My trip to Bowie to see Adley, Grayson and the Baysox

[Frobby]

Convinced my wife to head to Bowie last night to check out Adley, Grayson and the Baysox.   Here’s a little synopsis of what I saw.   I’ll break it into a few posts so it won’t drag on too long.

Adley

Adley Rutschman didn’t have a great night, going 0 for 4 with a walk.   One of his outs though was a towering fly to LCF that was caught on a great leaping catch at the wall by New Hampshire’s CF Chavez Young.   Young was super psysched when he ran off the field, and his teammates mobbed him.   Tremendous play that prevented a grand slam.    The ball was a soaring shot that seemed to take forever to come down and Young really had all day to position himself for his leap and just barely got it, well above the wall.

The other notable out by Rutschman was with runners on first and third and one out.    Adley hit a one hop smash directly at the 1B, who gloved it cleanly and threw to 2B for the force.   The SS attempted a DP but the throw was high and tipped off the 1B’s glove and went to the wall in foul territory.   Seeing that, Ashley took off for 2B but the ball took a pretty clean hop off the wall and Adley was out at 2B by a step or two.   I thought he showed OK speed for a C running down the line to avoid the DP.   It was hard to tell if an accurate relay from the SS would have beaten him or not.   In  any event the scorer can never assume a DP, so it went as an RBI ground out.

Adley’s other at bats were unremarkable: a ground out to 1B in the first inning, a walk in the second inning while the FisherCat’s starter was losing all command, and a towering pop up to 2B in the 7th inning.    Defensively, nothing really happened of note, as NH only had 5 baserunners all game, two of whom got erased on double plays.

[Frobby]

Grayson

As to Grayson Rodriguez, he was as advertised though perhaps not quite as dominant as the box score suggests (5 IP, 1 H, 0 runs, 1 BB, 8 K’s, 41 of 61 pitches for strikes).    He looked extremely poised on the mound and sat 98, touching 100 on at least one pitch.  (Note: I didn’t locate the board where they post the radar gun readings until the second inning.)  I didn’t see a fastball under 97.    His delivery seems effortless.    He threw a ton of offspeed pitches, all of which seemed to be in the 82-86 range    I had trouble telling which pitches were change-ups and which were breaking pitches from my seat angje, but everything was effective and the batters really had a dilemma gearing up for 98 mph and then having to deal with his offsides stuff.   There were at least two called strike threes on offspeed stuff where the batter was frozen, as well as some very weak swings on offspeed fur strike three.   I only remember one strikeout that came on a heater.   Grayson worked from ahead in the count almost all night.

That said, there were a few loud outs and well hit balls.  In the first, the leadoff hitter made good contact and drove one to RF, but Stowers ran it down.   The next hitter hit a smash through the box, but it ricocheted off Grayson’s glove to the 2B Torres, who picked it up and got the runner at 1B rather easily.   Grayson’s one spot of trouble came in the fourth inning, when he walked the leadoff hitter and then the next batter hit a solid line single to RCF.    But Grayson got bailed out when the next hitter hit a low liner right at 3B Patrick Dorian, who quickly whirled and fired to 2B to beat the runner diving back to the bag for the DP (at least, that’s how the umpire saw it; it was a bang/bang play and reality nice job by Dorian).   That took the starch out of the FisherCats and the next batter struck out to end the frame.   In the fifth. Grayson gathered two more strikeouts but the other out was a fairly well hit ball to deep RF that sent Stowers near the wall but he caught it.   

Grayson’s night was made a little easier by a couple of factors.   First, the FisherCats are one of the most right handed teams I’ve ever seen.   Almost no lefties at all.   Second, he pitched a couple of innings while the sun was setting and the lights either weren’t on or really hadn’t taken effect.   The lights there aren’t great in any event.   

Still, I came away very impressed.   It was a strong performance and the FisherCats were overmatched most of the time.  
 

