One powerful night

I know I haven't put any new material up in the past few days and I feel really bad about that. I am struggling getting the numbers I need for the intentional walk Monte Carlo and I needed a break. So last night with the Brewers enjoying an off day and Charleston a mere two hours away, my wife and I went to see the West Virginia Power play the Lexington Legends. Lucky for us West Virginia is loaded with prospects right now after the Brewers recently promoted their number one pick from this year, Matt LaPorta, to low A ball. With their first round pick from last year Jeremy Jeffress pitching that night and some other C+ guys on the team it was going to be a good show. So without further ado, here is the treat I had been clamoring about for a while as I take off my stat-head hat and put on a scout hat for a night and give you a rundown of the game.

First a couple of quick notes. The new stadium in Charleston is very impressive. It is downtown in a warehouse district and they decided to go with that theme for the park. Around 4,400 people were there for cheap ticket night where our second row seats behind home plate cost us $3.00 each. The stadium was pretty full so I would guess that it couldn't hold too many more than 5,500 people. Being downtown, it is placed in one city block so the fences had to fit into that. It is a mere 320 ft. down each line but 410 to center. About a 12 foot wall goes around the whole yard. Charleston is right in the middle of the Appalachians so I am sure it plays as a hitters park. The only two complaints I had was the LCD screen in center had a large portion on the top that was out. I know those things are very expensive but it really was annoying to look at. Secondly, nobody was manning the in house radar gun so we didn't get any pitch speeds. I had created a specialized score card to track location and speeds of each pitch so I was pretty disappointed. For some background on the players here is John Sickels' Brewers review from before the season. Ok, on to the players.

I had been following Jeffress for a while in the box scores and knew the scouting reporting on him; great fastball, terrible command. When he walked out to the hill I told my wife that he sure looks small. Indeed, he is generously listed at 6'1" and 185 lbs. While not tall my wife pointed out that he is all legs something that I am sure has helped his pitching career. It looks like he might have some room to fill out having just turned 20. Anyway, Jeffress didn't disappoint the scouting report with a eight strikeout, four walk, no hit game for four innings. I'm going to go over some of the highlights.

Jeffress started out with a four strikeout first thanks to a strikeout on a wild pitch to the second batter. He followed that up with a wild pitch and a passed ball that could have easily been scored another wild pitch to the next batter. After loosing him putting runners on first and third he bared down and the next two batters to strikeout including Koby Clemens looking. After a quick second inning we move to the third where all hell broke loose.

Jeffress walks the ninth place batter to start the inning and then the leadoff hitter bunts. The bunt was not particularly good as Jeffress quickly fielded it and looked to second. It would have been a close play had he decided to throw there but he instead went to first and made an off balanced throw. The throw lead the firstbaseman into the baseline and he dropped the ball for an error. While he should have caught it, Jeffress had all day to throw to first once he decided to go there so it would have been nice to see him set himself and make a better throw. This appeared to have flustered him on the mound as he went 3-0 and eventually walked the next batter to load the bases. He got things together and struck out the next batter for the first out but promptly walked the next guy on four pitches to walk in a run. Clemens was up again and he hit the only grounder of the night to the thirdbaseman who stepped on the base and threw to first just late (or so says the ump) to turn the double play and another run scores. Finally, Jeffress puts an end to the madness as he absolutely blew away the next batter to end the inning. Both runs ended up unearned.

He was at 75 pitches and I commented that he was on a pretty strict pitch count and I wouldn't be surprised if that was it for him but he came out for the 4th and made quick work of the 7-8-9 guys to end his day at 84 pitches.

So I have seen most of the Brewer's top line guys come up through the minors over the past few years and honestly, Jeffress has the best pure stuff of any of them. He has an incredibly smooth delivery and really good mechanics. An Astros scout was a few rows behind us and he told me that Jeffress was sitting in the 94 range which seemed about right. When he needs to though he can dial it up with a four seem fastball. At this level that is an absolutely devastating pitch and it produced nothing but missed and weak foul balls from the Legends. My wife commented on the "rising" action of the pitch and we got a good look at one which looked like a "hit the bull" pitch that was coming right at our faces before hitting the net.

Jeffress' second best pitch, at least tonight, was his curveball. It isn't quite a 12 to 6 but very close and boy does it have a lot of late movement on it. Five of his eight strikeouts came on this pitch with two looking. It absolutely buckled knees and, after the four seem fastball, was an even more effective pitch. When he missed with it he was missing low in the zone which certainly was a good thing.

His also threw a slider to right handed batters that didn't seem to do too much. It looked like he abandoned it after the second inning as he was consistently missing with it. He also showed a change to a few lefties in the lineup but that looks to be a work in progress at best. Both that I saw were off the plate outside and it didn't look like he had any intention of throwing that over the plate.

