Wanted: Local Affiliate Fan Reports

[TheCrew07]

Awesome BrewersAA, thanks for the observations!

[TooLiveBrew]

Awesome BrewersAA, thanks for the observations!

Excellent report -- agreed!

[tbbrewers]

It has been a good spring break for me this year. We drove 10 hours to watch the Padres at Brewers on Monday and Tuesday. Drove 10 hours back home on Wednesday so I could keep stats for my sons 4 high school baseball games the rest of the week. I will also be able to watch 2 of the Stars games vs the Smokies. I consider that a GREAT spring break.

 

Stars vs Smokies game report from my very unprofessional eyes.

 

I did not get to the park until the 4th inning but here are the things I saw.

 

Pitchers first.

 

The radar gun is very slow. This is the same gun where I watched Thornburg 92-94 max.

 

Hall pitched a very good 5 innings. He worked with his fastball at 86-87. His best fastball was 88. It looked like his fastball had some late movement as the Smokies did not square up any of the pitches I witnessed. His curve was 75-76 with a pretty good drop on it. It was not as sharp as Inman's big curve a few years ago but it had good downward action on it. He only gave up 2 hits. One was a check excuse me swing for a bloopers over first. The other was a ball hit to Prince's left and he made a great play to get to it but his throw was off just a little.

 

Barnes worked his fastball at 89 with a high of 91. It looked more like a flat straight fastball. His off speed stuff was 80-81 with low low of 76. With ok break.

 

Medlen worked his fastball around 89 with his curve coming in at 76.

 

Shakleford has a lot of action on his delivery. He hit 91 on the gun and pretty much threw fast balls. The fastes pitch on the gun we saw was 92 tonight by the Smokies Zych.

 

Hitting.

 

D'Vo looked good at the plate and made all balls hit to him look very easy and a couple of them he had to run a long ways. Reminded me of a more polished Lorenzo Cain. The double he hit was down the right field line and could have been a triple but Haniger was in front of him on the bases.

 

Zarraga CAN hit. The only time they got him out was when he hit a ball to left while batting left-handed and the left fielder dove towards center and caught the ball. For a big guy he crowds the plate which I thought was very interesting. He receives the ball very well as a catcher but his footwork on throws and arm strength did not impress at all.

 

Ramirez looked very poised at the plate.

 

Will report on other hitters after Sundays game.

[AlMaFi]

I watched this game last night on milb.com, since the Smokies do a broadcast. The wife and kid were out of town visiting in-laws, so what better way to spend an evening than to watch the Stars and Smokies square off while their parent clubs were simultaneously facing each other? This Stars lineup is fun to watch, especially with D'Vo and Kentrail back in the lineup--it was actually the opening day lineup for this game. It's a good mishmash of guys who sort of ended up on the team because they needed a place to be stashed. For Double-A, they are a fundamentally polished squad. They have a good shot of winning the Southern League 1st half, but my guess is that a handful of them will be in either Nashville or Milwaukee come September.

 

Anyway, here are some GAME NOTES on the first few innings:

 

-The Stars set the tone in the 1st. Josh Prince's bunt down the 3rd base line was absolutely perfect. It did seem to catch the Smokies by surprise, but Kris Bryant (at 3rd) played it as well as he could. Prince is quite fast, and he beat the throw by a step. On the next play, Nick Ramirez launched one over the "Ripley's Aquarium" sign in right field and onto the outfield berm, scoring Prince.

 

-In the bottom of the first, the Smokies succeeded in a strike out stolen base. What you won't see in the box score is that Zarraga made a perfect throw and the runner was toast...except that Josh Prince's loose-handed tag sent the ball flying out of his glove. Prince redeemed himself defensively with a nice catch on a quick pop to end the inning.

 

-The 2nd and 3rd went by in a flash. Brooks Hall took care of business. The Sounds hit a few fly balls that nearly had enough air on them. They really teed off on Loosen, the Smokies' starter.

 

-In the top of the 4th, Zarraga got a base hit, then advanced on a wild pitch. Haniger then hit a hard grounder to 3rd, and Zarraga never hesitated. Bryant made quick throw, but the relay wasn't in time to get Zarraga. Zarraga ran on contact, and it looked like Bryant could've tagged him if he wanted to--possibly without a rundown. Gutsy call on the bases. The effort looked fruitless when Kentrail popped out and Shaw (batting in the low .100's) came up, but Shaw hit a beautiful gapper to score Zarraga.

