Mike Kaffee, Community News Canes Baseball reporter.
The third week of the preseason wrapped up today with 8 1/2 innings leaving two more weeks before end on 9 NOV for Scout Day. The scouts weren’t waiting until then as they came out in mass with their speed guns and cameras to record Brian Walters and Griffin Hugus. Most didn’t stick around to see the three that had the best showing of the day: Both Alex Giroux and Will Smith who they will see for certain on Scout Day both being grad students who transferred in from Hawaii and Coastal Carolina respectively, and Brixton Lofgren a sophomore transfer from Fordham.
Brian started today’s scrimmage in the early morning hour of 9AM where I swore I could hear the roosters crowing. Being a night person, I was barely awake. I can’t say the same for Brian but not a performance to woo the scouts. Brian opened walking Brandon DeGoti, who stole second, settling down with a FO to center followed by hitting Jake Ogden. Two on base (1st&2nd) strikes out Bobby Marsh which set the wheels in motion for a double steal. Fortunately, Jake Kulikowski grounded out 4-3 leaving runners on 2nd and 3rd. Not exactly the start we want to see coming from Brian. No runs but too much movement on the base pads and losing control hitting Ogden. In the second inning, I am sure the scouts were taking copious notes as the bats were finding all sorts of holes and coming away with a pair of runs. Michael Torres and Max Galvin had back-to-back singles with Cuvet continuing to slump in the preseason with an infield out not advancing the runners. Todd Hudson, unlike Daniel, took care of business with an RBI single. Runners on the corners, Gaby Gutierrez strikes out generating a double steal. Both runners were safe. Brian now anxious and wanting to end his day walked Fabio Peralta to open the third stealing second. Adrian Areizaga brings Fabio in with an RBI single. Troubles continue for Brain with what should have been a 4-6-3 DP instead becomes an E4 (Amaury De Jesus) placing runners on 1st and 2nd. K,W,K finally ends a disappointing showing from our premiere hurler.
Griffin Hugus also didn’t have a sterling opening showing leading off with an opening single by Edgardo who got himself on the short end by being thrown out attempting to steal off our surprise newby catcher Ethan Puig. He has been the biggest surprise of the preseason. With none of our three catchers displaying any ability with throwing to second, Ethan comes out of the blue hitting the target every time. Still has a lot to learn about the position but JD won’t have an open contract for the opposing players to steal on. Batting second and with the bases swept clear, Renzo Gonzalez puts the metal to the pedal whipping the ball clear over the RF fence. This returns to the discussion on who gets the start at first. Go with Renzo who has the better glove defensively and can hit or Todd Hudson who is a hitting machine but just learning how to the position at first. My solution which I am sure not agreed upon by the coaches is to have Todd as the DH (like Ohtani) and sacrifice the 7 inches of stretch (5’10″vs 6’6″) for the better glove. Max got back to business striking out Dorian and Derek Williams. The second and third innings were more what we should come to expect 3up and 3down earning him a pair of strikeouts.
The second set of pitchers also threw three innings, Reese Lumpkin and Alex Giroux. The first two innings were easy peasy for Reese; six up six down. Reese’s day came crashing down in his final inning. With runners on 1st and 2nd, no outs Derek Williams RBI single. Runners on the corners, Fabio Peralto lays down a SAC bunt to the left of the plate, and Ethan goes for the ball missing the tag-scoring Renzo. Runners on 2nd and 3rd Renzo follows through with a 2RBI single which he tries to squeeze for an extra base only to get thrown out by an alert Ethan with a perfect strike to second.
Alex unlike the three pitchers before him had a much easier time of things today. A grad student from our westernmost state (Hawaii), home state Oregon, is having an easier time adjusting to our tropical weather. He enjoyed an easy day on the bump only giving up up a lone single for the 10 batters faced.
The final set of pitchers who turned in today’s best performance as a duo were Will Smith and Brixton Lofgren. As earlier mentioned only a sprinkling of scouts remained, the rest remaining were families and friends. They were here to see the stars of today’s billing: Walters and Hugus and missed the best of the day: Giroux, Smith, and Brixton. The trio turned in 8 zeros across the scoreboard.
Things got off a little ugly for Will facing off against Bobby Marsh leading off the 7th. A swinging bunt on the first base side is retrieved by Evan Taveras who proceeds throwing the ball over the head of Todd Hudson. Todd is 6’6″ tall and the ball sailed clearly over his head. An unlikely feat, but it happened. Evan just continues to show his inability to throw the ball to any base. If JD decides to keep him on the roster for his hitting, he will never see a game catching behind home plate. During the break between preseasons, he should make it a point every day to be on the field spending at least an hour throwing to second base. That’s a promise he should make to JD. The sad part of this is that Evan can definitely contribute to the team with his bat. In the 8th inning, also with the lead-off batter Max Galvin. A Foul ball to the first base side of home plate Tanner Smith and Renzo Gonzalez not communicating as to who was going to catch the ball watched it fall between them. It was clearly Renzo’s ball having the better look and not weighed down with all that equipment. What made it worse was Tanner never dropped his mask. No harm, no foul. Max Galvin strikes out looking. How many times have we seen this bite us in the a–? Will picked up a second strikeout in the inning. With another 3up/3down inning in the 9th including his third strikeout of the day.
Brixton got the short end of the day pitching just two innings. Six batters, three strikeouts.
The offense lost some ground to the pitching crew today only collecting nine hits with only one HR (Renzo Gonzalez) and one with multiple numbers: Edgardo Villegas 2-5(2RBIs). Other than the Hr no extra base hits.
With one departure from the team (Alex Kuenzle), six and possibly seven more are fighting for positions on the team. With Ethan Puig moving from third (where he would never have seen any time) to catcher, this might open the door to releasing Evan Taveras. The rest will come from the OF and pitching staff. Just two more weeks to fight it out.
Week 4 marks the fun time for the players: the Green and Orange World Series. Not sure about the ground rules this year as to the number of games and how the teams are made up. I do know that the team captains run the whole show with the coaches watching from the sidelines
The next scrimmage is set for Tuesday 10AM scheduled for 8 innings.
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