fmmiraclegal
06-27-2004, 12:58 AM
Gulf Coast League is some of the finest baseball in the world. You pack 30 kids plus their coaches and their equipment into three white vans and ship them 90 miles down the road to play a noon game in 90-something degree heat.
Actually, the boys got lucky today. The team rented them a bus. So instead of ten sweaty, smelly guys in a vehicle, you’ve got 30. And the fans got a break, as it remained somewhat overcast with a breeze kicking, which cut the heat down considerably at Pirate City in Bradenton.
The Twins however did not catch a break from the Pirates. With the team playing five men left, Joe Gault gave up one good pitch that resulted in a hopper out to right field that scored the winning run for the Pirates in the tenth inning.
It would be a heartbreaker of a game too, as the Twins rallied from a two run deficit and fought of several good scoring opportunities by Bradenton. Jeff Schoenbachler took the start for the Twins, allowing two runs on three hits (two doubles). Pirates first round draft pick Neil Walker scored the first run in the clean up spot when he hit a sold double out to right. Schoenbachler issued no walks, but only struck out one during three innings worth of play.
Meanwhile, Fort Myers struggled at the plate against Pirate Russ Johnson. Johnson coaxed five straight strikeouts from the Twins batters, including three in the third at the top of the order.
The Twins got their first run in the fourth when Dante Blancarte doubled and then scored from second on a Jilmer Arratia single. Is this a good time to start raving about Blancarte? Why not. Yeah the kid made a few errors – if he hadn’t missed the throw to first, there wouldn’t have been a runner on base for Walker to double in. If he’d had gotten Walker’s line drive, there wouldn’t have been a double. But you know what? He made one heck of effort trying to make to those plays. And what he did accomplish in the game was much more impressive. Two singles and a double, plus a walk for his four at bats. Every time he stepped to the plate today, he saw a base. And that single in the eighth inning should have been an out, the Pirate first baseman had the ball, but as ran past Dante drove his shoulder into the Pirate and the ball popped out of the guy’s mitt and onto the ground. The umpire saw the ball rolling on the ground – Dante made sure to draw the blue’s attention to it – and he was ruled safe. (This of course nearly caused the Pirate bench to riot.)
With a Pirate in scoring position on third, Blancarte took a high pop up on the infield, sprinted over and tagged the runner out on the third base line and then threw to third for a second out on a rather unconventional double play. He’s big, he’s got both power and speed and he makes some incredibly smart plays out there. A free agent signee for the Twins he looks to be a very promising prospect.
Local boy Chris Brown, another free agent signing, also showed some potential out there today in the designated hitter spot. Rather unfortunately, he never saw base, but if that kid learns to connect with something more then wind, watch out. He’s got some serious power in his swing.
Catcher Greg Najac had a rough day behind the plate today. He had two singles but was left stranded once and taken out on second on a fielder’s choice on the other. Schoenbachler, a fifth round pick, wasn’t quite in control all of the time (although he enjoyed a good second inning) and Jose Mijares, who pitched 3.2 innings in relief liked to throw a lot of pitches, running his counts up as much as possible. In this game I’m really not sure if it was Najac not doing his job behind the plate and making the pitchers look bad, or if the pitchers were so far off on their throws that they were making Najac look bad. Or maybe a combination of both. In any case, Blancarte likely caught as many pitches at first base from Mijares as Najac did.
(Pirate prospect Kyle Pearson, a middle relief pitcher that was given camera duty today, was keeping me company through most of the game. He even got disgusted at one point with Mijares endless pick off attempts. “What’re you doing? He’s not even attempting to steal!”)
Eli Tintor replaced Najac behind the plate at the bottom of the ninth and did not see any batting action, but did take out two Pirates on great plays at the plate once in the ninth, and again in the tenth. Two big collisions as well, but Tintor is a pretty big kid and just seemed to shake it off. I don’t think Najac would have faired as well. (To his credit though Najac did a great job picking off a steal at second. Beautiful throw, right on the money over Schoenbachler’s head.)
Joe “Goose” Gault would be the goose though in the end. He first allowed a single to start the tenth inning. The next batter hit a double. Tintor then called for an intentional walk, loading the bags. The first play worked. With five men left, the next batter took a single and reached first on a fielder’s choice as Eli was brushing himself off from the play at the plate that took the first runner out. He then threw two more nail biters, before he misjudged that one pitch and the hopper went right. Prior to the tenth though, he allowed only two singles and struck out one in 2.1 innings worth of work.
Pearson was an interesting fellow. It “sucked” down here. The weather “sucked” and camera duty “sucked”. He’d much rather be charting because you get to take an inning off when you’re charting. Ah, but then he couldn’t have flirted with the local girls that showed up for the game because “We heard you guys were five-and-ooooh.” (They came in late and didn’t stay long enough to see it made six-and-ooooh.) The Pirates have housing on the complex for the players and the rooms “suck”. Although he did reluctantly admit that it was better now with only one other guy in the room then it was during spring training when they had four guys per room with only two double beds “and you had to fight for the shower”. From what I heard from Walker’s parents, the player’s housing at Pirate City isn’t all that bad, they had a cafeteria so they didn’t have to do their own cooking and they have a game room. They do however, require the kids to do their own laundry.
