A Day at Fitch

I took in a couple of minor league spring games today. The teams were presumably players that will be in Boise and Lansing this year, though for now, their squads are called Lansing and Daytona since the final roster moves have not trickled down yet.

On the "Lansing" side, I was pleased that Justin Jones got the start on the hill. This was the first time I got to watch Jones, and he pitched 4 1/3 innings of solid baseball. For someone that young, he showed excellent command of his pitched and an advanced knowledge of the mental side of the game. Jones has three above average pitches - a fastball in the low 90s, a solid change, and what at times is an above average curve ball. When he missed, he would miss up in the zone with his fastball, so he did get hit a few times, but he was smart enough to keep pitching inside with his fastball. His curve ball was solid, though at times he would baby it a little too much to left handers in an effort to get a called strike (babying it is just basically guiding it through the zone instead of throwing it hard and snapping it off). Most left handers struggled against his deuce, but a couple of times he'd leave it in the zone and it got hit. He didn't throw a ton of changes, but he threw enough to keep the right handed hitters off balance. He often followed up a change with a high fastball and usually just threw it by the hitter. All in all, it was a successful outing for Jones. I can see why officials are excited about him, as it is rare indeed for a pitcher his age to have command of three solid pitches. If he can improve the command of his fastball a bit and work more down in the zone, he will move quickly. I liked him. He had a good demeanor and good pace and has smooth mechanics. He might just push his way into the Lansing rotation after all.

Jones was followed by F. Baez, a wirey right hander with a decent fastball. I didn't watch him as closely as I was watching the other game more at this point (see below).

After Baez was a right hander named Marmol, and I'm not sure if this is the catcher of the same name that had been in the system. Marmol isn't a big guy, less than six feet tall, but had a pretty live arm and flashed a nice breaking ball at times. I wouldn't guess he threw more than about 90, though I'm not sure since the Cubs were not marking the radar on this particular game. He threw 2 relatively easy innings without incident.

Finally, big right hander jason Wylie came on for the 9th inning. This was the first time I watched Wylie throw, and he made a very, very good impression. He came in throwing very hard, and I would guess 94,95,96 or so -- easily much faster than any of the other pitchers of the day. He blasted fastballs by the first hitter (a lefty), got a jam shot grounder to short, then gave up a ground ball single up the middle before picking the guy off to end the game. His fastball is clearly his best pitch, but he did flash at least a decent breaking ball for a called strike to one hitter. It looks as if Wylie might be a closer this year for Lansing, given the croweded nature of the rotations in the Cubs system.

The only hitters I watched during this game were Brian Dopirak and Felix Pie, and neither had very good games. Dopirak is a pretty massive guy with a huge swing. He struck out both times I watched him. He was not overmatched at all, but he saw some tough breaking pitches in each at bat. He looks very intimidating and certainly has a very powerful stroke, but I hope he's able to adjust to the breaking pitches he'll be sure to see.

Pie was 0-3 for the day. He faced a left hander once and hung in well against fastballs, but waved at a curve for strike three. He also grounded out and popped to left. He's still fast as heck, though.

In the "Daytona" game, the starting pitcher was Chadd Blasko. This was also the first time I've been able to watch Blasko. My initial impression is that he just looked very rusty. He was inconsistent with his command and alternated throwing good pitches with bad ones pretty regularly. His velocity was anywere from 89 to 94 in the 6-8 pitches where I watched the gun. Overall, he's good pretty easy mechanics, throws with a bit of a short arm, and gets a little sink on his fastball. He flashed a good slider a few times, but he also hung a few that got whacked into the alleys. He looked as if his third pitch was a BP fastball or maybe a change and at times he changed speeds very well. He pitched inside a fair amount and was mostly successful doing so. He has a nice, live arm and I am sure will have better command the more he pitches, but I'll confess that it's tough to say much more about him after an outing like this. Assuming that he smooths out the edges, I think he'll have success, but part of me kept comparing him to former Cub Ben Shaffar, which may or may not be a good thing.

Brett Benik followed with a real short arm delivery that produces alot of sink on his fastball and a nice 12 to 6 deuce. Unfortunately, lefties hit him pretty hard in his 2 innings. Other pitchers that followed were Ramirez (right hander) and another tall right hander whose name escapes me at the moment.

