8/12 ML Gameday Thread: Salem Sox Doubleheader take 3

It will be interesting to see if Cecchini continues his recent hitting surge, including a number of doubles. Brenz has hit fairly decently since returning to the lineup. On the other side, Hatfields's assessment of Owens was not encouraging, and Hatfield tends to be reliable.

Just glancing at some of the lower minors games, there seems to be a number of players of interest to watch and see how they progress, more than I originally had believed.

Kopech through 3 clean with a BB and ROE. Devers 0-2.

Everyone is going to just love Michael Kopech. He was outstanding with what looked like a 3-pitch mix. Fastball was as high as 96. He was very confident with his slider throwing it easily for strikes. Nice mechanics and very repeatable. He is listed at 6'3" and 195. Not sure about the 195 but he is put together real well with lots of room to fill out. I can see him in Greenville throwing every 5 days next season.

Sat next to Michael Chavis' dad. He was heading back to Georgia in a couple of days. Nice guy. He told me several of the aunts and uncles were real big Sox fans and were ecstatic when Michael was taken by Boston.....but there was one uncle and his wife who were not at all pleased as they are die-hard Yankees fans. His dad and mom were both at MLB's headquarters during the draft and Michael was just so happy about the Red Sox picking him that he was high for quite awhile. He mentioned that Michael is now getting in the flow and raising his game. Dad was wearing a shirt with an Indian in full head dress on it with the words "Chief Chavis". I asked him who bought him the shirt and he said he had one made up for himself and one for Michael. Turns out he is half Cherokee.

<scratches head>

That part is a shocker and great to hear. Does it look like he's already tweaked (i.e. completely reworked) his unorthodox delivery seen on predraft videos?

Considering your assessment, I think Kopech just jumped to the top of his draft class of sox prospects in my book.

So I couldn't find any good info on it, so I twitter searched to ask someone what Trey Ball's velocity was in his last start. Draft reports had "Fastball sits areound 90-93 mph and tops out around 95 mph." (sic) , and scouting reports early in the year during struggles had him 87-89 mostly I think.

The (unofficial) answer I got was "Nathan Hacker ?@lil_hackmando2 mostly 89-90. Hit 93 a couple times."

So the velo, at least late in the season, isn't quite what we had hoped.

McCutchen, I mean Margot 2-2 with a triple to start the night.

Travis was on the young side for a college junior - he doesn't turn 21 until the end of this month.

Nice to see Lin pop one. He's had a tough season, and the rap has been that he just doesn't hit the ball with any authority.

Cecchini seems to have gotten his mojo back. He's found the power and the average is starting to climb, the best thing about prospects is how they handle adversity. Maybe he's made some adjustments and in the long run his two month slump will be a learning experience

Very happy for Cecchini, lets hope he keeps it up.

So was that 1st/3rd, runner either got picked off, or took off, and during the rundown Margot tried to score but got caught? That's not so bad... I'm surprised an A ball team was aware enough to execute that.