Fall Baseball Scrimmage #1 10/6/21

Wow! Balls were flying out the box.

The wind wasn’t even blowing. Morgan hit the longest ball I’ve ever seen him hit. Pearson hit one off Skenes and it was like he just stuck his bat out. It was 104mph but barely got over. Moonshot. Travinski and Neal had no doubters. Left before the others. We also had two triples.

Skenes was obviously the best pitcher. People talk about 97 mph but his best pitch is easily the slider. He threw sliders almost exclusively to Crews. Had him 0-2 before he hit him with one trying to catch him on the inside corner. The Kd him the next AB. Moffett has some electric stuff too. Taylor was just okay although he had 6 Ks too. He was up in the zone and didn’t locate the offspeed as well as we know he can.

Milazzo is our best C option and it’s not close for me. With him catching Skenes and Neal catching Taylor, the difference was very apparent. We do many hard throwers, Milazzo catching them feels like a must. And he looked pretty good at the plate. Can still lay down bunts and hit Taylor hard. He doesn’t seem overmatched anymore. But Neal should still be in high school and he had 2 HRs. Very impressive. The future behind the plate looks solid.

The OF is stacked. Crews, Pearson, Kling, Stevenson. Those are your guys. And Tre is being looked at out there. I think he has to be your 1B but if you want to get Jones or Frey an AB late, 1B might be the best option then Tre goes to OF. So it’s good he’s getting work out there.

The middle infield is very fluid. Thompson Guidry and Dugas all made plays. Guidry looks to be a gamer. Dugas looked good at 2B.

White is your 3B. Merrifield is a serviceable backup but it’s White and he will be fine.

The pitching is the most intriguing. We are going to be very deep on the mound with 4 maybe 5 true starters and lots of backend talent. I’m going to Sundays game too now simply to watch the pitching.

Scrimmage #1 of last season:

Fontenot,D 91mph 3IP 5H 2er BB 2K
Dutton 91mph 2.2IP 5H 3er BB 2K
Hasty 89mph .1IP H BB
Taylor 93mph 1IP 2BB
Cooper 88mph 3IP 2H 3er 3BB 5K
Helmers 87mph 3IP H 2BB 4K
Gervace 93mph 1IP 3H 3er BB

Interesting, thought it was mik’d up, or someone similar who posted that skenes slider was a weakness

99. He didn’t just touch it either. The kid is going to be throwing 100 for us one day.

His slider was 86-88 mph and he can throw it for a strike. It was not a weakness today at all.

To be fair, he played in front of a large crowd today compared to any of his games at NCS. Probably a little nervous. Crews didn’t look great before that HR either.

To your point about size, Moffett looks fairly average amongst them other than being put together/thick. He's 6'3. That's a tank.

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Interesting, thought it was mik’d up, or someone similar who posted that skenes slider was a weakness

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That was me. Didn't say "weakness", but the slider to me was iffy today. Even the one he got Crews on was kind of up and sweepy as opposed to sharp. Being able to throw a 96 mph armside running heater helps that, which is why I also said he's going to strike a ton of guys out. It's 60 pitches or something. None of the opinions are set in stone. Just my observation.

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the slider to me was iffy today. Even the one he got Crews on was kind of up and sweepy as opposed to sharp.

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He threw it for a strike to start 4 ABs (twice to crews). It was a swing and miss pitch many more times. It was anywhere from 86 to 88. That’s going to play, Hunt. You sure you weren’t thinking of his Ch which he started throwing in the 3rd inning and second time through the lineup? It seemed like it was a plan to change the out pitch from slider to change to try and throw people off. He definitely didn’t have as good control of it.