J.P. Crawford was placed on the Temporary Inactive List today. He is in Minneapolis for the Futures game. In his absence, Anthony Phillips played shortstop.

The game with the Palm Beach Cardinals featured 2 centerfield prospects, the Threshers #3 Roman Quinn and the Cardinals #10 Charlie Tilson. While neither figured into the scoring, going a combined 0 for 9, the young outfielders managed 12 put outs between them.

Mark Leiter made his third start since being called up from Lakewood. In his previous 2 starts, he had walked 1 and struck out 11 in 12 innings. Leiter throws his fastball in the 87-89 mph range, but can touch 90 mph.  He relies on his command of this and his other pitches to get batters out.  Saturday night, Leiter’s command was uneven. In 5 innings, he allowed 5 runs on 6 hits, 3 walks, a hit batsman, and threw 2 wild pitches. Leiter allowed his second walk before a mammoth 3-run home run over the Frenchy’s sign on the Tiki Bar in a 31-pitch third inning. He followed that with a 1-2-3 fourth inning on 4 pitches. The fifth run he allowed came on a wild pitch on a third strike to the lead off hitter in the fifth inning. It was his first strike out of the evening.

Jeb Stefan pitched the next two innings. He looked sharp in a 1-2-3 sixth inning that included 2 strike outs and a ground ball to the pitcher. He started the seventh inning with a walk that eventually score. He looked like he had escaped the inning with no further damage when, with runners on the corners and one out, the batter hit a ball to Art Charles who started a 3-6-1 double play. Unfortunately, the umpire blew the call when he ruled Stefan’s foot wasn’t on the bag and wouldn’t ask for help. I was further away but had a better angle, the batter was out.

Ramon Oviedo pitched the final 2 innings. The side arming pitcher struck out 2 batters in each inning. However, he issued a two out walk in the 8^th inning followed by a run scoring double that sailed over Quinn’s head in left center field. Oviedo has 17 strikeouts in 25.2 innings. However, his control is shaky.  He has issued 15 walks.

The Threshers’ offense was provided by Harold Martinez on a 2-run homer in the sixth inning that cut the Cardinals lead temporarily to 5-2.

2014 First Year Player draftees, Tim Zier (pronounced Zeer, like deer) and Joel Fisher, made their FSL debuts. Zier started at second base and played efficient defensively. He failed to get a hit but reached base all three times he batted. He reached on a fielder’s choice in the third inning, was hit by a pitch in the fifth inning, and reached on a throwing error in the seventh inning. Fisher replaced Gabriel Lino and caught the ninth inning, but did not bat.

Quinn had 7 balls hit near him this evening. He recorded 5 put outs and made correct plays on the other two. The first 2 were hit right at him in the first inning. The first one was hit deep and he retreated nicely to get under the ball for the catch. The second was more of a liner that tailed from his left to his right. He turned left to the ball’s initial track but reacted well when the ball tailed across his path to his right side.

In the second inning, Quinn was shaded toward left field when a ball was driven into the right centerfield gap. He covered a lot of ground, dove, and got his glove on the ball but didn’t make the catch. It looked like it bounced off the heel of his glove and then his arm or body. In either case, he smothered the ball and kept it from going to the wall. I couldn’t believe he even made a play on the ball. I was watching Brian Short run toward it when Quinn seemed to come out of no where.

In the third inning, Quinn had to retreat to the wall in dead centerfield to make a catch. He got there so quick he was able to settle under the ball rather than make the catch on the run. In the fourth inning, he got a easy fly ball in shallow left centerfield that was only remarkable because he caught it two-handed, the way I was taught and the way pros are discouraged from catching it.

In the seventh, Quinn handled another fly ball in centerfield. In the eighth inning, a ball was hit deep to left centerfield. Quinn got in position to take the bounce off the wall, but the ball hit at the base of the wall and got caught under the padding. But his positioning and instincts were correct.

Tomorrow, Aaron Nola at 1:00PM. Crawford and Maikel Franco in the Futres game at 5:00PM on MLB. Monday, Cliff Lee at 7:00PM.