My Spring Training story
by mj10catchit10 on Mar 15, 2011 5:45 PM EDT
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PrintAny day that starts off with saying hello to Mr. Henry Aaron is a good day. Hammerin' Hank was hanging around the minor leaguers all day today, which basically lead to me staring at him in awe for the first hour or so. They gathered all the minor league guys onto one field and they took a knee and simply listened to Mr. Aaron for about five or ten minutes, which was way cool. They were all extremely polite and respectful, and it was obvious to see they wanted to listen to him and learn for the home run champ (yes I went there). After that, the boys started playing some ball...
We heard that there was going to be a simulated game on the back fields, with Julio Teheran and Randall Delgado throwing, so we were obviously pretty excited. We just hung out all day, talking to fans and even a couple scouts, and watching the drills and taking it all in.
Here are some quick reactions of what I saw
-Edward Salcedo looked good. He looked very relaxed and comfortable, which was great to see. I think he is going to have a solid year this year. He was driving balls right back up the middle, and showing power the other way.
-Christian Bethancourt can't hit. He did not impress me at all at the dish. I want to think he will be able to hit enough to be a big league catcher, because defensively he is a monster. A scout from the Rays told us that Bethancourt had the best arm of any guy on the 18 teams he scouted last year, and it was not even close.
- I really like Dave Tremblay. He seemed very in control and organized, and it was easy to tell the players respected him and were comfortable around him.
- 2011 will be the year of Carlos Perez. He threw in the simulated game too, and he was very impressive. His change up was crazy, diving away from bats all day. I needed to remind myself that the guy is six months younger than me more than a few times.
That's all I've got for now. I got to see a ton of guys, so just ask if you want to hear about anyone else. It was a blast and I will be bouncing back and forth between minor league camp and the big boys all week. Go Braves!
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I’m a little skeptical of Bethancourt’s ability to hit well enough to be an everyday major league player, and from what I’ve heard, scouts do not like his swing at all. That being said, his numbers thus far in the minor leagues are actually better than what Ivan Rodriguez did at a similar age, and he turned out pretty well…
Couple questions
How did Teheran and Delgado look? Was Matt Lipka out there if so how’d he look?
Teheran and Delgado
Both looked very good in their appearance (saw 1 inning from each). Delgado looked filthy all around and seemed to be controlling the strike zone and changing speeds extremely effectively.
Teheran came out throwing 95-97 and only threw offspeed once or twice in his inning off work. He had 4 balls hit pretty hard off him but 3 were directly at fielders so he escaped without any damage. I really would have liked to see him working on some of his secondary stuff more but I’m not worried as that will come with time. Also seemed like a pretty nice guy signing for a large groups of fans several times.
Although Teheran and Delgado were impressive, Arodys Vizcaino completely blew me away. His fastball was between 96-101(!!!) and he was mixing changes and curves in very well. Had hitters completely off balance and any contact made was pretty much weak grounders/fouls. Probably looked better than any other pitcher I saw in my 5 days there.
Unfortunately I didn’t catch any of Lipka during my time there…..I’d also love to hear it if any other members saw him play at all.
Baseball is like church. Many attend but few understand.
I basically agree with everything said here about Teheran and Delgado. Their off speed stuff wasn’t touched, and you could tell it separates them from their counterparts. I got to see a lot of Lipka, as I really wanted to see him play. He was 0 for 3 in the scrimmage with two K’s, but he was facing guys much more experienced so I will give him a pass. He looked very smooth and natural in the field, as well as looking extremely athletic. It is easy to tell he was a stud receiver in high school. He was also a really funny dude. He seemed to be the class clown around the guy, and I even got to hear part of a very funny conversation started by him, discussing who the biggest s***talker in camp is. Hilarity ensued.
by mj10catchit10 on Mar 16, 2011 5:54 PM EDT up reply actions
Nice
What days where you there for? I was down all last week…..
Glavine, Murphy, Bobby, Mark McGuire and TLR were all just chatting it up one of the days I was there. Pretty cool to see five four hall of famers hanging out. I also think Carlos Perez is gonna shoot up the boards this year.
I was fortunate enough to see Beachy and Minor pitch in a “B squad” matchup with the Cards standing about 10 feet behind home plate in a game that also featured a ton of our top prospects. I’ll definitely second the notion on Bethancourt’s hitting…..didn’t appear to have any strike zone discipline whatsoever. A pleasant surprise for me was watching Ed Lucas play. Hadn’t heard of the guy until a few months ago and his defensive flexibility and hitting approach really looked good from what I saw.
Baseball is like church. Many attend but few understand.
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