Future Redbirds

(erik’s got the full report from yesterday.)

So, I don’t plan on making the 4-hour drive from my home in Southern Illinois to the Quad Cities very often, but I had a blast on Sunday as I watched the first game of the doubleheader. I had to leave after the 2nd inning of the 2nd game to be home at a reasonable hour — tragically I have work on Tuesday.

I did, however, get to go out on the field and spin around a bat and then try to run straight. The Swing do a lot of gimmicky promotion contests in between innings and such and they asked myself and a friend to do the “Dizzy Bat”. (You had to be 18+ to do the Dizzy Bat and as there weren’t a ton of 20-somethings sitting around watching the pitchers warm up before the game, I got roped into it.) My friend also got Daryl Jones and Jim Rapoport to autograph a foul ball she caught. All in all, a very exciting day. I’ve got some pictures as well; I’m a horrible photographer but I managed to get some decent photos.

It’s really an odd feeling trying to focus solely on how a player looks, swings or pitches rather than just what the score is and who is on 3rd. I tried to take some simple notes so I could remember what I saw. I came away impressed by a few players, specifically: Daryl Jones and Kenny Maiques. Let me try and be a little more orderly about this though:

Brad Furnish: Velocity - 74mph to 89mph; Secondary pitches - average curveball, average changeup

I didn’t see alot to get excited about here. He wasn’t throwing very hard with his fastball resting in the 84-86 mph range for the entire game. He dialed it up to 89 twice. His curveball was ok with flashes of being very good; it needs work to be consistent. He’s got a leg-kick in his windup and one thing that bothered me a lot is that I saw (what in my opinion) a stutter during the kick as he goes to begin his motion toward the plate. He kind of brings the knee up and then as you expect him to move it foward, his leg comes up a little again. I kept pointing it out to my friends (and they all were attempting to eat their nachos and enjoy the weather) and they promptly told me to stop being such a geek. Maybe it’s part of his routine, but it seemed to break the natural flow of his pitching motion from the windup.

Kyle Mura: Velocity - 72mph to 88mph

I don’t have any notes on what the pitch Mura was using to compliment his fastball. I do remember thinking how consistent of a velocity split he was getting though. Furnish was ranging throughout the 70s and 80s but Mura threw his fastball from 86-88 and his other pitch (I want to say it was a changeup, but I honestly can’t remember) was 72-75mph. There was almost nothing in the middle and I had a hard time figuring out what it was going to be leaving his hand (meaning he maintained his arm speed well for the offspeed pitch). Still, I think he’s succeeding on control and lacks the stuff to make it to the bigs.

Kenny Maiques: Velocity - 89mph to 91mph

Maiques didn’t flash any secondary stuff when he was pitching and frankly he didn’t need to. His fastball looked goooooood. Nice movement, missing bats, good control. He didn’t take long closing out the 7th. Of the three pitchers I saw, Maiques looked like he could make the majors. He came in throwing 91 and stayed right around their the whole time. I was very impressed.

Catcher Christian Reyes:

Reyes had a nice controlled throw to second and what appeared to be a good arm behind the plate. He didn’t hit worth a lick though.

1B Brandon Buckman:

Readers of FR know that I really like Buckman from his stats. In person, I was underwhelmed by his at bats. First off, he’s a good head taller than anyone else on the field. He looks like a man among boys. He had a large (not fat) frame and looks like he still has a little room for projection as he could add some muscle. His at bats were forgettable and he didn’t really drive the pitches as much I was hoping. Added to the fact that he still isn’t walking at all, and I think that he may have a hard time sustaining his AVG in the upper minors.

LF Daryl Jones:

Wow, where to start. His AB in the third went like this:

1st pitch - high and away - ball

2nd pitch - low and away - Jones chases it and tips it for a foul ball

3rd pitch - waist high - tipped for a foul ball

4th pitch - low and in - ball

5th pitch - low - Jones grounds out to the 2B

I was kind of disappointed by that sequence as the ball he hit wasn’t really close to being a strike but he chased it. In the 5th inning, Jones got HBP and went to first. The opposing pitcher threw over to first 4 times and had a pitchout before throwing an actual pitch to the batter. Jones was getting a decent lead but almost got picked off by the 3rd throw over. Jones then proceeded to steal 2nd base when Beloit’s catcher made a terrible throw to second. It would have been a close play (I think he’d have been out) and Jones had a little hesitation when trying to get a jump that was largely part of the continual throw overs. Defensively, the 3rd inning saw Jones track down a double hit into the LF corner; he one hopped the throw to second with an incredibly accurate long throw. The kid’s got an arm. In the 6th inning, Jones made a stunning catch to rob Daniel Valencia of a HR. It was a long fly ball that Jones backed up to the wall on, jumped and snagged from a good foot over the wall. Truly a spectacular defensive play.