4/11 MiLB Discussion Thread

Chapman and Strasburg make their debuts today, great day for prospect followers.

Kid looks pretty major league ready to me. His poise is pretty off the charts for a guy who has never even seen the minor leagues. And he got a hit in his first major league at-bat by putting together a better at-bat than any other Red has today (not that that’s saying much).

It’s HUUUUGE

Hit another HR today — a solo shot.

2 doubles 2 rbi

3-3, HR, 4 RBI so far today.

6.2 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 7 BB, 5 K; 2-2 at the plate, 106 pitches

The walk number isn’t pretty, but I don’t think it’s terribly indicative of future issues. He was around the plate with everything and the ump was squeezing him pretty hard on a lot of calls, and they were, for the most part, strategic or excusable walks. One walk was on the first batter of his professional career, one was to load up the bases to set up the force play, two were him pitching around Soto with two outs to get to the pitcher, and two more were the last two batters he faced when he was obviously fatigued (he never should’ve come out to start the 7th, but it’s Dusty Baker, so you can’t expect anything else). All in all, a very nice start to his professional career, and he didn’t look overmatched by being in the bigs at all.

Of course, he’s probably going to get saddled with a loss, as the rest of the Reds have a total of one hit and one walk (both by Scott Rolen, one resulting in an asinine caught stealing) off of Tom Gorzelanny.

5IP, 6H, 2ER, 1BB, 10K

2/2 R 2B BB SB

5 IP, 5 H, 5 SO, 0 BB.

He walked eight batters in 74 innings last season. He’s tall (6’ 6") but has room to fill out. At spring training he told me he’s added about 10 pounds. He absolutely hates to walk batter. Could be special if his fastball picks up some velocity and he increases k rate.
Big sleeper.

Matt Thompson: 5.0IP 7H 2R 1ER 0BB 7K 0HR GO/FO: 7-0 (Sleeper)
Miguel Velazquez: 3-4 2B BB CS
Leury Garcia: 1-3 3B 3RBI

2-4 and a walk

Kasey Kiker: 4.2IP 2H 3R 3ER 3BB HBP WP 7K 1HR
Ben Snyder: 2IP 0H 0R 0BB 4K
Joey Butler: 1-3 HR BB HBP
Justin Smoak: 1-3 HR 2BB 2E’s
Mitch Moreland: 1-3 3B BB
Chad Tracy: 1-5 2K
Max Ramirez: 0-3 BB K
Guillermo Moscoso: 4.0IP 3H 3R 2ER 1BB 1K 0HR

http://oriolesprospects.com/2010/04/11/minor-league-scores-4-11-10/

1-4, HR

So yesterday I got to hit up my first minor league game of the young season, and took in a pretty solid pitching matchup as Ethan Martin of the Inland Empire 66’ers faced Will Smith of the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes. OK, it didn’t end up quite the pitching matchup in the end, but the first five innings or so were pretty impressive. Today I’ll take a look at Ethan Martin, and I’ll try to do a write-up on Smith later in the week.

Martin is very athletic, especially for a pitcher. He looks more like a middle infielder, and he was a two way player coming up through High School. The former first round pick is listed at 6’2" and 195 pounds. Martin employs a simple delivery which he repeats very well. Last night Martin was primarily working with his fastball/curveball, and also mixed in a change, which is definitely his third pitch right now.

I didn’t get behind the plate until the second inning, and Martin was pitching at 92-93 for the most part, and hit 95 a few times. The pitch had good life, with late arm side movement. For the most part, Martin was able to command the strikezone with the fastball. Martin’s curveball is truly nasty. His curve was coming in around 80-84 with sharp two plane break. At one point he threw three straight curveballs to strike out a Quakes hitter, and all three had great break and good location. His command of the pitch, at least last night, was solid. A few times he didn’t get on top of the pitch and the pitch was well out of the strike zone, up and away to a lefthanded hitter. Martin’s third pitch is a change, and it lags well behind his two primary offerings. The pitch comes in with similar velocity to his curveball, ranging from 80-83. The change looks like it could be a split finger, as he starts with this grip as he takes the sign from the catcher. The pitch had inconsistent movement when he threw it, primarily when warming up. Sometimes the pitch had good armside fade and sink, while other times it appeared to be straighter with some sink. He lacked command with pitch last night.

Martin’s pitching line from last night was 5 IP, 3H, 0R, 0BB, and an impressive 9 K’s. One of the hits was an infield hit. I didn’t note his pitch count, but he only went the five innings since it was his first start of the year. I was very impressed with Martin. He delivers easy velo from his simple delivery and the ball comes out of his hand very easily. The development of his change up will determine his future. He should be, at least, a solid bullpen option similar to Scot Shields early in his career, when he was primarily a two pitch guy offering a plus fastball with a big curve. If the change develops he could be pitching behind Clayton Kershaw in the rotation, his first two pitches are THAT good.

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I also have some video

In that weird pitching tandem the Brewers do, none the less pitched very well.

3IP
1H
0ER
1BB
4K