Hagerstown Brings Mini-Meat Hook to GBO

Free baseball on Thursday night as the Hoppers tied things up in the bottom of the ninth to send the game to extra innings. Of course, they stop selling beer in the seventh, so the crowd was more or less non-existent by that time. Except for the douchebags in Red Sox gear that kept standing on the dugout and screaming at Suns coach Tony Tarasco. Yes, that Tony Tarasco.

And T, I will be back with a legit camera and in full stalker mode Friday evening, my friend. Anywho, onto the baseball. Hagerstown is a Washington Nationals farm team, and the best prospect they’ve got is Michael Burgess, who was drafted in the 1st round (47th overall, I believe) of the 2007 draft. He is the ridiculously hefty gentleman to your right.

Similarities include: Meat Hook Jr., being left handed (although “Senior” is a switch hitter) and “big boned”. His play in the field is questionable but he cranks bombs from inside the box. Four on the season coming in and another tater that cruised over the right field fence tonight. Finally, he likes to strike out. A lot. 23 in 64 at bats on the season, in fact. I have video proof of one of them followed by him doing something bizarre with his bat. That will come later.

The game itself was actually pretty superb; six total homers in the first nine frames and a 7-7 knot after regulation will do that. One of the bombs was by Ben Lasater, who kept his grip on second most yardballs in the South Atlantic with a rope to left field that looked like it knocked some fat chick an undeserving fan the eff out. It was also his fourth shot in three games, so he’s mildly warm. Torre Langley and Bryan Peterson also went yard for the Hoppers while Daniel Lyons (and his crazy Dumbo ears) and Jake Smolinski hit homers for the Suns.

The Z-Meter at Bus Leagues

My pals at the Bus Leagues are the featured “Z-Meter” blog on Wordpress.com, probably because they created the Z-Meter. I think. Yes, one could assume that they are the only ones with the Z-Meter functionality. Anywho:

The Z-meter tracks the story arcs of 25 top prospects (or players we just like) on their way to the bigs. It is named after current Washington Nationals star Ryan Zimmerman, who made the transition from anchoring the University of Virginia to starring in MLB in one year.

Basically, it helps you keep track of who is on the way up from the minor leagues. Guys like Colby Rasmus, Clayton Kershaw, etc, make the list. Who are the closest 25 players to making the jump from minors to majors, in other words. Check it out.

Thirsty Thursday tonight, and I promise I’ll actually bring my camera/write about the Hoppers soon. I swear.

Minor League Stuff

This is redundantly shameless since I linked here with the post I’m about to point out, but I figured it was at least worth throwing it up here since it’s minor league related. Over at FanHouse, I do some fantasy baseball work and have a weekly “Kids Are Alright” piece that features various minor leaguers that might be of interest to fantasy owners in the near future. Since it’s filler post-worthy, I’ll probably be linking.

Plus, the Hoppers are on a road trip (which I’ll update at some point this weekend, I swear) and school is slammed at the moment, so content never hurt anyone. Or something. Anywho, this week’s topic was Dodgers prospect Clayton Kershaw who has a curveball that’s nicknamed “Public Enemy Number One”.

Check it out. Feel free to hit refresh and stuff.

Weekend Wrap + Thirsty Thursday

Everything in my life is operating on a half-week delay at this point, so I apologize for wrapping up all of the weekend in one Sunday post. But for the 10 thousand of you that read this site regularly, just deal with it. Anywho, Thirsty Thursday was out of control. Hoppers lost 4-1, but that hardly mattered to the slammed house, which was there to get smashed. And don’t get me wrong — I’m not complaining. The crowd atmosphere was good, in that there were a ton of young people there, but if you were looking for straight baseball fandom, well, you might want to look elsewhere.

The Hoppers just picked up four total hits, one of which was an RBI single from Peterson and two others of which came from Stanton. Ontiveros looked much better defensively at third than Anetsburger did earlier in the week. Even if we sacrifice a little offense, it’s worth it to keep the errors down at third.

