Jimmy Yacabonis (Formerly Means and Yacabonis)

John Means is pitching like he means business. 2.32 ERA, 32 K's in 31 IP so far. Nice to see him stepping up his game.

o

If you would please excuse me for borrowing the main board, but one of our Advanced-A pitchers did something tonight that I have never seen (or heard of) done at any level of professional baseball.

John Means (Advanced-A Frederick Keys) walked a batter in the 1st inning, and then proceeded to throw 42 strikes in 43 pitches the rest of the game ....... in which he recorded 20 outs in 6 innings (he had to record 2 additional outs because of 2 dropped 3rd strikes.) :eektf:

Throwing 42 out of 43 pitches for strikes in and of itself is incredible ...... but to get that many outs (20) in the process seems to me like a once-in-a-lifetime thing to witness/read about.

20 OUTS: 10 Strikeouts, 3 Popouts, 3 Lineouts, 2 Groundouts, 1 Flyout, 1 Caught Stealing ) *

JOHN ALAN MEANS ))) (vs. Advanced-A Potomac, 5/05)

IP:l 6

H:;; 5 l) (2 Doubles, 3 Singles)

R:l) 2

BB: 1

SO: 10

Pitches: 50 (45 Strikes, 5 Balls)

2016 ERA: 2.32 l(Advanced-A Frederick)

* )) Means recorded 2 additional outs due to the fact that 2 Runners Reached Safely on Dropped 3rd Strikes

PITCHES BY INNING

**********************

81 (41 Strikes, 4 Balls)

91 (91 Strikes, 0 Balls)

51 (51 Strikes, 0 Balls)

11 (11 Strikes, 0 Balls) ) **

71 (71 Strikes, 0 Balls)

10 (91 Strikes, 1 Balls) ) ***

** )) Means recorded 4 outs in the 4th inning due to a dropped 3rd strike.

*** )) Means recorded 4 outs in the 6th inning due to a dropped 3rd strike.

o

Are the Minor League archives even kept in this much detail in order to keep up with such a display of pinpoint control? I know there's a Gameday kind of display for MiLB, but I don't know if that's then put into some kind of archive or database. I'm far from an archives expert (though that's my wife's profession at the university) so I don't know. I agree, it sounds like a rare accomplishment. I've heard of consecutive strike outs being documented simply by anyone keeping score and paying attention, but this almost sounds impossible.

Bravo.

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Are the Minor League archives even kept in this much detail in order to keep up with such a display of pinpoint control? I know there's a Gameday kind of display for MiLB, but I don't know if that's then put into some kind of archive or database. I'm not much of a data / archives buff (though that's my wife's profession at the university) so I don't know. I agree, it sounds like a rare accomplishment. I've heard of consecutive strike outs being documented simply by anyone keeping score and paying attention, but this almost sounds impossible.

Bravo.

Yes, they are.

They used to do it for mostly AAA and AA games, but but now they are doing it for Advanced-A and Regular A games, also.

Believe it or not, the Minor League box scores actually have more detail than do Major League box scores, because you can actually see each and every pitch that is thrown, each and every inning.

At the Major League level, you cannot get the pitches-per inning ...... unless I keep track of it each inning as the game progresses, and post here on the OH.

It's great to see an O's farmhand did this! Impressive, most impressive!

How many consecutive strikes? I can see it had to be at least 33!

You know, I had started a thread on Means last night on the MiL board, and I am usually very annoyed when threads on minor leaguers appear on the main board, since it detracts from the purpose of having separate forums and causes a lot of redundancy. But in this case, if Means truly did throw 42 strikes in 43 pitches while striking out 10 in the process, then I do think that's such a rare (unprecedented?) feat that it warrants being posted here.

However, having looked at the box score, it's quite obvious that the pitch counts are not accurate. Look at all the pitch counts and strike totals for all the pitchers in the game: http://m.milb.com/t493/2016_05_05_frdafa_potafa_1. The opposing starter supposedly throw 38 pitches, 34 for strikes, in 7 innings. Not buying it.

I'd also have to wonder why they pulled Means from the game after throwing only 50 pitches in 6 innings. The official game story makes no mention of any amazing run of consecutive strikes, either. So I'm convinced this box score is in error. False alarm!

Fangraphs

LHP John Means (2014 11th rounder out of West Virginia has average fastball and above average curveball that could fit as a back-end starter or multi-inning reliever

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/evaluating-the-prospects-baltimore-orioles/

http://forum.orioleshangout.com/forums/showthread.php/149392-John-Means-just-threw-a-no-hitter-in-Salisbury

http://forum.orioleshangout.com/forums/showthread.php/141554-11th-Round-John-Means-LHP-West-Virginia

After seeing what Frobby pointed out about the opposing pitcher, I am disappointed that apparently there may have been something wrong with Gameday ....... especially since (as I previously stated) that all of the games that I have ever listened to did indeed correspond precisely to Gameday's count.

