Lakewood Game Report

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NYPhilsmaniac 19 is at it again, this time at Lakewood. Flat out great job with the report. 

PITCHING:
 
Nic Hanson made his return to Lakewood after a rehab start with GC.  Hanson went six solid innings, but was facing a last-place Rome offense.  Hanson’s fastball was consistently in the high 80’s, topping out at 90 exactly.  His offspeed deliveries varied from 79-82.  I would assume the gun was pretty accurate since the Rome starter regularly lit it up at 95-97 (must have been pretty straight FB’s since we knocked him around).  Hanson was able to mix things up well enough to avoid much damage.
 
1st inning:  A 3-2 line single to left-center followed by a SB, a 6-3 chopper moved the runner to third and he scored on a high sac fly to right-center. a 5-3 ground out ended the inning (nice play by Willie Carmona).
 
2nd inning:  A hard single to left, followed by three easy outs (swinging K, soft fly to RF, easy 4-6 FC
 
3rd inning:  a 1-3 comebacker, a hard hit lineout to RF and a soft liner to LF
 
4th inning:  Line single up the middle, swinging K (84 mph curve), soft lineout to LF, Swinging K on 82 mph changeup
 
5th inning:  1-2 pitch soft line single over 2nd baseman, Sac bunt (1-3), 3 hopper to SS (6-3), bunt single by the leadoff hitter, shallow pop-up caught by Pointer in CF (more on his defense later)
 
6th inning:  Line single into right-center, Hard ground single between short and 3rd, Line shot in left-center gap that Pointer ran down for an out, Flyout to center, Low sinking liner into right-center caught by Pointer
 
Zach Cooper pitched three scoreless innings for the rare 3 inning save.  He only allowed one baserunner (walk in the 9th), and he was erased on a game-ending DP.  In his 3 innings only 2 balls were hit out of the infield.  He was barely reaching 90 on his fastball, but his sidewinder delivery must have been giving the Rome hitters problems.
 
BATTING/DEFENSE:
 
Tocci had the day off so unfortunately, I didn’t get to see him in action.
 
Brian Pointer (is he still a prospect?):  Here are his 5 AB’s:
1) Led off 1st with a 2B right over the 1B bag (97 mph fastball)
2) After he swung and missed (way behind) at two fastballs, he K’d looking at a third one.
3) Lazy Fly out to LF
4) Good AB, fouled off 3 or 4 2-strike pitches and then ripped a shot up the middle that the pitcher snagged.
5) Soft grounder to 1B
 
I can’t say enough about how impressive Pointer was in CF.  He made very nice plays going in all directions (one over his head he ran down in the LC gap, one shallow fly that he ran along way to grab at his shoetops in RC, and some others where he covered a lot of ground both to his right and to his left.  This is interesting since Pointer generally plays RF as Tocci is usually playing CF.  I also remember that he played RF at the Lakewood game I went to last year (don’t remember who was in Center).
 
Willie Carmona: 
 
First off Carmona played 3B which I was not aware he could play.  He made a really nice play in the 1st inning, but didn’t see much other action.  Here are his 5 AB’s:
1) Sac Fly to Medium Depth CF
2) Wasted a couple of 1-2 curves then hit a hard groundout to 1st
3) Line out to deep left (almost to the track)
4) Seeing eye ground single right up the middle
5) Beautiful opposite field line single over 3B’s head.
 
Larry Greene:
 
Larry didn’t have any tough chances in LF (maybe because Pointer was doing a Garry Maddox impersonation and covering the whole OF).  He also had 5 AB’s (and really looked good at the plate).
1) K swinging on a FB (that’s not the good part)
2) Double right over 1B bag (not hit that hard)
3) Hard ground ball the other way, 3B tried to make a backhand grab on the short hop but the ball bounced away.  It was ruled an error, but could easily have been called a hit.
4) Drew a walk.  I was pleased to see him take a mighty cut on a pitch when he was ahead in the count (though he swung through it).
5) Smoked a double over the RF head- one hop off the fence.
 
I saw Larry a few times last year and he seems to hit the majority of his balls the other way (including foul balls).  While I was sitting up the RF line and couldn’t tell where they were pitching him, it does seem to be a trend that continued.  It is good that he can hit the ball the other way, but he would probably be able to utilize his mysterious power more if he pulled the ball.  The only two balls he pulled were both doubles.
 
In other news, the star hitter of the day was C Justin Dalles.  He hit a bases-clearing double and finished 2-4 with 5 RBI’s.  Even his outs were hit hard.  I know he doesn’t play regularly and probably never will with the catching logjam in our system, but his approach and results were impressive.  Also, the Roof (Jonathan) is still on fire.  Yeah, we’re not his first organization, and yeah he just moved down from CW, but the guy is raking.
 

9 thoughts on “Lakewood Game Report”

  1. Great stuff here. Thanks for the report.

    The LG stuff is interesting. There were some on here summizing that his high BB% is based more on his inability to recognize pitches. That would also explain him swining late a lot of the time and not being able to fulfill his power potential.

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  2. Do you think LGJ going to the other way could have been an organizational edict? Seems kind of odd for a LH power hitter to be going the other way that much. Maybe the org is trying to save Larry from getting Howard shifted out of a job.

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    2. If it is, it isn’t about not being pull happy so much as working on pitch recognition and going the other way when the location dictates it. It is something they might work on for half a season with pull happy hitter (like Franco) but it wouldn’t be a constant thing.

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      1. I saw Greene last year play 3 games and he was hitting almost everything the other way then too so I don’t think it is a half-season thing they are working on. I would be curious to know if this was his approach in HS when he was drafted.

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        1. Not just in HS, but I’d be intereted about his BP power that we’ve heard about. If he’s pulling HRs in BP, that suggests pitch recognition issues as being the culprit.

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  3. Too bad the pointer kid doesn’t get to play CF everyday. He could bring some offensive pop to the position and he already has 20 sb’s !!!!

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  5. Pointer seems to be one of the biggest teases in the system. Seems like he has enough tools but can’t put them together consistently. He does K too much, but fwiw his K% is the best of his career so far. He walks a bunch and steals bases but maybe the hit tool is just not there.

    Thanks for the report, NY. Great stuff.

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