Friday I actually made a trip to Durham (I was in the Raleigh area to pick up some bracket winnings) and we hit up the Bulls game, specifically to see uber-stud Evan Longoria. Naturally, he got called up that day, but we still got to see Reid Brignac and the inestimable Jason Lane (/sarcasm) who has an obscene four homers on the season through like seven games for the Scranton Yanks. Good game but Scranton just outpowered the Bulls. Little disappointing to miss Longoria too, but whatevs.

While I was gone, the Hoppers loaded up early on the Asheville Tourists, taking them down 7-2 behind a pair of jacks from Martinez and Lasater. Martinez had a largo night, going two for two with a tater, a walk and an RBI. Stanton was one for four with two ribbies to keep his average at .407. Stu Alexander pitched quite well, going five innings with seven strikeouts, three hits and two earned over five innings to move to 2-0 on the season.

Asheville answered back on Saturday though, beating the Hoppers 7-3. Colby Miller got touched up again and fell to 0-2, giving up a pair of bombs, four earned and six hits over four innings while striking out only two. Stanton went two for five with a double. Anetsburger continued to play the utility role, manning first for the evening. It seemed to benefit him since he raked to the tune of 4-5 with a double as well. Clark, Nagy (no not the old one), Velazquez and Davis all hit jacks for the tourists, while Nagy swiped a pair of bags. The Tourists bullpen was the real winner though, tossing four and two-thirds scoreless innings after the Hops got to Bruce Billings early.

I’ll grab Sunday’s bloodbath and fleece blanket giveaway (shakes fist angrily at Trevor Immelman) tomorrow.

Mike Stanton’s Moon Rock

Stanton’s home run ball.

I wanted to get more in depth about last night’s game, which I brought my dad too, but didn’t have time last night and don’t know if I will today. I will say that Durand looked great — only giving up two hits over five innings — especially against a Dads team that lit us up last night.

Instead, I want to point out that Mike Stanton hit that home run ball a solid 450 feet. I think. I probably should have looked ate the measurements in right a little more closely, and will tonight, but he absolutely put that ball into orbit. It was one of those absolutely towering blasts that got all 3,592 450 people out of their seats immediately, because it was so obvious that it was gone.

Tough day for Anetsburger, who looked like he was pressing a ton. He went 0-5 from the plate and made pretty bad errors in the field; a four run cushion helped mask both of them of course.

Cold as hell at the stadium last night too. Hence the small crowd.

Woot, Woot Wonk, Wonk - Hoppers Lose Home Opener

The view from the 104 (E one and duece) … damn you foul ball net.

The home opener for the Hoppers against the Hickory Crawdads started pretty well — Ryan Anetsberger doubled home Bryan Petersen in the first and Colby Miller kept the ‘Dads hitless for three innings. But as soon as the sun dipped and NewBridge started to get really cold, Hickory started to get really hot. Or something cheesy like that.

Austin McClune and Erik Huber both ripped fourth inning doubles to put Hickory on the scoreboard and knot the game at one a piece. The Crawdads lit up Miller for another three runs in the fifth and he was done taking the loss. Another two in the sixth put the game out of reach, and combined with the weather and the college national championship game, the crowd was more or less nonexistent by the sixth anyway (an announced attendance of 5,925 was laughed off by the last 342 people freezing their collective asses off in the seventh).

Rafael Delossantos picked up the dubya for the Dads and we didn’t get a single homer. For some reason though, we got fireworks anyway (they were ringing outside my house with about 14 left in the Memphis - Kansas game … trust me, a tad excessive for an L).

Just looking at some of the players, most of the guys on either squad don’t translate quickly enough as prospects to be listed in the Deric McKamey’s Minor League Baseball Analyst. For the Hoppers, he’s got Matt Dominguez projecting as a starting third baseman, so I was a little disappointed he didn’t play, since he’s on the seven day DL. Looking forward to his return, especially since he probably won’t be around very long. (On that same note, I’m making a special trip to Durham this Friday just to catch Evan Longoria before he gets recalled by Tampa.)

