Box Score Recap – 4/23/2014

Box Score Recap

What a gem from Jesse Biddle – 2H 1BB 10K in 7 scoreless innings. He’s got 38k to 7BB on the year. You’d like to see him throw a couple more strikes, I guess, but 67/106 will get it done on most nights. Not much else to complain about, there. Kyle Simon and Ken Giles closed out the shutout, while Tommy Joseph drove in Cam Perkins, (2-4 on the night), for the only run of the game.

Here’s something I never thought I’d say: I’m not sure why Luis Garcia isn’t in the big leagues right now. He’s allowed just 0R, 3H, 3BB and 9K in 9IP in AAA this year, including another scoreless frame last night, plus he pitched a clean inning in the bigs while he was up. They optioned him off the big club the day after B.J. Rosenberg gave up home runs to three consecutive batters, instead of optioning Rosenberg, (who was optioned himself just the other day). Not sure the logic there. Anyway, a couple more days and he can go back up (after his ten-day option period is up). I imagine we’ll see him shortly thereafter.

Dan Child notched his first save of the year in support of an OK start from Jeb Stefan, as 19-year-old catcher Jesus Posso, just over from XST, hit his first stateside homer. Alejandro Arteaga got kicked around some at Lakewood. Carols Tocci and Sam Hiciano put up two hits a piece, while Andrew Pullin hit his first bomb of the year. We heard from BaseballHQ’s Brent Hershey (@brenthq on Twitter) that it was pretty well wind-aided, and came on Pullin’s best swing of the day, but still. I’m sure he’ll take them however they come.

Here’s the affiliate Scoreboard from MiLB. http://www.milb.com/scoreboard/index.jsp?sid=milb&org=143&ymd=20140423

4-23-14 boxscores

28 thoughts on “Box Score Recap – 4/23/2014”

  1. Nice to see Franco start to come around in the last week or so. Also, comforting to see Larry Greene settling into his mid-season form.

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      1. Thanks Matt…..little I know about Posso is his vitals like ht and wt.
        Signed out of Colombia, SA.

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  3. Brad Lincoln has also been pitching well since he went to AAA, I wonder if we might see him back up in the big leagues again along with Garcia.

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  4. Giles is finding out what he can accomplish. He had first and third, none out and completed the game with a strike out and a double play ground ball. He wasn’t exactly sharp, but got the job done. These successful opportunities go along way in the development process.

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  5. Garcia’s stuff is legit but he might get scared when up with the bigs. I mean the guy was cutting hair just a year or so ago. Confidence could be his only issue.

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  6. My best bud (a Cubs fan) and I are having an independant minor league fantasy baseball challenge. We pick a level, 4 offensive players, 2 pitchers, and run with it for 2 weeks….I come to this site anyway, but now I’m really startin’ to dig deep instead of just hit-n-running. Finishing up A ball this Sunday. I got Crawford/Lavin/Cozens/Green and Leiter/Stewart. Monday starts AA…I may be in trouble…hahaha

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  7. Cam Perkins,rollin along.Two more hits.We need a diamond in the rough.We could use an upgrade in the outfield on the mlb club.

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  8. I was thinking the same thing about Garcia. I mean, I know there were questions about the bullpen headed into the season but I really didn’t think that Rosenberg, Garcia, De Fratus, Lincoln and Aumont would all be in the minors while Shawn Camp and Jeff Manship were in the majors.

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  9. Nice to see that both of Franco’s hits were classified by the box score as “line drives”. A few days ago when he had 3 hits I noticed from the box score that none was labeled a line drive, so this is good to see.

    Tocci got on base three times (two line drive hits and a HBP); Crawford four times. Great game from Biddle and good game from Joseph. Good day for our prospects.

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  10. It’s funny that he said it was on Pullens best swing, he couldn’t have said it better. I was at the game, he are some notes I took while watching:

    JP: weak contact when contact was made. His first ab stood out to me the most, being down by 3 he worked the pitcher to a walk.

    Tocci: hard contact. First ab was a hit and run with Tocci hitting the ball hard to the right side, picture perfect hit and run (Crawford running hard the whole time making it to 3B). He looked bad on off speed. He made a bad base running error with Cozens up Tocci took 2nd and tired for 3B making the 1st out at 3B. Not just bc of the saying “don’t make the 1st or 3rd out at 3B” but also with his speed he’s already in scoring position at 2B and also they were down by a few at the time.

    Cozens: the power is obvious, he sent a ball to the base of the fence with a one handed swing while being fooled on a change up.

    Pullen: if someone told me he was a HS player I work have believed them, that’s how bad his swings were. Then all of a sudden he puts a good swing and hits a HR. I think it would have went out at most fields wasn’t IMO wind aided.

    Jan H: he looked good to me at the plate however you could tell he was anxious which is to be expected. Nice 3rd AB working a walk.

    LGJr: HORRIBLE. Not much more to say.

