State College vs Brooklyn...

by jdubya on Jul 10, 2006 8:53 PM EDT

I went to Coney Island yesterday to see the Spikes play the Cyclones. Ottavino pitched well. Hamilton homered, as usual.

Ottavino dominated the Cyclones. I'm not sure if it was him or the bad Cyclones hitters or a combination of the two. He was pitching up in the zone in the 1st inning. Walked a couple of batters. I'll chalk that up to nerves for the Brooklyn boy pitching in front of family and friends. He still pitched out of a jam with 2 on. Hopefully a sign of ice water in his veins. His first three strikeouts were on breaking balls. The hitters were totally fooled. Again, maybe a combination of the light hitting Cyclones and Ottavino's curve ball. He settled down and had a no hitter thru 4. I was really impressed by Ottavino. He definitely should be moved up in the near future.

I talked to Ottavino's high school math teacher, "Lenny". According to "Lenny", Otto has a double-jointed shoulder or something to this affect. This enables him to actually dislocate his shoulder and throw a harder fastball. REALLY! Of course, this is according to "Lenny" so take it for what it's worth. Oh, one other thing that "Lenny" did say was that Adam was a good student and a good kid. Not arrogant, in fact, a laid back type. Seems like he fits the Cardinals mold of a good guy and a good team player (and hopefully a great player).

I was also impressed with Mark Hamilton. He is a big 1B with line drive power. Sound familiar. Ok, wait I'm getting ahead of myself. This is only low, low A Ball. He is patient at the plate. I saw him take a few pitches that most Short Season ball players would probably take a swing. His homer was a laser shot to the opposite field. Keyspan Ball Park has a 16 foot high left field wall, so his homer was not a cheap shot. In the 6th, Hamilton had a runner on third and less than 2 outs. He did the prudent thing, pull a ball to the right side. A bullet that went thru for an RBI single. Didn't get a good feel for his defense but I think he should get promoted soon to Quad Cities. At least, he should be promoted before the end of the season. Not sure what they will do with Roth (who plays 1B for Quad) but Hamilton could DH if necessary. Van Slyke will not like it but he is hitting .223 so he can't complain.

As for the rest of the Spikes roster, Southard seems to be a hitter and could develop. Rapoport has some speed and is a scrappy player. Sivira made a nice grab in RF but his hitting is suspect. I was interested in seeing Motte, the catcher who recently converted to a pitcher, but my wife was not up for staying. We left after the 7th inning stretch. Go figure.

FYI, the Cyclones have a nice ballpark. Keyspan is not very old. Opened in 2001 and is right off the beach in Coney Island. Nice experience for a minor league game.

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I've been wondering about Southard

You don't hear that much about him, because Hamilton receives all the spotlight, but he's done pretty well also. It would be neat if the two of them progressed from college teammates to teammates in St. Louis one day, but I don't know where Hamilton would play.

by rob is back on Jul 11, 2006 2:45 AM EDT reply actions

BTW

Thanks for the report!

I enjoy these personal accounts of our farm system.

by rob is back on Jul 11, 2006 2:46 AM EDT up reply actions

hammy and paco

i just graduated from tulane, where i saw hamilton and southard play at least 20 times a year up close and personally. to be honest, for most of this year, southard was our best player, much better than hamilton. Paco is a scrappy CF who always went all out and was willing to sacrifice the body. at the plate he didn't have great power, but had good patience and always hit for a high average, god bless aluminum bats. time will tell if he converts well to wood, but so far it looks good. smart kid, too, he was a bio-med engineering major, which ain't easy at tulane, even for an athlete (tulane also has higher standards for athletes than the NCAA).
as for hamilton, he is extremely physically gifted, and shows good patience at the plate. he was thrust into a strange role, having to be a team leader this year, and i think he was pressing for most of the year. toward the end of the CUSA season, he went on a major run, and ended up being the conference player of the year. from what i hear, he is also a very very smart kid (cell bio major).
Plus, we don't know how the storm affected the pre-season prep work for these guys. they were at texas A&M for fall semester, and believe me when i say that there was a lot of stress during fall and right when we all came back. For instance, when they came back, they played their entire home season at a different stadium (zephyr field, home of the local AAA team, not Turchin, the tulane home stadium). zephyr seemed to affect people's averages and especially power numbers across the board. the only person who really didn't seem to suffer was Paco.

by sjoshi on Jul 11, 2006 12:42 PM EDT reply actions

thanks very much

for the scouting reports, jdubya and sjoshi. i always appreciate the first-person accounts

by lboros on Jul 11, 2006 2:11 PM EDT reply actions

lboros

Not to get too carried away but I have pics of Ottavino's throwing motion. If interested, I could email them to you to post or whatever. I even have a video from my camera (technology - ain't it neat).

None of these are the greatest quality but thought I would offer none the less.

by jdubya on Jul 11, 2006 3:52 PM EDT up reply actions