Notes from Staten Island

Spoiler Alert: Scathing report ahead.

I have to say, I'm struggling with not naming names here, but since I'm betting I was the only OHer at the game, I'll do a full disclosure.

The Ironbirds played a remarkably lethargic, sloppy game at Richmond County Bank Ballpark tonight. I promise to close with a couple of positive notes, but from here to there wasn't pretty.

Top 1: lackluster 1-2-3.

Bottom 1: the first of 4 really, really bad plays by the Ironbirds. We had a Yankee in a rundown between 1B and 2B. Our SS Chris Clare (#5 not listed on the Aberdeen website), was running the guy back to 1B. Almost right next to the runner, rather than tagging him, he inexplicably threw to 1st. Rather, he spiked the ball about 4 feet in front of the first baseman. Worse, NO ONE was backing up up the play at 2nd. Although Diaz recovered the ball he had no one to throw to as the runner skipped in to 2nd.

Top 2: Randolph Gassaway led off with a double, but was stranded there.

Top 4: 1-2-3

Bottom 4: Blunder #2. With the bases empty, 2B Alejandro Juvier makes a great play to his left in short RF. However, he muffs the throw to Diaz and the ball skips past. The hitter stops at 1st, looks around, and sees no one making a play on the ball. He trots down to 2B. Our catcher, Jerry McClanahan, for no reason that I can comprehend, hadn't moved and was no where near backing up the play.

Top 5: 1-2-3

Top 6: Ryan McKenna on first with a walk. Juvier smokes one directly to the 2B. For some inexplicable reason, McKenna is 25 ft off 1B and easily doubled up.

Top 8: Somehow we scored. Your reporter was busy finding hot dogs.

Top 9: We have something going. Carlos Diaz singles to put runners at 1st & 2nd. Ironbirds down by 1. 1 out. Ronarsy Ledesma pinch runs for Diaz. McClanahan drops a single into shallow left-center. Whoever is on 2nd (Jaylon Ferguson I believe) scores easily. However - get ready for it - Ledesma, with the PLAY IN FRONT OF HIM, heads for 3rd and is out by at least 10 feet! Instead of 1st & 2nd 1 out it's 2nd only and 2 outs.

Ironbirds lose.

I'm glad Buck wasn't there. He might have had a heart attack.

Now, the general notes and actual bright spots.

Carlos Diaz is huge. He looks like Prince Fielder.

Carlos Diaz is surprisingly nimble in the field. He had a number of nice picks and didn't misplay anything.

Alejandro Juvier made a number of nice plays to his left.

Frank Crinella had a really nice backhand play.

Randolph Gassaway looks like a player. Don't press me to back that up. I also said that Michael Almanzar looked like a player a few spring trainings ago. (But) I'm not Roy, so Randolph might indeed be a player.

Daniel Franco has some serious wheels.

Jaylen Ferguson showed off a nice arm on at least one play.

We only lost by 1 run. We had 4 real blunders and only lost by 1 run. I wish I could provide useful commentary on the pitching, but I'm not very good at detecting pitches from the angle I was at. I will say that Will Shepley, who came in with 1 out in the 5th and pitched scoreless ball through the 7th, was popping the mitt pretty loudly.

I hope I am able to get out to Coney Island to see them later in the season, and I hope that they look different then.

Good to see Gassaway dominating. It's his 3rd season there but I guess you could argue he'd be in the same spot if he went to a JUCO for two years. Hope some of the draft picks get to Aberdeen soon and they put up some wins. Seems like they're always terrible.

Good to see Gassaway dominating. It's his 3rd season there but I guess you could argue he'd be in the same spot if he went to a JUCO for two years. Hope some of the draft picks get to Aberdeen soon and they put up some wins. Seems like they're always terrible.

It does seem like they're always terrible, doesn't it. I hope they assign some of the new guys to the team and I can see them in Brooklyn later. I see that Muckenhirn was assigned there. That's a start.

Spoiler Alert: Scathing report ahead.

I have to say, I'm struggling with not naming names here, but since I'm betting I was the only OHer at the game, I'll do a full disclosure.

The Ironbirds played a remarkably lethargic, sloppy game at Richmond County Bank Ballpark tonight. I promise to close with a couple of positive notes, but from here to there wasn't pretty.

Top 1: lackluster 1-2-3.

Bottom 1: the first of 4 really, really bad plays by the Ironbirds. We had a Yankee in a rundown between 1B and 2B. Our SS Chris Clare (#5 not listed on the Aberdeen website), was running the guy back to 1B. Almost right next to the runner, rather than tagging him, he inexplicably threw to 1st. Rather, he spiked the ball about 4 feet in front of the first baseman. Worse, NO ONE was backing up up the play at 2nd. Although Diaz recovered the ball he had no one to throw to as the runner skipped in to 2nd.

Top 2: Randolph Gassaway led off with a double, but was stranded there.

Top 4: 1-2-3

Bottom 4: Blunder #2. With the bases empty, 2B Alejandro Juvier makes a great play to his left in short RF. However, he muffs the throw to Diaz and the ball skips past. The hitter stops at 1st, looks around, and sees no one making a play on the ball. He trots down to 2B. Our catcher, Jerry McClanahan, for no reason that I can comprehend, hadn't moved and was no where near backing up the play.

Top 5: 1-2-3

Top 6: Ryan McKenna on first with a walk. Juvier smokes one directly to the 2B. For some inexplicable reason, McKenna is 25 ft off 1B and easily doubled up.