 

(alright, I think this is about where tbbrewers got to the game)

 

STRAY GAME OBSERVATIONS

-I think this is the first time I've seen D'Vo's swing, and it is a thing of beauty. I'm holding out hope. He also made a few very nice behind-the-shoulder grabs. I thought he was a quarterback, not a wide receiver.

-Kentrail Davis made beautiful shoetop catch in the 4th, followed by Rodgers catching a pop with his toes on the edge of the 3rd base dugout.

-The Smokies completely fell apart in the 8th, but I guess the box score and game length (nearly 4 hours) could tell you that.

 

PLUNK REPORT (the Stars hit the Smokies three times)

-In the first inning, Stephen Bruno leaned into a Hall pitch in order to get on base.

-In the 4th, Silva was drilled in the back. It certainly looked unintentional. Silva was fuming and took his time getting to first. Kentrail Davis sprinted into the infield--as backup I guess. The crowd booed and the umps issued warnings.

-In the 6th, Barnes drilled Kris Bryant--most certainly unintentionally as it put the Smokies back in the game with their first run. The crowd was hilarious. One guy yelled "EJECT HIM! THAT'S THREE!" apparently completely oblivious to the pitching change and the fact that Bruno leaned into the first bean ball.

 

BROADCAST/CROWD OBSERVATIONS

-It's a treat when the Stars are in Tennessee, because the Smokies have one of the better broadcasts on milb tv. It's not quite as good as the Rattlers, but it's similar in style with good angles, camera switches, replays, etc. The same two announcers are back from last year, and I remember the main guy (Nick, I think) pretty well. He calls a good game, but is prone to maddening side stories that generally serve to make people think he's a great guy. For the first half of the game he kept it to a minimum and I was pleased to see his improvement from last year. Then he started going on and on about his strong opinions about patriotism and the "right" way to play baseball. He tore the Stars apart for piling on in the 8th. Apparently he is unaware of the fact that the players' careers are determined by stats, and walking when up several runs is a good thing for them to do. He said "a manager, or at least a good manager, would have the players just take hacks at this point." Ugh. This guy is right at home in Tennessee, which is nestled between the Cardinals and Braves' markets. The other guy (Greg?) makes more mistakes in the call, but is much more pleasant to listen to.

 

-We learned that Brooks Hall is named after Brooks Robinson.

 

-There was a dude in a retro yellow-front paneled Brewers cap in the first row on the 3rd base side. Tbbrewers, was that you? I noticed it right away, and the announcer did too at some point in the game.

 

-The crowd looked sparse--normal for April. A few people who caught foul balls were also previously featured dancing between innings. One of the drunken bros who sang TMOTTBG caught a foul. Lots of Braves' gear.

 

-The song "Party Up (in Here)" by DMX was played about ten times during the broadcast--often accompanied by a video of a llama jumping and the words RALLY LLAMA flashing.

 

-Rusty Wallace Honda is a proud sponsor of the Smokies.

 

Alright, that's way more than you ever needed to know about this game. Forgive me, I don't post often. It was was a great game, and I encourage any of you with milb.tv subscriptions to watch the other games in this series.

[jjkoestler]

I'm really dig the eyewitness accounts. Thanks fellas.

[tbbrewers]

I was able to watch the Stars play the Smokies this past Sunday.

 

I do not have much to say about the hitting. Zarraga was the only Stars player to get a hit. Haniger hit a couple of sharp balls and hopefully is about to go a hitting spree and raise his average. I was not very impressed with Pierce Johnson for the Cubs to be honest. He topped out at 91 and worked his fastball in the 88-89 range and off speed was just ok. He was all over the place with his control. He threw 26 strikes out of 75 pitches.

 

I liked how Youngman pitched but was not blown away by his stuff. His fast ball topped out at 91 several times but it mainly stayed around 88-90. He did not have his best curve ball today(at least that is what I hope anyway) as several were up in the zone. He threw a couple of good curve balls to Bryant. He did do a very good job keeping the ball down in the strike zone and was able to get 8 ground ball outs. He was actually a little thinner than I thought he would be too. I am not sure if he was just working on his fastball/slider, but that was about all he threw.

 

Kjeldgaard made a really nice play at the wall on a ball hit to right field.

 

AlMaFi, we were setting a little further back on the third base side on Friday. Because we showed up after the third inning we did not have to pay for our tickets or parking. We did not want to go down to low.

