TheHurl

The most inappropriate named skit ever. http://mlbfancave.mlb.com/fancave/video.jsp?content_id=26985969#fbid=p1JfpFl_jwA

My guess for a likely comp for Smith Jr. batting wise would be Eric Thames. So if he is a legit CF guy that's not bad at all. If he's not than he's ... well Eric Thames.

My Dwight Smith review from his game against Johnny Cueto. If I walked up to the Lansing batting cage and watched the entire team just by approach and swing and someone said "who's a legit prospect?". I'd say Lopes way before Smith Jr. Just too many moving parts to be consistent. Like I say below, needs power to develop or he's pretty much never going to be a starter. Smith Jr. - Makes Lawrie look like a statue out there. Way too much prep movement for my liking. When he does swing it's a nice level swing, his swing doesn't match the stats to date in my mind. I don't see him being a super low line drive guy. His leg kick isn't quite as prolific as I heard so I'm guessing he's cut it down. I can see him developing a bit more power but not enough to make him a corner OF threat. So he has to be a CF (can't speak for the defense specifically as I didn't see him make a play) or a 4th OF, not sure what happened to the experiment of him trying 2B but I'd like him a lot more if he added more positions. Appears to be a very smart ball player too.

Haven't heard at all. Last report was that his knee was the biggest issue.

Held him back to try and rework the delivery. He can't continue with the violent delivery he has. So technically they started him on the DL but from what I understand it was just extended spring training.

A little disappointed that Happ is on the 60 day. Will be interesting for Nolin to see how he handles things. I just finished watching his game against Trenton on May 12th. There are going to be a lot of people that don't watch prospects that are shocked when they see how sloppy he looks on the mound. He's badly off balance and it leaves him in a terrible defensive position. He's a deception guy, those kinds of guys tend to do well first time being seen by teams. No pitch looked special to me but he got a lot of swings outside of the zone. If he can throw the curve for strikes it allows him to avoid having to throw the FB too much. He looks really good at keeping the ball down. He's given up very few HR's which should help him if that continues. Guys like Markakis, JJ Hardy and Davis should give him the most trouble as they are good FB/CB hitters. Those will be the interesting AB's tonight.

I was at the game so I couldn't see. Was there a stop sign up or was there not enough time to react to Gose running? On a side note I ran into a man in an O's jersey getting congratulated in our section prior to the game...so I took a chance and went up and said "Mr Gausman" and it was his Dad. Really cool to see a guy who isn't that much older than my self be that so excited (and willing to talk to a complete stranger) for his son's debut.

Who catches in Tacoma?

My sign would be "JPA 2:55, K's & BB's matter for players that can't hit homerz, The Gospel of a poor Catcher".

There is lots to be concerned with Perez so far this year though. His contact rates are way down and with his inability to take a walk his contact rates carried him and he's been having troubles relaying the signs as coaching staff has complained about him calling incorrect pitches. He's sell high candidate for KC.

Gausman pretty much walks no one, but I'm at the game and it seems like every time I am, JPA makes me look foolish (this year's opener being the exception). So I'm going to predict a walk tonight.

I've always wondered if Epy's stature in the DR was hurt by Mario's greed. Somehow I doubt that as I know even at this year's WBC win a couple players mentioned him as an influence.

My memory of Epy is from a drunken Cito Gaston at the very first Toronto Beer Festival. Cito sat with us and told a bunch of Epy Guerrero stories and in every single one he called him Epy "f***in" Guerrero. RIP Epy

The Florence Freedom are giving Lenay Kekua bobbleheads out to fans tonight. It's an empty box.

closed

26 PA's this season with 3 balls. 2 walks, .125 average. He is 1 for 21 with 1 BB with a full count. These numbers are mindblowing bad.

We need 16 year old girls on this board to explain why JPA is good...and we can can try and get Fatcow laid.

Yes, teams even have a legitimate gun at their own home games. I still 100% believe it's done in most organizations because that's the way it's always been done. It's truly unnecessary waste of money. Of course there are occasional things you see live that you don't pick up on tape or even the occasional thing you might want to note to look closer at on tape but there is so much more to that (like the player would have be available, and something the original team isn't seeing). I'm not joking when I say that I'd rather have people scouting 16 year old kids in Netherlands, Australia and Asia than 1 watching Nats games with his buddies.

Yeah I just read a couple things where he's been looking at a lot of video and isn't happy with his release point. This is what is great about a Verlander, his quest for perfection, has him knowing everything about his own mechanics. He watches video and uses Brooks baseball pitch by pitch so if anyone can fix their own mechanical flaws it's him. I did read that his velocity was actually over 96 on average in this start and his previous start when he was rocked

Bradenton's Alen Hanson is 4 for 5 with 2 triples, double and single. His teammate and fellow top 100 prospect Gregory Polanco has 2 singles, a double and HR. Neither will get to bat in the 9th though unless Tampa comes back from 8 down. Both should be top 50 mid-season prospects IMO.

Josh Johnson starting in Buffalo on Saturday

He's at an insane 31.6% LD rate so far this year. After 14% in 2011, and 11% last year got to figure that will normalize and his average is running a little high right now. However it's great to see Houston being aggressive with their prospects that have to be added to the 40 man. Nothing worse than having to make a decision with a guy that isn't ready. Zero chance he'd slide through the rule 5 next year so I expect he'll get an add to the 40 man for the Astros at some point this year. His lack of XBH's makes him probably just a bench piece for most of his career though.

Because most players want to swing away. They are happy to be told go ahead and don't worry about walks swing for the fences. However there is way too much out there that shows it's not the most effective way to score more runs over the season. My issue is not that people still rip DM, it's that they seemed to think that CM would be the savior. I saw very little difference in the approach in LV last year that I saw in Toronto.

Velocity is down. At first I thought it was just because he wasn't going into games quite as late which is when he often ramped up the fastball but it's down all around.

I've sat with enough scouts through games. If they are looking for details they might want to stop after beer 5.