Power Player Observations

[EbbaStClaire]

Recently, I saw a couple of Power games, against Lexington in Lexington and the first league championship game against Columbus. I made a few observations (albeit amateur observations) of a few WV players.

 

1. Jeremy Jeffress - I was able to stand 6-10 feet away from him basically looking over his right shoulder as he was warming up. My first impression was that he had a more mature body than I was expecting. His upper body was more developed than I thought it would be and I believe he was closer to 200 pounds than his listed weight of 175. During his warmup he was throwing his fastball, curve, and change-up. O course his fastball was quick but the thing that struck me was that it looked heavy. It seemed to have some sink. Since he struck out 8 and threw 6 ground ball outs in his 5 innings, I guess those observations were correct. I noticed that when he threw his cuvre ball he was wedging the fingernail of is index finger into the seam. I asked John Curtis, the WV pitching coach, if he was throwing a knuckle curve and he said no, it was a spike curveball. His change-up was thrown with the index, middle, and ring finger on the ball but I don't remember the relationship of the fingers to the seams. During the game the Lexington scoreboard gun had Jeffress throwing his fastball at 95 mph but I think it was quicker than that and I will explain why later. I also thought JJ was being squeezed by the ump with respect to balls and strikes. He seemed to throw a lot of pitches in 5 innings but since opposing batters couldn't hit the ball they were taking a lot of pitches. John Cur tis did say he was the real deal.

 

2. Zach Braddock - I mentioned to JC that one of my disappointments this year was Braddock's injury. He said it was a disappointment for him also. I asked JC what the injury was and he said he hadn't heard anything lately but at one time the thought was that he had a floating bone chip in his elbow. I said well at least if he needs surgery to clean the elbow out that was at least relatively minor compared to other possibilities and he agreed with that assesment.

 

3. Matt Laporta - He played left field uneventfully. I don't remeber if he had any chances but he didn't mess anything up either. He was an impressive batter. In the Lexington game he stuck out his first time up but it seemed as if he was stepping out of the batters box and thinking about the pitches he was seeing. I guess he figured it out because he hit a double down the left field line, a single to left center and ahome run to the right field porch. In the Columbus game he took the same approach with the pitcher during the first at bat and later on laced a hard line drive to left field for a single. He looked like a cerebral hitter rather than a wild swinger.

 

4. Steve Chapman - He looked like a wild swinger versus a cerebral hitter. In two games I saw Chpaman bat 7 or 8 times and he struck out 5 times with no hits. In the Columbus game his third or fourth time up he hit a long foul ball and it wasn't foul by a lot but it was foul. I turned and said to my wife, "Here comes a curve ball to strike him out", and that's what happened. He struck out 4 time in the Catfish game and after every at bat he acted like a 19 year old. I believe he needs to mature some.

 

5. Mike Ramlow - When he was introduced prior to the start of the Championship series with Columbus I couldn't believe how skinny he was. He makes Corey Hart look obese. The WV Power couldn't even find a uniform to fit him.

 

Well more to come later. Hope everyone enjoys the info.

[colbyjack]

Thanks for the first-hand info. Keep it coming.