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Post by bishop on Apr 9, 2024 21:08:52 GMT -5
HR for Kristian Campbell. "Top 5 in the system by the end of the year" - unnamed Sox front office source who also called Roman Anthony's breakout... Also I'm used to some hyperbole when seeing twitter highlights but nope, that was indeed a nuke! Dead center line drive, doesn't get more impressive than that.
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cdj
Veteran
Posts: 14,097
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Post by cdj on Apr 9, 2024 21:10:55 GMT -5
Yeah that wasn’t just a little bit of power, damn
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Post by bishop on Apr 9, 2024 21:12:47 GMT -5
Can definitely see what they've been talking about on the pod with his unusual swing too, bat's loud until he's ready, then dead still while he does that exaggerated front foot toe tap for timing? Doesn't even look like he drives off the back foot much from that angle, just opens up his front half. Hard to believe he gets that much power but hey if it's works it works!
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Post by thegoodthebadthesox on Apr 9, 2024 21:50:38 GMT -5
Crazy how he could be a guy out of college with below average power potential (per the SP report at least) and then get to stuff like THIS so quickly. Exciting stuff.
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Post by vermontsox1 on Apr 9, 2024 22:10:20 GMT -5
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cdj
Veteran
Posts: 14,097
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Post by cdj on Apr 9, 2024 22:13:48 GMT -5
it’s not as smooth but it kinda looks like Mookie’s mechanics
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Post by pedroelgrande on Apr 9, 2024 22:14:10 GMT -5
He had the size just needed the adjustments for some pop.
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Post by vermontsox1 on Apr 9, 2024 22:28:18 GMT -5
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Post by orion09 on Apr 10, 2024 1:05:28 GMT -5
It’s crazy, because based on how he makes contact it looks like it should be a pop fly to right field. But the bat speed and bat-time-in-zone look easily plus, so it winds up a monster jack to CF.
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Post by bojacksoxfan on Apr 10, 2024 6:37:43 GMT -5
I went to the Portland game. A few observations about the main prospects...
Wikelman Gonzalez - for some reason Reading took down the board showing velo so no idea how fast he or any other pitcher was which is too bad because that might have been the only positive in the outing. He really didn't seem to know where the ball was going for most of the first. He was just normal bad control in the 2nd. But one less obvious thing is that I don't recall many swings and misses. You'd like to see your wild hard throwing pitchers at least getting a bunch of swings and misses. Part of the reason his pitch count was so high was he struggled to put guys away. I dare say the only way he's still a top 10 prospect by the end of the year is if the lower minors are a disappointment. He's ripe to be passed and by more than just Cespedes.
Kyle Teel - Teel is a good segue from Gonzalez because he struggled defensively in the wild 1st innings. He boxed around a pith or two. Crossed signals? Was a little late getting over to a wild pitch imo and he air mailed a throw into CF. Early season rust or struggling a bit with Gonzalez's good stuff, bad command combo who knows. But it did make me appreciate that these inexperienced minor league catchers really have a steep learning curve to go from catching the stuff they see in college and the low minors to the crazy Pivetta/Slaten/Weissert type stuff they will have to catch every day in the majors. He settled down in the 2nd and looked much more comfortable the rest of the game.
One other peculiar thing - he was looking into the dugout before every pitch in the first 3 innings. I was sitting above the home dugout so no idea what was going on inside the dugout, but he was looking over every pitch. I wondered if part of the pitching development program is to be more heavy handed calling pitches from the dugout or something. I also thought it might just be for Gonzalez, but he did it the 1st inning for the reliever too. But after the 3rd he didn't at all. It was strange. I'm hoping to go back over the weekend and it's definitely something I'll look for.
Offensively I thought his swing was a little quicker than last year at the end of a long year. His ABs were generally good - worked the count and mostly hit the ball hard. The 5th or 6th inning the Phillies had a lefty who looked like he was throwing hard face the Anthony-Mayer-Teel cluster and Teel hung in no problem. That was the AB he pulled a pitch down over the 1B bag. While I'm on that subject - Anthony was not phased at all and rifled a double in his AB. Mayer looked more uncomfortable. He was off balance and lunging at some pitches which he was able to foul off. He ended up hitting a sac fly to LF that carried a lot further than I would have guessed from the off balance swing. Definitely think he has some impressive power.
Roman Anthony - Well the minor league season flashed before my eyes as I watched him race head long into the wall. Not sure what part he hurt. At first he was rubbing his knee which banged into the wall and then he seemed to be rubbing his shoulder/collar bone area. But I never noticed any discomfort after that and he certainly ran well and hit the ball fine after that. He was pretty much on every pitch smoking line drives and as I mentioned righties, lefties it didn't seem to matter. I like Mayer fine, but the notion that there's a 1a and 1b thing going on doesn't seem right to me. Unless you place a huge value on Mayer as a SS Anthony is 1 and Mayer is 2.
One of the minor league sites - BA? Pipeline? - made a bold prediction that he'd hit 30 HR this year. I really hope he doesn't get that into his head and tries to chase HRs. For now he's a line drive hitter who will have some line drives go over the fence. At 20 that is more than fine. He better not change his swing at all. It is really a thing of beauty.
Mayer - I don't recall much action defensively. He his a very calm hitter at the plate, working counts looking for his pitch. Very similar to Anthony and Teel. Again he hit the ball hard and mostly on the line. My recollection at the time of the draft was that he was pretty even in terms of future hit/power, but it feels like if he ends up leaning one way or the other it'll be towards power. There's a lot of juice in that bat.
