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Last updated 3-26-2024
 
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PITCHERS: 15
Yency Almonte
Adbert Alzolay 
Javier Assad
Jose Cuas
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* Shota Imanaga
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Hector Neris 
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Kevin Alcantara, OF 
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Pete Crow-Armstrong, OF 
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Game 85 Recap: Cubs 6, Giants 5

Up All Night

W - Marmol (2-3), kids scarfing garlic fries, parachat costumes

L - Walker (3-4), lucking into a "Win" decision, not getting a play by play due to kids scarfing garlic fries

S - Wood (21), Fontenot

Box Score, Photos

Things to Take from This Game

1. Dempster pitches well enough to win.

Six innings pitched, 2 runs, 2 walks, seven Ks. He left with a lead and certainly deserved to improve his road-game record. As best as I could tell on a weak mlb.tv feed and inattentive broadcasters, Dempster featured a good slider tonight, getting a bunch of swinging strikes. He didn't get the decision because...

2. Marmol has another bad moment

After easily putting down the first two batters in the bottom of the seventh with strikeouts, Marmol gave up a walk, a hit, and a three run blast to Ray Durham. Bowker had hit one into McCovey Cove in the previous inning off Dempster, so the Giants five runs came on two swings of the bat.

3. Fontenot gets the final word

The Cubs scoring began with the Matt Murton Approved Run-scoring GIDP. Edmonds hit yet another swing-from-my-ass opposite-field 2-run HR, and Soto had a two-run single set up by a Fukudome and Theriot double-steal. (Fukudome would have been in danger at third, had there been a throw.) Fontenot broke a 5-5 tie in the 8th with a home run to nearly the same spot Durham hit his in the pavillion-thingy in right. A two-out triple not-withstanding, Wood nailed down the save in the ninth.

 

The why-am-i-suddenly-getting-the-"quick-find"-feature-toggled-on-in-firefox-whenever-I-hit-the-apostraphe-key,

-and-the-I-watch-the-west-coast-night-game-on-a-bad-mlbtv-feed-so-you-don't-have-to,

-and-first-recap-in-a-long-time-and-right-before-going-on-a-road-trip-and-probably-being-away,-again details, below....

 

Game Recap

Inning 1 - Top

  • Fukudome swings at the first pitch, pops out to left. Sparce crowd it looks like at Pac Bell.
  • 3-1 on Theriot. Ball four on a very close pitch low and outside. Rookie ump tonight; the color commentator guy for the San Fran broadcast on mlb.tv says he's a good ump. Beats me. Name is Angel Campos.
  • Ball one to Lee. Moves to a full count.
  • Lee lines to right. Winn gets twisted around a bit, but catches it at the hip.
  • Theriot steals, and the throw is way wide of the base, sailing into center. Theriot takes third.
  • Correia K's Soto looking at a fastball on the low outside corner. Nice pitch. Theriot left at third.

Inning 1 - Bottom

  • Lewis flies out to Murton in left, I'm told. my mlb.tv missed it. Jerks.
  • Durham lines one right at Fukudome.
  • The game tonight is some sort of support-the-troop and honor-the-vets game, being broadcast to the military around the world. I'm told the Cubs are wearing special hats, but my crummy feed can't distinguish it.
  • Winn lines a single opposite field to Murton.
  • Wicked slider (I think, it's hard to say - acted more like a slider than a split) to K Rowand swinging.

Inning 2 - Top

  • Feed returns just in time to see Edmonds walk on a pitch low and inside.
  • DeRosa with a nice inside-out single to right. Edmonds to third. On an 0-2 count, low outside fastball.
  • Murton reaches to protect on a 2-2 pitch, rolls into an easy 4-6-3. Run scores. 1-0 Cubs.
  • Fontenot walks. Third walk in two innings.
  • Dempster rolls out to Durham.

Inning 2 - Bottom

  • Bowker with a fly down the left field foul line, Murton with a nice running catch
  • Aurilia flies to Edmonds
  • Elizier Alfonzo K's swinging. Dempster pitching slowly, but looks sharp.

