5/16 Gameday Thread: Jet Takes Off; Here Comes the Groome

Strikeout rates:

Low-A East: 29.6%
High-A East: 29.5%
AA-North East: 28.2%

Those A-Ball numbers are crazy. A pitcher can be striking out a ton of batters and still be doing worse than the average player in his league.

Mieses has some legit power. Sent two balls way gone into foul territory and then just crushed a 3-2 pitch for his 6th home run of the year.

You can see the potential in German. He had a rough first inning, settled down, and then got taken deep for back-to-backs before being pulled. Secondaries didn’t look great but the fastball showed some life.

Groome cruised through three then things fell apart quickly in the fourth. Single, error, homer, walk, out of the game. Suddenly his line went from 3 1 1 1 0 4 to 3 3 4 3 1 4.

Love to see that!

Guy seems to like pulling the ball from the clips I’ve seen

I'm keeping my eye on Brandon Howlett to see if his early-season re-emergence is real. 2 for 3 with three RBI today to get up to .343/.385/.514. Five of his nine strikeouts came in the first two games of the season. He was really impressive in 2018 after signing but he wore down pretty badly in his first full year in '19.

I watched him when he was in low a. Watched 25-30 games with him that year. They had a manager “ Craig albernaz” who is now the bullpen coach for giants. Their minor league hitting instructor was also there often, and the team had Vidal brujan, Fleming, McKay, and a couple other quality prospects on it. ( they went bumper to bumper and won the championship).

Going to the first game I was sitting front row and talked to the hitting instructor and manager. I collect autographs, so made small talk. In doing so he made a couple quotes I remember fondly.

1). Pointing to Hernandez and said he’s the best player on the team ( and hardest worker), and then pointed to brujan and said he is second best.

2). He said he is a major league hitter now, and needs work on defense but if he learns the fundamentals and how to call a game he could be an all star catcher in majors.

After I watched him in all star game and homerun derby and he has serious pop that can dent Fenway park.

Couple points: brujan was maybe top 25 prospect of rays at that time. McKay was the stud bonus baby. Hernandez was on nobody’s real radar.

I believe he will at least be a quality backup catcher/1st and if we don’t keep him make us regret it for one season of his career. I also believe he could be very bit the starting catcher and 5-6 hitter on a championship level team within time

Like his profile here, German was 94-97 today. I was surprised that that velocity only generated 3 swings and misses all day. It was a slow start for him as he began with 7 strait balls and walking two of his first four batters. Rosario's throwing error led to the first run as he airmailed third base trying to get Mclaughlin going first to third on Hannah's single. He got some help from the second base ump in the third when Mclaughlin hit one to left and tried to stretch it into a double. Meneses made a strong throw right on the bag. Mclaughlin slid in before the tag but was called out anyway. He didn't really want to leave the bag and stood there for 5 to 10 seconds before finally returning to his dugout.

It would be the Yard Goats turn to get a big call in the fourth. With two outs and two strikes on Snyder, German threw a slider that seemed to cut across the plate and land near the outside corner. He winced when it was called a ball. Snyder would then foul off five consecutive pitches before connecting on a 95 fastball driving it out of the park. Four pitches later, Jones would follow hitting a 96 fastball out to right. That ended German's day.

This was my first time to see both Zack Kelly and Joan Martinez. They both can touch 97 and Joan got a couples swings and misses with his 85-87 slider.

The last two days I have seen Meises crush half a dozen foul homeruns to left. It reminded me of how Kevin Millar would pepper the third base stands being way ahead of pitches. He finally waited on a curve in the third and drilled it well over the 362 left field wall. He has quite an OPS at the moment. Both Casas hits were line drives off off speed pitches, to centerfield in the third and between the second and third baseman into the shift in the fifth. Meneses had a line double, a bloop single, and was robbed of a third hit by Snyder's diving grab in the shortstop hole.

After Hartford started 1 and 5, I thought this would be a series win for Portland, but the Yard Goats have a better team than I thought. Portland doesn't come back until the last week of the season Sept 14-19 so I am sure the team will look different then. Right now it is a fun team to follow with the sluggers and the starting pitching.