 

[Frobby]

The rest of the Baysox

No one player had a standout night other than Grayson, who rightfully was named player of the game.  The Baysox scored 10 runs on only 9 hits spread among 7 different players, and  also benefitted from 9 walks (spread among 8 players, with Grenier walking twice) and an HBP (also Grenier).    Here’s a few individual comments:

The Baysox did some nice situational hitting in the second inning, twice plating a runner from 3B without the benefit of it hit.  First Rizer did it on a sharp grounder up the middle, then Turchin did it on a sac fly.

The weakest hitter on the team, 2B Alexis Torres, followed that with a no-doubter two run homer to dead center over the 405 sign. He’s hitting under .200 and it was only his 3rd homer, but he got all of it.   

Robert Neustrom had doubles in his first two at bats.   The first was lashed into the RCF gap and short-hopped the wall.   The second happened while I was on the concourse in search of a beer and peanuts.   (Note: the peanuts sold at Prince George’s Stadium taste fresher than those at OPACY.).  He’s got a pretty sweet swing.   

Kyle Stowers was the other player who had two hits, a soft liner to LCF for a single and then a short chopper towards 3B that died.  But what stood out to me was he struck out in his last two at bats swinging at 95-96 mph fastballs at the belt and up.  At least five swinging strikes on those pitches.   I’m not sure his long swing can catch up to high heat upstairs.   

The defense was solid all night.   Dorian handled several balls flawlessly including the DP liner I described earlier.   Cadyn Grenier started a nice 6-4-3 DP with Torres handling the pivot well.   Johnny Rizer made a very nice running catch at the wall in RCF for the first out of the 9th inning.   

Turchin and Rizer each collected a steal.

As to Cameron Bishop, he started off shaky by walking the first and third batters he faced, but induced a DP grounder to Grenier to escape trouble.  After that, the only runner he allowed was a leadoff walk in the 8th.   I’m not crazy about him issuing 3 walks in 4 innings, including two leadoff walks, especially considering he was staked to a big lead.   But, he got the job done and didn’t allow a lot of hard contact other than the leadoff shot to RCF in the 9th that Rizer flagged down.   His FB sat 91 and he threw a variety of 81-84 mph breaking pitches.   I’ll be honest and say that I made sure I was in my seat whenever Grayson was on the mound, but didn’t do the same for Bishop so I didn’t really get a good sense of his repertoire.  It’s not Grayson’s, but you can’t complain too much about 4 hitless innings.   

[Frobby]

The FisherCats

i have to make a few comments about our opponents, the Blue Jays’ AA affiliate.  They played incredibly sloppy ball last night.   The Baysox benefitted from 9 walks, a hit by pitch, 3 errors, 2 wild pitches and a passed ball    The FisherCats truly looked like a Little League team at times.

The starting pitcher, Simeon Woods Richardson, came into this game with good numbers, and in the first inning it looked like a pitchers’ duel was brewing, as he retired the Baysox in order with two strikeouts sandwiching a weak Rutschman ground out to 1B.   Woods Richardson only throws 91 but he has a funky delivery where he hides the ball well, comes straight over the top and seems to release the ball from a point almost right over the top of his head.   It really threw the hitters in the first inning and he seemed to have excellent breaking stuff.

The second inning rolled around and he just seemed a totally different pitcher.   Tons of hard contact, getting behind hitters and walking guys.   The third inning was just as bad before they yanked him with two outs.   On his night, he walked 7 batters in 2.2 innings, only throwing 31 of 72 pitches for strikes.   And that was including the first inning where he retired three straight and was ahead in the count most of the time!

One of the FisherCat hitters had a borderline strike called against him for strike one, then struck out on a really weak swing later in the AB.   He chose then to start yapping at the umpire like it was his fault.   Something went on in the FisherCats dugout after that, because all the players who’d been standing on the top step were turning around and staring.   I was 4 rows behind the dugout so I couldn’t see what was going on.

Overall, it was a game the FisherCats will want to forget.   