Inning 3 - Top

  • Fukudome rolls out to Aurilia at third.
  • Theriot taps out in front of the plate, Alfonzo makes the play, 2-3.
  • Lee singles to center. (my feed sucks. I'm told this happened.)
  • Soto pops a high curveball into shallow right. Winn gets it.

Inning 3 - Bottom

  • Vizquel lines to Theriot.
  • Dempster walks Corrreia on five pitches. Last one a fastball wild inside.
  • Lewis K's looking at a fastball.
  • Durham lines a double down the right field line. Correia is held at third, somewhat to the surprise of the broadcasters.
  • 3-0 on Winn. Walks on the next pitch.
  • 0-2 on Rowand.
  • Rowand K's swinging at a breaking pitch

Good grief, the commercials on mlb.tv are three times louder than the broadcast.

 

Inning 4 - Top

  • Edmonds lines one toward the right field corner. Winn runs over, cuts it off just short of the warning track, Edmonds holds at first.
  • DeRosa K's swinging at a slider
  • Murton flies to right
  • The San Fran telecast is fixated on a toddler, probably not even two, who is just scarfing the garlic fries. They go to a split-screen of him and the game. Pretty funny, or at least as funny as making fun of early signs of childhood obesity can be
  • Dempster rolls out, 3-1 I think. Hard to follow amidst the garlic fry scarfing babe.

Inning 4 - Bottom

  • Bowker pulls one into the Cubs dugout, hits someone. Dunno the situation.
  • Then lines one opposite field to left for a single
  • Aurillia pops to shallow center. Edmonds gets it.
  • While the SF broadcast is interviewing some Navy serviceman, Alfonzo rolls into a nicely turned 6-4-3.

Inning 5 - Top

  • Dempster K's swinging at a fastball
  • Fukudome flies to Rowand, who is swung way over into left center.
  • Theriot pops to Durham in shallow right. It pops out of Durham's glove, but he recovers to catch it with the bare hand.

It is offensive, how loud the commercials get between innings on mlb.tv

Inning 5 - Bottom

  • Vizquel grounds out 3-1.
  • Correia K's swinging
  • So does Lewis. Between the San Fran telecast not covering the game half as much as the military-honoring and toddler-eating-fries stuff, a spotty feed, and having to keep the sound down from fear of the loud commercials, this is a pretty thin game recap.... Hard to catch exactly what's going on.

Inning 6 - Top

  • Lee grounds one to Aurilia's right. Nice backhand, out at first.
  • Soto lines a double down the left-field line. San Fran broadcaster doesn't know how many outs there are.
  • Long battle, 3-2 count, Edmonds finally lines a home run opposite field, just into the stands over the funky cartoon cars in left. 3-0 game.
  • DeRosa K's looking
  • Murton lines a single back up the middle on an 0-2 pitch
  • Fontenot lines a 400 foot drive to the warning track in left center, Rowand tracks it down. Tough out.

Inning 6 - Bottom

  • Durham dumps one in to left center for a single.
  • Winn flies out to right-center. Fukudome gets it
  • From a 3-1 count, Rowand swings and misses at a couple of hard sliders. Now, at least, the anouncers are verifying that what I am seeing is a slider, not a split. Durham steals second on the K.
  • Bowker hits one into McCovey's cove. Interesting swing he puts on the ball, sort of level and abbreviated, but no doubt about it. 3-2 game. Also interesting that there's only one kayak out in the cove, nowadays.
  • Aurilia pops to Fukudome

Inning 7 - Top

  • Dempster bounces to Aurilia
  • Fukudome lines one past Correia, up the middle for a single
  • Sergio Romo (who?!?!?) in to pitch to Theriot.
  • Theriot pops a bunt up in the air and down the first base line. Romo races for it, dives head first, into Theriot who is running in fair territory. Disaster averted, everyoen ok, ball is ruled a foul ball, but it looked like it landed fair, to me. There's some loudmouth who has been yelling at the players and umps all game, being picked up by the microphones on the san fran broadcast, and he's all over the umps for not calling interference
  • Fastball from Romo sails in on Theriot, gets him above the hip, maybe in the low ribs. Theriot's in pain. This same douchebag is yelling "karma sucks!" at Theriot.
  • Romo has lots of movement, but doesn't know where it's going. One gets away from the catcher, but Fukudome and Theriot can't advance.
  • 3-2 pitch, double steal. Lee looks at a rolling slider right down the middle, might have frozen Lee. No throw, runners move to 2nd and 3rd. Announcers say that Alfonzo would have had Fukudome out at third "by a mile."
  • Soto singles up the middle, both runs score. 5-2 game. Slider over middle of the plate
  • Edmonds walks. Romo sure doesn't have it tonight.
  • DeRosa strikes out swinging at a fastball.

