Quote from WindsorUK on May 19, 2024, 7:06 am

De Vries has an injury. Back or shoulder I believe?

Quote from Randy Manese on May 19, 2024, 10:10 am

De Vries jammed his shoulder diving for a ball and had been out of the line-up for about 2 weeks.  He's back in the line-up as a DH and only against RH pitching; he is not playing shortstop yet.  With that kind of injury there really is no hard timetable, so it may be several more weeks, maybe even a month or so, before he can get on the field.  As expected, the shoulder injury has hampered his hitting but at least he's getting some real game experience at the plate and that might help him maintain his rhythm to some degree.

Concerning Lizarraga, the real baseball analysts seem to be down on him because they don't like the quality of his pitches.  His FB sits in the low 90s and thought to not have enough movement to be successful at higher levels.  His curveball, his best breaking pitch, likewise looks decent but the thought is that it doesn't have enough break to fool advanced hitters.  His change-up is currently too close in velocity to his FB (maybe only 3-5 mph) so they would like to see more separation from the two; also they are not impressed with its fade or drop.  For these reasons, not rated that highly, however, he is advanced in his poise on the mound and his "pitch ability".

To me, I see a kid with a great make-up who is very young for the league and whose growth was hampered last year by several bouts of illness and injury.  I can see him filling out his body and adding a little more zip to his FB and if he can keep it down with a little sinking action, it could be very effective even if he doesn't get into the high 90's.  Also, if he can sharpen that curveball and land/locate the change-up better it seems he could make the majors as a #5 SP or long relief.  Youth is on his side, but he's being pushed by RHs like Baez, Pinales and Lowe so well see at the end of the season where all these prospects stand.

Quote from Stergios on May 19, 2024, 7:27 pm

I really appreciate that response, thank you!

What caught my eye was his age.  Very young for AA.

Quote from Randy Manese on May 19, 2024, 10:37 pm

Surprise - De Vries back in the field at shortstop today!  Glad to see it!

Quote from Randy Manese on May 21, 2024, 9:16 pm

Fabulous game by Enmanuel Pinales, giving up no runs over 7 IP with only 1 hard hit single, zero walks and 9 Ks - masterful!  Pinales had been on a roll until his last game, when he had to pitch in the rain and cold - this games shows he's back on track.  Also, way back when the season started for FtWayne, I may have been the only one to think Albert Fabian was going to do anything at this level - he had failed twice previously. Today he hit a grand slam for the second game in a row!  Still pulling for the guy even though he may top out at AA - one of the great personalities on this team.

Quote from Randy Manese on May 22, 2024, 10:24 pm

Another very good effort from a Ft. Wayne pitcher, Jagger Haynes, who has completely turned around his season in the last couple of games.  Have to remember this guy hadn't really pitched in 3 years, so the job the pitching coach, Tom Eshelman, has done with him and others on this staff has been tremendous.  Last year Eshelman was the LE pitching coach after just having retired and he did a great job with our young starters who ended the season in San Antonio.  Still expecting big things from Lesko, Baez and Nett, when he comes back from injury, but already the impact on Cienfuegos has been dramatic.  Hope we can keep Eshelman in our system - got a bright future ahead of him.

Quote from Randy Manese on May 25, 2024, 10:11 pm

Its a journey.  After great performances last week, both Snelling and Lowe had  one of their worst outings this week.   On  the other hand, Lesko is having less episodes where he completely loses the plate and walks 2-3 batters in a row - slowly moving in the right direction.  Mazur gave up 2 HRs in El Paso  (not really shocking) but otherwise pitched well.   Need to get him out of there before he loses confidence like Wolf seems to have done.  I say put him on the 40 man and have him spot start on the road - maybe against KC or the Angels.  One of the RP has got to have a tired arm by now, so a good time to put that person on the 15 day IL (how about Kolek and slip Mazur in long relief to start then make his SP debut a few days later).

Quote from Randy Manese on May 31, 2024, 11:52 am

Another bad outing for Snelling - doesn't seem to have the zip on his FB or location that he had last year and as a result getting hit hard.  Also, PLEASE get Mazur out of El Paso.  Ruining his confidence and development.  With Darvish nursing a minor hamstring injury, maybe we can end the Kolek experiment (or option out Brito) and get Mazur to do a spot start or come in a long relief capacity.  Not sure why it seems most of the San Antonio pitchers have gone backwards this year but it might just be the competition catching up to them and not having the experience to make in-game adjustments to both batters and to overall umpiring in the Texas League.

Ive watched all the San Antonio games this year and Mazur was pretty much the only one who got a fair shake on pitches that were obviously in the strike zone but called balls by the umps.  You can see the frustration on the faces of our pitchers when this seems to be happening over and over again.  Still pitchers have to fight through this and all part of the maturation process, especially  for our younger former high school star pitchers with not that many professional innings under their belts.

Quote from Randy Manese on May 31, 2024, 12:00 pm

Looks like DeVries is starting to get his full strength back in his shoulder - he's been hitting  the ball with much more authority the last two games.  Storm team doesn't have a lot of top end position player talent overall (especially after Beshears was promoted) but they are a scrappy bunch and could even find themselves at the top of their division at the half way mark of the season.

Heartbreaking losses for Ft. Wayne over the last 3 games when they were within 6 outs or so of winning the games but the bullpen totally collapsed in each on of the losses.  One of those was Bradgley Rodriguez who had been on a very good roll.  But the overall vibe of this team is very positive and I think you'll see that in getting more wins in the second half of the season.