Tides vs. Braves: 8/21/12

L.J. Hoes

The Norfolk Tides completely handled the Gwinnett Braves today in Lawrenceville, GA 8-0. Since I felt an acute case of baseball fever coming on this morning, I called out sick and went to the 10:35 AM start.

The Oriole highlights came early as former Dodger farmhand RF Jamie Hoffman launched a 3-run homer that just barely cleared the left field wall and Braves LF Jose Constanza's leap to give the Tides the 3-0 lead. CF L.J. Hoes' bases loaded single drove in two more in the 4th to give Norfolk the 5-0 lead and the game was pretty much over.

SP Dana Eveland gave up only 3 hits and struck out 5 over 7 innings and the Braves mounted no real threat at all. Braves' pitching issued 9 walks and walked in the other 3 Tide runs. Again, not the most exciting game to watch.

On to the individual performances, led by Hoes. He went 1-5 with a walk and reached on a fielder's choice that should have been a hit. He scorched a ball toward right field in the 6th inning but Braves 1B Ernesto Meija reached up and got his glove on it but it was hit too hard for him to hold. Hoffman was on 1st and had to hold up for a beat ot make sure Meija didn't catch the ball. If Hoffman would not have been on base, that would have been a hit for the speedy Hoes. Hoes had good at bats, worked the count and looked poised beyond his 22 years at the plate. He is hitting .369 in August and has maintained good walk rates throughout his minor league career.

RP Brian Matusz pitched the 8th inning. He gave up no runs but was unimpressive while walking one batter and striking out none. His fastball was missing up out of the zone and his breaking stuff was missing low and outside a lot. He got out of the inning with a couple of sharply hit ground balls that his fielders turned into outs but it was not hard to imagine major league hitter turning those mistakes into hits. He got himself into bad pitcher's counts on three of the four batters he faced. He may need more work.

2B Ryan Adams looks like I've seen him before. At the plate, he looked relaxed, worked the count and put the ball into play with authority. A great looking hitter and he is hitting .300 with 5 XBHs in August. In the field, he is not smooth and he made an error in the 7th.

I've never fully understood the enthusiasm for 1B Joe Mahoney. His walk rates are poor, his hit tool is OK and the value is wrapped up in his power as he slugged over .500 over the 2010-2011 in just over 200 games split between Frederick and Bowie. But that power has disappeared in Norfolk this season (.387 SLG in 120 games) and had trouble making solid contact today and could not manage a walk on a day when the G-Braves staff was giving them out freely. He'll be 26 next year and I guess the power could return. But if it doesn't, he's not going to have much value as a prospect.

3B Brandon Waring has hit 20 or more homers in every season he has played professionally. He walked twice today but his walk rates are just decent. His power is really, really impressive. Fun to watch but hard to imagine how he can help the major league club in the future.

Norfolk Tides vs. Gwinnett Braves: 4/11/11

The Norfolk Tides (AAA affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles) fell to a woeful 0-5 last night in fairly woeful fashion, losing to the Gwinnett Braves 8-3.

Things looked good for the Tides early. LHP Troy Patton took the spot of the recently recalled Brad Bergesen and held the G-Braves hitless for three innings. Nick Green had doubled in Josh Bell in the 2nd and Nolan Reimold had a solo shot to deep left in the 4th to give the Tides the 2-0 lead against RHP Jair Jurrjens who was on a rehab assignment from Atlanta.

But G-Braves CF Jordan Schaefer led off the 4th inning with a drag bunt between the pitcher and first base. Patton ran and lunged at the ball, missed it, stumbled and fell, landing on his left side. Patton remained on the ground for a full minute or two, then got to his feet and was pulled from the game. (It was later reported that Patton had a wrist injury although it looked like he had fallen on his shoulder.)

Fellow lefty Mark Hendrickson came on in relief and gave up 6 runs in his three innings including back-to-back homers in the 6th. Tides RF Tyler Henson hit a sac fly to plate SS Nick Green in the 7th. RHP Pat Egan pitched the final two frames and gave up a two-run homer in the 8th.

The Tides are now the only winless team left in the International League. They will try to get their first win tonight at Coolray Field in Gwinnett.

Some random notes:

Troy Patton: On a night when Jair Jurjens' fast ball was sitting at 92-93 on the stadium radar gun, Patton was having to really dial it up to touch 91. His fastball sat at 87-88 on the night but it was his breaking stuff and offspeed pitches that were giving Gwinnett fits last night. His changeup seemed to be the swing-and-miss pitch of the evening as he compiled 4 strikeouts and walked no one. I don't remember a well-struck ball all night. His injury looked kind of ominous, hopefully it looked worse than it was.