 

 

 

[bobmc]

8 hours ago, Frobby said:

Grayson

As to Grayson Rodriguez, he was as advertised though perhaps not quite as dominant as the box score suggests (5 IP, 1 H, 0 runs, 1 BB, 8 K’s, 41 of 61 pitches for strikes).    He looked extremely poised on the mound and sat 98, touching 100 on at least one pitch.  (Note: I didn’t locate the board where they post the radar gun readings until the second inning.)  I didn’t see a fastball under 97.    His delivery seems effortless.    He threw a ton of offspeed pitches, all of which seemed to be in the 82-86 range    I had trouble telling which pitches were change-ups and which were breaking pitches from my seat angje, but everything was effective and the batters really had a dilemma gearing up for 98 mph and then having to deal with his offsides stuff.   There were at least two called strike threes on offspeed stuff where the batter was frozen, as well as some very weak swings on offspeed fur strike three.   I only remember one strikeout that came on a heater.   Grayson worked from ahead in the count almost all night.

That said, there were a few loud outs and well hit balls.  In the first, the leadoff hitter made good contact and drove one to RF, but Stowers ran it down.   The next hitter hit a smash through the box, but it ricocheted off Grayson’s glove to the 2B Torres, who picked it up and got the runner at 1B rather easily.   Grayson’s one spot of trouble came in the fourth inning, when he walked the leadoff hitter and then the next batter hit a solid line single to RCF.    But Grayson got bailed out when the next hitter hit a low liner right at 3B Patrick Dorian, who quickly whirled and fired to 2B to beat the runner diving back to the bag for the DP (at least, that’s how the umpire saw it; it was a bang/bang play and reality nice job by Dorian).   That took the starch out of the FisherCats and the next batter struck out to end the frame.   In the fifth. Grayson gathered two more strikeouts but the other out was a fairly well hit ball to deep RF that sent Stowers near the wall but he caught it.   

Grayson’s night was made a little easier by a couple of factors.   First, the FisherCats are one of the most right handed teams I’ve ever seen.   Almost no lefties at all.   Second, he pitched a couple of innings while the sun was setting and the lights either weren’t on or really hadn’t taken effect.   The lights there aren’t great in any event.   

Still, I came away very impressed.   It was a strong performance and the FisherCats were overmatched most of the time.  
 

 

Thanks for the complete review!  If you had your "druthers", would you like to see how Adley and Grayson would do in MLB now?  Do you feel that they could both hold their own in the bigs?  In the interview you cited, Grayson seems to appreciate the gradual move from low A on up.  He sees the difference between the levels of hitters and now he is trying to mess with their approach.  But if service time was not a consideration, would you like to see them in MLB now?

[Just Regular]

5 hours ago, Frobby said:

The weakest hitter on the team, 2B Alexis Torres, followed that with a no-doubter two run homer to dead center over the 405 sign. He’s hitting under .200 and it was only his 3rd homer, but he got all of it.   

Woods-Richardson falling apart after the 1st was a real surprise.   Just like the two Akron guys who got their 1st HR of the season off Grayson last week, it was one where I credited the zip on pitcher's pitches with some of the energy getting the ball over the fence.

[eddie83]

I don’t go to many MiL games but it’s always the same thing that stands out in comparison to the majors. The defense, or at times lack there of. Not just errors but plays that don’t get made. The Baysox were the sloppy ones on Friday and sounds like the reverse last night. 

[Ruzious]

Gotta like that Bowie OF of Rizer, Neustrom, Stowers, and Turchin.  None are great prospects, but all of them can play.  I think Turchin has the best bat potential of them.  

[seak05]

I went to the game Wednesday night. I think Adley only swung and missed one time. He does take a lot of pitches. What really stood out though, is he seemed to foul off a lot of pitches. From my vantage point, not sure if he was slightly missing hitable pitches, or spoiling good ones. 

[Frobby]

4 hours ago, bobmc said:

Thanks for the complete review!  If you had your "druthers", would you like to see how Adley and Grayson would do in MLB now?  Do you feel that they could both hold their own in the bigs?  In the interview you cited, Grayson seems to appreciate the gradual move from low A on up.  He sees the difference between the levels of hitters and now he is trying to mess with their approach.  But if service time was not a consideration, would you like to see them in MLB now?

