Future Redbirds

Lucky me, I was able to be there live at my hometown ballpark in Cedar Rapids to witness the Swing defeat the Kernels, 5-4. Well, I got to see most of the game anyway. My 4 month old son was getting a little fussy so we had to leave in the 8th inning. I was a little disappointed at having to miss Kenny Maiques pitch, but you when you’re a dad you gotta do what you gotta do. (Maiques went on to strike out 2 and picked up his 7th save.) On the bright side, I got to see a couple of pretty interesting pitching performances from Eddie Degerman; who was recently called up from an extended camp after ironing out his control issues; and from Shaun Garceau; a name I haven’t heard much about but will be checking into now. First of all: about Eddie Degerman. I liked the Cards selection of him in the 4th round last year; he’s the type of results oriented college arm they seem to like despite him possessing a very weird delivery that would turn most scouts off. I’ve read before that his delivery is straight over the top, that’s no exaggeration. Here’s a shot at different frames in his delivery I was able to catch-

It was quite a sight to behold; I could see how it would be deceptive from the hitter’s perspective. I’m afraid the pictures don’t quite do it justice but hopefully it gives you all an idea. His fastball had pretty decent sink to it, but it topped out at 87 according to the stadium radar gun. It was a decent offering when he located it, but when he left it up it was subject to plenty of hard contact. His curve ball was a whole other story. Nasty is how I would describe it, a true 12-to-6 hammer in the 73-76 MPH range. Degerman’s curve got plenty of swings and misses and weak contact and appeared to me to be a dominant offering. At one point he struck out 4 batters in a row, all on the curve. He finished the game with 6 K’s in 5 innings, walking 1 and allowing 3 runs on 4 hits. 2 of the runs were earned. (He was not helped by his catcher Chris Grossman, who will not get confused with Mike Matheny anytime soon.)

A different animal was Shaun Garceau. He had a fastball that threw in the 90-92 MPH range, and he dialed it up to 94 several times. He also had a change up he threw in the low 80s that he had some swings and misses on. The 5 hits he gave up were either the weak contact that found a hole variety, with the exception of a couple mistakes. He also showed a curve. I’m not a scout, but it looked pretty average, especially after seeing Degerman’s. Garceau struck out the side in the 7th working mostly with heat. Garceau was a 20th round draft pick out of high school in 2005. He’s only 20 19 years old right now, and I’d say he has a future.

Not much else of major interest, the Kernels committed 6 (!) errors, two of them were throwing errors by their pitcher and another by their catcher Hank Conger that resulted in a run scored. It was like watching last year’s World Series. Daryl Jones only came into the game as a pinch runner, and run he did as he really does have some wheels. Not one of the hitters made an impression on me, really. Jim Rapoport is about as fast as Jones on the base paths, his speed really screwed with the Kernel’s defense, resulting in some of the throwing errors. Mark Shorey’s swing has quite a pronounced uppercut in my judgment; he looked just plain rough at times. Luke Gorsett seems to have a good idea of the strike zone. He was able to shorten his swing when needed, yet I could see he has some power potential. He went 2 for 3 with a walk, including a triple. Brandon Buckman is a big, tall guy that also has a pretty big swing, but not as pronounced as Shorey’s. He went 2 for 4 with 2 strikeouts, and delivered a key line drive double down the right field line in the 5th that brought in two runs.

Overall it was a fun day, my son got to go to his first ballgame and I got a new cap in spite of my wife making fun of me and telling me that the cap had the ugliest logo on it that she’s ever seen in her life.

I actually sort of like it. Only in Iowa would a hat with a bat growing out of a corn stalk on it would be considered cool. If you ever need some therapy from watching the big boys look like chumps like they did today, then a family trip to your local minor league park is the cure for what ails you.