Minor League Baseball Video Room Review - Durham vs. Charlotte
Feb 27, 2017; Mesa, AZ, USA; Chicago White Sox starting pitcher Lucas Giolito (27) throws during the first inning against the Chicago Cubs during a spring training game at Sloan Park. Mandatory Credit: Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports
The Durham Bulls defeated the Charlotte Knights 6-0 in a minor league baseball game April 13th. Why is this game worth taking a deeper look at?
Our MLB coverage at Call to the Pen is fairly well-balanced, but in an effort to give you better breadth and depth of coverage of minor league baseball, we will begin a number of minor league baseball weekly posts.
The first will examine the big news items along with the top performers in the minor leagues each Monday. Tuesday will bring a review of the weekend highlight series. Wednesday will bring draft news and college baseball news until that is complete. Thursday will preview the weekend series of note in minor league baseball to watch. Friday will feature a new series, "The Video Room", where CTTP contributor Benjamin Chase will examine one game from the week from a scouting perspective and break down the game.
Scouting reports will be scattered throughout the week and weekends, so keep on the lookout for those as well. As always, if there is anything you would like to see covered more thoroughly here at CTTP, let us know in the comments section below!
Today's feature is our first video room review. This will be set like a player's meeting in the video room, reviewing the previous game to evaluate what happened. Today's game features the Durham Bulls and Charlotte Knights.
While the big names for Charlotte are pretty well-known after a very headline-driven offseason for the Knights' parent club, the Chicago White Sox, many don't realize the depth of talent that the Tampa Bay Rays have accumulated at the lower levels of their system and also with their Durham Bulls team.
While any of the three-game mid-week series would have been an intriguing game to write up, the Thursday night game featuring starts from Charlotte's Lucas Giolito and Durham's Taylor Guerrieri on the mound was most intriguing to me, so that's what we'll cover over the next two days. We'll begin when the visitor Charlotte was at the plate.
Charlotte Knight Hitting: 0 runs, 3 hits, 3 walks, 9 strikeouts
First Inning
*Base information for this and future innings taken from MiLB.com's Log of the game*
Guerrieri came out firing. Vinicio asked for time out just before striking out on Guerrieri's first pitch that was really outside of the zone, a hard breaking pitch that bit the dirt and Vinicio chased.
Moncada went after the first pitch to ground to third right at the only guy on the left side as Durham had him played to pull.
Hayes did a nice job staying with one of Guerrieri's quality sinkers and slapping it the other way for his single. The wild pitch was bad luck as Casali chose to pull off his mask as he was moving to block the pitch, and the pitch hit his mask in a spot it wouldn't normally have been, leading to a significant ricochet.
Gillaspie made a very nice play negotiating the Durham bullpen mounds as he chased Raburn's pop up in foul territory. He's received plenty of note for his excellent defense at first base as he's improved his conditioning in the last year-plus.
Second Inning
While Guerrieri is known for his excellent fastball movement, specifically his sink on his pitch, I noted cut to his fastball waist-high to chest-high to right-handed hitters.
Ladendorf saw multiple of those cutters before grounding out on an excellent curve. Engel saw multiple curves before launching his bat as he swung very early on an excellent change.
Guerrieri blew away Blair with a fastball to finish his third strikeout of the game.
Third Inning
Bourgeois hit a high, hard chopper, and with his speed, it was an easy single, even at 35 years old. The announcers noted that Guerrieri had been exposed for his slow time to home by the Gwinnett Braves in his previous start. He worked between starts on his pick off move, and he nearly got Bourgeois on one of his moves.
If Bourgeois had not been going on the pitch, Cabrera would have hit into a double play, but it was an excellent play on a short hop by Leonard as well just to make the play.
Guerrieri missed with his fastball low multiple times to Vinicio before Vinicio slapped a grounder right at Adames that Adames took his eye off of as he was looking at first when the ball hit his glove, and it glanced away.
Vinicio telegraphed that he was going, making his pick off easy. The announcers noticed it before Guerrieri even threw over based on how he led off of the base. Guerrieri finished off Moncada on the next pitch with a wicked sinker that just sat on the outside edge of the plate and dropped straight down.
Fourth Inning
Guerrieri came out and had wicked break against Hayes to get his strikeout, then worked right around the zone on Raburn and sawed him off for the fly out.
Guerrieri began to show some issues with Ladendorf as he was flexing his hand after pitches, and he began throwing primarily fastballs. The ball 4 call for the walk was a very close pitch, but after that pitch, they immediately called out the training staff, and Guerrieri left.
Marks came in from the left side with a vastly different repertoire, throwing more cutters and slow curves than heavy sinkers and moving fastballs. He was also a guy who threw 5-7 MPH with his fastball than Guerrieri was as well.
Marks and Engel had a good battle in his first batter of the game before Engel flew out on a casual fly out.
Fifth Inning
Marks came out attacking in the 5th, and while his fastball velocity wasn't better, he had much better location than against Engel. He did miss his spot with a fastball to Blair, putting it about belly button high, and Blair went opposite field all the way to the warning track with it.