Yes, that's very annoying. Gameday does something similar in major league spring training games -- all strikeouts are recorded as three pitches, all walks count as four pitches, every other batter counts as one pitch. I think that's where the numbers in yesterday's Keys box score come from.

Means

10 strikeouts = 30 pitches

1 walk = 4 pitches

9 other outs by hitters = 9 pitches

5 hits = 5 pitches

2 runners reaching on wild pitches = 2 pitches

Total = 50 pitches

Whiting

4 strikeouts = 12 pitches

1 walk = 4 pitches

17 other outs = 17 pitches

5 hits = 5 pitches

Total = 38 pitches

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">John Means is through five scoreless frames. Due up for Frederick: Kneeland, Salcedo, and Gonzalez. Listen at <a href="https://twitter.com/SourceRadioNetw">@SourceRadioNetw</a>.</p>— Frederick Keys (@FrederickKeys) <a href="

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

o

Means has ceded 2 earned runs in his last 21 innings pitched.

He has ceded 0 earned runs in 2 out of his last 3 games.

18 OUTS: 6 Strikeouts, 6 Groundouts, 4 Flyouts, 2 Caught Stealing

JOHN ALAN MEANS O (vs. Advanced-A Wilmington, 5/11)

IP:l 6

H:;; 6 l(1 Double, 5 Singles)

R:l) 0

BB: 1

SO: 6

Pitches: 92 (58 Strikes, 34 Balls)

2016 ERA: 1.95 l(Advanced-A Frederick)

PITCHES BY INNING

****************

26 (17 Strikes, 9 Balls)

13 (81 Strikes, 5 Balls)

61 (41 Strikes, 2 Balls)

19 (11 Strikes, 8 Balls)

11 (71 Strikes, 4 Balls)

17 (11 Strikes, 6 Balls)

It's great to see so many of our top pitching prospects getting off to good starts and putting up results. Really only Tanner Scott and Jason Garcia have had "bad" starts. The rest, Harvey, Kline and Fenter have all been hurt.

o

Means started the 7th inning by getting a routine fly ball ...... which the rightfielder simply lost.

The next batter hit a double, and he exited the game.

Hence, he had a better game than his overall numbers indicate.

18 OUTS: 8 Strikeouts, 5 Flyouts, 3 Groundouts, 1 Popout, 1 Lineout

JOHN ALAN MEANS O (vs. Advanced-A Myrtle Beach, 5/16)

IP:l 6 - PLUS

H:;; 6 l(3 Doubles, 3 Singles)

R:l) 2

BB: 1

SO: 8

Pitches: 91 (60 Strikes, 31 Balls)

2016 ERA: 2.09 l(Advanced-A Frederick)

PITCHES BY INNING

****************

21 (14 Strikes, 7 Balls)

12 (81 Strikes, 4 Balls)

81 (51 Strikes, 3 Balls)

14 (10 Strikes, 4 Balls)

12 (91 Strikes, 3 Balls)

20 (12 Strikes, 8 Balls)

41 (21 Strikes, 2 Balls) *

* Means did not record any outs before departing in the 7th inning.

I was at the game tonight and came away impressed with Means pitch sequencing. He had an 88-91 MPH fastball, and 81-83 MPH changeup, and a 71-73 MPH curveball. He wasn't afraid to throw any one of those pitches in any count and pitched backwards to several hitters. I liked his tempo on the mound and his strike throwing ability. I don't know how his stuff will play at higher levels but it was clear to me that he knows how to command his three pitch mix.

I was at the game tonight and came away impressed with Means pitch sequencing. He had an 88-91 MPH fastball, and 81-83 MPH changeup, and a 71-73 MPH curveball. He wasn't afraid to throw any one of those pitches in any count and pitched backwards to several hitters. I liked his tempo on the mound and his strike throwing ability. I don't know how his stuff will play at higher levels but it was clear to me that he knows how to command his three pitch mix.

Thanks. Always appreciate your inputs. I'm not anywhere near the evaluator that some of you on this board are, but it must be very difficult to project RH pitchers whose fastballs sit ~90mph, no matter how good the rest of their stuff is.

I hope for this guy like I hope for every Orioles prospect. He just seems like a guy that will simply have to prove it at every level. If he does, we will all celebrate. If he doesn't, I would be less disappointed than if, say, Hunter Harvey or Dylan Bundy or now Chris Lee doesn't make it.

It's just so much easier to project (and I mean in a fan's hopefull way) high velocity stuff.