Clearwater Game Report

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The always insightful NYPhilsManiac19 has been kind enough to once again give us a guest post after attending a recent Threshers game. 

Clearwater July 5 Game Report:
 
Offense:  This is the short part of the report.  With the recent promotions of Franco, Dugan, and Joseph there wasn’t much left to cover.
 
Aaron Altherr:  Rough day at the plate going 0-5 with 3 K’s.  Had a chance to bunt over the winning run in the 9th but Truby chose to let him swing away which he did at strike 3.  In the 4th inning he worked the count to 3-0 and got the green light and fouled one off into the seats behind 3rd base.  His last at-bat in the 11th was a flyout to RF.  The most exciting play of the game happened while Altherr was in the field.  With a runner on first in the 8th and CW clinging to a 1-0 lead, Dunedin’s Pierce Rankin hit a deep fly to left.  Altherr leaped up over the fence and appeared to bring a home run ball back into play except it didn’t stay in his glove (should have taken lessons from Jiwan James, but then again, did Jiwan really catch that ball?).  He quickly picked up the loose ball and fired to the cutoff man (Mojica) who then gunned out the runner trying to score from first at the plate on a controversial bang-bang play.
 
Chris Seritella:  Chris was the offfensive star with 2 hits including a triple (should’ve been a dead duck going for third but the throw hit him in the back).  He also scored the winning run in the 11th after singling.  He K’d looking on a curve and made two realtively soft outs (L-8, and a 4-3).
 
Cameron Perkins:  Perkins was playing his first game back at CW since the end of May.  I did see him play a rehab game with GC two days prior where he had a terrific game:  2-3 with a very hard line out, ground double right over 3rd base bag, Homer to Left, and a walk after fouling off 3 pitches.  In the CW game, he only got one hit but it was a big one that knocked in the winning run and walked the Threshers off in the 11th.  His other at-bats didn’t go well (2 K’s on curves including one where he reached first when it rolled to the backstop, and two 5-3 groundouts though one was hit sharply).
 
Pitching:
 
Mario Hollands was the story of the game.  I wrote down batter by batter notes, but they are too lengthy so I will just give a summary (if someone really wants the long version, let me know).  Hollands had a very strong game.  The only hard hit balls hit off him where the hits he gave up.  He dominated through the first 6 innings giving up only 2 hits and a walk.  All 3 runners were erased (2 on pick-offs and one on a 5-4-3 DP).  Speaking of the pick-offs, they were identical.  He is able to see the runners take off even as he just begins to lift his leg and still throw over to first without balking.  In both cases, he threw behind them to first and Seritella then threw to 2nd where a rundown started that erased the baserunner.  I was impressed with his recognition.  He has the obvious advantage of being a lefty, but he still executed the pickoff throw perfectly and at the last minute.  Other than those pickoffs, his regular move to first didn’t seem great but he may not have been showing his best throw every time either.  As for his pitching, he kept them off-balance most of the game with a nice mix of fastballs, curves and change-ups (more changes than curves it appeared to me).  His fastball didn’t seem to be blazing (maybe 90-91 tops), but he was still able to throw it by some hitters.  Some of these were up a bit which concerns me when he reaches higher levels.  It was obvious that he tired in the 7th (he gave up 2 laser line singles but got out of it).  The 8th was far from smooth and the play at the plate mentioned above saved him.  He did come back from a 3-1 deficit to get the last batter to ground out with the tying runner at 3rd.  I figured there was no way Truby would let him go for the shutout after he was clearly lucky to escape the 7th and 8th, but I was wrong (actually Truby was wrong).  The first batter walked on 4 pitches.  A bunt moved the runner to 2nd and then a roped single up the middle scored the tying run and knocked Mario out.  O’ Sullivan cleaned up from there and also pitched a scoreless 10th dancing around 2 baserunners.  Inch pitched a solid 11th (which also included a pickoff) to get the win.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 

ost after viewing Clearwater live on July 5th.

8 thoughts on “Clearwater Game Report”

  1. Thanks Maniac. I appreciate your making the box scores real. I wonder if they are looking at Mario as a candidate for promotion and seeing how far he can go. They have that luxury at this level. This team needs more replacements than Perkins for Franco and Dugan.

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  2. Awesome write up … very encouraged by the reports on Hollands. Just curious: What was the score/scenario when Altherr got the green light in the fourth? It seems to me this organization from the big club on down is entirely too liberal about letting batters swing in 3-0 counts. It has its place, but giving that opportunity to Altherr with his strikeout numbers seems odd to me.

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    1. I think folks should calm down about Hollands and understand the context of his progression. He is a guy who has already failed at AA and does not have particularly good stuff. His upside is probably as a long reliever or a 5th starter (something just shy of John Lannan). I don’t mean to diminish his efforts, but, while I appreciate his strong outings, he’s just not that exciting as a prospect. If you want to get excited about pitching at Clearwater, focus on Kenny Giles.

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      1. Right – nice report notwithstanding, Hollands will be 25 next month. 25 – at Advanced-A, playing against 20 yr olds

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        1. some 20 year olds , i believe the average is more like 23,years, first pitch back was a home run for Giles I see him as a guy who can throw hard but will be on the DL more that pitching.

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      2. I agree with Catch22hman- Hollands is very old for CW and doesn’t throw particularly hard. Giles didn’t pitch the game I attended (he pitched the day before on the road). There wasn’t much else to report on with the current Thresher line-up.

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