At game, big win in Chattanooga

[twinssouth]

At game last night. I'm changing the name of Lookouts Stadium to Shish Kabob Stadium. Here's the recipe; face 3rd base, slowly rotate head to 1st base, douse head with beer, repeat. By the 5th inning, you will be grilled. Another 92 degree, full sun, packed house to see the Lookouts mash. I have no idea how left handers can see the ball in the first few innings. When their looking at home plate, the sun is right at them but it didn't slow Kepler down, another awesome game.

 

JO is fun to watch. I love his warm up song, it's a latin rock (don't know the name). From the 1st inning on, his FB was 94 to 97. He had a beauty letter high 95 FB that the hitter couldn't catch up too. Lots of swing and misses. Early on was hitting the outside & inside corners both low and high. CB was sitting around 77. Had a few hit the inside corner with awesome break, froze the batter. Missed his spots some in the 3rd then got hit a bit in the 4th, had a decent 5th and called it a night. The knock I've been hearing on JO is that he's too short, FB will get hit around. I just didn't see that. His delivery is so easy, no effort on the FB. Really great mound presence, fully aware on what's going on (best I've seen of the pitchers so far. I hate to rank pitchers on eye test but I've moved JO to a tie with Meyers, better then him on pitchability (if that makes sense).

 

The Lookouts is one heck of a team. Really no soft spot in the line up and Doug has them playing great defense. Turner threw out 2 or 3 base stealers last night. One of which he dropped the ball and still gunned him down. The laser he throws to 2nd is less than 3' off the ground, whereby the Jacksonville catcher couldn't get any one out at 2nd, his balls were higher and not the speed of Turners. Turner does a nice job calling games.

 

Kudos to Harrison. Had a great running catch at the RF wall and cleared the bases on his double.

 

Reed and Burdi started their innings last night and ended clean. Wedn night Burdi came in with runners on 1st and 2nd and couldn't get the job done. Burdi's finding out College ball is nothing compared to AA. I really like Reed, every pitch 92 -94, low and away, mixes in nice off speed.

 

Got to see Zack Jones close it out, 1st time I've seen him since 2013 Spring Training. Back then, he had a 150 MPH wind up to fire off a 99 FB. Now, it's shortened, clean and methodical, no wasted movement, easy 93/94 FB's, mixed in with a really nice CB. Wish I could have seen JT but got to say, Zack is the best so far of the closers I've seen. I hope they push him.

 

Again, broken record, the Kepler was on. Multi hits, coaxed walks, stole bases, fielded couple nice grounders at 1st. He's the best player on that team that's LOADED with talent.

 

By the way, Walker; in 2013 ST, he was missing CB's by a foot. Wow, now he's making contact. Twins are doing an awesome job with him.

[jimbo92107]

Twinssouth, another good write-up.

 

Can you tell us a little more about about Stuart Turner at the plate? Is he another great defensive catcher with almost no bat, or do you see him developing an acceptable level of offense?

 

Oh, and I was wondering about Kepler's defense, too. Does he take a good line to fly balls, and how's his arm? I'm seeing a future mix of Rosario, Buxton, Kepler and Hicks in the OF.

[twinssouth]

Twinssouth, another good write-up.

 

Can you tell us a little more about about Stuart Turner at the plate? Is he another great defensive catcher with almost no bat, or do you see him developing an acceptable level of offense?

 

Oh, and I was wondering about Kepler's defense, too. Does he take a good line to fly balls, and how's his arm? I'm seeing a future mix of Rosario, Buxton, Kepler and Hicks in the OF.

I'm glad you brought up Turner. He actually looks quite comfortable at the plate, has a good swing, not stiff or anything, the hits are just not falling, doesn't strike out much, worked a nice walk last night, keeps the ball in play. I don't see a lot of power. I just think he dug himself a hole at beginning of season and trying to get out. I'm too lazy to look it up but I'd be curious to see his BA & OBP since mid-May. His defense though, is 1st rate. He's definitely the field general.

