Quote from Randy Manese on April 8, 2026, 10:34 pm

Storm brought up 18 year old Jesus Castro for his stateside debut today.   Did fairly well and had a lot of movement on his pitches despite not high octane velocity; really only 2 of the 6 hits given up were hit hard.  Castro did well down the stretch for the Dominican Summer League Gold champions last year and although he needs to clean up his mechanics a bit, could be a decent end of the rotation starter as a teenager for LE this year.

Continue to be impressed by Jose Verdugo, another player out of Mexico, who also played for the DSL Gold team last year.  Very good bat to ball skills and has played flawlessly in the field.  Needs to get stronger but could be a fast mover in the system.

Quote from Jeremy Hill on April 9, 2026, 11:36 am

Quote from Randy Manese on April 8, 2026, 10:34 pm

Storm brought up 18 year old Jesus Castro for his stateside debut today.   Did fairly well and had a lot of movement on his pitches despite not high octane velocity; really only 2 of the 6 hits given up were hit hard.  Castro did well down the stretch for the Dominican Summer League Gold champions last year and although he needs to clean up his mechanics a bit, could be a decent end of the rotation starter as a teenager for LE this year.

Continue to be impressed by Jose Verdugo, another player out of Mexico, who also played for the DSL Gold team last year.  Very good bat to ball skills and has played flawlessly in the field.  Needs to get stronger but could be a fast mover in the system.

Verdugo is putting himself on the map. I've also been impressed by Carlos Rodriguez early on. He seemed to take a pretty big step forward offensively in Lake Elsinore last season and has continued it to start the year in Fort Wayne.

Quote from Randy Manese on April 9, 2026, 11:31 pm

First good look at Balzer on MiLB network.  Looks so much better than last year - lot more poise and command of all his pitches.  If he continues to show this well in his next start might see early promotion to Fort Wayne.

Waldron had another very good outing, throwing all his pitches for strikes - sinker, knuckle, sweeper, fastball (normally around 92 but did get up to 94).   It all depends on what Buehler and Marquez do in their next start as to when Waldron is brought up and who he replaces.  El Paso wasted Waldron's effort and blew the game with another poor effort by the bullpen.

Quote from Randy Manese on April 10, 2026, 2:13 pm

Canning, Mendez, Mayfield and Schoolcraft all are scheduled to pitch today.  I'll try to catch them all.  Schoolcraft was awful the first time out - he's got to be better today.  Hoping Canning shows as much today as Waldron did yesterday.  Waldron seems to be throwing a "heavy" ball and got a lot of groundouts; he looked like he did in 2024, when he was at his best.

Quote from ultratvfan on April 10, 2026, 7:36 pm

 

Quote from Randy Manese on April 10, 2026, 9:34 pm

Mendez and Mayfield were good to very good; Canning was okay but Schoolcraft looked lost.  Only got 1 out and looked like he was aiming the ball, trying to draw a strike.  Right now, Schoolcraft's mechanics are completely out of whack and he needs to take a breather down in the ACL.  Looks like some of the better arms in the system are on a pitch count early in the season, ranging from 50-70 pitches.  Concur with developing these young arms slowly after an appropriate build-up (or after coming back from injury).