Inning 7 - Bottom

  • Marmol in, K's Alfonzo swinging
  • and Vizquel K's on a check swing on a slider, I think
  • replay of that double-steal shows that while no one was covering second, Fukudome did get a really poor jump for third, and likely would have been out had he drawn a throw.
  • Travis Denker, who is even more unknown than Sergio Romo, pinch hits for Romo. Walks on five pitches.
  • Lewis singles in to right, Denker to second.
  • First pitch to Durham, he hits one just over the tall wall in right, into what they are calling the "arcade" I guess. Whatever, it's a 5-5 game on the 3 run HR. And the inning started so well, too....
  • gyeh.
  • And just like that, Marmol's back to 96 mph fastball strike, 82 mile slider strike, something offspeed for a week roller out to Lee. Winn out, inning over.

Inning 8 - Top

  • Tyler Walker pitching.
  • Murton rolls out to Durham
  • Fontenot pounds a high fastball out to right, almost the same spot Durham hit his, just a bit further back and to the left. 6-5 game. No doubt about that HR.
  • Eric Patterson hits for Marmol, pops out on first pitch, to Aurilia just in front of the giants dugout
  • Vizquel makes a nice play on a roller in the hole, gets Fukudome by a step at first.

Inning 8 - Bottom

  • Howry in.
  • Rowand pops to Fontenot just into the right field grass
  • Bowker K's swinging at a high fastball
  • Aurillia hits one into that cavernous, cavernous right-center field. Maybe 400 feet, but easy out for Fukudome.

Inning 9 - Top

  • Keichi Yabu in to pitch
  • Theriot flies out to Winn
  • Yabu sails one up at Lee. Not that far inside, but very much head-high. looks like it just got away from him
  • Long battle, Lee finally K's swinging at a 3-2 splitter
  • Another one gets away from Yabu, gets Soto on the left arm, maybe the elbow. Neither pitch has seemed intentional.
  • Another long battle, 3-2 count on Edmonds. Finally, finally Ks swinging at a fastball

Inning 9 - Bottom

  • Wood in. Alfonzo rolls one to DeRosa, who ranges over from third toards shallow shortstop to make the play.
  • Bengie Molina hits for Vizquel, strikes out on three pitches. Swings at flails at a high fastball
  • Jose Castillo (he's still around?) hits for Yabu
  • and on a 3-1 pitch, hits one into that huge right-center field for a triple. oh boy.
  • Lewis K's staring at a big curveball, game over.

Parachat Recap

Inning 1

  • The pregame festivities
  • The TB/BOS game
  • Longoria Love
  • Gay hillbilly southerners
  • Surviving conservative areas.
  • Honoring the troops.
  • We miss Len and Bob.
  • The Mets' Bullpen.

Inning 2

  • PONIES!!!!!!!
  • BEES!!!!!!!!! (12 million of them!)
  • Ramirez's return.
  • Pedrioa screws up his attempt at the cycle by doubling.
  • evaluating the run-scoring GIDP
  • Kissing your Sister.
  • Job situations.
  • the TCR College.
  • Courses offered at the TCR College
    • MattMurtonology
  • The origin of "BEES!!"
  • Are we post-Dumpster for Dempster? (Yes.)
  • bizmarquis2 will leave if crunch threatens to put a boot or anything else up his ass.
Inning 3
  • Impersonating bad WGN syndicated TV shows
  • Crunch: "some cable station needs to make a channel that shows noting but Cops and Married With Children 24/7...call it the Fuck Yeah Channel"
  • More interesting details about Corner Gas
  • We've had Becker, Corner Gas, and now The Andy Griffith Show show up in parachat.
  • Discussion of "classic" TV Shows: Mr. Ed, Night Court, You Can't Do That on Televsion, etc.
  • JANITOR!!!!!!
  • Girls Club?