    Hiciano: he surprised me a bit. You won’t see it in his results (outside of the 3B) but he swing looked decent.

    Random Notes:

    Rios looked good working ahead and working quickly.

    LG JR didn’t look slow he actually moved well running.

    Pullen was out in front of everything and I mean EVERYTHING.

    Aaron Judge is a MONSTER. Put it this way . . He made Cozens look like a child.

    Also the stadium gun was off a lot. (I brought my Stalker, which is one of the best radar guns) Stadium gun off by as much as 3mph several times. Most of the time their gun was low.

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    2. Thanks for the report. Love it. My question is in regards to the radar gun and Viza. Most have said his fball sits 89-91. Is that the gun at LWood that u said looked slow? Just curious.

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      2. The gun I have is one that scouts use. I use it for my pitchers that I work with, use it for evaluations that I pass on to college coaches and pro scouts. It was slow.

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  11. Let’s all just acknowledge that Larry Greene is almost certainly a lost cause. I don’t expect him to make it to AA. And, I agree with the qualitative impression – I’ve seen Greene in person on two occasions and thought each time that he is just not a good baseball player.

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    1. Catch if you are right about Greene, we could see a lot of higher round draft choices gone this year. Hewitt is a waste, Collier, Greene ,Martinez, to name a few.

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    2. This is a guy who should really have RAJ seriously questioning the scouting department. What were they thinking? A lazy guy who comes to camp over-weight twice. He hasn’t displayed any tools at all. Excellent raw power? The guy hits a HR less than every 100 AB. His total XB hits are well less than 1 per 10 AB. For a corner OF/1B that isn’t even adequate doubles power. He doesn’t hit for average, strikes out too much, and his walk rate, while still very good, has been trending down. It is hard to see what multiple scouts saw to think this guy was worth a first rounder and $ million. It seems a reach, as with Costanzo, when we went into the draft determined to get one particular thing. We craved power and settled for a guy who does a really good batting practice.

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  12. Quick note on Tocci: His start to the year is one of the best of any of our top prospects considering age/level. Unfortunately it’s very BABIP-driven. Here are his peripheral stats:

    3% BB, 21% K, .357 BABIP, .056 ISO (also 2 HBP).

    So just how real is that BABIP? There are basically three things that predict high BABIP (besides speed): high LD%, low IFB%, and high GB/FB ratio. So far Tocci is looking good on each:

    21% LD, 0% IFB, 2.82 GB/FB

    This is in marked contrast to last year, when the comparable numbers were 13% LD, 9% IFB, and 1.07 GB/FB. He’s doing a much better job getting on top of the ball this year. I think this is a very good sign for his hitting, and so I still find his start very encouraging despite the peripherals.

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    1. I agree, it’s a SSS and he obviously still has a long way to go, but this incremental progress is pretty much what I thought the best-case scenario would be for him this year at Lakewood. If he keeps this up, maybe by mid-season he’ll be able to win over the whole “where are the results?” brigade.

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      1. Honeslty, baring a 800 OPS or so, I don’t think he’ll capture the imagination of the “show me” crowd. People are often skeptical of no-hit up the middle fielders, myself included (though to a lesser degree) as it seems they rarely turn out. With recent memory being worse then probably the historical average (Revere & Galvis the two most glaring examples). Now.. finish the with a 700 OPS and say 3-4 HR’s and he would certainly vault up my boards to 3-5 depending on who’s still in the top 5 come next year. Anything over 750 and he’ll be in the top 3 in my book.

        I currently see him at 9/10… which is really aggressive for me being as statistically he’s shown zip. It’s based on a few things, his approach at the plate, his age, and his defensive skill & position.

        The best case for him currently is a .290/.350/.420 with above average defense, baserunning and steals all while sticking in CF. (but not plus)

        Far more likely is a .260/.310/.375 player, with the same defense/baserunning/stealing skills. A starter on a second tier team IMO.

        Overall a very very good player. But again, that’s best case, until I see him show true gap power on a consistant basis, I can’t move him much higher then the back end of the top 10.

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        1. He’s just a tough guy to forecast at the moment but we should know more by next year.

          Is his ceiling a plus fielding/plus defense Ben Revere or does he develop a bit of power and become something much more?

          For now I’m content to follow his BB/K rates while looking for LDs and a few extra base hits.

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    2. I agree that it’s encouraging …

      That said, as a mild Tocci skeptic, I would say that that my skepticism isn’t grounded in his (before this year) inability to make good contact. I’ve assumed that that would get better.

      My skepticism can be summarized thus: make a list of major league players with significant careers, a K% over 16% and an ISO under .100. It’s a short and unimpressive list – and the most impressive names generally had some other plus plus skill going for them (mostly speed).

      I’ll start o believe when he makes significant progress on one of those metrics. K% is the most likely candidate, but he’s actually worse in that regard this season.Yes, SSS – but I’d like to see progress.

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