Sunday, March 23, 2003

Days 2 and 3 at Fitch Park

I was tired last night and decided to wait and post a double batch today. So sue me.

Yesterday I again saw the two A-ball teams play games. Today, Fitch was home to the AA and AAA teams. Lots of info, so I'll dive right in to yesterday's games. One note from yesterday: the working groups seem to be more accurate than I thought. While there will certainly be some more player movement before all is said and done, most players are with the groups they will eventually be playing with.

Yesterday's Daytona game featured Carmen Pignatiello on the mound. He's not a big guy, maybe 6 feet tall at best, but he's also one of my new favorite players. He's a smart, smart pitcher. His fastball was anywhere from 83-88, mostly sitting at 86 or so. He has good movement on the ball, and I got the impression that he could probably throw a little harder but sacraficed some velocity for location and movement. He also showed an above average change and a decent breaking ball. He is around the plate all day and successfully pitches inside with regularity, even getting a number of called strike threes with inside fastballs. He pitched 5 innings and only gave up 1 run on 3-4 hits. He probably had 7 or 8 strikeouts in those 5 innings. I really liked the way he pitched - he didn't walk anybody and he was rarely behind in the count. Occasionally he got a ball up or hung a breaking ball and it got hit, but he was able to work out of jams when he needed to. His mechanics are smooth and his command with the fastball is very good. Maybe he'll get hit in AA, but I would expect him to succeed in Daytona this year. At least right now, he looks to be in the rotation.

Foli was the next pitcher. He's also not very tall and was effective if unspectacular. He threw in the high 80s pretty consistently and showed a pretty nice change at times, but he left a number of balls over the plate and gave up a couple of runs. He threw strikes and was around the plate, but he seemed to lack that real "out" pitch.

The lineup for the game was loosely: Weston RF, Greenburg CF, Bouras 1B, JJ Johnson LF, Cedeno SS, Montanez, 2B, Slavik 3B, Wells C. I'm forgetting somebody else who hit 5th. Obviously it was interesting that Cedeno played short and Monty was over at second, but the day before Monty played short, so I don't think anything is set in stone just yet. Notes:

Greenburg can flat out run - he's a shorter, stocky guy, but he's got a real quick first step and was talking with roving instructor John Cangelosi about baserunning a couple of times... JJ Johnson looked healthy and had a couple of singles, but both were on meaty fastballs... Cedeno and Monty both had a couple of lined singles, but Monty was also thrown out stealing pretty easily... Defensively, both Cedeno and Monty made a couple of nice plays, and neither made an error... When the game was tied at 4 starting the bottom of the 9th, Weston single handedly ended the game -- he beat out a chopper up the middle for an infield hit, took second on an infield ground out, stole third on the next pitch, and scored when the catcher's throw went into left field. There are definitely some players on the team, but I think they will probably struggle to score runs unless Johnson really starts hitting or Bouras becomes the next Jason Dubois -- not alot of pop in the lineup.

On the Lansing side, the starting pitcher was Andy Sisco. Sisco's a tough looking kid - obviously pretty imposing at 6-9, but also because his first few pitches zipped in at 95. He threw 5 scoreless innings and was only in trouble once. His mechanics look a little rough around the edges in that it's obvious he fights them a bit. He has good mechanics, don't get me wrong, but he doesn't always look 100% comfortable. Still, the Cubs have really simplified his delivery and it serves him well. He's got a pretty free arm action and makes good use of his very strong legs in the power positions of his delivery. Over the course of his 5 innings, the velocity on his fastball ranged anywhere from 89 to 96. He started out very strong, lost a little steam in the middle, and then blew gas by all three hitters in the 5th. I was a little underwhelmed with his split, however. He got some foul balls with it, but didn't get very many swinging strikes with it, as it was mostly in the dirt. Still, it was an effective change of pace pitch to right handed batters. In the middle innings, he seemed to nibble around the corners with his breaking ball (I'd call it slightly above average) and split and what looked like a straight change. In the fifth, he threw almost all fastballs and dialed it up to as high as 96, getting two swinging strike threes and a weak popup.

He's clearly got incredible potential, both because of his size and his velocity. He was usually around the plate, but sometimes would rely on his fastball a little too much when behind in the count - something that may hurt him later. But it was clear that he was the focus of attention at the park - most of the coaches in thebox paid close attention, and I even heard Dave Bialas say that he might not stay at Lansing too long if he throws like he did on that day. I'd like to see him refine his breaking ball a bit more so it's a real weapon against left handed hitters and improve his split to the point that it is a strikeout pitch to right handers. Maybe it is and he just had an off day with it, or maybe he just wanted to focus on his fastball more, but he's going to need it as he gets to higher levels. I so no evidence that the Cubs were restricting which pitches he could throw. He's going to make a real nice ace of the staff for Lansing this year -- they could really go far with the staff that will likely be there.

