Batter's Box Interactive Magazine - Trahan Strykes Down C's

The Vancouver Canadians will need to win two on the road if they hope to win their fourth straight Northwest League championship after dropping Game 1 at Nat Bailey Stadium Saturday night.

Hillsboro 7 Vancouver 5 (Game 1)

Vancouver, BC - The C's built a 5-0 lead after two innings against the Diamondbacks affiliate but it wasn't enough. Chase Mallard set down the first seven hitters in a row but a single and a triple in the third put Hillsboro on the board. Left fielder Jonathan Davis - the defacto MVP of the North Division final against Spokane - nearly made a spectacular diving grab on the triple down the left field line but the ball eluded him. Hillsboro added an RBI single and a two-run homer to cut the deficit to one. Mallard made it through five innings and pitched a six-hitter with three K's and zero walks. Alberto Tirado (0-1) gave up the lead in the sixth on a two-run homer by Stryker Trahan after issuing one of his two walks in the inning. He struck out two and reached 94-96 MPH on the radar gun. Jose Fernandez was victimized by an unearned run in the seventh after a wild pitch and a throwing error by catcher Mike Reeves trying to nail a runner stealing third. Before that happened, Reeves did manage to nab a runner at third earlier in the inning. Yeyfry Del Rosario struck out the side in a perfect eighth and Justin Shafer allowed just one hit and struck out two in the ninth.

Roemon Fields led off the game with a double and scored on a Franklin Barreto single. Barreto went to third after an errant pickoff throw by Hillsboro starter Ben Eckels and would score on a passed ball. Richard Urena brought in a Chris Carlson base hit with an RBI single to cap the three-run rally in the first. Ryan McBroom got a two-out single in the second to score an Alexis Maldonado walk and a Fields hit by pitch. Fields was 1-for-1 with two walks and a hit by pitch but was curiously pinch-hit for by Boomer Collins after a Maldonado leadoff walk in the ninth. Though manager John Schneider got the righty-lefty matchup he wanted against the southpaw, Collins would fly out. Davis had a hit and a walk and Tim Locastro added one to the hit column in the ninth.

Saturday's Linescore

*** 3 Stars!!! ***

3. Yeyfry Del Rosario

2. Ryan McBroom

1. Roemon Fields

Sunday's Game & Probable Starter

Vancouver @ Hillsboro (Game 2), 8:00 pm ET - Matt Smoral (NR).

Posted by #2JBrumfield on Sunday, September 07 2014 @ 03:22 AM EDT.

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JB21 - Sunday, September 07 2014 @ 12:34 PM EDT (#293274) #

How do we feel about Alberto Tirado as a prospect? BP loved him and ranked him in the top 10 prior to the season and I can see why they liked his arm but at this point I believe he's averaging a walk an inning and has been struggling in short season ball.

bpoz - Monday, September 08 2014 @ 09:56 AM EDT (#293287) #

I expected a lot from Tirado this year. I do not know how many different problems he had this year but his biggest seemed to be the walks.
It is possible that he had a minor injury, I do not know. In an interview that Gerry did, it was admitted that he lost a lot of self confidence in Lansing. I think that the Jay's did the right thing to help his confidence by demoting him to Vancouver and into the pen. The demotion to the pen gave him less pressured situations to pitch in. Also any pitch that was not working could be scrapped. Of course he is going to need 3 or 4 pitches to succeed as a starter.
In 2012 and 13 he did well to be ranked so high. Walks were not a problem then.
I think what I said in theory is reasonably correct. I really like Tirado and hope he can turn it around.
I really hope he does not suffer like R Romero, Confidence & walks. His potential is sky high.

MatO - Monday, September 08 2014 @ 09:59 AM EDT (#293288) #

Per Rowdy Tellez: �The name of the game is to not get yourself out,�. I love you Rowdy.

uglyone - Monday, September 08 2014 @ 12:48 PM EDT (#293291) #

I thought the tirado and labourt top-10 rankings were aggressive last year, though admittedly the competition at the bottom of the top 10 wasn't stiff. Two kids who are just big arms at this point with hard lively fastballs. Both were useless in lansing to start the year, but at least labourt pulled it together a bit after getting demoted back down to repeating A-. I think they'd have dropped out od the top ten just based on their own performance, but add in a whole bunch of strong performances throughout the system and suddenly even the top-20 will be tough for these two to crack.

But yeah it might be time to start getting excited about rowdy. His second half performance this year was eye-popping, and didn't slow down even a little bit after getting promoted all the way up two levels. And even when he was struggling his zone control numbers looked good. And man would it be nice to see him take off, because it's been a while since we had a legit slugging prospect. Travis Snider was 7-8yrs ago already.

bpoz - Tuesday, September 09 2014 @ 09:24 AM EDT (#293314) #

I agree with everything uglyone said. It will be fun to look at last years top 30 list. There have to be at least 3 shooting stars in our top 5.
That does not include D Pompey, who had to have shot up the most. Or maybe not.

This years list will be a tough job for the decision makers.

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