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OT: Raise the Jolly Roger: Congrats to the Houston Cheaters on their win

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Just a shit loss. Contreras in line for the win, and crap fielding and an inability to do anything offensively once again, dooms us.

Great news is Contreras looks the part. Now we need to get some offensive juices flowing.
 
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Observations from the Altoona 6-4 win over Harrisburg. Seats were right behind the Curve dugout on the 3rd base side.

Omar Cruz stuff is too hittable when he doesn't locate. He topped out at 89 (i think) and generally was 87-88 with the fastball. Threw a curve in the low 70's and what looked like a change around 80/81. Tough to gauge exact pitches from the side view but that's what they looked like/registered on the stadium gun.He settled down after a rough first 2 innings where people were barreling him up constantly including 2 no doubters. Got through the 3rd and 4th with ground balls mostly. When he can stay down in the zone and hit the corners he did generate those regular outs. He just doesn't have the raw stuff to get away with many mistakes. He did throw a lot of strikes tonight (67%) but again, the early ones were in the middle part of the plate, belt high and he paid the price.

Marcano impressed me with his at bats. He smoked the ball first 3 times up, including a really nice left center, oppo field double. Has some Adam Frazier qualities in terms of being contact oriented and swing plane. He recognized the pitches early and was able to barrel them up. He's .304/.894 now and still just 22 until September. Another guy who's probably due for a promotion soon as he's already seen AAA/MLB action and is performing well above the bar currently.

Nick Gonzales was on base 3 times. 2 walks and a HPB (Joe Ross). He struck out looking and swinging, the other times, though every at bat he battled, with 3 of them going full count plus IIRC. He swung early/over the top of a few breaking pitches throughout the night and didn't put anything in play obviously, but he showed a lot of patience and pitch recognition from my vantage point. His hands are very quick. Compact stroke, but you can tell he guesses now and then, which obviously a lot of guys do. All in all, you can't really complain about being on base 3 times at any pro level. The amount of pitches he saw was very encouraging to me.

He also played SS and other than an early inning ground ball (high hopper) that he didn't charge and the runner beat out by half a step, he looked solid. You can tell his average defensive rating is range based in he doesn't have the quick twitch that an Oneil Cruz does for example, BUT he looked great fielding and throwing the ball. Arm seemed good enough certainly to play at SS. Not Cruz good, but I didn't see anything that made me think it was subpar.

Speaking of Cruz, he had another fielding and throwing error at SS, now up to 10 on the year for Indy. I really wish people would stop trying to paint him as a legit MLB SS with the sheer volume of botches he makes. He's an athlete but he doesn't have the consistency to play SS at the highest level currently. He's an OF/1B long term IMO.

Matt Gorski had a couple of hits, including an absolute 3 run bomb to left field which put the Curve up 5-4. Damn thing landed above the Ollies cheap seats and one bounced into the chicken wing shack. The guy obviously destroyed A+ ball at age 24, which isn't that impressive to me, but if he continues said dominance in AA, especially with the long ball, maybe you start to get slightly intrigued about him. I'll post a video I took of the HR after this write up.

Matt Fraizer looked awful at the plate. Way behind numerous pitches. It's no wonder his numbers are where they are. He just seemed to be struggling with recognition/getting his hands to the ball.

Learn the name Noe Toribio. 22 year old reliever out of the DR. He pitched 50 innings in AA last year with solid results as a SP/RP (at age 21) and he was damn near untouchable tonight. Given the amount of time he's already spent at AA now and what I saw tonight, he's got a legit chance to be a good bullpen arm down the line. Probably not dominance like Bedar, as the raw stuff isn't quite as powerful but he was incredible. 5 innings. 4 hits, all singles, 0 walks. 8 strikeouts and he was getting them on 92-94 fastballs that he routinely located at the knees and what looked like a really nice slider/change combo, low-mid 80's with those pitches, again getting a ton of swing and misses over the top. 5 ground ball outs to 0 in the air. 49 of 66 for strikes, which is an elite 74%. You really couldn't ask for a better outing.

No Peguero tonight, which I thought was strange given they didn't play yesterday. Won't worry until he misses tomorrow's game as well. Davis is still out though he is set to resume full activities in the next few days, which means he'll probably come back as soon as this series is over haha. Hope he can avoid any other injuries this year. Kid needs a full season as he's certainly mashed when healthy.

The highlight of the night was my 10 year old son getting Davis to sign a ball before the game. I asked an older teenage kid to hand the ball down to Davis as there were a bunch of them waiting and he helped us out which was a nice gesture. Great to see the players taking the time, especially a guy who's on the IL currently. My son was beaming!

