on an RBI double by Hak-Ju Lee. The game would remain tied 1-1 until the eighth inning when the Blue Wahoos pushed across two runs. The Biscuits couldn't recover in the ninth as they took the loss. Shane Dyer provided a strong start, pitching 5 innings and only giving up an unearned run. Frank De Los Santos was charged with the loss.
Charlotte Stone Crabs 8, Fort Myers Miracle 6The Stone Crabs defeated their neighbor to the south 8-6 on opening day. The Stone Crabs jumped out to an early lead by scoring two runs in the first inning. Mikie Mahtook and Phil Wunderlich reached picked up an RBI to give the Stone Crabs a 2-0 lead. The Miracle bounced back to take the lead by scoring a run in the first and two in the second. But the Stone Crabs used a three run fourth to go in front to stay. Derek Dietrich pushed across two runs with a double to right and Mahtook recorded his second RBI of the night with a double to center to put the Stone Crabs ahead 5-2. The Stone Crabs added to their lead in the seventh on an RBI single by Cody Rogers and again in the eighth as Dietrich and Wunderlich each drive home a run. The Miracle managed a late rally, scoring three runs in the ninth but the rally fell short and the Stone Crabs held on for the 8-6 win. George Jensen picked up the with for the Stone Crabs and Chris Rearick the save. Every hitter in the Stone Crabs lineup with the exception of Luke Bailey recorded a hit on opening day with 5 of the team's 15 hits being for extra bases.
Bowling Green Hot Rods 3, South Bend Silver Hawks 0The Hot Rods picked up a 3-0 shut-out win on opening day. The Hot Rods got on the scoreboard in the third when Jake Hager led off the inning with a double to left and then later scored on an RBI single by Todd Glaesmann to make it 1-0. The Hot Rods added two more runs in the eighth on a two run double by Kes Carter to score Jeff Malm and Tyler Motter to give the Hot Rods a 3-0 win. Jake Floethe picked up the win by pitching 5 shut-out innings and recording 6 strikeouts. Austin Hubbard notched the save by striking out 2 of the three hitters he faced in the ninth. The offense was led by Jake Hager who was a perfect 3 for 3 at the plate and Kes Carter who knocked home 2 of the three runs.
Good opening day crowd 5,539.
ReplyDeleteDid you look at these pitching numbers at Bowling Green?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.draysbay.com/2012/4/5/2929459/is-this-likely-in-the-bowling-green-game-today-the-box-score-says
Pitching the full 9 innings, the Hot Rod pitchers threw a total of 49 pitches, 48 for strikes. And there were no DPs!
Supposedly the South Bend pitchers threw just 64 pitches over 8 innings, 54 for strikes. And the game still took 2 hours, 20 minutes. It has to be a mistake, right? Or am I reading it wrong? I am looking at the box score at milb.com
Compton says Floethe threw 70 pitches, 46 strikes.
DeleteFloethe was never mentioned on this sight and he is the BG openning day starter and throws 5 shut out innings??? Was he a replacement for one of your top prospects?
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad to see these write ups again. Its part of my daily morning routine. Love them
ReplyDeleteThe boxscore is definitely incorrect, I was listening to the Hot Rods game and there were certainly more pitches thrown.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite part was from the Charlotte game, Rearick threw 21 pitches, 21 strikes. He gave up 5 hits and 3 runs over 2, but struck out 5 (with no walks, obviously). Nice "save".
ReplyDelete4/6/12 Charlotte Stone Crabs Report.
ReplyDeleteGreetings, just wanted to throw up my thoughts on the game from last night (4/6). I do want to clarify, I am not a scout, I do not pretend to be an internet scout. Just a passionate fan, with an eye for detail. I watched this game, scored it, and took notes on various players.
Without further ado, the report.
