Lineup

Ryan Westmoreland- Westmoreland hits from an open stance from the left side of the plate. He has his hands higher in his stance around his helmet and goes into a little bit of a crouch as the ball approaches. Overall, he has a very smooth and quick swing. His hands are strong and quick. He's patient, didn't jump at pitches, and looked like he had an idea of what was coming at him. In his 1st AB of the night, he took a fastball away and hit it pretty well to LF for a flyout. It was hit to about the track and was pretty good opp field power. In his 2nd AB, he was plunked on the first pitch. Once on base, you could see his base running skills. I would call his speed elite and the best in the system. The kid can fly. Westmoreland scored from first on a single to LF that the leftfielder misplayed and was absolutely lightening running the bases. He's got a nice frame and is a little more filled out for 18 years of age, but has some room. His 5th AB of the night was the other AB he made contact as he fought off an inside fastball with a little bit of an inside out swing for more of a lazy fly to LF. The strikeout came on a 3-2 curveball in the dirt that he went fishing on and was out in front. It was against a lefty. He drew a walk in his other AB with nothing coming close to the zone except for the 3-0 automatic which didn't look like a strike. I knew he was athletic, but was impressed with the first impression on his skills.

Derik Gibson- Gibson is still very slight and lean. There is a lot of room on his frame to fill out. He looked the same as ST and last year when he was with Lowell. Gibson hit an absolute shot into the LF gap in his last AB of the night and scortched into 3rd for the triple. Gibson will develop some nice gap power and hits with some backspin. It'll be interesting to see how he fills out and how that plays into his power game. His speed is right around Westmoreland, but maybe a touch slower. He can fly. His other hit was on a fastball in his 2nd AB that he turned around for a nice hard grounder to the SS. He probably could have come up with it, but Gibson would have beaten it. He got hit, grounded out to 2B that he made very close, and reached on an error in the other AB's. In the field, Gibson looked a little rough at 2B, but his athleticism helps him. He made a sensational play diving towards CF and gunned the guy out at 1B. He made all of the other plays his way, but looked like he was still feeling things out at 2B. He still has his odd throwing mechanics, but his arm looked strong.

Yamaico Navarro- Not a very good night at the plate for Navarro as he looked very rusty, which was expected. He didn't make hard contact all night and was fooled on a lot of off-speed stuff. Ugly swings, off-balance, etc. In the field, he turned in a nice play ranging to his left, spun, and threw a bullet across the diamond. I don't remember his arm being that strong, but it is above average and he is very fluid in the field.

Roberto Feliz- Feliz has good power. His home run was more off the end of the bat and on a change. He still hit it pretty deep out to LF. In his 5th AB, he just got under a fastball and flew out right up against the wall. Feliz gets on top of fastballs well and his single was on a high fastball that he ripped through the hole. He looks a little shaky on off-speed stuff and hits off his front foot on those though. Inside fastballs seem to tie him up and he didn't get around well on them. LF was an adventure for him and the initial reports on his defense are pretty much spot on. He doesn't get good reads on balls and drifts towards them.

Drew Hedman- Hedman hits from a closed stance that is pretty straight up and down. He doesn't wear batting gloves as well. He looked like he was feeling things out tonight, but hit a rocket back up the box for a single to CF. Nice, quick stroke and batspeed on that one. In his other AB's, he didn't really square anything up and got frozen on his last AB on a curve for strike three. Hedman's quiet in the box and tracks pitches. He looks to have some feel for the strike zone and just needs to get comfortable in there.

Joantoni Garcia- Garcia is pretty slight and lean. But, he generated some good power in his 2nd AB when he flew out to deep left center on a change. He's got a quick swing, but seemed to be a little overmatched on balls on the inner third of the plate tonight. He topped or got jammed on the other balls he hit into play. In his last AB, he swung right through an 88 MPH fastball. He looks like he has some work to do on his pitch recogntion and his approach with his swing to the point of contact. Garcia has good speed down the line as he ran down to first base well. At 3B, he turned in a nice play on the run and showed a quick release on his throw while on the move.

