I don’t have much of a lead for today, but there is this: Steve Hill is ridiculous. He won’t stick at catcher, but can play there in the minors. He projects to be a first baseman or DH at major league level. It looks like he is a player that will play all over in the minors and let his bat decide the rest. And what a bat it is. You’ll have to read below to find out what he did today.
Memphis got pounded and so did Palm Beach. Quad Cities won going away and Springfield won in regular style.
It is all in the DFR!!!
- I say this not to start an internet fight, but Adam Ottavino was not good. I don’t know how else to slice it. He gave up 6 runs on 6 hits and 2 walks in 2.2 innings. Possibly someone could fill me in who watched the game, but the line speaks for itself. I was someone who thought he would have a great year this year, but he is strugggggling so far.
- Ian Ostlund gave up came in relief of Ottavino, but wasn’t great either by giving up 3 runs in 3.1 innings. He did have 4 strikeouts to 0 walks.
- Marco Gonsalves followed with two mop-up innings.
- Shane Robinson was the only highlight for the offense going 2-3 with a run scored.
- David Freese went 1-3 in his first game back in Memphis this year.
- Notable 0-3s: Jay(.239 avg), Mather(.049), Hoffpauir(.139), Bryan Anderson(.174).
- Justin Fiske started the game for the Redbirds and went 5 innings giving up 9 hits and 3 walks, but only 3 runs. He is going to have to keep the base runners down if he wants to keep his ERA down.
- Elvis Hernandez pitched 1.2 innings and gave up 1 run.
- Tyler Norrick stranded one of Hernandez’s runners and struck out 2 over 1.1 innings.
- Francisco Samuel had a Izzy-like save in which the first two runners reached on a single and a walk. But he closed it down with a strikeout to end the game.
- Steve Hill, DH was 5-5 with 3 doubles and 1 round tripper. He also scored three runs. He’s hitting .474 on the year and his hitting and power is starting to get a good bit of attention. He was featured on the front page of milb.com today.
- Brett Wallace, 3B, Donovan Solano, SS and Tony Cruz, catcher were all 2-5.
- Daniel Descalso, 2B was 3-5 with 4 RBIs.
- David Kopp started and wasn’t great going 3 innings giving up 2 runs on 4 hits and 4 walks with no strikeouts.
- Everyone else pitched 1 inning each. Thomas Eager was bad.
- Blake King was good.
- Nick Additon was worse.
- Edwardo Sanchez was good.
- And Sam Freeman allowed a run in the bottom of the eighth.
- The hitters were (obviously) better than the hitters pitchers today (thanks HL!).
- Paul Vasquez, C was 3-4 with a HR and 3 RBIs.
- Adron Chambers, RF was 2-4 with a walk.
- Charles Kingrey, LF, pinch hit for Curt Smith in the 8th, no word of why, but Kingrey went 2-2.
- Shane Peterson, CF was 2-5.
- Adam Veres started the game and went 3.1 innings giving up 1 unearned run.
- David Carpenter followed up with 1.2 innings of shutout ball.
- Arquimedes Nieto used his “death ray” to mow down Beloit with the power of the sun over 3 shutout innings.
- Casey Mulligan mopped up the game in the 9th.
- Niko Vasquez, SS was 2-4 with a walk and a HBP. I think HL knows what happened to the ball that dared hit Niko.
- Alex Castellanos was 2-6 with 2 RBIs.
- Brian Buck, CF took 3 walks and scored 3 runs.
- Osvaldo Morales, 1B was 2-5 with 4 RBIs.
- Chris Swauger, DH was 2-4 with 3 RBIs and 2 runs scored.
Entries (RSS)
Brian Buck can’t buy a base hit.
The hitters were better than the hitters? Obviously.
Kozma with two more errors, already up to six this season. You would think the numbers would be better playing at state of the art spring training facilities?
I don’t know about the Miracle ballpark but can’t imagine it’s that bad.
If you guys haven’t before, can you provide some insight on Daniel Descalso? I don’t know much about him. Based on the box scores, he’s looks like a second baseman who hits a lot. So what’s the catch? Thanks.
Regarding Descalso, from my viewing of Springfield games, the kid can hit. Nice, compact (left-handed) swing that has shown the ability to go to the opposite field with power. As I’ve also said on this site, the kid has an iron skillet for a glove. That is based on a small sample size of 3 games, but he has really butchered some plays out there…from groundballs to dropped throws at second on steal attempts. He may be adequate there and I’m only catching off games…but so far, I worry about the glove.
Hill can absolutely rake. The ball explodes off his bat…and I’ve seen him go to all fields with power. Glove…as discussed…not good. Running skills on the bases…not good. Again, small sample size of games that I’ve seen him…maybe 5 so far…but those are the early trends. I have trouble seeing TLR trust this kid anywhere near the field and he has DH written all over him. Just my take.
Would Steve Hill have any place on the 2010 big league roster as 5th OF/backup 1B/emergency catcher?
I think our big league bench is going to please us minor league guys real soon. It is the destiny of Jon Jay, Bryan Anderson, Tyler Greene, and perhaps Hill
Descalso was my pick for breakout position player this year. He was widely panned at the time of the draft as just another boring college hitter pick, but he has a well-rounded skillset and is still very young. If he can continue to be a good contact hitter and maybe grow into a 15 HR type power over the next few years, he’ll be an above-average second baseman in the major leagues by age 25.
Hill (whom I’ve touted pretty well since he first came up) strikes me as practically ideal trade bait for an AL team. If Jack Cust and Travis Hafner can catch people’s eyes while doing nothing but DH, there’s no reason why some of those people shouldn’t notice Hill. It’s OK to use some minor leaguers as trade bait rather than as future members of one’s own team’s 25-man roster. Really. Trust me. (No, we don’t want them ALL treated as trading chips, but they’re not gonna be.)
Are our pitchers really this bad or can some of the hits be attributed to less than stellar defense behind them?
Every day i check this, it seems as if our pitchers are giving up as many or more hits as innings pitched and i wonder if this is just due in large part to some bad defense?
Am i bananas for considering this?
I will admit that the game in FTM was kind of ugly, wish you all would have been there to see them get squeezed by the umpire, no excuses but our guys generally keep it low, guess it was too low for that guy. All you have to do is look at how many PB walked vs. FTM.
Cardinal pitchers get hit because most are pitch to hit pitchers, the defense is there to back you up.