Aaron Nola made what may have been his last start with the Threshers on Saturday Night. I had planned to make the trip to Bradenton, but a family illness kept me at home. I listened over the internet and charted the game from there.

Nola throws 3 pitches – a fastball, change, and an off-speed pitch that has been called a slider, slurve, or curve. Nola himself calls the pitch his curve, but the pitch has slider action and curve speed. I’ve heard the announcers describe it all three ways.

Nola’s line –

• 5 IP; 5 H; 2 ER; 0 BB; 5 K

Here’s a further breakdown of Nola’s outing – Continue reading Nothing but Nola; July 19, 2014 →

The Clearwater Threshers posted a 5-0 win over the Charlotte Stone Crabs on Sunday afternoon. The game marked the last rehab start for Tampa Rays right hander Jeremy Hellickson. The Threshers countered with Mark Leiter. The son and nephew of former major league pitchers Mark and Al Leiter, responded with the Threshers first complete game shut out of the season, and only the 5thcomplete game shut out in the FSL this year.

Leiter kept the Stone Crabs off balance all afternoon. He was a little inconsistent around the strike zone with a strike-to-ball ratio of 64/46, but only allowed 5 hits. He faced 31 batters and only managed 12 first pitch strikes and ran 7 3-ball counts, but walked no one. Continue reading Mark Leiter Shuts Out Stone Crabs; July 20, 2014 →

The Twitter-verse came alive yesterday with word that today is Cliff Lee’s last rehab appearance.  He has been announced as the Phillies’ starting pitcher against the San Francisco Giants next Monday, July 14th.  After the spanking Lee got at the hands of the Saint Louis Cardinals’ Advanced A team, the Phillies and Lee may want to rethink this strategy.  I understand the need to get Lee back to the majors to establish and enhance his trade value, but I don’t believe there is much market or return for a left-handed starter who can’t get strikes past low minor’s batters.

Lee’s line was – Continue reading Threshers and Lee Lose 12-2; July 14, 2014 →

Sunday’s game between the Threshers and Cardinals featured two young pitching prospects.  Aaron Nola will soon be one our highly ranked prospects and Nick Petree is the 20^th prospect in the Cardinals’ system as ranked by MLB.  Petree was a 9th round pick in the 2013 First Year Player Draft.  He posted an 8-1 record and 1.62 ERA in rookie ball last year.  He posted a 2-0 record and 1.29 ERA in A ball this year before being promoted to Palm Beach.  So far in the FSL, he is 4-2 with a 1.72 ERA.  Five weeks ago, the Threshers scored 4 runs in 4.1 innings against Petree.  This was his first start since coming off the 7-Day DL.

Today was Nola’s 4th appearance.  He rebounded with 2 nice outings after his FSL debut in Lakeland.  He last threw Monday in relief of Cliff Lee in a game suspended the day before. He threw 5 scoreless innings of 1-hit ball.  He hadn’t allowed a walk since his debut and had struck out 8 in those 9 innings.

Today, Nola was a little more human.  He breezed through the top of the 1st inning, striking out the game’s first batter, Cards #10 prospect Charlie Tilson.  His fastball was mostly at 91 mph, but peaked at 93 and “vallied” at 89 during the inning.  He gave up a home run on a 90 mph fastball to Luke Voit to lead off the 2nd inning.  Nola gave up 2 harmless singles through the end of the 2nd and 3rd innings.

Nola gave up a lead off triple to start the 4th inning.  He pitched the next batter, Voit, carefully but left an 89 mph fastball over the plate that ended up in the left field berm.  Nola gave up a bunt single to Tilson with 2 out in the 5th inning.  Nola fielded the ball quickly and threw accurately to first, but the speedy Tilson beat the throw.  Nola completed his outing with his second strike out.

Nola’s line was –

• 5.0 IP, 7 H, 3 ER, 0 BB, 2 K – 4 XBH: 2 HR, 3B, 2B
• He threw 57 pitches, 39 for strikes.
• His FB velo was 89-91 and trended toward 89-90 over the last 3 innings. He hit 93 and 92 once each during the 1^st inning.
• His curve ball didn’t seem to have the break that it had the last time I saw him on July 1^st.

Jordan Guth pitched well over the next 3 innings. He allowed 2-outs walks in the 6th and 7th innings, but pitched a 1-2-3 eighth inning and recorded 1 strike out.

Rocket Arm Ridenhour pitched a clean 9th inning.

Meanwhile, Petree scattered 4 hits through 7 innings.  He walked 1 and struck out seven. The only Threshers’ run came on a pop up that the second baseman lost in the sun.  It dropped behind him about 3 feet on the outfield grass.  To his credit, Art Charles hustled out of the box and had taken a wide turn around first.  When the ball dropped he was at full speed and was able to reach second base.  He tagged and advanced to third on a fly ball to right centerfield.  He scored on a wild pitch.