Top 8: Somehow we scored. Your reporter was busy finding hot dogs.

Top 9: We have something going. Carlos Diaz singles to put runners at 1st & 2nd. Ironbirds down by 1. 1 out. Ronarsy Ledesma pinch runs for Diaz. McClanahan drops a single into shallow left-center. Whoever is on 2nd (Jaylon Ferguson I believe) scores easily. However - get ready for it - Ledesma, with the PLAY IN FRONT OF HIM, heads for 3rd and is out by at least 10 feet! Instead of 1st & 2nd 1 out it's 2nd only and 2 outs.

Ironbirds lose.

I'm glad Buck wasn't there. He might have had a heart attack.

Now, the general notes and actual bright spots.

Carlos Diaz is huge. He looks like Prince Fielder.

Carlos Diaz is surprisingly nimble in the field. He had a number of nice picks and didn't misplay anything.

Alejandro Juvier made a number of nice plays to his left.

Frank Crinella had a really nice backhand play.

Randolph Gassaway looks like a player. Don't press me to back that up. I also said that Michael Almanzar looked like a player a few spring trainings ago. (But) I'm not Roy, so Randolph might indeed be a player.

Daniel Franco has some serious wheels.

Jaylen Ferguson showed off a nice arm on at least one play.

We only lost by 1 run. We had 4 real blunders and only lost by 1 run. I wish I could provide useful commentary on the pitching, but I'm not very good at detecting pitches from the angle I was at. I will say that Will Shepley, who came in with 1 out in the 5th and pitched scoreless ball through the 7th, was popping the mitt pretty loudly.

I hope I am able to get out to Coney Island to see them later in the season, and I hope that they look different then.

Front Page in Minor League Recaps

Great, incisive report Jay! It's early but I won't expect much from the Ironmen until the draftees arrive - Muck for one, Hays and Cody for three!

Hope some of the draft picks get to Aberdeen soon and they put up some wins. Seems like they're always terrible.

It does seem like they're always terrible, doesn't it.

Last year was an exception, as they went 40-36.

I love these updates, thank you.

I had forgotten about Diaz - neat.

Don't be too discouraged - Aberdeen is always terrible for 3 weeks, because our draft picks aren't on board yet. It will get better, and many of these guys will go away. I don't know how other teams manage to put something good on the field - maybe having a Rookie level team would help.

I love these updates, thank you.

I had forgotten about Diaz - neat.

Don't be too discouraged - Aberdeen is always terrible for 3 weeks, because our draft picks aren't on board yet. It will get better, and many of these guys will go away. I don't know how other teams manage to put something good on the field - maybe having a Rookie level team would help.

I made it our front page Minor league write up. Give him rep!

Last year was an exception, as they went 40-36.

Yeah I did remember that they were in the WC push late in the year when I went there. There's actually a thread floating around here about how aberdeen is always terrible.

Our DSL teams always have terrible records too. Probably indicative of our lack of spending there.

Someone else may be able to do this off memory, but I feel like this team is younger than years past. Or at least the guys we expect to be prospects are younger. I always remember Aberdeen being filled with too many college draftees who never made it past short-season ball or became org filler for a few years.

McKenna - 19

Ferguson - 18 (19 in a few weeks)

Heinrich - 20

Hays - 20

Diaz - 19

Seabrooke - 20

Wells - 19

Gassaway - 21

Someone else may be able to do this off memory, but I feel like this team is younger than years past. Or at least the guys we expect to be prospects are younger. I always remember Aberdeen being filled with too many college draftees who never made it past short-season ball or became org filler for a few years.

McKenna - 19

Ferguson - 18 (19 in a few weeks)

Heinrich - 20

Hays - 20

Diaz - 19

Seabrooke - 20

Wells - 19

Gassaway - 21

I'm anxious to see if Seabrooke is throwing any harder this year. Last year he was in the mid-80's - but it was his first fullish season after nearly 2 seasons off.

Bummed that Curran didn't make the squad.

I'm anxious to see if Seabrooke is throwing any harder this year. Last year he was in the mid-80's - but it was his first fullish season after nearly 2 seasons off.

Bummed that Curran didn't make the squad.

Curran was always going to be more of a project than the other HS bats. I'd have liked to see him show enough in extended to jump to Aberdeen, but I wouldn't count him repeating the GCL as a major setback. IIRC, he had mono or something at some point his senior year of HS and was still getting his strength back at draft time, also.

And yeah, this Aberdeen team has a lot of young players worth watching, certainly a lot more than in recent years. Doesn't mean they'll necessarily be good, but it's nice to have a lot of names to check in the box scores.

Curran was always going to be more of a project than the other HS bats. I'd have liked to see him show enough in extended to jump to Aberdeen, but I wouldn't count him repeating the GCL as a major setback. IIRC, he had mono or something at some point his senior year of HS and was still getting his strength back at draft time, also.

And yeah, this Aberdeen team has a lot of young players worth watching, certainly a lot more than in recent years. Doesn't mean they'll necessarily be good, but it's nice to have a lot of names to check in the box scores.

Right on. Headed to see Seabrooke tonight!

Right on. Headed to see Seabrooke tonight!

Hope to see some reports on his stuff! I think as a tall lefty with major downward plane, he can live in the high 80s, but obviously it's better if he can at least bump 93 or so. More important is how his command looks.

I will live blog/post tonight.

Pre game warmups - a coach asks someone to gather up the balls and bring them into the dugout. Hays - the highest draft pick here - eagerly and happily takes the job.