04/24/2004 - St Louis (Williams) @ Milwaukee (Saenz)

[Al the Thinking Man]

Incredible first game, but if Renteria's ball carries a few more feet, it's 4-0 Cards in the 1st inning.

 

Toby, Ben pitched the day of or the day before the need for a starter occured (when Caps failed his PFP test). Saenz was chosen over Santos or another AAA arm due to his stamina, as Doug so bluntly put it, "We needed someone who could give us innings, not 1 or 2".

 

I assumed Chris would go down and Bowles or Santos would come up, and I wouldn't mind if they did so. Needless to say, Saenz made an impression.

[RobertR]

I was at the game, as part of fanfest, and although we were too high up to get a good bead on Saenz's "stuff", it was a very impressive outing. Especially the way he was in the strike zone all day. There have been a lot of pitchers over the last several years that could have learned a lot from Saenz's outing.

 

As far as what to do now, I'd suggest that there's no need to rush Capuano back any earlier than necessary. Given that it's just one outing and noone's seen him, I appreciate that this might be more the exception than the rule, but I certaintly wouldn't be upset if Saenz got another start to make a case for himself. As long as he has success, why mess with a good thing?

 

Robert

[LouisEly]

It's only through five innings, but this performance will hopefully rank a close second only to the Steve Woodard vs Roger Clemens debut as far as Brewer pitching debuts go.

 

I gotta go with Jeff Peterek in 1989. 7 IP, 2H, can't remember against whom (think it might have been the Blue Jays). Pretty sure he had given up one hit through seven and opened the eighth with a hit, then Trebs came out and yanked him. I was listening to the radio and when Trebs came out they usually went to commercial but Ueck said, "We're going to stick around to listen to the ovation for this kid..." and they did delay going to commercial to listen to the standing ovation for him. That was cool.

 

I also give him the nod because he wasn't considered a prospect. That start allowed him to hang around for four starts and 31 IP, but never appeared in the majors again after that season.

[danzig6767]

I say give the kid at least one more start,what would be the harm??I doubt if he gets hit hard his next start that it will hurt his confidence long term.Granted he made a large jump from just 2 starts in AA,but you see that more and more with guys skipping AAA,even if most are bigger time prospects.

 

One nice thing by seeing the game clips was he looks to have an out pitch,he was throwing some NASTY benders.

[MassBrew]

According to Drew Olson, RHP Victor Santos is already "on the premises". The question is, do they activate him now?

 

Link:

 

www.jsonline.com/sports/b...224616.asp

[NastyTwig]

I was at the game aswell, but my friend got us some amazing tickets... for free! We were row 3, just to the right of the cards dugout (right where the umps leave the field). But anyway, we were pretty much directly accross from the plate and that curve was a killer. And pretty much everyone was in the zone. He didn't get nearly as many calls as Woody did from our view. Pujols could only descibe Saenz's stuff as "****" and "****".

[JoeHova]

Quote:

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Pujols could only descibe Saenz's stuff as "****" and "****".

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always a good sign! http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/happy.gif

[colbyjack]

As Robert already noted, since we were sitting so high up in Miller Park for FanFest, it was hard to get a good read on Saenz' performance today. I did watch him warm up in the bullpen, and I also watched his first inning performance from behind the plate as I tried to get some good pictures. The fastball definitely was popping, and as I noted on the issues forum, his breaking ball gave batters something completely different to look at coming in the low to mid-70s.

 

Baseball Tonight had a very nice snippett on Saenz after their Brewers/Cardinals highlights (which focused largely on Woody Williams). They pointed out that Saenz' girlfriend & parents were in attendance, and offered several compliments for his stuff & poise. Congrats to Chris, who I'm sure was & probably still is on cloud 9.

[JoeHova]

Quote:

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Albert Pujols on Saenz:

 

"I don't think he had anything, he just got lucky, I guess."

 

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What's up with that?

[950opsLHcatcher]

Albert Pujols on Saenz:

 

"I don't think he had anything, he just got lucky, I guess."

 

What's up with that?

 

Gamesmanship. What did you expect him to say? "Yah, that rookie from AA really handed it to us." And there is probably some glint of truth to his statement - Saenz doesn't have the best stuff in the world, and Pujols and the Cards have beaten better.

 

Still, when you make one of the best hitters in the game sound like a chump, you've done something

[JoeHova]

Quote:

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Gamesmanship. What did you expect him to say? "Yah, that rookie from AA really handed it to us."

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I know, but he could have at least said, "Nice game by the rook, but we'll get him next time." It just seemed a little harsh but perhaps I am reading too much into it.

[JohnBriggs12]

I attended the game with my daughter and had a little better view than the fanfesters. Pujols can say what he wants but I did see his knees buckle on one pitch and he didn't hit a decent foul ball.

 

Saenz looked like a veteran. His fastball was consistenly 92, occasionally 93.

 

Now I am sure the Cardinals are making plenty of excuses like they were tired from getting in at 4 am Friday, then playing a day game after a night game blah, blah blah.

 

From my perspective, the Brewers would be foolish to not give him another start if just to see if they have a phenomen comparable Fidrych in the 70's or Willis last year. Yes that is still a long shot but creating a buzz that sells tickets would be a departure for this franchise and refreshing.

 

I can't remember feeling so good after a game than I did today.

[hardytheman]

Gamesmanship. What did you expect him to say? "Yah, that rookie from AA really handed it to us." And there is probably some glint of truth to his statement - Saenz doesn't have the best stuff in the world, and Pujols and the Cards have beaten better.

 

 

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HUH? since when is having a 93MPH fastball with command, a pretty damn good curveball that you can throw for strikes and a changeup not pretty good stuff? Do you expect 98 miles per hour for it to be great?

 

Saenz has really good stuff, a great head on his shoulders and confidence in his abilities. Thats a great makeup for a pitcher and combine that with three pitches that he can throw for strikes and keep hitters off balance, and youve got a pretty good pitcher.

[batman]

I've never heard Pujols say anything like that before... he's always a very respectful guy (at least in the public eye - we obviously don't know if that's the "real" Pujols or not). The weird thing about this quote is that the only person who apparently heard it was Rick Hummell of the Post-Dispatch. The other media outlets (Drew/JS, AP, etc.) are all just quoting from the Hummell article. I wouldn't be surprised at all if what Pujols said was sarcastic, not literal - he quite possibly could have been complimenting Saenz but was misrepresented by Hummell. I'm not saying that definitely is the case, but I don't want to blast Pujols for being a jerk based on one person's quoting of him.

 

Just my $.02,

~Bill

[DHonks]

According to Drew Olson, RHP Victor Santos is already "on the premises". The question is, do they activate him now?

 

Mass, I would expect today will be the key. If Ben has a good outing, then the bullpen will be very well rested for Tuesday, and so we won't need Santos.

[lend d money]

You guys really have my envy being at the game on Saturday. I try really hard to make the debuts of former Snapper players(like Hall, Pember, Childers of recent memory). Unfortunately, spring cleaning duty called and by the time we were done(for the day, anyway) it was too late and opted for the later-starting Snappers. I have to honestly say I would not have envisioned Saenz doing that based on his second half performance at Beloit. He made the MWL

All-Star team, but his stats didn't scream prospect at you. In an instance like this, I love being wrong and look forward to being able to congratulate him down south in a month.