One name that stuck out for me in yesterday’s Vuch Report was Kevin Thomas with 3 strikeouts in 2 innings.  The scrimmages during Spring Training are not gospel, but if something does not match what a player has done in the past, I take a look back at the stats.  Thomas has been in the system for 3 years and his last year at the pitcher friendly Palm Beach was his best.

In Palm Beach he was able to strike out 7.9 batters per 9 innings, which is not a stellar rate, but it is solid.  However, the fact that he has averaged only 3 walks per 9 innings in his career helps his strikeout rate stand up.  But, Thomas’s strength does not appear to be with the strikeout, instead forcing ground balls.  Thomas averaged around 60% ground balls last year in Palm Beach and regardless of the park, that will get outs.

I’ll be curious to see what Thomas does in Springfield against better competition in a park more suited to the hitters than the pitchers.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 17th, 2011 at 1:00 pm and is filed under Minor Leagues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.