Inning 4

  • Dennis Eckersly's haircut.
  • DeRosa is a scruggster. (not really a scrapper, or a slugger, or a speedster = scruggster)
  • The garlic-fry scarfing cherrub.
  • Can you learn anything listening to Pat and Ron? (God, the things you learn, yes..)
  • The mousy voice on the Navy guy being interviewed
  • Dempster's mechanics

Inning 5

  • Making fun of WGN commercials, and the herpes-spreading, insecure-about-penis-size, garden-claw using, foster-kid loving people who patronize them.
  • Andy doesn't have furniture because____________
  • The reactions of people entering parachat to the TV Show Names is pretty darn funny.
  • Chris Snyder's fractured testicle. Ouch.
  • What does Rich Hill need?
  • Curling
  • 24

Inning 6

  • NPR
  • Family Matters
  • testicular trauma vs. testicular fracture
  • The A Team and Murder, She Wrote.
    • And Laverne and Shirley, and Silver Spoons
    • and Animaniacs
    • and Blossom
    • And Mr. Belvedere and Wonderfalls
    • And at this point I can't keep up, as in come Punky Brewster, You Can't Do that on TV, Clarissa Explains it All, Life Goes On, and Matlock. The rest of the chronicling I'll leave up to the comments.
  • Cheering Edmonds.
  • And suddenly, the theme has switched to pop music. Ace of Base, Jesus Jones, Sugar Ray and Falco are here.
    • Spin Doctors, Hanson and Crash Test Dummies
    • I give up.

Inning 7

  • Tampa Bay
  • Other Games
  • Theriot gets hit in the scrap.
  • More on fractured testicles
  • Soto's single
  • Weekend series with the Cards
  • We love Jim Edmonds.
  • Autographing Chad's prophylactics.
  • We're informed that there was good reason why LaRussa used to hit Edmonds in the two-hole. Dear god.
  • Tie game, boo.

Inning 8

  • All the ways in which Jeff Kent is a jerk.
  • We like Fontenot
  • Will Edmonds turn into a pumpkin? (Yes)
  • Will Ramirez make the All Star Team? (Yes)
  • Soriano's return
  • approval ratings
Inning 9
  • BOOBS!
  • Why does TCR attract the riff-raff? (eh, we're all riff raff, just in different degrees)
  • Pie's problems
  • AAAA players.
  • Following the bottom of the 9th.
Cubs record in games recapped improves to 11-5
Tags

Comments

This was the biggest win of the season to date. Losing this one because of a Marmol implosion and STL and MIL having comeback wins to gain ground on us would have had to have some psycholgical effect going into facing Lincecum and the Cards over the next 4 days.

Raphael Furcal will be out probably for the rest of the year with lumbar disc herniation surgery. Too bad the West is so weak or they might have been sellers at the trading deadline (Lowe?).

Could someone please describe the pitch that was hit out on Marmol - didn't see the game, unfortunately. Did he hang another slider out there, or was it just a good plate appearance from Durham? Thanks.

[ ]

In reply to by WISCGRAD

Allow me to provide a little context, if you don't mind. In the previous AB to Fred Lewis, Marmol threw him a first pitch slider for a called strike. On the next pitch, Geo called for the heater. Marmol shook him off and threw him a pretty darn good slider in under the hands. Lewis pulled it through the hole on the right side for a base hit. If Durham was paying attention like he should have been, that's a perfect time to guess fastball. Not only did the pitcher get hit when he threw HIS pitch where HE wanted to, he shook off his catcher in the process. You've got to think not only is Geo going to call for the fastball on the first pitch to Durham, but that Marmol is almost certainly NOT going to shake him off after he got burned in the previous AB. I believe that Durham was sitting dead red, and he got one in a hittable place. Way up around the letters and on the inner half where he's able to turn on it. The thing with Marmol is that you can't really ever guess fastball against him or else he's going to snap that slider off in a fastball count. In that specific situation, Geo's trying to get Marmol ahead in the count. Plus, Marmol had thrown 13 pitches in the inning up to that point and 9 were sliders. Durham knows Geo's goal is to try to get him to mix in both his pitches equally. Durham knows that Geo really wanted Marmol to throw that fastball in the last AB. It's a PERFECT time to sit first pitch fastball.