All in all, a wonderful evening out.
 
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ImporterExporter said:
Observations from the Altoona 6-4 win over Harrisburg. Seats were right behind the Curve dugout on the 3rd base side.

Omar Cruz stuff is too hittable when he doesn't locate. He topped out at 89 (i think) and generally was 87-88 with the fastball. Threw a curve in the low 70's and what looked like a change around 80/81. Tough to gauge exact pitches from the side view but that's what they looked like/registered on the stadium gun.He settled down after a rough first 2 innings where people were barreling him up constantly including 2 no doubters. Got through the 3rd and 4th with ground balls mostly. When he can stay down in the zone and hit the corners he did generate those regular outs. He just doesn't have the raw stuff to get away with many mistakes. He did throw a lot of strikes tonight (67%) but again, the early ones were in the middle part of the plate, belt high and he paid the price.

Marcano impressed me with his at bats. He smoked the ball first 3 times up, including a really nice left center, oppo field double. Has some Adam Frazier qualities in terms of being contact oriented and swing plane. He recognized the pitches early and was able to barrel them up. He's .304/.894 now and still just 22 until September. Another guy who's probably due for a promotion soon as he's already seen AAA/MLB action and is performing well above the bar currently.

Nick Gonzales was on base 3 times. 2 walks and a HPB (Joe Ross). He struck out looking and swinging, the other times, though every at bat he battled, with 3 of them going full count plus IIRC. He swung early/over the top of a few breaking pitches throughout the night and didn't put anything in play obviously, but he showed a lot of patience and pitch recognition from my vantage point. His hands are very quick. Compact stroke, but you can tell he guesses now and then, which obviously a lot of guys do. All in all, you can't really complain about being on base 3 times at any pro level. The amount of pitches he saw was very encouraging to me.

He also played SS and other than an early inning ground ball (high hopper) that he didn't charge and the runner beat out by half a step, he looked solid. You can tell his average defensive rating is range based in he doesn't have the quick twitch that an Oneil Cruz does for example, BUT he looked great fielding and throwing the ball. Arm seemed good enough certainly to play at SS. Not Cruz good, but I didn't see anything that made me think it was subpar.

Speaking of Cruz, he had another fielding and throwing error at SS, now up to 10 on the year for Indy. I really wish people would stop trying to paint him as a legit MLB SS with the sheer volume of botches he makes. He's an athlete but he doesn't have the consistency to play SS at the highest level currently. He's an OF/1B long term IMO.

Matt Gorski had a couple of hits, including an absolute 3 run bomb to left field which put the Curve up 5-4. Damn thing landed above the Ollies cheap seats and one bounced into the chicken wing shack. The guy obviously destroyed A+ ball at age 24, which isn't that impressive to me, but if he continues said dominance in AA, especially with the long ball, maybe you start to get slightly intrigued about him. I'll post a video I took of the HR after this write up.

Matt Fraizer looked awful at the plate. Way behind numerous pitches. It's no wonder his numbers are where they are. He just seemed to be struggling with recognition/getting his hands to the ball.

Learn the name Noe Toribio. 22 year old reliever out of the DR. He pitched 50 innings in AA last year with solid results as a SP/RP (at age 21) and he was damn near untouchable tonight. Given the amount of time he's already spent at AA now and what I saw tonight, he's got a legit chance to be a good bullpen arm down the line. Probably not dominance like Bedar, as the raw stuff isn't quite as powerful but he was incredible. 5 innings. 4 hits, all singles, 0 walks. 8 strikeouts and he was getting them on 92-94 fastballs that he routinely located at the knees and what looked like a really nice slider/change combo, low-mid 80's with those pitches, again getting a ton of swing and misses over the top. 5 ground ball outs to 0 in the air. 49 of 66 for strikes, which is an elite 74%. You really couldn't ask for a better outing.

No Peguero tonight, which I thought was strange given they didn't play yesterday. Won't worry until he misses tomorrow's game as well. Davis is still out though he is set to resume full activities in the next few days, which means he'll probably come back as soon as this series is over haha. Hope he can avoid any other injuries this year. Kid needs a full season as he's certainly mashed when healthy.

The highlight of the night was my 10 year old son getting Davis to sign a ball before the game. I asked an older teenage kid to hand the ball down to Davis as there were a bunch of them waiting and he helped us out which was a nice gesture. Great to see the players taking the time, especially a guy who's on the IL currently. My son was beaming!

All in all, a wonderful evening out.
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Marcano looks like an MLB player this year. Quite the turnaround.

