I hate it when hitters just stand there and take the pitch with no intent to swing. All you're doing is giving the umpire a better look to call a strike.
Well they signed Russ Martin so they had that "angle" covered already even if you believe in that. I don't think anyone cares if there are Canadians on the roster. Russ Martin doesn't seem to get any extra love since he's Canadian. He flies under the radar even.
What even happened to Cecilianni? Isn't he hurt or something. Atkins pretty much said Pompey was rushed to the Majors so they want him to develop at AAA.
Not many teams have a Stroman, Sanchez, Osuna and Travis just graduated though. Pompey isn't technically on the list either even though he's in the minors and still developing.
My guess is he thinks its too hard at 91 MPH. Martin seems to be the one not calling it though. Sanchez actually had to shake 3 times to throw the 1 yesterday.
5.5% BB, 25.5%K and .157 ISO. Thats pretty bad only reason it looks good is because of the BABIP. There likely is some truth for him to get his timing back because he had no spring ABs though.
I think I'd use Cola at 1B against Lefties then let Saunders or JB DH vs RHP. Give it another 3 weeks to see if Pompey can keep progressing and see what happens with Smoakbello. After that make changes.