Hager made a very good play on a ball that bounced goofy off the bag to get Bourgeois on the grounder.
The strikeout got Cabrera after he got into a bit of a back-and-forth with the home plate umpire because he was stepping out of the box between pitches.
Sixth Inning
Garton came in with a fastball/slider/curve combination out of the pen, and Moncada had Garton timed very well, fouling off a couple of pitches before hitting the ball right at Hager. If Hager misses that ball, it's a double easily.
Garton worked his slider up in the zone effectively in the inning, getting multiple called strikes. Hayes truly smoked the single he had right up the middle, a sharply hit ball, but Raburn and Vinicio both looked foolish in their strikeouts.
Seventh Inning
Garton struggled with the location of his breaking stuff to open the 7th inning, leading to two walks. He even opened Engel with a 2-0 count, before the two had an incredible at bat that seemingly never ended until Engel put a ton of ride into a ball that McKenry was lucky to come up with.
Kolarek came in, throwing from a side arm lefty slot to give a different look. Adames fumbled with the ball in the exchange, though it's unlikely that the double play could have been turned.
I was surprised that the Knights went with Delmonico to replace Cabrera against the side-arming lefty as Delmonico is a lefty hitter himself.
Eighth Inning
After a delay when the Durham Bulls mascot ran out of gas in the go cart he was using to entertain the crowd, the 8th got underway with a quick ground out on the second pitch of the inning by Vinicio.
Off the bat, I thought Moncada's ball was gone, and the Durham left fielder had his back against the wall as he caught the ball.
Hayes seemed to struggle to read the pitch out of Kolarek's hand, especially on a night when he made such good contact otherwise.
Ninth Inning
Wagner's first pitch required the center fielder Gotta to jump up the wall to make the catch as Raburn gave it a big ride.
Gotta made another tremendous sliding catch to take away a likely double from Ladendorf as well.
Engel had another good battle at the plate before he popped out. He went 0-4, but Engel likely saw at least 20 pitches on the night, if not 25-30.
Durham Bulls Hitting: 6 runs, 8 hits, 7 walks, 6 strikeouts
First Inning
Giolito has certainly made some adjustments on his mechanics from the mess he was dealing with in 2016. He's also lost some weight, but he was fluctuating between an easy, effortless delivery when he generates his bend at his knees and hips in his delivery and a notably high-effort delivery when he bends from his hips and back in his delivery.
The first strikeout looked very good, and you could see that he was confident in his fastball and change. Going to his curve on Adames multiple times led to missing the target significantly, especially in the "bad" delivery.
Adames really hit the cover off of the ball that he took to right field, going opposite field to right-center with loud contact that the park held and Bourgeois made a very impressive running catch to keep from extra bases.
While the curve was missing out of the zone, Giolito's slider was missing within the zone, and Adames pounded a hanging slider. McKenry walked on three of his four balls being fastballs that Giolito short-changed in his bad delivery when he short-stepped his landing spot, leading to the fastball carrying rather than having good sink.
After struggling with his off-speed stuff, Gillaspie obviously was expecting Giolito to want to get a fastball over and was ready on the first pitch, driving it into the right field corner.
To his credit, Giolito regained his composure after the Gillaspie triple and attacked Leonard. Leonard was able to spoil plenty of pitches, though, driving up Giolito's pitch count to 27 in the first inning before striking out on a very well-placed curve.
Second Inning
Not a ton to write about with this inning. Giolito still had his curve missing spots, but the slider was in better location, and his delivery was his good delivery throughout the inning, making short work of the Bulls on just 7 pitches, a good bounce back from his long first inning.
Third Inning
Giolito didn't get a call on a very well-placed slider to open the 3rd, and he was throwing angry and using minimal time between pitches the entire inning after not getting that call.
The curve remained an issue in the third. He was focusing on trying to use his off-speed stuff on the first two hitters, throwing two fastballs that I noted over the first 12 pitches of the inning on the first two hitters.
After going to 2-1 on Adames, Giolito began just attacking with the fastball and change, and locating his fastball around, getting both Adames and McKenry looking at pitches on the fringe of the zone, located right where the catcher called for them.
Fourth Inning
Giolito had a solid approach against the first two hitters of the innings. He mixed up the fastball, slider, and change very well. The curve still missed, but he had the hitters off base.
Giolito then tried to paint corners too much with Peterson. He came inside on Peterson one time in the at bat, and Peterson launched the pitch about 400′ foul. From that point, he stayed away from Peterson, leading to the walk.
A good throw from Blair on the Peterson steal would have been an easy out, but Giolito also wasn't holding Peterson on hard either. He focused himself in well on Casali at the plate, getting a sawed-off weak pop out two pitches later.
Fifth Inning
More from Call to the Pen
Giolito had Marjama 3-0 when Marjama jumped all over his grooved pitch, taking the ball out deep to left field.
Hager's single was right up the middle, nearly clipping Giolito, and bounding over the bag before Moncada snared it on the edge of the outfield grass before he couldn't get the ball cleanly to throw to first. It would have been a long throw to even get Hager, so the single was the right call.