[ ]

In reply to by Dmac

Could someone please describe the pitch that was hit out on Marmol - didn't see the game, unfortunately. Did he hang another slider out there, or was it just a good plate appearance from Durham? Thanks. It was a first pitch 94 mph fastball (per Gameday) high out of the strike zone (in my opinion) and slightly to the inside of dead center over the plate. My opinion -- I thought it looked like it was close to a pretty good pitch designed to pop him up or blow by him with a high hard one but should have been six inches or more farther inside and/or higher. This may depend on what the scouting report on Durham is like. Left handers, in general, have more difficulty with high fastballs than righties, though one usually likes to get such a pitch farther inside. It wasn't a fat pitch but it was probably a mistake in location by about six inches or so (depending what the book on Durham is). Wes -- as our resident pitching veteran at the professional level, do you have any thoughts on this? ______________________ Edit -- Of course, WISCGRAD provides the necessary info as I'm busy typing up my response -- meh.

"Edmonds hit yet another swing-from-my-ass opposite-field 2-run HR" What does this mean? The pitch was on the outside half of the plate, tailing away, and he made a nice swing on it. You may want to se a replay if you are just going by GAmeday. Also, the HR to Durham was letter high, tailing slightly OUTside as I remember seeing it live on tv - not inside as is reported. The question that I hoped "Match-Up" Lou would have answered is, WHY, with a tough LH hitter up (hitting well in this game, that is), and a struggling Marmol who had gotten easily the first two batters, then started blowing chunks, did he not bring in a lefty? Why not Cotts? I was pissed by Lou's decision and there was a shot of him pacing in the dugout, yet he elected to leave Marmol in one batter too many.

[ ]

In reply to by The E-Man

Transmission has obviously noticed the same thing that a lot of us have, that Edmonds is pretty much swinging for the fences on every pitch. Hey, it's working...but he's got quite the exagerrated upper-cut swing right now. Maybe he'll do something when the weather gets colder, but those basket/front row home runs are going to start ending up in mitts.

But as I said, it's working right now... 

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

Hasn't Edmonds always had a big uppercut swing? The only difference I see this year is balls are landing on the Waveland side instead of the Sheffield side. Maybe if we're really quiet about it, the other teams won't notice he can't turn on anything anymore. Hopefully by the time the scouting reports get updated, we won't need as much out of CF because Soriano will be back to his 40-40 ways (although I'm not going to hold my breath for that).

"Also, the HR to Durham was letter high, tailing slightly OUTside as I remember seeing it live on tv - not inside as is reported." Gameday locates the pitch just to the inside of the middle of the plate. I was also watching on TV but the camera angle from left of straightaway center field distorts pitch location relative to the plate, so I generally trust the Gameday location report more. Just my preference.

And, still, why no "situational" pitcher in for us against Durham? I feel shitty for Demp who finally should have gottten a W on the road.

[ ]

In reply to by VirginiaPhil

He does. Slightly better hitter against LHP in his career (793 OPS) than RHP (786 OPS). Split is reversed this year, but he's only had 60 AB against LHP. Even if Durham only hit left, Marmol was 206/329/405/734 against LH batters before Durham's home run. Cotts is 278/458/333/792 against LH batters. I wouldn't make that change. I wouldn't even change if Eyre were healthy (269/296/538/835).

The Marlins drew even with the CHICAGO CUBS for the most come from behind victories in baseball last night ( 24 ) ironically RICKY NOLASCO ( 9-4 )pitched 7.0 innings and got the win allowing 2 earned runs on 3 hits while striking out 8 and walking nobody. He was relieved in the eighth inning by RENYEL PINTO who allowed no runs. Gregg got the save.

