Thursday, May 14, 2015

Down on the Farm: 5/13/2015

AAA  Las Vegas 51's beat the Sacramento River Cats 5-1:

Ty Blach(LHP)- 6 IP, 10 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 3 K's.  ERA= 3.40.

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AA  Richmond Flying Squirrels edged out the Binghampton Mets 2-1 in 10 innings:

Mac Williamson(RF)- 1 for 2, 3 BB.  BA= .289.
Mitch Delfino(3B)- 3 for 5.  BA= .266.
Kyle Crick(RHP)- 4 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 3 BB, 1 K.   ERA= 1.64.
Stephen Johnson(RHP)- 2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K's.  ERA= 3.78.

Kind of a strange line from Cricky.  He had missed a start due to wrist soreness, so maybe was on a pitch count?

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High A  San Jose Giants defeated the Modesto Nuts 4-2:

Hunter Cole(2B)- 2 for 3, BB.  BA= .311.
Jesus Galindo(CF)- 2 for 3, 2B, BB.  BA= .276.
Keury Mella(RHP)- 6 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 5 K's, GO/AO= 9/2.  ERA= 3.77.
Jeff Soptic(RHP)- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's.  ERA= 1.74.
Ian Gardeck(RHP)- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K's.  ERA= 3.75.
Dan Slania(RHP)- 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, Save(5).  ERA= 2.40.

Mella gets the prize for best line of the night.

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Low A  Augusta Greenjackets were idle.

10 comments:

  1. I am not a big fan of Crick's follow through on every pitch. He spins in his follow through, in my opinion, makes him pulls his pitches or be early in his release in turn makes him throw a lot of balls and a lot of pitches in general. I wonder if the pitching coaches ever tried on him to make him finish his pitches better my making him move forward in his finishing instead of spinning and flinging to the plate. Not sure it will work on him but I think that's the flaw that I see in his delivery that's maybe holding him back.

    Wrenzie

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    1. Pedro Martinez addressed this on a MLB TV show recently while discussing Yordano Ventura's follow through. Just for fun, you might want to look up video of Pedro Martinez, Bob Gibson and currently Yordano Ventura and see what you think.

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    2. Haven't saw it yet DrB but I will take a look at it right after I study my materials for my exam. What I love about Pedro is that he has a really great feel about his body and coordination together with his 3 plus pitches and his sidearm release. I am a bit concerned about Yordano because all of the energy that he created ends up sometimes all over his arm, causing his arm to move violently in what I think they call recoil based on what I saw last season. Gibson and Pedro have great arm finish in their deliveries even though their bodies move wildly on the mound.

      Wrenzie

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  2. DrB, I just watched the Pedro videos that you said and he's right on point with every one of them. I'll agree with you that Crick has mostly the same problem that Yordano has and Pedro's suggestions can really work on Cricky to allow him to be more direct to the plate and finish better like how Danny Salazer finish his delivery. He just needs to have the work ethic to do it or my prediction of him being a plus bullpen arm can come true. BTW, Pedro can be a really good pitching coach someday. Thanks for the lookup, DrB.

    Wrenzie

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    1. Well, I have to say that is not the lesson I would take away from all that. My point really was that there are successful pitchers, even star pitchers, throughout baseball history who fall off the their glove side in their follow-through. Not saying Crick doesn't still have work to do on his mechanics, but I don't think falling off to his left is necessarily a fatal flaw that has to be eliminated. Maybe that is not what you were saying, but it sure sounded like it.

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    2. I think there's nothing wrong with falling on the side like the some pitchers because they are letting all of the energy that they generate to flow efficiently. The problem that I see in Crick is that his arm path after his left foot hits the ground. From what I see, it seems like his arm doesn't move forward consistently, causing late and early release of the ball from what I have seen on Crick throughout the past years. I am not sure whether it's his lack of knowledge about his body and feel for pitching overall or it's a mental thing because he got such a powerful motion due to his lower body which is great in my opinion.

      I think that Pedro's advice on Yordano to put more push when he'll release the ball can help Crick but I am not sure of it. It's kinda hard to explain the specific issue in words because it's hard to imagine what I am really talking about but I'll try to place a video analysis of him on his next start or as soon as tomorrow.

      Wrenzie

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    3. Gotta be honest with you , Wrenzie. I don't think either you or I know enough about pitching mechanics to break it down that precisely. What you are talking about here is repeatability of arm path and release point, not falling off to the left in his follow through. I think it's obvious to all of us that Crick probably has issues with repeatability. From what I remember, Pedro's main point was that the falling off was a by product of throwing hard. Maybe it's coincidence then, that hard throwers both tend to fall off to the left and have command problems early in their careers or maybe they are linked. At any rate, I don't think the fact that Crick falls off in his follow through is, by itself, a problem.

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    4. I also think that I can't really talk about mechanics really well but it's just what I noticed about Crick and what I think that could work on him. I talked about the wrong thing which is him spinning in his delivery but I really want to point out is the inconsistency of his arm when he release the ball (only at that moment and in his follow through) by making him release more forward and in a north-south motion and not in an east-west motion like what I noticed about him. I apologize.

      Wrenzie

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    5. Pitching mechanics are visual and extremely difficult to describe in words. I've found that unless you have a video you can show frame-by-frame with a pointer, any disagreement inevitably degenerates into a yes it is!/no it isn't, tastes great/less filling argument.

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  3. I do know if they keep this stat but I would be interested in knowing what our organizational ERA is for our bullpen across all the leagues and where it would fit against others. I have to believe we, as an organization, have perhaps some of the most depth in terms of bullpen arms. We probably have 3 or 4 guys in the minors right now that some other big league team would love to have in their pen.

    Billy Baseball

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