4/15/2025 - Brooks cooks, hitter looks at nasty hooks

JM3

JM3

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Turns out Giolito is starting for Portland today in Hartford, and Liam Hendriks is there, too.

Drohan is starting for Worcester.
 
JM3

JM3

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I was nerding out over Salem pitching dynamics with The Hat on SP forum, so will just repost it here (with a bit more info I forgot to put in that post):


I believe Bates probably started Sunday instead of getting the Monday side work & being skipped until the following Sunday due to Tygart's injury as Tygart was after Aita in line the first week, and with the rain Aita got pushed from Friday one week to Saturday the next.

& this week shows everything is starting to coalesce in the same routine as last year:

Tuesday - Brooks (last Wednesday)
Wednesday - Clarke (last Thursday)
Thursday - Futrell (I wonder if he would have pitched Friday but due to the rain, they had him throw a simulated game indoors somewhere)
Friday - Aita (last Saturday)
Saturday - Bates (last Sunday)
Sunday - O'Donnell (no one was skipped Monday due to Tygart injury, except maybe Sansone, and O'Donnell last pitched Saturday in game 2 of the doubleheader so they're giving O'Donnell this open spot)



This next part on piggybacks is super speculative & way too early to be useful, so feel free to ignore...

In terms of piggybacks:
Ehrlicher - Pitched both Saturdays, but only 14 pitches this past Saturday, so wouldn't be surprised to see him earlier than Friday.

Sansone - He pitched Saturday & then Tuesday (probably due to lack of Tygart), and has not pitched since, so they could have made him the Monday side work guy, and he could be not pitching again until Sunday to piggyback O'Donnell, but not sure they are prioritizing him highly enough to do that and they'll likely have him available earlier.

LuCo - Started the first Sunday but only threw 2 innings and then came back for 1.1 innings on Thursday and is not in the rotation this week, so they do not seem to be prioritizing him either.

Sprague - Got his first action 2.2 IP this past Thursday, so yet to be seen if they'll use him as a true piggyback to Clarke, or whether they'll use him earlier in the week.

Vogatsky - One of only guys with 3 games so far, along with McShane and Nathanael Cruz, who I don't really count because he seems to be the end of the roster fill in the blanks guy along with Eybersson Polanco & now Nicolas De La Cruz who replaced Tygart on the roster. Vogatsky pitched the 1st Friday, then Tuesday, then Sunday. Seems like he might come back any time between Wednesday and Friday.

McShane - Was used the first Sunday, then Wednesday, then Sunday again. So same basic timeline as Vogatsky at this point. If he pitched every Wednesday & Sunday that would be kind of fun, though.

Kilander - Made his season debut starting this past Saturday in Game 2 but only threw 40 pitches. Could be piggybacking Friday or used earlier in the week.

& I'll add a totally unsubstantiated guess as to where all those guys are going to get used this week (with Natty Cruz, Polanco & NDLC taking the rest of the innings where needed):

Tuesday - Brooks/LuCo
Wednesday - Clarke/Sprague/McShane
Thursday - Futrell/Ehrlicher/Vogatsky
Friday - Aita/Kilander
Saturday - Bates/Sansone
Sunday - O'Donnell/McShane
 
JM3

JM3

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Turns out Tolle is going for Greenville & Early for Portland?

Salem game has started. Yoely triple + AA single for a run in the bottom of the 1st to tie it at 1.
 
JM3

JM3

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Salem lost 10-8.

Brooks didn't really cook, but he wasn't their worst pitcher today?

Brooks 4.1 IP, 3 ER, 3 hits, 4 bb, 3 k

Nicholas Judice made his season debut & it was ugly:

Walk (steal)
Homer
Walk
Groundout
HBP
Walk

Eybersson Polanco came in & picked up a strikeout to end the 5th & strand the bases loaded or Judice's ERA would be even higher than 54.00.

Michael Sansone didn't return the favor for Polanco, though, & allowed both of his inherited runners to score (3 total for Polanco in 2 innings), & Sansone also allowed 2 runs of his own & picked up the blown save & the loss.

On the bright side, hitting!

Yoely 2-4, 2 3b, sf
AA 2-4, 2b, bb
Arias 2-5
Diaz 1-2, 2 bb, 2 sb

https://www.milb.com/gameday/hillcats-vs-red-sox/2025/04/15/786143/final/box
 
JM3

JM3

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Next we have the WooSox game which did actually feature some pitching on our side.