[Mass Haas]

Excellent write-up by Brad over at Miller Park Prospects - Wisconsin CF Johnny Davis

[Spidey]

So I went to my 1st Brevard County Manatees game last night! The only problem is that it only lasted 4 innings before the storms came and they suspended it. Therefore my report will be brief (both because of the duration and my "reporting" is probably not all that great). Bradenton SP Glasnow kept the Manatees off-balance from the start by mixing speeds. In my unofficial opinion the umpire's strike zone was very inconsistent for both sides, (particularly with pitches at the knees and below) and the Manatees seemed to really lack any sort of plate discipline in the early going. On the other side, Jorge Lopez seemed just "ok". He was bringing low 90's heat (usually 93 on the stadium radar gun) and seemed to only spot some of his breaking stuff. He got caught over the plate with 4 singles that were all sharply hit by the Marauders.

 

Glasnow was pitching a no-no until the 4th when Nathan Orf drilled a line drive homer to deep left center. Good swing! Other than that the Manatees were not impressing offensively. Orlando Arcia looked particularly over-matched. The two guys I was looking forward to seeing were Delmonico and Roache, but neither did anything in their one at-bat. My seats were really close and Roache looks like he has a pretty decent swing and will grow into his frame. Other than that, all I've really got is that Berberet's mustache is sweet!

 

I'll probably redeem my rain-suspended ticket sometime around the 4th of July.

[Mass Haas]

Via Miller Park Prospects -- Scouting Snapshot: Taylor Jungmann

[Mass Haas]

RHP Jorge Lopez via Jeff Moore of Baseball Prospectus

[Spidey]

 

Glasnow was pitching a no-no until the 4th when Nathan Orf drilled a line drive homer to deep left center. Good swing! Other than that the Manatees were not impressing offensively. Orlando Arcia looked particularly over-matched.

 

Shows what my "scouting report" was worth!

 

http://www.milb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20140630&content_id=82380972&fext=.jsp&vkey=news_t503&sid=t503

[Mass Haas]

Via Miller Park Prospects -- Scouting Snapshot: Victor Roache

[MTBrew]

Been an abysmal season in Helena. May be the worst team in at least a decade.

Diaz is the bright spot. Has pop in his bat, and can really run down ball in CF.

Matos has been a pleasant surprise as well. He has a long way to go if 3B is to be his position, he is adequate at 1B.

I don't see Aviles sticking at SS, lack of range and very average glove. Worth a try at 3B?

I like Castillo and Munoz too, but they are probably a little old for this league and to be considered prospects. Same for Cleary and McCall.

I have never understood the Brewer's minor league philosophy. The kids that can play are obvious and need to be moved up and challenged early in their career (ala Denson). The ones that can't or are organization fodder need to be cut loose. I know that sounds harsh but I have seen very little developmental success at this level. Too many on this years Helena squad did nothing to be excited about while in the AZL or DSL.

[SomewhereInTime]

Was at a Timber Rattlers game a week ago. Sat a few rows behind home plate and right behind Kodi Medroios and another starter I didn't recognize on an off day charting pitches. Zach Hirsch was on the mound for the rattlers, he's put together a nice season but right now is a pitch to contact type, didn't top 86 on the gun all night.

 

Blake Allemond made his debut, didn't have a hit, popped out to 2nd a couple of times, looked good with the glove though

 

Brandon Diaz had a nice day at the plate, ripping a liner down the left field line to tie the game in the 8th.

[tbbrewers]

I went to the Shuckers/Smokies game tonight and here is my very unprofessional opinion.

 

Hoobs Johonson-Works quick(usually 14/13 seconds left on the 20 second clock and he was throwing the ball) and keeps the ball low. Just missed on the corners tonight and that caused his pitch count to be high. Fastball in the first two innings was 88-89. In the third he went up to 90 and in the fourth he started hitting 91 on a slow gun. His off speed stuff was 80-81 with just OK movement and the hitters had to swing and miss for it to be a strike. He only threw one curve for a strike looking.

 

Jacob Barnes-Threw all of his pitches in the 90's. Mostly worked 94-96. Really pitched harder than I thought he would. Taylor saved him a couple of runs with a web gem play in CF. Tyrone was playing Darvill to hit it away in left center and Darvill smoked a line drive back up the middle. Taylor ran a long ways and picked if off of the ground for the third out with 2 on.