 

As to Kepler, he didn't play any games that I saw in the outfield. I did see him a bunch at Spring Training in Center and right. He's so fast, gets to all the balls and has a decent arm (not a bazooka).

[twinssouth]

I'm glad you brought up Turner. He actually looks quite comfortable at the plate, has a good swing, not stiff or anything, the hits are just not falling, doesn't strike out much, worked a nice walk last night, keeps the ball in play. I don't see a lot of power. I just think he dug himself a hole at beginning of season and trying to get out. I'm too lazy to look it up but I'd be curious to see his BA & OBP since mid-May. His defense though, is 1st rate. He's definitely the field general.

 

As to Kepler, he didn't play any games that I saw in the outfield. I did see him a bunch at Spring Training in Center and right. He's so fast, gets to all the balls and has a decent arm (not a bazooka).

Actually I just looked up Turner's BA last 10 games, it's a buck 11, not good. It should be better. He has the ability, doesn't make sense.

[jimbo92107]

 

Actually I just looked up Turner's BA last 10 games, it's a buck 11, not good. It should be better. He has the ability, doesn't make sense.

That's what I thought about Drew Butera. The guy looks like a good athlete. Why can't he hit? Maybe the sad truth is, some guys just can't hit.

[Guest]

Turner might not want to look over his shoulder, Mitch Garver could be gaining on him. After starting the season with a couple of cold months at the plate, like Turner, Garver has put up a .339/.448/.428 slash line in 16 June games (66 PAs). That's more like the Garver we saw in CR last year. Both catchers are throwing out about 1/3 of the runners trying to steal off them.

 

Of course, Alex Swim's hitting for a better average than both of those much higher ranked catching prospects and he throws out about the same percentage of runners.

[John Kelsey]

 

Turner might not want to look over his shoulder, Mitch Garver could be gaining on him. After starting the season with a couple of cold months at the plate, like Turner, Garver has put up a .339/.448/.428 slash line in 16 June games (66 PAs). That's more like the Garver we saw in CR last year. Both catchers are throwing out about 1/3 of the runners trying to steal off them.

 

Of course, Alex Swim's hitting for a better average than both of those much higher ranked catching prospects and he throws out about the same percentage of runners.

 

I think Garver could be breaking out soon, if he's not already. I really like him as a catching prospect.  

[Otto von Ballpark]

 

Turner might not want to look over his shoulder, Mitch Garver could be gaining on him. After starting the season with a couple of cold months at the plate, like Turner, Garver has put up a .339/.448/.428 slash line in 16 June games (66 PAs). That's more like the Garver we saw in CR last year. Both catchers are throwing out about 1/3 of the runners trying to steal off them.

 

Of course, Alex Swim's hitting for a better average than both of those much higher ranked catching prospects and he throws out about the same percentage of runners.

Not that it would take much to catch up to Turner on the offensive side, but even in that hot streak, Garver has zero HR and a .090 ISO (zero HR and .047 ISO on the season).  For a 24 year old at high-A, that's not good.  Is he hurt?  That's a big-time power outage (.184 ISO last year).

 

Garver's OBP alone seems to lift his wRC+ to 102 for the FSL, essentially league average.  But Turner himself posted a 101 wRC+ in that league last year, with .126 ISO, 2 years younger than Garver is now.

[jimbo92107]

 

Not that it would take much to catch up to Turner on the offensive side, but even in that hot streak, Garver has zero HR and a .090 ISO (zero HR and .047 ISO on the season).  For a 24 year old at high-A, that's not good.  Is he hurt?  That's a big-time power outage (.184 ISO last year).

 

Garver's OBP alone seems to lift his wRC+ to 102 for the FSL, essentially league average.  But Turner himself posted a 101 wRC+ in that league last year, with .126 ISO, 2 years younger than Garver is now.

According to their birth dates, Turner is almost a year younger than Garver.