Luis Montanez had a nice game both in the field and at the plate. He ranged far up the middle on one play to get a grounder, and also hit two solid line drives that were caught in the outfield. Other players included Soto (C, replaced by McKnight), Donnie Hood (3B, replaced by Slavik), Bacon, Mejia, Esterlin, Welsch, Cameron and O'Toole. Antoine Cameron launched a deep double in the only at bat that I saw.

Tomorrow I'll be back and hopefully I'll catch the AA/AAA guys, or else some of the other A ball arms I didn't get to see today.

If there's anybody you'd like me to watch in particular, feel free to write and let me know.

Notes from today's game

Just a few notes from today's Cubs/Padres contest at Peoria Sports Stadium:

Juan Cruz looked very good today. No fewer than 6 different teams had scouts in attendance charting his pitches, and he did not disappoint. Cruz was consistently 93-94, and occasionally hit 96 with the FB. At one point, he struck out 4 consecutive guys exclusively with fastballs. I was impressed with how Damian Miller handled him and called pitches. In the first inning, Cruz got away with a couple of lazy sliders, so Miller called for more fastballs and Cruz successfully moved inside and out. One sequence involved a high slider that he threw to Padre prospect Xavier Nady that was fouled off down the right field line. Instead of throwing another slider, Cruz and Miller were smart to recognize that once you slow down a guy's bat, you don't give him another slow pitch to hit. Cruz blew a fastball buy Nady on the next pitch for strike three. Cruz was also pretty strong in his 5th inning. While he did give up a couple of hard hit balls, he was around the plate most of the day and threw first pitch strikes (by my count) to all but 4 hitters. At the end of his 5th inning, Dusty stood up and gave him a big pat on the back.

Felix Sanchez followed with a couple of innings and struggled a bit. He is still pretty much a one pitch pitcher, and while that one pitch does crank up to 95-96, he doesn't have much to compliment it. I saw him anywhere from 90 to 95 today, but was not consistently anywhere in particular. Today he seemed to be throwing some sort of slider or maybe even a cut fastball, but it was unimpressive. In his second inning, he struggled with his control and was noticeably aiming the ball to the plate. Predictably, his velocity dropped during this stretch and he just generally seemed out of whack. He's still got a great arm, but man does he have a long ways to go. He'll never be great with only one pitch - maybe he can work effectively with the great fastball, but as his minor league strikeout numbers would indicate, he won't be a dominant pitcher. Great example -- the last hitter Sanchez faced was Brady Anderson. He got ahead of him 0-2 with a couple of fastballs, then wasted one high. The 1-2 was another fastball - on the inner half and a pretty good pitch - but not a pitch that gets a swing and a miss. Anderson got jammed and popped up to centerfield. It's still a good result, but somewhere down the road he's going to need that second pitch to get him out of jams.

Kyle Farnsworth followed Sanchez and pitched the 8th. His first pitch was about 300 mph and the hitter swung and missed. It was all downhill from there. He gave up a number of hard hit balls including a couple that left the yard. His inning culminated in a wild pitch with a man on second who then scored when Farnsworth forgot to cover home. It was an ugly inning. His velocity was excellent but he was getting way too much plate with his pitches when ahead in the count. I'm hoping it was just a bad day.

Others: Alex Gonzalez can still hit fastballs, and hitting in front of Sosa should get him even more... Sosa hit a homerun on a pitch that almost jammed him, but he was able to get it up high enough that it went over the right field fence... Jason Dubois made a pinch hitting appearance late in the game, but grounded to the pitcher... Bobby Hill did not get a hit, but worked a key walk in the Cubs 4 run 3rd. With 2 outs and nobody on, Tom Goodwin singled and stole second. Hill fought off a number of 2 strike pitches and ended up walking on pitch 10 of the at bat. Gonzalez followed with a two run double into the corner before Sosa capped off the 2 out rally with his 2 run bomb.

Tomorrow I'll be watching minor league camp at Fitch Park, so I hope to have much more to report.

It's that time of year...

