Scouting the Lakewood Blueclaws

Sorry the blog has been on a hiatus of late. I'm back at school and busy. I had a chance to see a lot of high quality video from one of Lakewood's recent playoff games and finally can assess a few of their guys. Here's my take:

Jon Singleton- Singleton was being talked about constantly during the first couple months of the year when he hit over .400 with a slugging percentage near .700. Of course, those type of numbers are unsustainable and his performance has since come back down to Earth. Singleton is physically well-developed already at 6-foot-2 and a listed weight of 215 -- although I'd guess he's a little bigger than that -- and only turns 19 tomorrow. He has a nice swing with fast hands and excellent hip rotation which is a tell tale sign of future power. He tends to hit a little too much off his front foot -- he can end up with his weight completely off his back side, especially on changeups -- but he gets great extension through the zone.
While it is apparent the physical tools are there, Singleton didn't yield good results when I saw him. My guess is he's tired from the rigors of his first season of pro baseball after playing in high school schedules and exhaustion has set in. Evidence of this was his tendecy to be late on crappy, high 80s fastballs that I expected him to crush and his struggle to adjust to anything offspeed.


Brody Colvin- A classic example of a young, high-upside arm, Colvin has big velocity with below average command and control. Colvin's fastball ranges from 91-95 and loses about 2 mph when he works from the stretch. His delivery is fairly deceptive. He was more confident in his 83-84 mph changeup, which had a lot of late downward action, than his 77-79 mph slider, which had some tilt but was less consistent and occasionally flattened out. Colvin cuts himself off in his delivery and didn't command anything as well to his glove side as he did to his arm side. The raw material is there for a No. 2 starter who brings two or three above-average pitches, and at the very least he'll end up being a nice bullpen weapon.

Julio Rodriguez-Who? I had no idea who this guy was until I saw him and now I want to see more. The fact he hasn't been on my radar is inexcusable. He struck out 90 men this year for the Blueclaws in 55 innings (that's not a typo). Rodriguez didn't show a real knockout pitch and his fastball only touches 91, sitting mostly 86-89 irange. He mixes four pitches very effectively, showing good two-plane break on a slow curve and hard tilt on a slider, with a changeup that just lets hitters know he has one and is not a real weapon. Rodriguez's arm action is loose and easy, and he works quickly, keeping hitters off balance. If he can hold that velocity as a starter, he has the body and repertoire to become a legitimate, innings eating starter prospect, even though I think the crazy strikeout rate this year wasn't indicative of his raw stuff.

Anthony Hewitt- Now in right field after being drafted as a shortstop and then being moved to third base where he was terrible, Hewitt is a lost cause. Breaking balls, fastballs up, changeups -- he can swing and miss with the best of them.

Sebastian Valle- struck out three times in four ABs with a walk, although his at bats were mostly sound and he had a few good takes and showed he could foul off a lot of pitches he couldn't hit fairly below the zone. His stride at the plate is very short, but he's got good hands and uses his lower half well, which is why he's showing power already even though he's still pretty slight. He's a work in progress behind the plate but has arm strength and showed soft enough hands that he projects well defensively.

Running Diary: Phillies Bus Trip

Upon walking into my Legal Environment of Business class one Tuesday afternoon, a cut-off half sheet of paper with the Phillies logo caught my eye. I picked up the paper and read the following: "The Accounting Society would like to offer accounting majors the chance to win tickets to the Phillies vs Nationals game on Wednesday, April 14th. The first 30 students to sign up online will get the chance to go." It then supplied the URL where you could sign up. I am not an accounting major. This trip was not meant for me. I immediately borrowed a friends laptop and signed up right then and there. Sorry, accounting majors are idiots for leaving those sheets lying around. I won a free ticket and free transportation to the game. Here is a running diary of the day up until the start of the game:

6:30am: I wake up and feel TERRIBLE. I've been sick more in the past few months than I was for all of high school (my transcript may say otherwise but I wasn't really sick, I skipped). Hope this clears up by tonight.

9:00am: JRoll to DL, no Werth tonight, no Ryan Zimmerman tonight, Kyle and Kendrick and Craig Stammen are pitching. Yay

5:00pm: I'm doing 15 minutes of my radio show because I like to hear myself talk.

5:20pm: I am the first to arrive for the bus trip. Even the bus is not here yet. People with Phillies gear start to arrive. I don't know any of them so I start to look for someone to buddy up with (BUDDAY!) for the trip. This is going to be a 5 hour friendship so I don't care whether or not I get them sick. I'm looking for someone with whom I can have an intellectual baseball discussion. This may be interesting.

5:25pm: More people arrive and we get on the bus. There's not many of us so I don't have a lot to pick from. I hear a kid behind me ask "Who's pitching tonight?" and someone else say, "Where has Brett Myers been?". Take me now, Lord.

5:28pm: I alert my girlfriend of the geniuses on board. Her advice: "Tell them Jimmy Rollins was traded and that's why he's not in the lineup." Too easy.

5:30pm: Bus should be leaving right now but it is not because we are waiting for some more people, all of which are reportedly girls. Chances are at least one of them has her sorority's symbols sewn on her purse.

5:35pm: I notice one of the girls on the bus has a rather old, faded Phillies hat. Maybe she isn't an idiot (don't worry Hannah, she had a unibrow).

5:36pm: Nope, she's an idiot.

5:50pm: The late girls show up, 20 minutes after we were supposed to leave. "Traffic will be bad anyways.", one says. YES! TRAFFIC IS BAD! THAT"S WHY WE WANT TO LEAVE ON TIME! This trip is not off the an auspicious start.

6:02pm: Driving through the backroads of Philly to avoid as much traffic as possible. Avoiding traffic often means travel through...uh...neighborhoods with...character. In such a neighborhood we see a man riding an ATV on the street, weaving in and out of ONCOMING traffic. It was like being in a DMX video.

6:40pm: We arrive at the stadium, get our tickets and head inside. I see my ticket says "foul pole seat". I find a spot at the drink rail behind home plate to stad. The people two feet in front of me paid close to $70 for their seats. I can stand in the ame place for free.

6:45p,m: You know you've been to a sports arena a lot when you start to recognize vendors. Tonight, I recognized 5. Cotton Candy Here Guy, The program guy from Ashburn Alley, two beer guys I clearly remembered (one of them vended for the IronPigs at one point), and a lady that sells ice cream at every philly sporting event. This lady's voice is shrill and unforgettable and she looks like a witch. "ICECREAM!" It haunts me.

6:55pm: I make the acquiantance of a man in his 50s who introduces himself as Billy Walnuts. He is already rather intoxicated. "Let me axe you a question," he says "With his helmet off, what cartoon character does Raul Yabanyez look like?....Jimmy the Cricket." Do all old people mispronounce names? I always thought my grandfather was the only one. (Pop has had some memorable ones, including Bobby Eh-Brew, Albert Poe-jules, and my personal favorite: Sebastian Telafero)

Be sure to check back tomorrow for my scouting report from tonight's Harrisburg Senators game, which will include an in-depth look at Stephen Strasburg.