Pitchers:
Enny Romero: Just by looking at him he has the size with ample room to grow (though I noted his body is slightly odd, he has a big behind but overall wiry frame, just looks out of place). Without knowing much of him you can tell this guy is special. He throws heat! That said he does have a long and slow delivery that could become an issue at higher levels. In the first inning he hit 93-96 pretty consistently, and touched 97 twice, 98 once, and 99 once. Impressive heat. Especially when it dawned on me he is left handed. He repeated his delivery really well in the first inning, but that fell apart in the second and third innings. When he nails the delivery he looks unhittable, but when he misses things get ugly. When he falls behind in the count he slows things down and throws 90-92, which is still fine for a LHP but I don't like the dramatic drop in order to throw strikes. He walked 3, allowed 2 hits, and struck out five in three innings, but what really impressed me was his ability to get ahead. He threw first-pitch strikes to 11 of the 15 batters he faced (73.3%), that said he only threw 42 total strikes on 72 pitches (58.3%). So eliminating the first pitch of a PA, he threw 57 pitches, and 31 strikes (54.3%). At the moment there is no reason to not think he won't continue to develop as a starting pitcher. I profile him as a potential #2 starter. If he cannot become more consistent with the delivery I still see him being a solid back-end of the rotation option, set-up reliever. Any lefty that can crank it up into the upper 90s I am a fan of!
Eliazer Suero: He caught my eye quickly because of the way he worked. I describe it as working backwards, in his first inning of work he threw primarily all breaking balls, with great success. His fastball only sits at 89-91 and as such isn't a plus pitch. His first inning was pretty, but in the second he reversed course and threw a ton of fastballs with little success. In the third he went back to the breaking stuff and again was successful. In the fourth inning of his work the wildness returned, as he went back to fastballs and change-ups with little success. Overall he threw four innings, struck out 5, walked 3 and allowed 1 hit. He only threw 54.3% of pitches for strikes throw, and this is troubling. I wish I had tracked balls and strikes by pitch, but he rarely threw his Change-Up or Fastball for a strike. That said his breaking pitch was almost always around the zone or swung-at out of the zone. Seems odd to me, and I suspect he will have to establish a fastball to succeed at higher levels.
Victor Mateo: Long, lean body. Works quickly. Was throwing 90-92 with the fastball. He kept the ball on the infield and was effective. Started his outing with a four pitch walk, but then threw strikes on 24 of his next 32 pitches over two innings.
Others
DeleteLuke Bailey: Without knowing anything about him, I'd be scared. After reading up on his elbow reconstruction and his 40% CS rate last year as a catcher... I am down-right worried. I hope what I saw was an anomaly but boy was it ugly. Below average catching skills, but even worse, struggles with basic throws. During the throw-down at the end of warmups he overthrew second-base three times (as in soared the ball to centerfield). After a strike-out on an attempt to go around the horn he soared another well over the 3B and into left-field. At the beginning of the fourth inning he failed to get the ball back to the pitcher after a warm-up pitch. Finally the ninth was just comical. He nailed a perfect throw to second at the end of warm-ups, only for the second basemen to miss it completely as he was expecting a throw high. Then once a batter reached during the inning he blocked a pitch in the dirt, and proceeded to throw the ball a good 15 feet over the shortstops head who was covering on the steal attempt. SCARY. Good news is he is a solid hitter with a good frame, throwing up 3 quality ABs tonight. I hope the fielding issues were a mirage.
Mikie Mahtook: Baseball America says his arm rates as "average" in CF... Well, it certainly doesn't rate as average in RF. I'm a big-fan of Mahtook the hitter, but Mahtook the outfielder not so much. His arm in my book would rate as below-average with weak lofting throws (Today was the third time I'd seen him in action after seeing him twice this spring).
Riccio Torrez: Just a quick thought, smooth, kinda sexy fielder. Really strong arm and fluid motions as a fielder!
Hope y'all enjoyed my outside perspective.
Thanks a lot! As for Mahtook, I would peg his future at LF, where the arm doesn't factor in as much.
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