First Hand Account of the Rome Braves versus Lakewood BlueClaws
I drove down to Lakewood on Saturday to watch Rome take on the Phillies South Atlantic League team. After watching the first couple innings from my seat along the first base line, I snuck into the section just behind home plate and watched the rest of the game from there. There were half a dozen scouts in that area and one in front of me had a radar gun that I was able to read. He used it mostly when the Lakewood pitchers were pitching. After the game he told me he worked for the Phillies.
Let me start with the Lakewood pitchers. Doing so will provide some context for what I have to say about the Braves hitters later. Their starting pitcher was a 20-year old right hander named Drew Anderson. He went six innings. His fastball was mostly in the 89-90 mph range. Delvi Francisco, a 21-year old right hander, pitched the next two innings. He was one of the most impressive players I saw. He repeatedly hit 94-95 on the radar gun. After getting two strikes he would put our hitters away with what looked like a nasty slider. He also seemed to have one or two other off speed pitches. For the ninth inning, they brought in a 23-year old lefty named Cody Forsythe. He got out of the inning after loading the bases with two outs. His fastball was mainly in the 86-87 mph range.
Now on to the Rome hitters. I'm sure everyone wants to hear about Victor Reyes. He is listed at 6'3", 170 lbs. That still seems about right. He is still a beanpole. He looks very elegant and athletic in the hitters box and out in the field. He hit two balls hard in his four at bats. One was a line drive over third that went for a double. On the other he also went the opposite way, but that one went foul. He hits the ball with authority to the opposite field. However, when they pitched him inside he rolled the ball weakly to the right side. He did this for the three outs he made. Weak grounders to the right side or up the middle. It is a small sample to be sure, but I'd have to say he is better going to the opposite field than pulling the ball at this point in his career. He had an adventurous day in the field. First he threw a runner out trying to score from second on a single. He made an accurate one-hop throw to Caratini to get the runner in a close play at home. Next he dove for a low line drive and missed. That ended up going for a triple. Finally, he tracked down a long drive to the warning track in right center. He put up his glove as if to catch the ball, but it ended up over his head. It looked to me like he should have had it. Maybe he lost it in the sun at the last minute. From his body language after the play I think he thought he should have caught it.
Connor Oliver had two line drive hits to right, one a single and the second a double. He showed good bat speed in pulling those two pitches, both of which I believe were fastballs. He also showed good aggressiveness on the base paths, tagging up to go from second to third or a relatively shallow fly ball to right. He only had one semi challenging play in center and got a good jump on it and made it look routine. He was one of our hitters who got carved up by Francisco. He took a couple fastballs for strikes and couldn't check his swing on a back foot slider. Physically, he is built a little like Pastornicky. He plays with some fire and confidence. At age 20, he is neither old nor young for this level. He was one of the better players on the field on Saturday. Definitely a name to take note of.
Victor Caratini had no hits and one walk in four plate appearances. He also had the most impressive at bat of the game. This came against Francisco. He turned on one of his fastballs and hit it about 20 feet to the right of the foul pole. Would have easily been a home run if it had stayed fair. He was the most selective of the Rome hitters. He looked all right catching. Not great but not bad.
Joey Meneses also got carved up by Francisco in similar fashion to Oliver. But in one of his earlier at bats he hit a line drive over the center fielder's head that bounced on the warning track. Straight away center is 400 feet. He has a nice compact swing from which he is able to generate a lot of power. He looks fairly athletic. Even though he is a bit old (22) for this level, I would not discount his chances of succeeding as he moves up the system.
Our three infielders (Camargo, Luna and Franco) had a good game defensively, showing some good range and making strong accurate throws. Franco got the one hit we had off of Francisco, a line drive double to the right center gap. Camargo looks lost at the plate at the moment. But he is relatively young (20). I imagine he will repeat at Rome next year and have more success.
AJ Holland started for us and pitched six innings. This was only his third game this year. I imagine he is rehabbing from some sort of injury given that he played at a higher level last year. I didn't see the scout take a radar gun reading on him, but my guess is his fastball was in the 87-88 mph range. His off-speed stuff is advanced for this level and that's how he got most of his outs.
Andy Otero, a little lefty who will turn 22 next month, pitched the seventh and eighth. He looked like he was going to be a top prospect at one point but missed a couple years due to injury, including I believe TJ surgery. He is still an interesting prospect in my opinion. He had a dominant seventh inning, mainly throwing off-speed stuff. He has a very good curve and changeup and got several called strikes with those pitches. The scout with the radar gun found him interesting enough to check out his velocity and his fastball was registering 88-89 for the most part. He made one very nice fielding play on a grounder that died near the third base line. But on the next play he broke late to first and was beaten there by the hitter. After the dominant seventh inning he gave up two hits (both hard hit balls off fastballs) and then a walk to load the bases with no outs. But then he came back to strike out the next two batters and induced a routine grounder for the third out. He is not a LOOGY. His stuff seems to work better against righties. He was a lot of fun to watch pitch. Very deceptive. The hitters were shaking their heads and taking a lot of his pitches for strikes, and when they did swing they often were way off balance.
