Saturday, June 16, 2018

After Friday's Game

Thursday night:
German has been settling into a non-dominant yet not bad pitching line of late.  He has been keeping the Yankees in the game.  This can be effective when the bats start to come alive (we are definitely not hot at the plate).  His last 2 outings were very similar in that he went 6 innings, allowed 5 hits and 3 runs while striking out 9 and 10 respectively while walking 0 and 2 respectively.    This type of game with a 4.50 ERA can be useful for a team like ours that should be scoring runs.  I like his stuff (FB without great movement at around 95, a changeup with good movement around 87-88 MPH and good curve around 82-83.  He hasn't had the command/consistency you would like to see yet though.  He is 25 so this is the time to establish himself (he had Tommy John surgery in 2014) and then hopefully get into a groove.

Down 2-0 in the 5th inning, Hicks was up with 1 out and hit a HR to RC off a changeup down the middle by Snell.  Hicks has an OPS of .760 now and I think this is about where he is  A solid defender with a great arm (especially for a CF'r) and a guy who can get you a SB, hit with some power and give you a mid .700 OPS.   He will get hot and cool off but at the end, he will be around this mark with the exception of a longer hot or cool streak than expected.  Here is a link to the preseason blog and my thoughts about Hicks.

https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8620636286965369574#editor/target=post;postID=4959679361620907379;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=34;src=postname

After a hard hit ball by Judge for a single, a Stanton K and a Sanchez walk, Torres had a great AB.  2 outs and 2 on down 2-1.  He had a good cut on a fastball but tipped it, he then took 3 balls (a FB, a slider and a change) before getting another FB that he fouled off.  On 3-2 the runners would be going and he got a curveball that he fouled off.  This was a critical pitch for a couple of reasons.  He looked like he was sitting on the FB as that was all he swung at and with 3-2 and runners going, a FB is more likely.  the other important piece was that he didn't look bad on the swing, he does a good job of hesitating ever so slightly, keeping his hands back and still getting some power on his swing.  Based on him not being fooled on the curve (he has no seen all 4 of Snell's pitches), Snell threw a FB and this time Torres squared up the 96 MPH fastball and yanked it to LF for his 13th HR of the year (and a 4-2 lead).  At 21, this guy has had a lot of excellent moments this year!  While he doesn't turn 2 like Cano does, he gets great jumps on balls and is very smooth.  He is also very confident, in the 7th inning up by 1 run and a man on 1st and 1 out he fielded a ball well to his left (toward 1b) and stopped and fired back to 2nd base to get the lead runner by a step.  This is not the safe play, but it is the right play if you execute it correctly.  he also saw the runner slow and let the hit ball go ahead of him so Torres seeing this "live" processed the information and cut down the potential tying run.  That was a veteran play.   This kid looks great and I would sign up for the .911 OPS he has every year.

Green, Betances and Chapman held onto the 1 run lead!


Friday's game:
I was very interested to see the young kid (23) brought up from AA (started the year in A) to pitch that had never pitched in AAA.  Jonathan Loaisiga (pronounced "loh-AYE-see-gah").  He was drafted the SF Giants and then was injured for pretty much 3 years.  2017 was a good year and was added to the 40 man roster 11/17.  He had a lot of strikeouts in the minors this year (58 in 45 innings, but did allow 47 hits and 4 HR's.  The impressive part was he only walked 4 batters!

I was impressed when I saw the ball come out of his hands and read the gun at 97...with movement.  His fastball had some tail to it.  His slider looked solid as well and he adjusted from throwing everything away to hitting the outside corner.  I am not sure if it was intentional, but his changeup had good movement, one-time fading/dropping and another moving right away from a lefty.  Those are 3 plus pitches.  In many ways, similar stuff to German, but I like Loaisiga's fastball better.  At 23 and never pitching above single A before this year, he had to be feeling some pressure.  He surprisingly walked 4 batters in his 5 innings (as many walks as his 45 IP this year), but you have to give him some leeway.  He allowed only 3 singles, struck out 6 and pitched out of trouble not allowing a run.  Very impressed and he was throwing 95-96 on his 90th pitch (got up to 98 at one point early in the game but mostly around 96- 97).

Meanwhile, Didi got his 2nd HR in 2 nights and Sanchez cleared the bases with a double that iced the game.  On this play, the defender had to make an attempt to catch the ball with 2 outs because a single pretty much ended the game.  

Nice 5-0 victory and Boston lost late to Seattle


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