DROHAN only allowed 1 hit, a 2nd inning solo homer.

5 IP, 1 ER, 1 hit, 2 bb, 7 k

View: https://twitter.com/SmittyOnMLB/status/1912305384817094940


The one thing that's maybe troubling is that Drohan topped out at 93.8 mph & sat around 91-92 most of the night, which is a couple mph down from earlier in the season.

As you can see, Guerrero pitched 2 scoreless & now they have identical 1.23 ERAs. He topped out at 96.0 mph.

Mata allowed a run in 2 innings & topped out at 95.4.

By the time I got to Mata I realized it was probably cold af in Rochester. 45 degrees at game time.
 
JM3

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Portland scored 5 in the top of the 1st, Giolito allowed 3 in the bottom of the 1st. Portland scored 2 more in the 2nd, & are currently holding a 7-4 lead in the 8th.

Anyone have any thoughts on any of the various writeup methods in the daily threads, including today's? Feels even quieter than past years.
 
JM3

JM3

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Giolito did pitch a scoreless 2nd inning, but overall 2 IP, 3 ER, 5 hits, 3 bb, 4 k (60 pitches, 33 strikes).

The Sea Dogs went with the most optimistic of highlight packages, though.

View: https://twitter.com/PortlandSeaDogs/status/1912315680612827619


Chris Troye hit a guy, but struck out 2 in a scoreless 3rd.

& then Connelly Early looked like a guy who is much more ready to help the Red Sox than Giolito...

4 IP, 1 ER, 2 hits, 0 bb, 8 k, raising his ERA to 1.17 this season. He threw 66 pitches, 48 strikes.

https://twitter.com.com/brendan_camp/status/1912323756065796217

Caleb Bolden, making his season debut after starting the year on the dev list, got the first 5 of the 6 outs he needed no problem, but then ran into trouble with 2 outs in the 9th:

Triple, single, walk, allowing a run & putting the potential game winning run at the plate. After a mound visit, Bolden got his 3rd strikeout to pick up the save in a 7-5 Sea Dogs win.
 
Jed Zeppelin

Jed Zeppelin

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Important to remember how bad the defense can be in the minors. Not to besmirch Cespedes in general especially for warning track pop the other way but that looks like a ball easily caught by most adequate RFs.
 
JM3

JM3

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Jed Zeppelin said:
Important to remember how bad the defense can be in the minors. Not to besmirch Cespedes in general especially for warning track pop the other way but that looks like a ball easily caught by most adequate RFs.
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Fair, but on the plus side, Yoely is only 19 so by the time he plays against people who can catch warning track fly balls, hopefully they won't be stopping at the warning track. He looks like a little tank running the bases which I can't quite decide if I think is a cool feature, or concerning, though.
 
Jed Zeppelin

Jed Zeppelin

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JM3 said:
Fair, but on the plus side, Yoely is only 19 so by the time he plays against people who can catch warning track fly balls, hopefully they won't be stopping at the warning track. He looks like a little tank running the bases which I can't quite decide if I think is a cool feature, or concerning, though.
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You know what I hadn’t even watched the 2nd triple yet when I responded to the 1st. The second one was rocked haha.
 
CKDexterHaven

CKDexterHaven

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Dec 19, 2023
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JM3 said:
Portland scored 5 in the top of the 1st, Giolito allowed 3 in the bottom of the 1st. Portland scored 2 more in the 2nd, & are currently holding a 7-4 lead in the 8th.

Anyone have any thoughts on any of the various writeup methods in the daily threads, including today's? Feels even quieter than past years.
Click to expand...
I‘m pretty new to this section of the forum. You do this every day? My thought would be, “Thank you.” I’ll be spending more time here in the future.
 
JM3

JM3

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Dec 14, 2019
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CKDexterHaven said:
I‘m pretty new to this section of the forum. You do this every day? My thought would be, “Thank you.” I’ll be spending more time here in the future.
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Every single day (that there's games). Although it's not always as contemporaneous, and sometimes it's more unhinged than other times.
 
ZMart100

ZMart100

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Jed Zeppelin said:
You know what I hadn’t even watched the 2nd triple yet when I responded to the 1st. The second one was rocked haha.
Click to expand...
He's also less than a year removed from a hamate fracture. I expect his power to be down this season. I suspect you got it, but my comment was more about how I don't think of him as a middle infielder.
 
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