Blair moved awkwardly to block a pitch, the first bad block he'd had all game on a number of pitches in the dirt, and the ball hit odd off his shin protector, leading to Hager getting to second.
Giolito was still short-stepping his delivery, leaving his arm to do everything on his pitches, and that led to a lot of missed locations in the inning before walking Varona and being pulled from the game.
Beck came in with a different look, flashing a sinker/change combo along with cut variations on his fastball.
Hager getting to third was due to an excellent read by Hager more than a bad pitch by Beck, whose pitch just bounced a bit off of Blair's shin guards. Hager also scored due to excellent heads-up running on the double play, delaying his break to the plate until Ladendorf released the ball as he'd have been easily gunned down if he took off on contact.
Beck's stuff seemed to be moving a bit more than he was even used to, as he missed just off the plate on a few pitches as the ball had excellent movement, but that movement took it off the plate before a heavy moving sinker got the final ground out of the inning.
Sixth Inning
Hayes made an incredibly impressive play on a wicked short hop to retire Gillaspie. Beck continued to pound the lower part of the zone with Leonard, likely missing getting a strike 3 call when he missed his catcher's location, but the ball was still in the zone.
Leonard did a very nice piece of hitting to drive a ball to the left field wall, but it was well-played to hold him to a long single.
Peterson spoiled a number of solid sinkers before Beck hung a slider on the outside corner that Peterson drove the opposite way to left field for a double.
After a mound meeting to change signs, Casali drove the next pitch to left field on an 0-2 count.
The Knights seemingly pitched around Hager, giving him nothing close to the zone before getting Varona to ground out on a chopper that was easy work for Moncada.
Seventh Inning
Purke is a former elite pitcher that had a fairly storied path to finally making his major league debut in 2016. He was originally a top 20 selection in the draft out of high school that didn't sign, experienced injury and performance issues and fell to the 3rd round after college. He's had injuries as a pro that also delayed his development and moved Purke into the bullpen.
Purke's stuff was quite good on this night in movement, but his location was atrocious. Adames grounded out early in the plate appearance, but the other hitters who waited him out either walked or saw something good to hit.
Purke hung a slider to Peterson that he is very lucky "only' was driven to the gap as a double as he absolutely smoked the ball, but he hit it on a line rather than getting under it.
Soto got Marjama to swing under the second pitch he saw to fly out and end the inning.
Eighth Inning
Burdi was certainly one to enjoy seeing. His arm speed is absolutely incredible, though it's obvious why his violent delivery wouldn't work as a starter.
Burdi opened Hager with a 99 MPH rising fastball and then bounced a 100-MPH fastball to give the Bulls an idea of what they'd be facing.
Burdi comes from a low 3/4 arm slot, which makes his slider have a unique break. He also gets unique sink on his fastball from the angle that he throws, usually an angle that lends to more lateral movement.
What was incredible to watch was the movement that Burdi got on a 100 MPH pitch. He had excellent sink on the pitch, but he also got good arm side run as well on the pitch.
Varona was so overmatched that he watched a strike with one foot out of the box and watched strike three finish right in the middle of the plate, though the pitch began on the outside corner and worked in.
Adames turned on a 100 MPH pitch and nearly had a double down the line that hooked just foul. Out of 15 pitches, Burdi hit 100+ on 6 of them, and multiple were registered at 99.
Wrap Up
One of the more notable story lines from this game was actually who WASN'T part of the game. Outfielder Jake Bauers had a monster spring training for the Rays, and Thursday was his first day off on the season, likely given to get his head right due to a .219/.265/.219 start to his season.
On the series, top Rays pitching prospect Jose De Leon, a major offseason acquisition from the Los Angeles Dodgers in exchange for second baseman Logan Forsythe, did not make a start, which is also notable.
With outfielder Rymer Liriano currently injured, the Charlotte lineup has been very pieced together, with guys who are on the roster to be backup infielders getting reps as starting outfielders, which certainly weakens the lineup.
Moving past the missing players from the series, this was a four-game sweep for Durham over Charlotte. Durham also took 3 out of 4 games from the Gwinnett Braves, another very pitching-loaded team with top prospect on the offense as well, giving them a 7-1 opening to their season against two of the stronger teams in the International League.
Notable in this week's series was the struggle of top pitching prospects for Charlotte Reynaldo Lopez, Carson Fulmer, and Lucas Giolito. The trio combined for 14 1/3 innings, a 7.53 ERA, 1.67 WHIP, and 4 home runs allowed.
The two top-rated prospects in this series were infielders Yoan Moncada and Willy Adames. Moncada certainly didn't set the world on fire, but he drastically out-played Adames. On the series, Adames went 0-13 with 3 strikeouts and 2 errors. Moncada went 4-15, with a double, a home run, 4 runs scored, an RBI, 3 walks, 5 strikeouts, a steal, one caught stealing, and an error on the series for a .267/.389/.533 slash line.
Look for this feature on a weekly basis here at Call To The Pen!