Yorke - I can't recall him tracking a single fly ball. I know he got credited with an assist, but he threw like a 2B. First competitive throw was right into the ground 20 yards in front of the cut off man. The next when had more carry, but was still a multi-hopper. He's got a lot of work to do to have a Fenway LF arm. It didn't seem playable in a bigger LF. He had a productive night at the plate, but it's a cut below the big 3. He was competing against the mediocre Reading pitchers whereas the other guys were working them if that makes sense.
Jordan - aside from the fact that he looked a lot leaner than last year nothing really jumped out.
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radiohix
Veteran
'At the end of the day, we bang. We bang. We're going to swing.' Alex Verdugo
Posts: 6,345
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Post by radiohix on Apr 10, 2024 7:33:27 GMT -5
I went to the Portland game. A few observations about the main prospects... Wikelman Gonzalez - for some reason Reading took down the board showing velo so no idea how fast he or any other pitcher was which is too bad because that might have been the only positive in the outing. He really didn't seem to know where the ball was going for most of the first. He was just normal bad control in the 2nd. But one less obvious thing is that I don't recall many swings and misses. You'd like to see your wild hard throwing pitchers at least getting a bunch of swings and misses. Part of the reason his pitch count was so high was he struggled to put guys away. I dare say the only way he's still a top 10 prospect by the end of the year is if the lower minors are a disappointment. He's ripe to be passed and by more than just Cespedes. Kyle Teel - Teel is a good segue from Gonzalez because he struggled defensively in the wild 1st innings. He boxed around a pith or two. Crossed signals? Was a little late getting over to a wild pitch imo and he air mailed a throw into CF. Early season rust or struggling a bit with Gonzalez's good stuff, bad command combo who knows. But it did make me appreciate that these inexperienced minor league catchers really have a steep learning curve to go from catching the stuff they see in college and the low minors to the crazy Pivetta/Slaten/Weissert type stuff they will have to catch every day in the majors. He settled down in the 2nd and looked much more comfortable the rest of the game. One other peculiar thing - he was looking into the dugout before every pitch in the first 3 innings. I was sitting above the home dugout so no idea what was going on inside the dugout, but he was looking over every pitch. I wondered if part of the pitching development program is to be more heavy handed calling pitches from the dugout or something. I also thought it might just be for Gonzalez, but he did it the 1st inning for the reliever too. But after the 3rd he didn't at all. It was strange. I'm hoping to go back over the weekend and it's definitely something I'll look for. Offensively I thought his swing was a little quicker than last year at the end of a long year. His ABs were generally good - worked the count and mostly hit the ball hard. The 5th or 6th inning the Phillies had a lefty who looked like he was throwing hard face the Anthony-Mayer-Teel cluster and Teel hung in no problem. That was the AB he pulled a pitch down over the 1B bag. While I'm on that subject - Anthony was not phased at all and rifled a double in his AB. Mayer looked more uncomfortable. He was off balance and lunging at some pitches which he was able to foul off. He ended up hitting a sac fly to LF that carried a lot further than I would have guessed from the off balance swing. Definitely think he has some impressive power. Roman Anthony - Well the minor league season flashed before my eyes as I watched him race head long into the wall. Not sure what part he hurt. At first he was rubbing his knee which banged into the wall and then he seemed to be rubbing his shoulder/collar bone area. But I never noticed any discomfort after that and he certainly ran well and hit the ball fine after that. He was pretty much on every pitch smoking line drives and as I mentioned righties, lefties it didn't seem to matter. I like Mayer fine, but the notion that there's a 1a and 1b thing going on doesn't seem right to me. Unless you place a huge value on Mayer as a SS Anthony is 1 and Mayer is 2. One of the minor league sites - BA? Pipeline? - made a bold prediction that he'd hit 30 HR this year. I really hope he doesn't get that into his head and tries to chase HRs. For now he's a line drive hitter who will have some line drives go over the fence. At 20 that is more than fine. He better not change his swing at all. It is really a thing of beauty. Mayer - I don't recall much action defensively. He his a very calm hitter at the plate, working counts looking for his pitch. Very similar to Anthony and Teel. Again he hit the ball hard and mostly on the line. My recollection at the time of the draft was that he was pretty even in terms of future hit/power, but it feels like if he ends up leaning one way or the other it'll be towards power. There's a lot of juice in that bat. Yorke - I can't recall him tracking a single fly ball. I know he got credited with an assist, but he threw like a 2B. First competitive throw was right into the ground 20 yards in front of the cut off man. The next when had more carry, but was still a multi-hopper. He's got a lot of work to do to have a Fenway LF arm. It didn't seem playable in a bigger LF. He had a productive night at the plate, but it's a cut below the big 3. He was competing against the mediocre Reading pitchers whereas the other guys were working them if that makes sense. Jordan - aside from the fact that he looked a lot leaner than last year nothing really jumped out. Thank you for this extensive and very enjoyable report. Keep ‘em coming my friend!
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Post by vermontsox1 on Apr 10, 2024 7:44:58 GMT -5
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Post by vermontsox1 on Apr 10, 2024 8:25:23 GMT -5
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Post by vermontsox1 on Apr 10, 2024 8:25:54 GMT -5
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Post by thegoodthebadthesox on Apr 10, 2024 9:01:46 GMT -5
Damn that is an explosive swing
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