Brian Bogusevic
Jim Pankovits: He has no weaknesses. None of our players have weaknesses, right? No, he’s made a lot of progress this year. He is night and day from the start of the season to today. He’s improved his command of all his pitches and has learned to throw inside effectively. His breaking ball had gotten sharper and he’s gotten a lot more swings and misses with it, leading to more strikeouts. And while his curve is turning into a strikeout pitch, his changeup has improved as well. He didn’t have a good pickoff move when he got here, but now he’s worked on it and has a couple different moves to choose from. He’s an intense competitor. One thing he needs to work on is to not be so hard on himself, needs to work on evening out his temperament. But it’s a good problem to have. I’d rather have to dial someone back down than dial them up. I only wish I could coach 25 Brian Bogusevic’s.
Jason Benetti: One thing that has been tough for him is to pitch over a hit, error, or a walk. When he looks good, he looks fantastic. He had a start where he put down 15 in a row to start the game, then let a few runners on and had a collapse. It’s amazing how many multi-hit innings he has had and also how many 1-2-3 innings he’s had. He’s a really smart individual. Thinks more than your average pitcher. Sometimes he may be over-thinking. Don’t know exactly what might cause him to struggle when runners get on. When the first hit comes, the second might be not far behind. We don’t know exactly what it is. I don’t think it’s that he’s uncomfortable when runners are on because he’s our best starter at caught stealing and pickoffs, base runners against him are under fifty percent. I think if you asked him, he wouldn’t have an answer either. He’s been working on throwing inside a lot more. He doesn’t have a noticeable out pitch, his fastball is at 90-92. Since he doesn’t really have an out pitch, he doesn’t strike me as a guy who has to get ahead of the count to be comfortable. He doesn’t have to get in a certain situation to throw a certain pitch. He’s comfortable in any count.
Brad James
JP: He was tremendous for us. He gave us a quality start every time out. He’s got a plus fastball with plus movement. Best sinker I’ve seen in sometime. He pitches on both sides of the plate. He does need to work on fielding his position a little more, and also his overall knowledge of the game, learn how to pitch to different hitters. But he never gets hit hard. Any hit he does give up is most likely a chopper or a seeing-eye single. It’s frustrating though and he had to learn to reign himself in a little and just accept that he is going to give up those kinds of cheap hits.
JB: Brad had an uncanny ability to get out of jams. When he left, batters with runners in scoring position were hitting around .100. He was not allowing people to come home when they were in scoring position. What was really noticeable was his ability to stay calm in those types of situation. Sometimes I would take out the binoculars to see how he was reacting to the situation and he would never show any frustration. He told me that that was a problem for him before, now he’s doing the complete opposite. He’s using the opposing team’s momentum against them. A lot of that is because he gets a lot of miss-hits. He’s got a lot of movement on his fastball that allows for his 2:1 groundball to fly ball ratio. The base runners weren’t a result of him getting knocked around all that much, the problem was he would get erratic and lose his control, walk too many guys. Throws a fastball hovering around 90, I’m not a big fastball velocity sort of guy so I don’t keep my eyes locked on that. But he’s got a curveball, slider, and a changeup. Not the type of guy that has to get ahead to throw a certain pitch just like Bogusevic. He’s the most likely to pitch inside, which contributes to his HBP and walks.
Sergio Perez
JP: Has improved this year as well. He’s got a plus fastball and his breaking ball is improving. Needs to work on his changeup, pitching inside, and locating his pitches in the strike zone. I would like him to work on getting more defensive contact. Allowing hitters to put more balls in play. He pitches from behind a little too much right now. He’s gonna have to develop his changeup to be successful at the higher level though. He doesn’t have a lot of movement on his fastball so he needs to develop some movement on it or he has to maybe develop a cutter.
JB: He is unlike Bogusevic or James in that he throws his fastball to set up his slider. His slider has really good late bite on it. The key for him is to get ahead in the count with his fastball in order to use that slider as a strikeout pitch. You can tell how his night is going to be after the first two innings. If he is getting ahead in the count and can use that slider to get guys out on bad swings, you know he’s gonna have a good night. I think the Astros want him to start and that’s why they have him starting right now. They only had him in relief last year to preserve his arm.
Christopher Salamida
JP: He started slow like a lot of young pitchers do in this league. But he’s learned to make adjustments. Since there are only eight teams in the league, the hitters have the early advantage because they see the same pitchers a lot more early on. So at the beginning of the season, he was struggling to get ahead in counts, which meant he couldn’t get hitters to chase his pitches later in counts. But he’s gotten away from trying to be overly aggressive and has been getting ahead in counts. He’s similar to Sergio in that regard.
JB: His college coach described him as a bulldog. He’s not afraid to throw inside on anyone. Everything moves with him, nothing doesn’t move. Sometimes that gets him in trouble with his control. This season, he took a no hitter into the ninth. He has the ability to do that, and that’s what sticks with me. He is more of a raw type of guy developmentally. He’s still figuring things out and learning things that guys from larger schools have seen. I think with him it’s just a matter time.
Wladimir Sutil
JP: Has had a solid season to this point. Struggled early on because he wasn’t playing everyday. But since Josh Flores moved up and Wladimir has moved into lead off, he’s done an outstanding job. He’s got good bat control, gets on base, he can bunt, has a lot of quality at bats. He’s had some clutch hits for us with some RBI singles. He’s played some solid defense at second and short. He can steal some bases too. Hits a few too many routine fly balls, needs to hit more line drives. Has the bat control and speed to do it. Needs to get quite a bit stronger before he can hit the ball in the air as often as he does.
JB: It’s amazing how hard he works on the hitting craft during BP. He is always trying something new or working with a coach, trying to find a way to keep improving. His great aspect is his speed, he can bunt, drag bunt, he’s very comfortably bunting. He’ll get on base and you don’t even know how he got there. He’s a small individual. Great guy to have on your team and around the team because he gets on base and always has a smile on his face. He gives everybody a feeling that he wants to be there which makes everybody else happy to be there. All the people love it. I could never see him saying I don’t want to do this any more. He’s been more of a line-drive hitter at points, they want him to keep the ball on the ground and use his speed. But he still needs to hit more line drives, doubles and triples, power type of things that will help. Fielding wise he was originally playing shortstop but most recently at second baseman. He’ll make some major league plays out there. He’s a very good fielder with good instincts. Can play all the infield positions.
Mitch Einertson
JP: Started out in four man rotation in the outfield, started slowly, but he took off all of a sudden, started making hard contact, driving the balls to the gap using the whole field, He’s had some huge RBIs, slowed down a little bit because he’s seeing some tough pitching batting in the three hole, he’s played good defensively. He’s been outstanding for a guy out of high school in his first year in this league.
JB: Started out batting under two hundred but then hit 400 in May. I see him as more of doubles type of guy who will steal a base every once in awhile. He got descent speed which factors into him being a very good fielder. Best defensive fielder we have. He’s very willing to dive or jump into a wall to make a catch. He pulled one back earlier this season. Playing time was the big problem with him earlier in the year. I think a lot of baseball is about rhythm, so once he was able to tinker with some things along with some playing time- you put a guy like that in the lineup with the drive to get better, a good month was inevitable. I don’t think there were any major changes, it was more about playing time.
|