I think if called to the majors right now Grayson could probably perform as well or better than Gausman in 2013.   They’re similar in that both throw/threw in the high 90’s and have an advanced feel for the changeup.   Honestly I think Grayson’s breaking stuff looks better than Gausman’s did at that stage.   

Saying that, I’ve never considered myself to be a very good pitching scout, and judging a RH’s pitches from 60-70 feet up the 3B line isn’t ideal.    He’s clearly able to throw all his pitches for strikes and isn’t afraid to throw any pitch in any count.  He can throw 98-100 without overthrowing.   He’s got a 13 mph differential or so with his breaking pitches.    That’s a great starting point and enough to dominate AA.  What I can’t tell:

- How much movement does he have on the FB?   Looks to me like it’s straighter than you’d like.  

- Does he tip his pitches at all?   Not to my eye, but my eye’s not that good.    It looked to me like his pitches tunnel well but I’d need an expert’s opinion on that.  

- How much does his breaking stuff bite, and how is his command of it in the zone.  This was always Gausman’s biggest weakness.   

Very encouraging.   I’d give him another 3-5 starts in Bowie and if he keeps dominating, move him to AAA and get him used to the big league ball.   

As to Rutschman, it’s hard to tell much from one game.   Personally, I’m content leaving him at Bowie unless he really gets on a roll.   To me, I would not say he looks like a man among boys. 

[bobmc]

39 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I think if called to the majors right now Grayson could probably perform as well or better than Gausman in 2013.   They’re similar in that both throw/threw in the high 90’s and have an advanced feel for the changeup.   Honestly I think Grayson’s breaking stuff looks better than Gausman’s did at that stage.   

Saying that, I’ve never considered myself to be a very good pitching scout, and judging a RH’s pitches from 60-70 feet up the 3B line isn’t ideal.    He’s clearly able to throw all his pitches for strikes and isn’t afraid to throw any pitch in any count.  He can throw 98-100 without overthrowing.   He’s got a 13 mph differential or so with his breaking pitches.    That’s a great starting point and enough to dominate AA.  What I can’t tell:

- How much movement does he have on the FB?   Looks to me like it’s straighter than you’d like.  

- Does he tip his pitches at all?   Not to my eye, but my eye’s not that good.    It looked to me like his pitches tunnel well but I’d need an expert’s opinion on that.  

- How much does his breaking stuff bite, and how is his command of it in the zone.  This was always Gausman’s biggest weakness.   

Very encouraging.   I’d give him another 3-5 starts in Bowie and if he keeps dominating, move him to AAA and get him used to the big league ball.   

As to Rutschman, it’s hard to tell much from one game.   Personally, I’m content leaving him at Bowie unless he really gets on a roll.   To me, I would not say he looks like a man among boys. 

Thanks!  Detailed and good perspective!  I like the comparison to Gausman.  Gausman never had the feel for the breaking ball while with us.  Grayson likes his changeup

[Frobby]

28 minutes ago, bobmc said:

Thanks!  Detailed and good perspective!  I like the comparison to Gausman.  Gausman never had the feel for the breaking ball while with us.  Grayson likes his changeup

The more I think about it, the more I think he’ll be a superior major league pitcher to Gausman.   But of course, that’s what I want to think.  

[Pickles]

1 hour ago, Frobby said:

The more I think about it, the more I think he’ll be a superior major league pitcher to Gausman.   But of course, that’s what I want to think.  

Well doesn't that beg the question:

Superior to Gausman in Baltimore or superior to Gausman in San Francisco?

[Frobby]

41 minutes ago, Pickles said:

Well doesn't that beg the question:

Superior to Gausman in Baltimore or superior to Gausman in San Francisco?

I think he will have a better overall career than Gausman.   Obviously, Gausman is having an unbelievably good year right now.