SB Nation User Blog: jar75

College Baseball - Opening Weekend

jar75 — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 00:21:03 -0000

I know we had a few of these threads at the beginning of last year and figured I'd throw one up. Andy Seiler was the main contributor (before he started his blog), but hopefully some others are following games tonight.

I came home from work today and watched the last 2 innings of Sonny Gray's start tonight against Niagara via a mediocre webcast, through this site:

http://all-access.cbssports.com/player.html?code=cs

I'm actually wondering whether I should purchase a monthly pass or not. I kind of want to see the Rice/Stanford game tonight.

Back to Gray:

His stuff looked pretty impressive, but without a radar gun it was impossible to tell how hard he was throwing. The announcer mentioned in the 8th inning that the fastball was 95 on the radar gun. His curveball looked pretty nasty and around the same time the announcer said it was 82 MPH. From the couple innings that I saw he got quite a few ground balls and worked very efficiently. He threw 93 pitches, 63 for strikes.

Here's his line:

8IP 3H 0ER 1BB 1HBP 8K 10GO 4FO

Has anyone else seen any games today?

AFL Championship Game Thread

jar75 — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 19:48:05 -0000

Here's a general thread for discussing any insights that you can gather by watching the AFL Championship, currently airing on the MLB Network and I think mlb.com. Strasburg was scratched, but there are some interesting prospects playing. The lineups are the following:

Phoenix Desert Dogs:

Angle CF
Espinosa SS
Brown, C RF
Marrero 1B
Desme LF
Bell 3B
Ashley C
Weeks 2B
O'Malley DH
Talbot P

Peoria Javelinas:

Ackley LF
Danks, Jor CF
Mitchell, R 1B
Morel 3B
Lambo DH
Wells, C RF
Lucroy C
Retherford 2B
Iorg SS
Varvaro P

MOD: Need New Scouting Director (Pirates)

jar75 — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 13:50:57 -0000

I'm sorry that this is at the last minute, but I just found out that I can't make it to the mock draft on Saturday. I hope there is someone willing to take over as the earliest I'll be able to get on line is around 2:30PM ET. I'll share my thoughts to whoever wants to take over the job and assist if the mock is still running once I get home (if you want the help, of course). Thank you and I'm sorry for the inconvenience, John.

MOD: Pirates #2

jar75 — Thu, 28 May 2009 18:05:25 -0000

I've put this off long enough and it's time to revisit the issue of who to draft in the upcoming mock. The Pirates have picks: 4, 49, 53 and 84.

With the #4 pick, I'd still very much like Jacob Turner or Tyler Matzek, but the recent reports make that scenario unlikely. There are rumors that the Pirates will go cheap (Wil Myers or Brian Borchering) in hopes of saving money to sign Sano. I'm not fond of this idea at all, and I'd personally rather pick a hard to sign 1st rounder in case Sano falls through. If they decide to go cheap, I'd rather have Wheeler or Leake, but it doesn't make the plan much more palatable. Of the college pitchers, my favorite is Alex White.

I'm still looking at an easy signing for the #49 pick (since it isn't protected). I'm hoping a solid college starter slides to this point.

The next 2 picks will be the best available, and I'd like to grab one of the HS catchers there.

Any input is welcomed, and I still need a deputy.

Poll

Who should the Pittsburgh Pirates pick with the 4th overall selection?

Brian Borchering

0 votes

Aaron Crow

20 votes

Kyle Gibson

8 votes

Mike Leake

1 votes

Tyler Matzek

5 votes

Wil Myers

0 votes

Jacob Turner

3 votes

Tim Wheeler

1 votes

Alex White

2 votes

40 votes | Poll has closed

MOD: Pirates

jar75 — Wed, 13 May 2009 16:45:13 -0000

Alright, we have the following picks for the 2009 MLB draft:

#4
#49
#53
#84

The Pirates own a barren system that is desperate for high upside talent. Gone are the days of settling for "safe" picks with limited upside who struggle to reach even the lowest of ceilings. The Pirates will go with the best player available, and may lean towards HS draftees. The best case scenario would see Pittsburgh putting together a winning team around 2012, and this scouting director sees no reason to reach for a finished product.

By no means am I saying that we won't go with a college guy if he's the best on our board, and we'll gladly take another Tanner Scheppers if one falls to us (as in 2008). This time, however, we hope Neal Huntington has the stones to actually sign the guy.

All thoughts are welcomed, and anyone who wants the deputy position should speak up.