After Sisco was fellow left hander Clinton Rapada. Rapada had a tough act to follow, and is more of a finesse lefty. He's not exactly a soft tosser, since I saw at least one pitch at 88, but he also seemed to struggle putting hitters away. He got a number of ground balls and effectively threw low fastballs to both lefties and righties. He's a pretty thin guy and might add some velocity as he fills out. For now, he's a projectable lefty that didn't look too exceptional in either velocity or stuff.

Because I was watching the Daytona game a little more closely, I didn't watch the Lansing hitters quite as much. Hitters on the team included Creighton, Craig, Medlin, Miller. Felix Pie did not play, and Francisco was in a completely different group.

Now onto today's AA and AAA games.

For the third straight year, I got to see a game pitched by Todd Wellemeyer, who started on the AA side. Welly just flat can pitch. He was consistently 92-93 with a couple in the 94-96 range. He has good command of his fastball and I love how he just peppers the strike zone with knee high fastballs. He still has the excellent change and still has a good idea of how to setup a hitter. I loved one instance where he got ahead of a hitter with an inside fastball and came back with his change. The hitter took the change just outside for ball one. Welly then came back with another change and the hitter did not expect it at all, swinging and missing by a mile (this is known as "doubling up"). Welly then finished him off with a fastball on the outer black for a called strike three (the hitter seemed to be looking inside).

His breaking ball is still just average to slightly above average, but he used it well. He looked as if he was throwing a slider or a cutter and I only saw one pitch that looked like a real curve, so I'm not sure if he's still throwing that or not. His slider doesn't give him another strikeout pitch, but since his change is so good, he doesn't need it to be and he used it effectively against right handed batters. Like all pitchers, Welly got hit when he left his fastball up in the zone. However, since his change is already a plus major league pitch, and since his velocity is where it is, he's got enough wiggle room so that he doesn't have to be perfect with every pitch. I think he'll have another good year and be knocking on the door before the year is up.

Wellemeyer was followed by a left named Jensen who got hit pretty hard in an inning, though I didn't watch too closely. Then Jared Blasdell came on for an inning. Blasdell is pretty thin and wirey and has a high effort delivery, slinging the ball from a low 3/4 arm slot. He has pretty good deception and has alot of life on his slider, especially against right handed hitters. However, while his arm slow generates some run on his fastball, it was only 86-88 today. That was good enough to get a couple of jam shot ground balls, but it was also slow enough to be hit pretty hard when it was not in on the hands. He strikes me as the typical successful low A reliever - good stuff and one dominant pitch (here the slider) but really not good enough to succeed alot at higher levels. I hope I'm wrong - maybe he'll turn into Steve Reed.

Finally, John Leicester came on and pitched the final two innings. I asked one of the players nearby if he would close this year and he thought that Leicester would definitely be in late relief, if not the closer. He threw 93 pretty consistently with easy mechanics. I'll note that this was a good 3-4 mph faster than he threw at this time last year. His two innings went by pretty quickly. Most of the outs came on fly balls against his fastball and I almost walked away disappointed in his stuff until he unleashed a couple of wicked hooks to the last batter he faced. It was a hard, biting curve ball that froze the right handed hitter on a 1-1 pitch and made him wave at it 1-2. I hadn't seen such a good deuce from him before that, so I left thinking that the potential certainly is there for him to put it all together in relief. He lacks Wellemeyer's polish and command around the plate, but has a real live arm. He's a project, but one that is well worth the time.

Also of interest: Reynel Pinto was with the AA team.

The lineup for the game was Sadler CF, Shrager 2B, Velazquez 1B, Dubois RF, Sing 3B, Tucker LF, Arteaga DH, Goldbach C, Ortiz SS. Notes:

Sadler roped a couple of doubles but also popped up on first pitches... Velazquez hit a mammoth home run and struck out twice... Dubois and Sing hit back to back doubles in the first off the wall in left center... Dubois also worked a 2 strike walk and singled up the middle... Shrager seemed a little overmatched in a few at bats... Mike Dzurilla took over for Sing in the 6th and had a single...

I'm going to have to wait and write up the AAA report another time. Tomorrow will be my last day in AZ and my last day at Fitch. I believe that AAA and AA teams will be there again, but I'm not sure. Since I'll be getting back to Chicago late tomorrow night, there won't be an update until Tuesday evening probably. Thanks for reading.