Miscellaneous facts/observations –

• Joel Fisher started behind the plate and went 0-3 with a strike out.
• Chris Serritella went 0-3 with 3 strike outs.
• Roman Quinn was 0-4 with 2 strike outs and 2 infield ground balls.
• Art Charles went 3-3 with 2 singles, a double and a run scored.
• Angelo Mora returned to the line up after being hit by a pitched ball a couple games ago, and went 0-3 with a strike out.
• Nola struck out 2 batters, the first and last batters he faced.
• Nola has now pitched 14 innings with out walking a batter since his debut.

Not only are the Threshers’ missing Crawford this weekend, but hot hitting Brian Pointer seems to have been among 5 players suspended for an on field incident at Brevard County last Monday.  Five players were ejected after Roman Quinn’s at bat and before the conclusion of J.P. Crawford’s at bat.  Pointer and Corey Bass were ejected from the game.

The FSL issued a release that the Manatees had 3 players suspended – Orlando Arcia, Jose Sermo, and Mark Williams (the pitcher at the time) for violating the league’s On-Field Behavior Policy.  The three were cited as instigators in the incident and were handed the following suspensions – Arcia one game, effective on Saturday, July 12, Williams and Sermo three games, each. Williams’ suspension begins Saturday, July 12, while Sermo’s begins on Sunday, July 13.  Players serving suspensions from the FSL are required to leave the field before the game starts and may not be in the dugout or press box during the game. They must also change into civilian clothes and either leave the ballpark or take a seat in the grandstand well removed from the vicinity of their team’s bench or bullpen.

I couldn’t find a similar release regarding Pointer and Bass, but neither were in uniform today, Pointer wasn’t in the line up yeaterday, catcher Joel Fisher was called up from the GCL on July 11th, and I’m pretty sure that I saw Bass and Pointer in civvies in the top rows of the stands behind home plate.

Crawford just fisted a single into centerfield in the Future’s Game.

Monday, Cliff Lee at 7:00PM.

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. Continue reading Threshers Lose, 8-2; July 12, 2014 →

Tonight’s game against the Tampa Yankees featured Yankees’ pitching prospect, Luis Severino. The 20-year old emerged as their top pitching prospect last season and continued to excel this year in the SAL before being promoted to the FSL for a June 25th start against the Threshers. He no-hit the Clearwater that night thru 6 innings. He threw 4 strong innings tonight before being lifted after throwing 78 pitches. He allowed 1 unearned run, 4 hits, 2 walks, and struck out 8 Threshers.

Colin Kleven got the start for the Threshers and pitched equally well through his first 5 innigs. However, he ran into trouble in the 6th inning, giving up a leadoff home run. He struck out the next batter before conceding a walk and a single. He left having pitched 5.1 innings, allowing 2 earned runs, 6 hits, 2 walks, and struck out 3 Yankees. Through 16 starts, Kleven has allowed only 17 walks in 91.2 innings pitched. He entered the game with the 4th lowest BB/IP (1.56) in the FSL. Continue reading Threshers Win Tight One, 3-2; July 8, 2014 →

As much as I enjoyed posting reports on Wednesday’s Threshers’ game and the GCL game this afternoon, I did not want to report on this one.  The Threshers fell behind early and lost 14-6 to the Dunedin Blue Jays.  Jeb Stefan started and quickly dug a hole from which the offense could not recover.  Relievers, Dan Child and Ramon Oviedo were also ineffective. Continue reading Threshers; July 3, 2014 →

The humidity was a little lower than it had been during the past 10 days, so I went to the Complex to watch the GCL game between the Phillies and the Braves.  Yoel Mecias got his third rehab start.  He pitched 5 uninspiring innings.  His fastball maxxed out at 87 mph.  By the third inning, he had lost the ability to throw it consistently for strikes and relied heavily on his 82-83 mph changeup.  The Braves bunched 6 hits and a walk into the third and fourth innings to score 3 runs.  He threw 49 strikes in his 78 pitches.  His final line was –

• 5.0 IP, 8 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 2 K

Darrin Ruf and Wil Nieves both hit line drive singles in the first inning with 2 outs.  Continue reading GCL Phillies; July 3, 2014 →

The Threshers’ offense exploded Wednesday night.  They collected 15 hits, of which 6 were XBH including a triple and 3 home runs.  They scored in each of the first 4 innings as the ran out to a 10-1 lead.  They maintained their advantage to win 11-5 against the Dunedin Blue Jays. Continue reading Threshers; July 2, 2014 →