The first thing you notice when you walk off the plane is how warm it is. It feels good. You left 30 degrees and a cold, biting wind and you step off the plane and realize that you are severely overdressed. You take your coat off and realize that you won't be needing it at all. Interesting.

You go and meet (insert one of: your friends, your family, your girlfriend, nobody) and you walk to baggage claim. Even though it takes 20 minutes for your bag to come out, it doesn't bother you. You're on vacation! It's warm! It's exciting. Life is good. You go and check in for your rental car and are pleased to find out that they actually remembered your reservation and even have a car for you. So far so good.

You go and find the rental car and set out for finding your hotel. The first thing you notice is that it's not too cold to drive with your the window down. Hey, driving with the window down is pretty fun. You haven't done that since college. Life is good.

You drive on something called the "Superstition Highway," which makes you wonder if you should have stepped over the line instead of on the line the last time you ran in from the outfield. Finally, you find your hotel and a night of sleep awaits... only you are too excited to fall asleep right away, your mind racing with the activities scheduled for the week. You fall asleep to the 3rd re-run of SportsCenter.

In the morning you wake up and realize that the sun is bright! Haven't seen the sun this bright in quite awhile. It's really hot too, but not too hot for some reason. The heat feels good; your body almost welcomes it. After getting ready, you're back in the rental car and all you can think about is how great it is to be wearing shorts and sandals and sunglasses again. Life is good.

On day 1, there is this place called Hohokam Park. What's a Hohokam? Parking is 10 bucks, but you don't care. You scalp a ticket from the guy on the street and pay 10 bucks over face, but you don't care. You walk into the Park and realize that almost a hundred baseball players are within about 20 feet of you. Kids run around with balls and programs seeking autographs, heck even that dirty old man next to you seems to be looking for an autograph - he'll probably sell it on Ebay tomorrow. Luckily, the players give preference to the kids. Hey - there's Sammy Sosa. He blows some kisses to the crowd and goes off for his pregame routine. The crowd around the fence dies down as it gets closer to game time.

You find an Oldstyle in a wax/paper cup and scramble to your seat. On the way there you walk by the rows of scouts with those tan almost wicker hats with a brim that goes all the way around. You snicker and think about how silly they look, but then you realize that you'd gladly change places with any of them, even if it meant looking silly.

Life is good. It's the spring. Hey, maybe this will be the year. We got rid of what dragged us down last year. Maybe the kids can play. Maybe the mediocre guys will suddenly become All-Stars -- I mean, hey these are the Cubs. Hope springs eternal. Especially at Hohokam.

The guy in front of you is busy sounding like an expert to anyone who will listen, only he doesn't know jack. Still, he provides amusingly incorrect color commentary as the game moves along. He tries to tell the woman next to him that he used to play baseball (in Little League) and that he was better than Kerry Wood at one point. Then he tells the guy on the other side that Sosa is overrated since he's never once led the league in homers. Finally, he tells nobody in particular that Prior actually throws a screwball, even though most people think it's a changeup. Good times, good times.

Sosa goes yard and Wood throws a good 5 innings. The natives are happy and many of them leave early. But to you, this is just when the fun begins. Out are the fifth outfielder, the utility infielder and the backup catcher. Instead, there's that AA stud at third base and there's that guy who was hurt last year in the outfield. 90% of the people there don't know that, but when the outfielder steals a base in the 9th, you're the happiest guy there since you realize his ailing leg must be ok now.

The Cubs win and all is well. The natives are happy. Many are drunk. Even the scouts look happy. As you walk out, you remember how kind Harry Caray was about 10 years ago when he signed a program for a sick friend of yours. You also remember how much he liked your pretty mother. Harry liked all the ladies.

That night you head to Don & Charlie's to take it all in. The place just screams baseball. There are pictures of every Cub you can remember from the last 10 years on the wall, and even some before that. The menu includes a steak named after baseball lover George Will (and it's good!). The patrons are all tanned and most were at a game that day. There aren't many players there, but there are tons of agents and front office types. The idiot sitting in front of you that day is nowhere to be found - I think he got lost on the way. You order your steak ala George Will (New York Strip with fresh chopped garlic on top) medium rare and it is cooked perfectly. For some reason, the wine tastes even better than normal that night. The conversation is lively, never strained, and it ranges all the way back to those two guys who filled in for Dunston and Sandberg when BOTH of them got hurt in the same year. What were their names? Paul Noce and Mike Brumley. Yeah, that's it! Chris Berman even called Noce - Paul "buenos" Noce.