[ ]

In reply to by Cubster

Not sure why you bring up those old trades, the NPM for nothing trade is not yet three years old. It was horrendous then and is proving worse now that the logic behind it has collapsed. If you recall the idea was that Pierre would give the Cubs time to evaluate Pie's readiness coming off a season ending injury. The BIG WORRY was about blocking Pie. If Pie was deemed ready, Pierre could be a one-season rental. If Pie wasn't, then Pierre could be signed for another year or longer. It was supposed to be win-win can't lose. And Nolasco, Pinto and Mitre were deemed expendable because the Cubs figured guys like Hill and Pawelek were crowding them out, our pitching prospects were so deep. All wrong. Result: We lost three pitchers and we didn't keep Pierre. Pie didn't work out. Hill is somewhere trying to find the plate and first round pick(2005) Pawelek is playing his 4th consecutive season with A- Boise. As for Willis, if he called it a career today his 68 career wins would rank 35th on the Cubs all-time list for pitchers.

Trivia: I think it's Balcer, now Bowker, the name of the guy who hit the shot into McCovey Cove. It was a fun game. I was there. And without going into Wes' analysis of the Marmol pitch, since it makes sense to me, I just watched and said, "damn, he hit a good pitch." But I was bummed with the way Marmol hit strikes for the first two batters and walked an easy hitter. That's where he screwed up. He should have gone 1-2-3.

Submitted by Rob G. on Thu, 07/03/2008 - 11:33am.

C Josh Donaldson who's struggling in Peoria right now.

=================================

ROB G: Donaldson had a very bad April-May at Peoria, but he hit 281/317/439 in June, and also leads all Cubs minor league catchers in CS % (39%).

Trans, the quote key brings up quickfind in Firefox, but I just did a search for a term I could see on the page, and quickfind via quote key could not find it, while quickfind via Cntl+F did. Weird, and moranic.

Recent comments

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    Javier Assad started the Lo-A game (Myrtle Beach versus Stockton) on the Cubs backfields on Wednesday as his final Spring Training tune-up. He was supposed to throw five innings / 75 pitches. However, I was at the minor league road games at Fitch so I didn't see Assad pitch. 

  • crunch (view)

    cards put j.young on waivers.

    they really tried to make it happen this spring, but he put up a crazy bad slash of .081/.244/.108 in 45PA.

  • Childersb3 (view)

    Seconded!!!

  • crunch (view)

    another awesome spring of pitching reports.  thanks a lot, appreciated.

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    Here are the Cubs pitchers reports from Tuesday afternoon's Cardinals - Cubs game art Sloan Park in Mesa:

    SHOTA IMANAGA
    FB: 90-92 
    CUT: 87-89 
    SL: 82-83 
    SPLIT: 81-84
    CV: 73-74 
    COMMENT: Worked three innings plus two batters in the fourth... allowed four runs (three earned) on eight hits (six singles and two doubles) walked one, and struck out six (four swinging), with a 1/2 GO/AO... he threw 73 pitches (52 strikes - 10 swing & miss - 19 foul balls)... surrendered one run in the top of the 1st on a one-out double off Cody Bellinger's glove in deep straight-away CF followed one out later by two consecutive two-out bloop singles, allowed two runs (one earned) in the 2nd after retiring the first two hitters (first batter had a nine-pitch AB with four consecutive two-strike foul balls before being retired 3 -U) on a two-out infield single (weak throw on the run by Nico Hoerner), a hard-contact line drive RBI double down the RF line, and an E-1 (missed catch) by Imanaga on what should been an inning-ending 3-1 GO, gave up another run in the 3rd on a two-out walk on a 3-2 pitch and an RBI double to LF, and two consecutive singles leading off the top of the 4th before being relieved (runners were ultimately left stranded)... threw 18 pitches in the 1st inning (14 strikes - two swing & miss, one on FB and the other on a SL - four foul balls), 24 pitches in the 2nd inning (17 strikes - three swing & miss, one on FB, two SPLIT - six foul balls), 19 pitches in the 3rd inning (13 strikes - seven swing & miss, three on SL, two on SPLIT, one on FB - three foul balls), and 12 pitches without retiring a batter in the top of the 4th (8 strikes - no swing & miss - four foul balls)... Imanaga throws a lot of pitches per inning, but it's not because he doesn't throw strikes...  if anything, he throws too many strikes (he threw 70% strikes on Tuesday)... while he gets a ton of swing & miss (and strikeouts), he also induces a lot of foul balls because he doesn't try to make hitters chase his pitches by throwing them out of the strike zone... rather, he uses his very diverse pitch mix to get swing & miss (and lots of foul balls as well)... he also is a fly ball pitcher who will give up more than his share of HR during the course of the season...   
     