So it was a decent game, and Dante made it worth the hour and a quarter I had to drive to see it. Rumor has it the guys are off tomorrow and will face the Reds on Monday.
Actually, the boys got lucky today. The team rented them a bus. So instead of ten sweaty, smelly guys in a vehicle, you’ve got 30. And the fans got a break, as it remained somewhat overcast with a breeze kicking, which cut the heat down considerably at Pirate City in Bradenton.
The Twins however did not catch a break from the Pirates. With the team playing five men left, Joe Gault gave up one good pitch that resulted in a hopper out to right field that scored the winning run for the Pirates in the tenth inning.
It would be a heartbreaker of a game too, as the Twins rallied from a two run deficit and fought of several good scoring opportunities by Bradenton. Jeff Schoenbachler took the start for the Twins, allowing two runs on three hits (two doubles). Pirates first round draft pick Neil Walker scored the first run in the clean up spot when he hit a sold double out to right. Schoenbachler issued no walks, but only struck out one during three innings worth of play.
Meanwhile, Fort Myers struggled at the plate against Pirate Russ Johnson. Johnson coaxed five straight strikeouts from the Twins batters, including three in the third at the top of the order.
The Twins got their first run in the fourth when Dante Blancarte doubled and then scored from second on a Jilmer Arratia single. Is this a good time to start raving about Blancarte? Why not. Yeah the kid made a few errors – if he hadn’t missed the throw to first, there wouldn’t have been a runner on base for Walker to double in. If he’d had gotten Walker’s line drive, there wouldn’t have been a double. But you know what? He made one heck of effort trying to make to those plays. And what he did accomplish in the game was much more impressive. Two singles and a double, plus a walk for his four at bats. Every time he stepped to the plate today, he saw a base. And that single in the eighth inning should have been an out, the Pirate first baseman had the ball, but as ran past Dante drove his shoulder into the Pirate and the ball popped out of the guy’s mitt and onto the ground. The umpire saw the ball rolling on the ground – Dante made sure to draw the blue’s attention to it – and he was ruled safe. (This of course nearly caused the Pirate bench to riot.)
With a Pirate in scoring position on third, Blancarte took a high pop up on the infield, sprinted over and tagged the runner out on the third base line and then threw to third for a second out on a rather unconventional double play. He’s big, he’s got both power and speed and he makes some incredibly smart plays out there. A free agent signee for the Twins he looks to be a very promising prospect.
Local boy Chris Brown, another free agent signing, also showed some potential out there today in the designated hitter spot. Rather unfortunately, he never saw base, but if that kid learns to connect with something more then wind, watch out. He’s got some serious power in his swing.
Catcher Greg Najac had a rough day behind the plate today. He had two singles but was left stranded once and taken out on second on a fielder’s choice on the other. Schoenbachler, a fifth round pick, wasn’t quite in control all of the time (although he enjoyed a good second inning) and Jose Mijares, who pitched 3.2 innings in relief liked to throw a lot of pitches, running his counts up as much as possible. In this game I’m really not sure if it was Najac not doing his job behind the plate and making the pitchers look bad, or if the pitchers were so far off on their throws that they were making Najac look bad. Or maybe a combination of both. In any case, Blancarte likely caught as many pitches at first base from Mijares as Najac did.
(Pirate prospect Kyle Pearson, a middle relief pitcher that was given camera duty today, was keeping me company through most of the game. He even got disgusted at one point with Mijares endless pick off attempts. “What’re you doing? He’s not even attempting to steal!”)
Eli Tintor replaced Najac behind the plate at the bottom of the ninth and did not see any batting action, but did take out two Pirates on great plays at the plate once in the ninth, and again in the tenth. Two big collisions as well, but Tintor is a pretty big kid and just seemed to shake it off. I don’t think Najac would have faired as well. (To his credit though Najac did a great job picking off a steal at second. Beautiful throw, right on the money over Schoenbachler’s head.)
Joe “Goose” Gault would be the goose though in the end. He first allowed a single to start the tenth inning. The next batter hit a double. Tintor then called for an intentional walk, loading the bags. The first play worked. With five men left, the next batter took a single and reached first on a fielder’s choice as Eli was brushing himself off from the play at the plate that took the first runner out. He then threw two more nail biters, before he misjudged that one pitch and the hopper went right. Prior to the tenth though, he allowed only two singles and struck out one in 2.1 innings worth of work.
Pearson was an interesting fellow. It “sucked” down here. The weather “sucked” and camera duty “sucked”. He’d much rather be charting because you get to take an inning off when you’re charting. Ah, but then he couldn’t have flirted with the local girls that showed up for the game because “We heard you guys were five-and-ooooh.” (They came in late and didn’t stay long enough to see it made six-and-ooooh.) The Pirates have housing on the complex for the players and the rooms “suck”. Although he did reluctantly admit that it was better now with only one other guy in the room then it was during spring training when they had four guys per room with only two double beds “and you had to fight for the shower”. From what I heard from Walker’s parents, the player’s housing at Pirate City isn’t all that bad, they had a cafeteria so they didn’t have to do their own cooking and they have a game room. They do however, require the kids to do their own laundry.
So it was a decent game, and Dante made it worth the hour and a quarter I had to drive to see it. Rumor has it the guys are off tomorrow and will face the Reds on Monday.