Alex Dickerson had a big day at the plate in today’s A-ball game, collecting two hits, including a home run and a double.
The first baseman homered in his first at-bat when the Toronto pitcher left a fastball out over the plate. Dickerson saw the exact same pitch to start the at-bat, and decided to act the second time around.
“I was thinking he would come back with another one,” Dickerson said about the pitch. “Just put a good swing on it and it ended up taking off.”
The results on the field weren’t as strong.
“Mis-read a ground ball today,” Dickerson said. “Gotta clean that up tomorrow.”
In the second inning, Erik Bedard got the first batter to ground to first base. Dickerson mis-played the ball, bobbling it, and allowing the runner to reach on error. The runner would later score on an RBI single, after stealing second base, for the only run Bedard allowed in three innings.
PITCHERS
-Colton Cain was throwing 88-91 MPH today. I didn’t get to see much of his outing, since he was pitching at the same time as Erik Bedard. He threw 44 pitches, and only three of those were off-speed pitches.
-Yhonathan Herrand was throwing 94-96 MPH, with a mid-80s slider. Herrand is still raw, and his command was off today. He was also raw on the field, with a very late reaction to a slow roller between first base and the pitcher’s mound.
-Jimmy Hernandez was throwing 92-93 MPH consistently today, with an 82 MPH slider. His fastball command looked better than it had in the past. I heard today that he worked on lifting weights over the off-season, getting in to better shape. The Pirates added him as an international free agent in 2009.
-Cesar Lopez was throwing 88-92 MPH.
-Tyler Glasnow was throwing 88-91 MPH, touching 92.
POSITION PLAYERS
-Edwin Espinal has some power, as can be seen in the video below. The first pitch in the video is a long shot that went foul. He’s not a top prospect, but an interesting guy to watch due to the pop in his bat, and his cannon for an arm.
-Candon Myles hit a gap shot that got past the center fielder and rolled to the wall. Initially the shot didn’t look like more than a single that the center fielder would cut off, and Myles didn’t go hard down the line. He turned on the guns after it rolled past the outfielders and made it in to third standing. He could have had an inside the park home run had he been going full speed the entire time. One thing I’ve noticed about Myles is that he doesn’t always go all out.
VIDEO OF THE DAY
Today’s video is of a few of the international hitters during their game against Toronto. The four hitters, in order, are: Edwin Espinal, Luis Urena, Harold Ramirez, and Jose Osuna.