 

Jed Bradley- He has the 90 mph fast ball and the 78 mph curve but he just does not miss bats enough. K'd the first guy and then the next guy hits a dribbler just over the mound on the second base side. Arcia picks the ball up and slings a 100 mph side arm throw to Ramirez from about 25 feet. Ramirez got the error because it went by his glove. Apparently, Ramirez has not been working with Lind on how to close your eyes and catch those balls.

 

Magnifico- His first 6 pitches were each 95. He did top out at 98 a couple of times in the last inning, but he mostly worked 95-97. His off speed was 84 and he picked up several swing and misses.

 

Arcia-He can play. He has a lot of movement before he swings and has a leg kick, but his hand eye coordination is next level. He popped up on a 92 mph fastball first at bat. He hit a n 84 mph curve up the middle his second at bat and when no one was covering second he took it for a double. He smoked a high fastball(I think) over the third baseman his next at bat. Next at bat he hit a 93 mph fast ball on a rope over the centerfielders head. Walked the next time and stole two basses.

 

Taylor-Is just smooth in his approach. Drives everything in the ground and not sure about power.

 

Reed- Smoked a couple of balls to right field and hit a grounder up the middle for a hit. Curve balls got him in a later at bat.

 

Roache- He can hit fastballs. He smoked a high fastball to right center field gap after just swinging at a curve that hit in the lefthanded batters box. He probably should have caught the double by McKinney to lead off the 6th. It was tailing back to him and it went in his glove and popped out.

 

Hope this is not to lengthy. I will be going back tomorrow and maybe the other games too.

[brewmann04]

Great job much appreciated

[tbbrewers]

Shuckers at TN Smokies Friday 7-10-15

 

Hall-Changes speeds a lot. Throws his fast ball 90-91, curve ball at 84-85, and change up at 80-81. He was just off the corners and high on some pitches tonight and was hit some.

 

Barreda- Threw mostly 92 mph fast balls with movement. Throws across his body and hides the ball well. His off speed was 87 and was pretty good.

 

Suter- He works really fast. It is almost to fast. He was throwing the pitch with 15-16 seconds on the pitch clock. He came in and threw 7 straight strikes getting two outs really quick. He walked the third hitter and then struck the next guy out. He threw one fastball at 88 but most were 84-85. Off speed was really good and was 70-71.

 

Magnifico- Came in throwing 96-97 after throwing a lot pitches last night. His fast ball did drop to 94-95 a couple of times. Off speed was 87 and OK. He finished the night with a 99 mph fast ball on the last out. Don't see many 99's in that park.

 

Arcia-First at bat hit a fast ball 398 feet hard to CF. He singled to left center and singled by the first baseman off of Soriano. He was down 0-2 to Soriano.

 

Roache- He had better at bats tonight and crushed a 77 mph curve ball over 400 feet to CF. The double in the fifth by Contreras should probably have been caught by Roache. He slid by the ball and it rolled to the wall.

 

Ramirez- Was robbed of a double in the second inning and sees a lot of pitches.

 

Taylor and Reed-Do not strike out much but the Smokies played them like lefthanded pull hitters with their shift in the outfield.

[tbbrewers]

Shuckers at TN Smokies 7-13-15

 

Lopez- In the end he had a pretty good line, but it was not his best stuff I would imagine. The lead off guy reached first to start an inning four times. Most of the time that is not a good thing. He was just off on some of his pitches it seemed like to me. He threw a lot of curves in the dirt that the Smokies hitters did not swing at. He did have the best curve of the pitchers I watched. His curve was 74-78 mph. His fastball was consistently 93-94. His change up or his other off speed was 84-87.

 

Roache-He had some very nice at bats. He fouled off some pitches and extended his at bats. He took some close pitches that were called balls and got a couple of hits.

 

Taylor-Could play CF in MLB now. He is one of those players that you need to see everyday to appreciate. He has good at bats, plays great defense, and plays hard. He is going to need to hit a lot of doubles in the gaps for now and hopefully he develops more power as he gets more experience.

 

Reed-Very similar to Taylor if not just a little ahead of him in over all development. He did hit a double in the gap off of a lhp. He plays the game hard too and has a more advanced body than Taylor.

 

Weisenburger- Did a GREAT job behind the plate. He blocks balls well and has an accurate arm on his throws to second. HE is really helping this staff behind the plate. One does not appreciate that until the opposing team lets 2-3 runs score over a series because of passed balls. He did not get a lot of hits in the three games I watched, but he squared up a lot pitches that did not result in actual hits.

