4/28 MiL Gameday Thread: ERod scheduled to pitch for Pawsox

Carson supposed to pitch Tomorrow and Saturday in Portland and the join Boston in Chicago next week. That's the latest I've heard anyway.

Some quick thoughts on players from last night, with the caveat that I think it's basically impossible for a simple fan like me to learn anything meaningful about a position player in a single game ...

- Yoan Moncada: dude's an elite athlete, that's for sure. He's big without being bulky and very fast. He's got good hands at second, and he made a great play coming in on a ball and making a quick flip to first to nab the runner. But he is prone to lapses in concentration and made about 3-4 really bad plays. He botched the turn on a potential double play, just dropping the ball because he tried to transfer it before he caught it; he stood and watched a pop fly drop on the ground instead of calling Nick Longhi off and making the play (it was his play); he missed another catch to allow a guy to reach second on what should've been a fielder's choice ... it was ugly, but pretty much all of it was correctable stuff. His swing was a little bit in two parts, with a little hitch in his load; that could be where his swing-and-miss comes from because once he gets into the second part of his swing, he's quick and fluid. He didn't do much offensively, so I never got a chance to see him on the bases.

- Rafael Devers: nothing to note defensively, although he and Dubon had a funny interchange where Dubon *shouted* him off one pop fly (which vaguely annoyed Devers), then just stood and laughed while watching him catch an identical pop fly later. But he was a force with the bat all night, with a great, fluid swing. His home run was Manny-esque, just an absolute bullet line drive that did damage to the chocolate milk sign behind the fence. His outs were loud. The Keys third baseman made an astonishing catch on a line drive; Rafael stared at him with an amazed smile at his face all the way to the dugout.

- Andrew Benintendi: Hahaha ... what a homerun that guy hit. He's so small, and there's so little violence to his swing, so when he hit it, I thought, "I hope that reaches the wall." Then it sorta just kept going, and rising, and sailing. It completely left the stadium, clearing the three levels of signs behind the right-field wall. It was like watching a short guy slam dunk, seemed to defy physics somehow. Not much on defense, although he did make a nice running play on a ball in the gap, showing a quick first step and good speed.

- Nick Longhi: Solid swing, good power of his bat ... hit a rocket for a double, seemed to mostly be in control of his at bats. A guy who's hard to glean much from a single look, but he's certainly a possibility.

- Mauricio Dubon: Rough day defensively, bobbled 2-3 balls (but only got one error), but he's quick, has the arm, looks like a shortstop. He hit the ball hard every time up, getting a couple hits and getting robbed once by the pitcher. Not much power, needs to add some weight and strength. As I said in the other thread, a delightful guy, definitely someone to root for.

Some other random personal notes: Moncada and Benintendi were pretty much all business, mostly ignoring fans and blowing past autograph seekers. Rafael Devers is really, really young; he really enjoyed his home run. Nick Longhi was good about looking for kids to throw the game balls to. Pitching wasn't remarkable, although Yankory Pimentel looked pretty good in relief.

Yeah good call. Guess your brain isn't toast after all.

Greenville cancelled. Game will not be made up since the teams don't play again this year. On to Lakewood. Will have to wait and see if they bump Brakeman to tomorrow or skip him and pitch Espinoza. I plan on seeing whichever game Espinoza pitches.

Brakeman tomorrow, Espinoza Sat. I'll be there. Wouldn't be surprised to see Keith Law there, also.

Not one piece of hard contact yet though. 1/1 K/BB

Hope Chris made it, I'll be interested to hear about Ball. A bit of a meh outing (4IP 3H 2ER 3BB 5K), but the strikeouts are nice.

Moncada does strike out a lot. His walk rate is getting better but his strike outs are right up there as if he were a slugger. I'm just guessing but possibly he is focused mainly on getting on base and watching some 3rd strikes go by or maybe doesn't have the contact skills of a Benintendi? As he climbs the ladder that may only get worse. He's going to have to hit the good pitches he's getting in order to be the stud everyone is projecting. Benintendi is hitting the ball before he gets to 2 strikes or if he does he still makes contact. To me, contact skill might be the most important factor in evaluating young hitters and if you can get that in a power hitting prospect you may have something very special.

To me, investing in Swihart's ability to stay in the lineup by giving him the option to play the OF is a major value added proposition. I'm all for it. Of course he's more valuable as a catcher but getting another 20-30 games of him in the lineup each year is a big potential plus also long term. I don't think it will take him much time to be at least an average defensive LF.

Moncada starts to remind more and more of Byron Buxton and it's frightning.

He doesn't worry me that much but I'd take Benintendi and Espinoza over him as is.