Then you remember your first trip down here - the year Mike Jackson hit Sandberg on the hand and broke his hand on the first day of the Spring. It was really the beginning of the end for Ryno. You remember hating Mike Jackson for a few years because of that. Then you remember buying Frank Castillo and his beautiful wife Tracy a beer at the bar formerly known as Harry & Steve's. Frank is about the nicest guy and Tracy is equally sweet and not too shabby to look at. I hope he makes it for a few more years in Boston.

You return to your hotel well fed and exhausted, even though all you did was sit and watch baseball and drink beer and eat all day. It's a tough life, but somebody's got to do it. Life is good... and tomorrow you get to do it again.

The next day you wake up and realize you're a little pinker than you thought. SPF 30 didn't really work. Oh well. It's hot again, but not as hot as yesterday. You hop into the car and head over to Fitch Park, aka baseball heaven.

Fitch Park is a minor league complex and is only a few blocks away from Hohokam. Designed like many softball complexes, there are four baseball fields that all converge on the same central point in the middle. It is actually possible to stand in the middle and watch three or four games at once. Fitch is much less crowded than Hohokam and is actually free, though there aren't any beer vendors around. You wonder if anybody would notice if you brought a cooler.

In the middle of the four fields is a large tower, almost like a guard tower, where the cubs minor league brass sits. You see the Minor League Coordinator, some of the roving instructors, hey there's Ryne Sandberg! Dave Otto is wandering around, looking for someone to shmooze with and probably hoping that somebody will tell him he wasn't that bad of a broadcaster. That may be true, but he's no Steve Stone. Oh well.

Oneri Fleita is a pretty big guy and he keeps his eye on you. Who is this kid with the notebook that runs between the four fields and writes down notes on all of them? Is he the same guy that was here last year? I thought we had an agreement with the other teams that we wouldn't send scouts to watch the minor leaguers in the Spring? Then he forgets about you. Oh well.

In the AAA game, the team is filled with guys holding on for their last gasps at baseball - guys who've spent 5 years at AAA, had a cup of coffee once and are holding on, trying for one more. The big club hasn't cut everyone yet, so for now, the hope is still there. In the AA game, you see the #1 draft pick from a few years ago, and the guy BA rated #5 in the organization. You jot some notes down and realize that the pitcher is throwing 91, not the 95 that BA reported. Hmmm.

A couple of elderly gentlemen settle next to you watching the A ball game. You marvel at the number of pitchers in the system competing to start at this level; they marvel about what the game was like when they played. Then you realize they know everyone on the field and know what they are talking about. A grandfather, you wonder? A former scout? Either way, sitting next to them beats sitting next to that idiot yesterday and confirms that you are in the right place.

Armed with 3 pages worth of notes and thrilled that you got to see 3 of the guys you had never seen before, you head back when the games break up. On the way you wander through various players heading to the showers or to the post game workouts. You almost get run over by that huge 1st baseman drafted last year that allegedly has tons of power. He really is big. You are this close to the guys you love writing about. Last year, Mark Prior handed out autographs left and right. This year, the weird guys at Hohokam are trying to get it from him. Yep, life is good.

You head home and decide to try one of the local authentic eateries: Rancho de Tia Rosa. Tia Rosa is the first place you ever thought that fish and mexican food could actually converge and taste good. The margaritas are just right -- nice and cold. The wait is long but it's worth it. The whitefish burritos in a white wine cream sauce are tasty and were worth the drive all the way out to East Mesa.

You had back to the hotel and are amazed at how tired you are. For some reason it's easy to sleep when you've done nothing but watch and eat all day. You drift to sleep wondering what it would be like to actually live like this instead of only doing it for a few days each year. Maybe someday you'll get that chance. Life is good.

Life is good, indeed.

Folks, I'll be heading to Arizona tonight to do all of these things. The plan is to have a number of updates each day about the various players that I see, but until then, this "preview" of the trip will have to do.

Write to me here. Thanks for reading.