 

Ramirez- He really struggled against the left handed pitcher today.

 

Orf- He has a good approach in the box and does not get fooled on pitches often. He just hits.

[BrewersAA]

You guys I TOTALLY dropped the ball.....

 

Zach Davies made his first brewers start in my town and i didnt go to the game.... big opportunity missed and I apologize. For some reason it just never hit me that they were in OKC for this series. I will go to the next 3 games to see Roenicke, tbd, &tbd pitch... :-( .

 

Hopefully I can get a good look at some of the hitters though. I will keep an eye specifically on wren, reed, santana, rivera, sardinas, and to a lesser extend clark and rogers (we've all aready seen them with the big boys).

 

I am, however, still going to get Davies autograph ;-) among others. Are there any special requests?? I'm hoping suter starts one of the TBD. I am also interested to see Pena throw, last season when he was here in okc, as ive said before, he was throwing 88-91mph not the big mid-90s that was advertised, so i want to see what his stuff looks like.

[Outlander]

I would like to hear what you have to say about Jaye Chapman. Obviously not a younger guy but don't hear a lot of scouting reports about him after the injuries he suffered.

[BrewersAA]

I didnt see Jay Chapman, he didnt get in the game.

 

I picked the wrong day to go last night really, but thats okay.

 

I was dissappointed in a few things, Trevor Cahill had Michael Reed WAYYY over-matched, Domingo didnt look great at the plate either (though he has the overall look, build, and swing of a big-leaguer), that combined with confirmation that i now know that michael reed cannot play centerfield (and also looks like a 45 year old man) kind of dampened my night because I was hoping to see both of those guys do something special. Kyle wren looked good at the plate, nice level swing, hes is super speedy, but didnt have the best arm in center, and not that anyone is counting on him to be special i can tell you hes not nearly the player logan shafer is so that probably doesnt bode well for his future. I was also hoping to see something from Matt Dominguez but he just made weak contact every single time up, im pretty sure he didnt get the ball out of the infield. Then Sardinas didnt look great at the plate either, he made good contact in his first AB, took the ball the other way hitting lefty, but it was right to the LF, he also didnt have many chance in the field that werent right at him so it was hard to gague his defense, he just didnt look like an MLBer.

 

Roenicke not only looked like he really knows how to pitch, he handled the bat REALLY well for a pitcher and was suprisingly fast on the bases. He does, though, lack overall stuff, but he worked the dodger hitters really well all night. Another blah guy that was actually a good looking ball player was peter orr, he made good plays at second, laid down a perfect bunt, ran really well (especially for 36!), but Im sure you expect that out of veteran guys.

 

Now, what was exciting was Matt Clark... my goodness... I know hes not really a prospect but OKC is a big park and he CRUSHED the ball. There was just something about him, he was different than everybody on the field except seager, those two just both had something to them that looked special when the walked up to the plate. I called Clarks HR in the first to my buddy who is a dodger fan, so that was fun! His next AB was a double that he took to left center, that maybe gets run down in MLB because the CF was shading him to right center and got a late jump. His 3rd AB i called HR again and i am not sure how the ball stayed in the park, the RF was at the wall and jumped and the ball landed to his right and hit the very top of the ball and somehow bounced in to the field of play right infront of the bullpen... it was one of those that i wonder if it actually went out and his something just on the other side of the wall and came back in, either way it was absolutely crushed, all three of those balls were crushed. the second double that looked like a HR was hit to right and hit right above the 375 sign.

 

The game was good because it was a win. The skysox actually have a lot of talent right now. the guys carry themselves well, even though there werent a lot of impressive ABs up and down the lineup the guys had big league swings. With sardinas it, to me, just looks like he doesnt have a lot of confidence right now. Kyle Wren is a nice player i just dont think he has the power or the arm to be in the majors, but who knows, the kid is just a baseball player. Michael Reed and Domingo Santana both have the look and posture of MLBers, a lot of confidence (even if they have bad nights at the plate). What was interesting about reed is that he looks like he should hit for more power. Matt Clark should be with the brewers, I am not sure what else he needs to show, I know his average for the season could be higher, but watching him (and seager on the dodgers) it was just like a man among boys.

 

Sorry this is gibberish-y but I was just trying to write down all the thoughts I had, I hope someone finds it useful!

[TooLiveBrew]

Love the contributions to this thread. Thanks guys!