So Gonzales is once again not staying back on the breaking balls, causing the swing and miss problems to continue. Had my hopes up after that good week when he cut that way down. But apparently he's still hunting homers.

With O'Neill Cruz I can't give up on that arm until he's into that 24yr old season. Big guys often take a long time to develop because of things just like this. Otherwise he looks like a SS to me. It's no sure thing though, so I want to see him in the Outfield every week.

Toribio is one of those guys that's likely to be a solid MLB bullpen arm IMO. Probably next year.
 
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Gallatin said:
Marcano looks like an MLB player this year. Quite the turnaround.

So Gonzales is once again not staying back on the breaking balls, causing the swing and miss problems to continue. Had my hopes up after that good week when he cut that way down. But apparently he's still hunting homers.

With O'Neill Cruz I can't give up on that arm until he's into that 24yr old season. Big guys often take a long time to develop because of things just like this. Otherwise he looks like a SS to me. It's no sure thing though, so I want to see him in the Outfield every week.

Toribio is one of those guys that's likely to be a solid MLB bullpen arm IMO. Probably next year.
Click to expand...

I think Marcano was pushed too high, too early. I mean he was barely 21 and playing MLB baseball, with pretty limited exposure to high minors pitching. What I saw last night was a Frazier like approach. Stay back, barrel the ball up the middle/other way. He did rip one hard barely foul down the right field line that would have been an easy double, possibly a trip beyond the hard hit stuff I mentioned. Despite a more defensive mindset he really attacked pitches that were hittable. I don't envsion much in the way of home runs (maybe 10-15 max over a full year against MLB pitching) but he looked like someone who has a real shot to be a fairly high average hitter if he keeps the approach I saw.

Gonzo is the opposite of Marcano (in a way). He's an aggressive swinger for sure. Hard, fast hands. He's not going out there to ping a ball into right field or make light contact. The interesting thing that I've seen on TV and last night, is that despite being an attacking batter, he's very patient. He didn't rush any at bat, battled and was perfectly fine taking a walk, on a night that I think you could tell he was just a hair off in terms of getting the bat off his shoulder. That's the mark of a pro IMO. Instead of just hacking and striking out another 2-3 times, he fouled some stuff off, and made the pitcher work, resulting in 3 times on base. Stark contrast to what I saw from Matt Fraizer who just couldn't touch anything and didn't seem to have any other gameplan.

I definitely think Gonzo would cut down on the strike outs if he became a more defensive hitter. With that being said, if he can hit say .270 to 300 and drive 20-25 homers and 30-40 doubles over the course of a full season, I think you absolutely take the punch outs. Especially considering he'll walk a good bit which offsets some of the swing and miss, as does the power for a MI.

I just can't get behind Cruz making an error every 3 game series we have. Or damn near that rate. Not at SS. If he shows he can clean up the miscues, sign me up haha.

Toribio could certainly end up showing as a multi inning guy if he can harness what he had last night. He was definitely the player of the game in my book.
 
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I'm really surprised that the Pirates think Cruz is grading out well at SS as he has a .921 fielding%. If they are throwing errors, I guess you can argue that can be ironed out since Cruz already has a rocket of an arm. If he's not making fielding errors and is showing good range, but he's just inaccurate with his throws, I can see why they'd argue he's "grading out well".
 
Empoleon8771 said:
I'm really surprised that the Pirates think Cruz is grading out well at SS as he has a .921 fielding%. If they are throwing errors, I guess you can argue that can be ironed out since Cruz already has a rocket of an arm. If he's not making fielding errors and is showing good range, but he's just inaccurate with his throws, I can see why they'd argue he's "grading out well".
Click to expand...

I think it probably has something to do with his length and getting to some balls that other players can't. I'd be very interested to see how he grades out on the traditional advanced metrics. Not all errors are equal of course. Some amount to nothing. Otherse can open floodgates. My issue is the sheer volume of botches. And it's not just fielding. He has issues w/throwing accurately as well. Errors will happen, especially at SS, given the opportunities but you need consistency at that spot above any other IMO.

He's clearly athletic enough to play all over the place. I'd rather see players in defensive positions where they can be average or better across the board. I don't think you can put Cruz into that category as a SS when you're committing an error every 3ish games. His bat has the potential to play elite at any spot. Now, I will say that given this year is a throwaway at the ML level, I have no issue with him getting a lot of starts at SS and see how he handles the highest level. Maybe things click and he settles in and we have our SS of the future.
 
Suwinski is some BABIP luck and drawing more walks away from being a really intriguing RFer for this team.

The walks thing is bizarre to me, he was always walking a lot in the minors, but he only has 4 walks in the MLB this year.
 
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