    JOE NAHAS
    FB: 90-92 
    SL: 83-85 
    CV: 80-81 
    COMMENT: Was called up from the Hi-A South Bend group at Minor League Camp for the day... relieved Imanaga with runners at first and second and no outs in the top of the 4th, and after an E-2 catcher's interference committed by Miguel Amaya loaded he bases, Nahas struck out the side (one swinging & two looking)... threw 16 pitches (11 strikes - two swinging)...   

    YENCY ALMONTE
    FB: 89-92 
    CH: 86 
    SL: 79 
    COMMENT: Threw an eight-pitch 5th (five strikes - no swing & miss), with a 5-3 GO for the first out and an inning-ending 4-6-3 DP after a one-out single... command was a bit off but he worked through it...   

    FRANKIE SCALZO JR
    FB: 94-95
    CH: 88 
    SL: 83
    COMMENT: Was called up from the AA Tennessee group at Minor League Camp for the day and worked the 6th inning... got the first outs easily (a P-5 and a 4-3 GO) on just three pitches, before allowing three consecutive two-out hard-contact hits (a double and two singles), with the third hit on pitch # 9 resulting in a runner being thrown out at the plate by RF Christian Franklin for the third out of the inning... 

    MICHAEL ARIAS
    FB: 94-96
    CH: 87-89
    SL: 82-83
    COMMENT: Was called up from the AA Tennessee group at Minor League Camp for the day and allowed a hard-contact double on the third pitch of the 7th inning (a 96 MPH FB), and the runner came around to score on a 4-3 GO and a WP... gave up two other loud contact outs (an L-7 and an F-9)... threw 18 pitches (only 10 strikes - only one swing & miss)... stuff is electric but still very raw and he continues to have difficulty commanding it, and while he has the repertoire of a SP, he throws too many pitches-per-inning to be a SP and not enough strikes to be a closer... he is most definitely still a work-in-progress...   

    ZAC LEIGH: 
    FB: 93-94 
    CH: 89 
    SL: 81-83 
    CV: 78
    COMMENT: Was called up from the AA Tennessee group at Minor League Camp for the day and tossed a 1-2-3 8th (4-3 GO, K-swinging on a sweeper, K-looking on another sweeper)... threw 14 pitches (11 strikes - one swing & miss - eight foul balls)... kept pumping pitches into the strike zone but had difficulty putting hitters away (ergo a ton of foul balls)... FB velo is nowhere near the 96-98 MPH it was a couple of years ago when he was a Top 30 prospect, but his secondaries are better...   

    JOSE ROMERO:  
    FB: 93-95
    SL: 82-84
    COMMENT: Was called up from the Hi-A South Bend group at Minor League Camp for the day and worked the 9th (14 pitches - only six strikes- no swing & miss) and allowed a solo HR after two near-HR fly outs to the warning track, before getting a 3-1 GO to end the inning... it was like batting practice when he wasn't throwing pitches out of the strike zone...

  • crunch (view)

    pablo sandoval played 3rd and got a couple ABs (strikeout, single!) in the OAK@SF "exhibition"

    mlb officially authenticated the ball of the single he hit.  nice.

    he's in surprisingly good shape considering his poor body condition in his last playing seasons.  he's not lean, but he looks healthier.  good for him.

  • crunch (view)

    dbacks are signing j.montgomery to a 1/25m with a vesting 20m player option.

    i dunno when the ink officially dries, but i believe if he signs once the season begins he can't be offered a QO...and i'm not sure if that thing with SD/LAD in korea was the season beginning, either.

  • crunch (view)

    sut says imanaga getting the home opener at wrigley (game 4 of the season).

  • crunch (view)

    cubs rolling out the who's who of "who the hell is this guy?" in the last spring game.

  • videographer (view)

    AZ Phil, speaking of Jordan Wicks having better command when he tires a bit, I remember reading about Dennis Lamp 40 years ago and his sinker that was better after 3 or 4 innings when he would tire a bit and get more sink with a little less speed on the pitch.  The key for Lamp was getting to the 4th inning.