Obviously, his overall command was erratic, at best, but I was particularly disappointed with his command of the fastball. One of the two wild pitches for the night and the past ball were on fastballs. The "hit the bull" pitch and two more that bounced feet in front of home plate were fastballs. It wasn't like he was over throwing either he just couldn't seem to locate it. As I said before his pure stuff is better than Gallardo's or Parra's pre-injury but he seems miles away from being an effective pitcher. He ended the night with just 41 strikes in 84 pitches.

LaPorta spent the night DH-ing which was also disappointing to me. I really want to see for myself how he handled LF. From all reports he needs the work out there so I am not really sure why he was DH-ing? Maybe that hamstring that was bothering him when he signed was acting up again. Anway, here is a report on his night at the plate.

LaPorta came up in the first inning with a runner on third and one out. The opposing pitcher looked like he wanted nothing to do with him and promptly walked him on four straight pitches. None were particularly close so it is hard to credit LaPorta's plate discipline there. That at bat did set the stage for how the Legends were going to pitch to him though. Fastballs in on the hands and offspeed stuff down and away. This was the third game in the series so I am assuming that might be the book on him (for the Legends at least).

In his second plate appearance he again took a fastball in, then fouled off another fastball in. The next two were offspeed and the second one got a little too much plate and LaPorta swung at it but weakly popped it to third. In his next at bat in the forth he looked like he made an adjustment and took a breaking ball that was up but outside to the gap in right center. Very good piece of hitting but the right fielder made a very nice running catch on it right next to the warning track (more on this play later). Still it was nice to see him go the other way with power. Sadly, the game was going incredibly slowly and with a two hour drive back we had to leave early and missed his last at bat which resulted in his only hit of the night.

The star offensively for the night was Steve Chapman who set a new team record blasting his 21st and 22nd home runs of the year. The first was out of the park and landed on the street so it was not a cheap homer at all. Chapman is a fringe prospect who has already struck out 130 times on the year but certainly has a lot of power in his bat. He struck out swinging on his first two at bats of the night.

Brent Brewer is a toolsy short stop that Sickels gave a C+ to before the year started. He committed his 44th error already of the season on a throw and had two missteps on the bases. In the first he doubled down the left field line and later tried to score on a flyball. He launched himself in the air just as he got to the batters box and tumbled over home plate rolling onto the grass. The catcher calmly walked over and tagged him out. If he either stands or slides he is safe and he really looked awkward on that play. Then in the forth he again doubled on a grounder down the same line. The next man up hit a warning track shot to center but Brewer was caught napping near third and he didn't tag up on the play. If that ball is dropped or goes off the wall he is scoring easily from second so that really was a bad base running error. He made up for it on the next play though as LaPorta hit his opposite field shot I described earlier and he turned it into a sac fly by tagging up and scoring from second on the play. Brewer has 39 stolen bases on the year and has ten homers to go along with 24 doubles and seven triples so he is a nice combination of power and speed. But the 44 errors and 159(!) strikeouts in 490 at bats shows just how raw he is.

For the Legends there were few prospects of note. Nick Moresi was batting ninth and scored a few runs without a base hit. He also made that nice catch at the wall on the play where Brewer didn't tag up and he was credited with an outfield assist when Brewer got thrown out at the plate. It was a pretty nice throw actually and very accurate though Brewer should have scored. He only has a .701 OPS though for the year and is old for the league so his future doesn't look so bright. Maybe he can make it as a 5th outfielder defensive replacement type.

Koby Clemens was playing third for the Legends and he is somewhat interesting. He couldn't make it behind the plate defensively and looked like he had slow reactions at third which isn't a good sign. You could tell he grew up with the game though as he was fundamentally very sound. He possesses great plate discipline and he was the only Legend who looked like he had a chance of hitting Jeffress. He pulled the only ball of the night the grounder to third and busted his ass down the line to beat out the double play and let what was then the lead run score. He hit two home runs the night before and it looked like Jeffress might be working him carefully (though with Jeffress' lack of command it is hard to tell). The strikeout looking in the first was a border line call that I actually thought was outside. It was probably too close to take but it was a nice bender from Jeffress and it was unlikely he was going to do much with that pitch. Clemens is probably not going to ever make it to the show as he appears to be a rarer bread of a great skills no tools kind of guy. His OBP is almost 100 points higher than his .253 batting average but he only has thirteen homers on the year and is slugging .407.

Lastly, the Legends starter Doug Arguello had to leave the game after a getting drilled by a line drive off the bat of Power catcher Andy Bouchie. It wasn't quite as scary as seeing Rick Helling impaled by a bat a few years ago but he was down for a few minutes. Best wishes on a speedy return Doug.

So that is a wrap. Hopefully I will make it to a few more minor league games this year though probably not any more Power games as the drive is long and through the mountains. Let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions to help scout the next time let me know.