I was at the Baysox game this morning, and it was a great game.
Just a few observations, minus Schoop whom I will have a featured column on later:
Manny Machado:
Machado is being fed a ton of off speed. Curves and change ups and junk all day. He's usually pretty good at making contact, even when fooled. A perfect example of this was the futures game where he still was able to get the bat head on the ball and rope a double to left.
Check out this pitch sequence to him today:
81 mph low
81 mph low in dirt
80 mph low and away
88 mph fastball low and away
88 mph fastball low
82 curve inside
I've seen this sequence quite a bit to Machado, and it's obvious that just about everyone knows how talented a bat he is. I am mostly impressed with his discipline and approach at the plate. He lays off a lot of these. Really love watching this kid play.
Defensively he just continuously shows me good instincts at SS. I think this generally makes up for all the "big man" problems that people loved to say he would run into down the road. I haven't seen that yet, and I'm still quite impressed with his play at SS. If that wasn't obvious from the report I wrote on it a couple weeks ago.
Johnny Ruettiger:
I love watching him play. He is a full effort gamer that shows a great approach at the plate. He is not going to wow you like Machado or Schoop can with the bat, but he doesn't need to. He knows his style of game and plays tremendously off it. His discipline is tremendous at the plate and he makes the pitcher throw strikes. He seems to always know the strike zone and works it in his favor. You just have to be impressed with a guy with solid discipline and just tries to push the ball wherever the pitch is located. Today he just went with an outside fastball and stroked it past the third basemen for a solid single.
Jake Pettit:
As a lot of pitchers do, he has trouble the second time through the lineup. He displays good stuff every once in a while but the inconsistencies come back to bite him. He was on a roll until the lineup turned over again, and the Rock Cats swatted two HR in a row. Both low changes that did not fool.
Kyler Newby:
Throws his slider and fastball combo primarily with them around 79-81 and 87-90 respectively. He has a little deception to him and has a funky delivery, kind of like Kevin Gregg (Relax on the jokes!) He's a little stiff on his delivery and there isn't much follow through. He's not a bad righty though, would be curious to see him up another level.
Anyways, I'm sure there are a few other things I'll add to this later on. Ask any questions if you have them.
Don, Jordan and I were also at the game last night to see Mike Wright pitch. Feel free to ask about that as well.
