Batter's Box Interactive Magazine - Today's MLU Is Brought To You By The Letter 'K'

Today's MLU Is Brought To You By The Letter 'K'

The affiliates may have gone just 3-5 on the night but the pitching. Oh, the pitching.

Travis Snider went 0-for-4 with 4 K's in this to bring his AAA hot streak to a grinding halt. That said, I wonder if that may actually be a good thing. It may show he's up there hacking, not just trying to knock a squibber up the middle. For the glass half empty folk, he did manage an outfield assist. Adeiny Hechavarria was 1-for-4 to drop his average to .517.

P.J. Walters made another start and while it went better than the first debacle, he's not in line for a crack at the majors. Walters went four innings and allowed two runs on seven hits with three walks against four strikeouts. A trio of relievers closed things out.

New Hampshire 11 Altoona 2

Believe it or not, this one was tied at 2-2 heading into the 9th. And then the Fisher Cats happened. They parlayed nine hits and a walk into a nine-spot and cruised to an 11-2 victory. Moises Sierra and Yan Gomes each had three hits. Gomes smacked his 11th homer while Sierra scored four times. Travis D'Arnaud was 2-for-5 while Anthony Gose had a single and a run scored. Mike McDade went 2-for-5 with a double and 3 RBI.

It would take a hell of a performance to overshadow a nine-run ninth but Nestor Molina did just that by going 5 innings and allowing but two hits while striking out nine. Molina seems to be finding AA much to his liking as he has now accumulated 17 strikeouts against one walk in his 11 Eastern League innings.

Clearwater 6 Dunedin 1

The less said about this one, the better. Sean Ochinko had two hits while Andrew Liebel took the loss by allowing all six runs in four innings. There. Done.

Lansing 2 Bowling Green 6

Jake Marisnick was 2-for-4 with a double while Marcus Knecht had a double of his own. KC Hobson contributed two singles and that was that for the offense.

Egan Smith started and got whipped to the tune of five runs on six hits in 4.1 innings.

Everett 3 Vancouver 2

While the end result doesn't look good, that's because Noah Syndergaard was removed after five innings. But oh, what a five inning stint it was. Syndergaard breezed through the AquaSox (aren't those just flippers?) line-up allowing just two walks and striking out eight. In four Lo-A starts, Noah has a 22:5 K:BB in 18 innings and allowed just 15 hits.

Andy Burns provided most of the excitement on offense with an inside-the-park job.

Burlington 1 Bluefield 2 (5 innings)

Myles Jaye didn't want to be left out of the fun and put up a gem of his own going the (shortened) distance and allowing a run on two hits and a walk against eight strikeouts. You know, just in case you needed another low minors pitching prospect to keep your eye on.

Peter Mooney is showing he's probably ready for another promotion as he went 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI to raise his Appy League OPS to over 1.000. Dalton Pompey had a hit, HBP, run, and a stolen base.

GCL Pirates 1 GCL Blue Jays 5 (6 innings)

Melvin Garcia hit his first homer, a three-run job, to propel the offense. Jorge Vega-Rosado was 1-for-2 with two stolen bases.

Randal Thompson went four innings for the win allowing an unearned run on one hit and a walk against 3 punch-outs.

DSL Tigers 4 DSL Blue Jays 1

Maydawin De La Cruz homered for the Jays to provide pretty much all of the offense.

Cesar Sanchez started and took the loss allowing two runs on six hits in five innings. He walked one and struck out seven.

Three Stars:

3rd Star: Myles Jaye- 5 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 8 K

2nd Star: Noah Syndergaard- 5 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 8 K

1st Star: Nestor Molina- 5 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 9 K

Posted by braden on Friday, August 19 2011 @ 09:27 AM EDT.

Today's MLU Is Brought To You By The Letter 'K' | 23 comments | Create New Account

The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.

Mike Green - Friday, August 19 2011 @ 10:20 AM EDT (#241527) #

Lesson 1: Bad things happen to you when you name a child Kody.

Krylian19 - Friday, August 19 2011 @ 11:17 AM EDT (#241543) #

Syndergaard hit triple digits last night.

Shi Davidi tweeted that he hit 102 on the stadium gun. A scout at the game said that it came up as 100 for him.

Regardless, Noah won't be 19 for another 10 days. Yowza!!