Mike Stanton also meets that very, very loose criteria (I’m a Shandler fan and most of the stuff he endorses … what can I say — see my AL MVP pick at AOL) and he had a better than solid day, going two of four with a triple and a double to raise his average to .412 for the season. We might not be seeing much of him either; these are the top two picks for the Marlins last year we are talking about.

- Davis Marcus, CF for the Dads, and Bradley Stone, who came in for relief of Miller, got into a little “baseball scuff”, in that Marcus waited about three minutes to actually step into the batter’s box and Stone promptly plugged him in the back. Good stuff.

In terms of the general atmosphere, well, it’s a damn circus in NewBridge. That’s good, especially considering the slew of kids running around, and I get that minor league games are supposed to be more entertainment than anything else, especially at the Single A level, but bumping Fitty before, after and nearly during every at bat is a bit much. Or maybe I’m just a cynical bastard. Could be.

Spaz is out of control. Babe rules. More sandwich making games and sumo wrestling. See you manana.

Opening Day!

This is a belated post and I apologize to the millions of you reading out there, but it’s been a hectic day. Anywho, the Hoppers open up the season tonight (in about 15 minutes actually) and myself and my brother will be rolling down to Newbridge to take in the action.

I’ll try and bring back photos. Or at least find out how crappy my digital camera is.

Marlins Farm System to Feature Lots of Changeups

Via my good internet friends at Bus Leagues comes this little quotable that was recently released from Florida Marlins’ manager Fredi Gonzalez regarding the farm system and the need for everyone in it to throw (or learn to throw changeups).

As an organization, the Marlins are preaching the need for their own pitchers to learn how to throw a changeup.

Larry Beinfest, the team’s president of baseball operations, instructed the Minor League pitching staffs to teach the changeup.

‘I believe he told everybody in our Minor Leagues that they’ve got to throw changeups. Teach the changeup,’ Gonzalez said. ‘It’s just that hard of a pitch to pick up as a hitter.’

This is pretty interesting, if not unsurprising. Pitchers that develop good changeups are obviously, well, better adapted to the majors. For one reason, they develop a bit more guile and don’t try and power the ball past every guy they face in the batters’ box (see: Garza, Matt and why he didn’t make it in the Minnesota system, despite being a great young pitcher).

On the other hand, the changeup — which in a perfect world would look like Johan Santana’s or maybe more realistically, Cole Hamels — adds a layer of deception to every other pitch in the arsenal when thrown properly. The change, when properly developed and thrown, mimics the motion of the fastball, only the ball comes out slower, which obviously keeps batters on their heels and unable to load up on a heater.

And, as OMDQ points out, the changeup provides significantly less stress on a young pitchers’ arm. Besides, how are you supposed to sell off rising young stars for more future prospects if you burn their arms out too early?

2008 Promotion Schedule

In the interest of actually having content here before the season starts, next Monday, I had planned on doing some player profiles, but because I particularly enjoy stretching myself too thin and providing

mediocrity across the board, we might not get to them until the season starts. In that spirit, here is a list of all the promotions coming up for the 2008 Grasshoppers schedule. Yes, it is grifted off the website, but I’m a season ticket holder, so I’m claiming fair use. Or just hope they don’t care.

And yes, it is simultaneously awesome and bizarre that a dog (Babe) actually runs this organization. I’m pretty pumped up about Tropical Jersey Night as well.

Opening Day - April 7

As you can see from the poor quality of my camera operating skills, Opening Day is near. I am assuming that “gameday” will at least have a pretty large amount to do with what I’ll be writing on here.

Not so much open threads or live blogs per say, but that’s only because I’ll be going to most/all of the games. However, I do expect gameday previews and post game wrap ups. There’s a decent chance you’ll see random baseball posts on here, and might even see random Greensboro posts. Who knows.

If for any reason anyone that stumbles across this website is in interested in contributing, please let me know; certainly the more the merrier. Again, I’m still working out all the kinks on this new theme, so be patient as I get everything fully sorted. Go Hoppers.