Ronald Bermudez- He looks bigger than last year, but still has his good speed. He stole a base with ease, getting a very good jump and looked graceful as usual in CF. He's closed his stance down and now hits from a closed stance as apposed to the open stance he had last year. His swing still sweeps through the zone and he hits off his front foot a little much. It is hard to see him generating much power with how in front of the ball he is. He did hit two singles with one being an inside out swing for a liner to center that was nice hitting as he brought his hands in well and hit a hard grounder through the hole to LF. His other 2 AB's, he was out in front of the ball and chopped one to 3B along with getting sawed off for a fielder's choice.

Chia-Chu Chen- Chen looked over-matched at the plate on the night and had some "Ichiro-like" swings on off-speed pitches where he was way out in front and hit them one handed pretty much. He singled to RF on a liner off of a curveball in his final AB, but went down swinging twice and slashed a ball for a foul out to 3B. I'd call him pretty raw at the plate. Behind the dish, he looked pretty good though and had a nice throw down to 2B to nail a runner. He's going to have an adjustment period at the plate and have to get up to speed with the level of pitching.

Wilfred Pichardo- He's another athlete out there with excellent speed. Elite level speed actually. Pichardo hits from a closed stance in a crouch and is a slap/slash hitter up there from both sides of the plate. He sliced a sac fly to LF batting LH and fought off an inside fastball that was a little down for a flare 2B to RF batting RH. He flew around the bases on that one and hit it about 120 feet in the air inside the foul line. He doesn't really drive through the ball and is not going to hit for much power. But, as he gets a little more comfortable with the pitching, I can see him slashing the ball around the field to pick up hits. Right now, he doesn't get around well on a good fastball and lunges at off-speed stuff, but he's got the skill set to improve on that. It is hard seeing him driving a lot of balls with the approach he has, but that doesn't look like his game.

ziggyosk41 wrote:

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How does Westmoreland's speed compare with Ellsbury's? is it an 80 on the scouting scale?

I haven't seen Ellsbury run in person since he was in AAA back in 2007 so I'm not up to "speed" so to speak on the comparing the two. I've always seen an 80 as being some type of mythical number. Like Willie Mays is an 80 in speed or Babe Ruth is an 80 in power. Reserved for legends long after they are gone. With that said, I'll say Westmoreland is a 75 in speed. As a basis, I have been told that Lin ranks at about a 70 on the scale.

I'm on a different browser and I don't like the way the chart is coming in so I'll edit it in later on tonight.

Jose Alvarez

I was very interested to see Alvarez as he has been advanced pretty quickly and now he is back at Lowell where I thought he was going to be last year. Alvarez features a high 80's fastball, that sits at about 88 MPH mostly. I caught him at 90 once or twice in the outing. He also throws a mid-70's straight change and a mid-70's slider. His slider doesn't have a ton of break to it, but his change is pretty deceptive. For last night's outing, Alvarez threw 41 fastballs, 11 sliders, and 19 changes for 71 pitches. He pretty much cruised through most of the game as he had three 9 pitch innings and only really labored in the 6th inning when you could see he was gassed. His fastball was down to 85 MPH in that inning and he threw 6 changes along with 5 sliders in that inning. Overall, Alvarez threw 72% strikes for the outing and pounded the zone with his fastball while being able to pick up strikes by dropping his change into the zone. He made a couple of mistakes, but the only one that he paid for was on the home run he gave up, which was an 88 MPH fastball right down the pipe. His fastball is not overpowering and he's going to have to change speeds well, like he did last night, to keep hitters off-balance. His change-up was his best pitch last night as by the 3rd inning he had it going and was fooling a lot of hitters with it. His fastball has some movement and he looks to turn it over some to create a little sink to it. His fastball is pretty straight when it is up in the zone though. The slider looks like an ok pitch, I'd call it fringe average, and batters weren't really chasing it all outing. Overall, it was a solid outing for Alvarez and one he can definitely build on. He hasn't pitch in a while so we'll see how his velocity plays over a couple of more outings.