Sano - Friday, August 19 2011 @ 11:24 AM EDT (#241547) #

Everyone should have a little look-see at the video on Snider/Mottola below.

http://www.sportsnet.ca/video/latest/Snider-dealing-with-demotion

I have always been intrigued by guys that weren't altogether successful at the major league level becoming coaches. Mottola was a much-hyped prospect IIRC who never really put it all together. I wonder what Snider thinks taking hitting advice from him.

wdc - Friday, August 19 2011 @ 11:45 AM EDT (#241552) #

thank you for the tip about this video. I found it helpful. Snider comes across as quite mature and determined. If the rapport with Mottolla continues to work out, maybe this move to LV makes sense. From what I have seen in games and from what I have learned from others on this blog, the real problem seems to be plate discipline, when it comes to major league pitching. But can that kind of thing be taught? Or is it something that a player needs to learn "on the job" so to speak.

MatO - Friday, August 19 2011 @ 11:46 AM EDT (#241553) #

Just about every major golfer out there has a swing coach who isn't good enough to play on the PGA tour.

I like the Lee Trevino quote though. "I'll use a swing coach when the swing coach can beat me." Then again Trevino had an unorthodox, self-taught, swing.

Anders - Friday, August 19 2011 @ 12:55 PM EDT (#241575) #

of course this may just be poppycock.

Sano - Friday, August 19 2011 @ 01:28 PM EDT (#241580) #

I just really hope that Snider puts it all together. It seems like he's at this point where he could go either way - boom or bust. He's so young so there's a lot of hope still.

Ryan Day - Friday, August 19 2011 @ 01:47 PM EDT (#241584) #

There is a school of thought that the greats make poor coaches, as they simply expect players to be able to do what they did, whereas the scrappers have to fight to make the most out of there talent, and are vest at communicating

Being able to do something, and explaining how you do something, are two very different things. Part of Carlos Delgado's success was due to keeping a book on opposing pitchers, but it was also because he could tell a fastball from a breaking ball in a fraction of a second and blast it over the fence. Some of his skills are surely teachable, while others aren't.

On the other hand, there's also a school of thought that major league hitters are more likely to listen to a guy if he's been successful at the major league level. A brilliant coach isn't very useful if no one listens to him.

It's a lot like Billy Bishop's Flying School.

Dave Rutt - Friday, August 19 2011 @ 02:05 PM EDT (#241589) #

Being able to do something, and explaining how you do something, are two very different things.

Coming from a high school math teacher's perspective, I agree wholeheartedly. Some of the best teachers struggled with elementary school math. Some could (or do) have a PhD. I don't think mastery of a skill has a huge effect on the ability to teach it one way or the other (given that a certain level of competence is required, of course).

On the other hand, high school may not be the best analogy as HS students aren't exactly at the cutting edge of their field. I think the point still stands, though, under the notion that "it's all relative".

Lugnut Fan - Friday, August 19 2011 @ 02:13 PM EDT (#241594) #

I think it is purely a confidence thing with Snider. He has always been a successful minor league player, but at the major league level, to me it looks like he loses a lot of his swagger. I haven't seen him live for a few years, but when he was in Lansing, Travis went up to the plate with a swagger and it just looked like he knew he was going to get a hit. It was almost like he was daring the pitcher to throw him a strike.

At the MLB level, he looks very anxious to me. I'm not sure he has the same confidence. He plays like a player hoping he doesn't get sent back down to the Minor Leauges. I wonder what would happen if they told him, "The job is yours, go out there and play everyday". If he had no fear of being sent to the minors and started seeing some success, I think it would do wonders with his psyche.

greenfrog - Friday, August 19 2011 @ 10:04 PM EDT (#241613) #

PCL notes from tonight's game:

The good news: Hech has another couple of hits (2/3 so far) and is hitting .531.

The bad news: Drabek's line was 3.1 5 6 6 6 2, giving a whole new meaning to the phrase, "walking in Memphis."

Sano - Friday, August 19 2011 @ 11:06 PM EDT (#241614) #

So I was at the Canadians game today. Couple thoughts:

1) Nicolino has good stuff. Hit 93 at least a couple times. Showed a nice curve (I think- it was 77 so I assumed it was). Also the change-up to keep guys off balance. Has a pretty easy arm action. Only concern I have is his pretty slight build. If he can fill out he'll be good.

2) The Canadians have basically two bats right now- Berti and Jones. Those guys were responsible for most of the offence. Other than that, most of the guys are small and didn't really seem to be all that projectable.

3) They lost the game primarily because Nicolino's replacement, Blake McFarland, got hit pretty well. Wasn't fooling anyone with his pitches.

Magpie - Saturday, August 20 2011 @ 12:02 AM EDT (#241618) #

On the other hand, there's also a school of thought that major league hitters are more likely to listen to a guy if he's been successful at the major league level.

That's probably true of some guys, but they're the dumb ones who wash out of the league in three years anyway. George Brett and Reggie Jackson both learned a great deal from Charlie Lau, who couldn't have carried either man's batting gloves. A young Frank Thomas allowed Walt Hriniak - who? - to completely remodel his swing, and he stuck with his Hriniak-designed approach for his entire career.

It's certainly true that the really great players do not noramlly become managers, or succeed at it if they do. They don't even become coaches. You'll find a lot of pretty good players, from Casey Stengel to Joe Torre and Dusty Baker. You'll find a lot of fringe guys. But the no-doubt Hall of Famers? I'll give you Tris Speaker (who was also an effective coach in later life) ... and that's about it. And Speaker's been dead for more than 50 years. (I do think Frank Robinson was a pretty good manager, but it's hard to say for sure. He was only hired by losing teams.)

I suppose that nowadays this is also because of the money. If you were a good player in recent years, you should have enough money that you don't need the work. And by the time these guys hit 40, they've seen more than enough airports and hotel rooms for one lifetime. And that's at the major league level - you can imagine how much the prospect of going to A ball and riding the bus appeals to them.

This is how you know Ryne Sandberg is serious!

hypobole - Saturday, August 20 2011 @ 12:33 AM EDT (#241621) #

Mottola was a much-hyped prospect IIRC who never really put it all together.

Perhaps Mottola's greatest claim to fame was being selected 5th overall by the Reds in the 1992 draft. Yankees had the next pick and took a HS shortstop named Derek Jeter.

TamRa - Saturday, August 20 2011 @ 01:25 AM EDT (#241624) #

FWIW, if you listen to John Farrell's comments as reported here:

http://gregorchisholm.mlblogs.com/

it sure SOUNDS pretty incompatible with "grip it and rip it"

I'm not sure how convinced they are that this is actually Murph's approach, but if it is, he is out of step with both his manager and GM

Magpie - Saturday, August 20 2011 @ 02:13 AM EDT (#241627) #

"grip it and rip it"

Certainly was not Murphy's hitting philosophy when he played, at any rate. He had tremendous plate discipline.

hypobole - Saturday, August 20 2011 @ 02:26 AM EDT (#241628) #

My understanding of Murph's philosophy is: "If you get your pitch, don't slap it, drive it"

China fan - Saturday, August 20 2011 @ 05:40 AM EDT (#241629) #

Hechavarria ended up with 3 hits -- including his first AAA home run. He also has three 2Bs with Las Vegas, so his AAA slugging average has climbed to .706 and his OPS is an awesome 1.273.

Snider, meanwhile, had no hits or walks in 5 plate appearances, and struck out twice.

Drabek lasted only 3.1 innings and allowed 11 base runners. His ERA is now at 7.10.

China fan - Saturday, August 20 2011 @ 06:02 AM EDT (#241630) #

Speaking of Drabek, there was a worrisome tweet from Keith Law last night, speculating that he "has to be hurt." I wonder if they're going to have Dr. Andrews look at him at some point soon.

In better news: Hutchison had another great outing at Dunedin -- five innings, only 1 hit and 1 walk, with 6 strikeouts. Time to promote him to New Hampshire yet?

ayjackson - Saturday, August 20 2011 @ 07:29 AM EDT (#241631) #

Hulet tweeted last night that he was told Hutch will replace Carreno at NH.

greenfrog - Saturday, August 20 2011 @ 07:47 AM EDT (#241632) #

Listening to the Sportsnet interview with Snider and Mottola in Vegas was a weird experience. Snider seems like such a serious and earnest (if platitudinous) young man, and Mottola mentioned how "angry" he gets at himself when he struggles. It seems as though he's been through so many mechanical experiments - I wonder whether he's now overcomplicating things, effectively worrying about the minutiae of his mechanics instead of seeing the ball, hitting the ball, and having fun (they call it *playing* baseball for a reason).

Speaking of mental issues, I also wonder whether Drabek is developing a bit of Steve Blass disease. The Twins immediately had prospect Alex Wimmers sit out for a few months when he developed extreme control issues (he walked all six batters he faced in his season debut). He appears to be back on track now.

hypobole - Saturday, August 20 2011 @ 10:24 AM EDT (#241637) #

My theory on Drabek is the Jays tried to adjust his mechanics, and the resukts went horribly wrong; similar to what Tyler Matzek of the Rockies went through.

BlueJayWay - Saturday, August 20 2011 @ 11:26 AM EDT (#241650) #

Hope that's it, and they can fix it and go back or something. At this point Drabek is looking like a washout. It's not just him not pitching well; it's he can't seem to throw a strike at all this year. It's getting worrying.

Today's MLU Is Brought To You By The Letter 'K' | 23 comments | Create New Account

The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.