Mark Hendrickson: I was a big proponent of bringing Henrickson back to the Baltimore organization. I think he pitched better than he showed last year and is generally an underrated reliever. But there is nothing I saw last night that would lead me to believe that he can still pitch in the majors. His fastball was up all night, even the outs he got were loud ones and he gave up two home runs to a lineup that is not exactly an offensive powerhouse. He has a lot to work on.

Josh Bell: Bell was a mixed bag in the field. He had a couple of sharp grounders that he bobbled a little, one bobble of which allowed a runner to reach. But his arm was strong and accurate all night, something that he had issues with in Baltimore last season. At the plate, he looked extremely comfortable, even against a good major league caliber pitcher like Jurjens. Bell went 3 for 4 with a triple.

Ryan Adams: Adams did not get that many chances in the field but on a routine grounder up the middle, I saw his fielding flaws. Admas ranged deep and nearly got to the ball but it skipped under his glove and there was just no sense that he is athletic or quic enough to make the tough plays. His arm is good and makes the routine play with little effort. I see why third could be his ultimate position but there was nothing I saw to indicate his reactions are good enough for that position either. At the plate, Adams has struggled thus far but managed to draw 2 walks and also had 2 strikeouts. I like his approach and he may hit well enough to offset his defensive trouble at second.

Pat Egan: I was a little disappointed in Egan. His first inning of relief was exactly what I was expecting. A fastball that sat at 92 mph and could touch 94 and good enough breaking stuff to keep the oppostion off balance. He gave up a liner to left in the 7th but nothing else was well hit. He fielded his position beautifully twice that inning, once to start a 1-5-3 double play and another leaping stab of a chopper that looked to be over his head and heading up the middle.

His nest inning of work was another matter. I don't think he touched 91 more than once and his fastball looked very hittable. He gave up the homer and was lucky that was all that was surrendered. He may just be a one inning guy...looked like a different pitcher during that second inning. Something to keep an eye on anyway.

Nolan Reimold: Hit a homer to left off Jair Jurrjens. Would've liked to have seen him work the count a little better tonight as he went 1-4 with the homer and a strikeout looking. (The called third strike looked low...) Reimold is now hitting .250/.333/.633 on the young season and made a nice running grab on a sinking liner too.

Tides vs. G-Braves: 4/29/2010

It was a gorgeous spring evening in Lawrenceville, GA as the Tides took on the Gwinnett Braves. If only the promotion for the evening hadn't been a thunderstix giveaway, the evening would have been perfect. OK, maybe if the Tides had not lost 6-1, it would have been perfect.


Starting pitcher and top pitching prospect Jake Arrieta battled wildness during Thursday night's loss but was still able to turn in a quality start going 6 innings and giving up three earned runs, all on a three-run homer to G-Braves RF Mitch Jones.

Arrieta cruised for the first three innings, retiring 10 of the first 11 batters, surrendering only a walk to G-Braves 1B (and top prospect) Freddie Freeman. In the 4th, he then gave up a blooper to left center, a sharply hit grounder to right and the three-run Jones homer.

Arrieta was working deep into counts most of the night and walked 4 batters on the night but still had the stuff to pitch out of trouble and struck out 4 as well. His fastball sat at 89-91 but he hit 94 several times. He works under control, doesn't overthrow but can reach back for extra when he needs to. He mixed in a slider in the mid-80's and an occasional curveball in the high-70's.

Arrieta was visibly frustrated with his control at times. But really, Arrieta pitched OK. He only gave up two solid hits (the sharp grounder and three-run homer, both in the 4th inning) and was able to pitch around the walks and errors. Even with the loss, Arrieta has only a 1.16 ERA over 5 International League starts.

The offense was another story. G-Braves starter Chris Resop, a journeyman pitcher, was wild as well but managed to strike out 8 Tides batters over his 6 innings of work. The Tides twice loaded the bases on Resop as he walked five and threw a wild pitch but Resop was always able to work out of the jams with minimal damage. Tides 3B Scott Moore's RBI single in the 3rd was the only run allowed by Braves pitching.

More player notes:

SS Robert Andino - Whenever a player is sent back to the minors, you would like to think it won't affect his attitude. In Andino's case, it looks like it has. I am not normally one to jump on players for not trying or not hustling when they are playing poorly but Andino barely looked interested. He failed to run hard on a groundout to short even though he certainly had a fair chance of making it to first safely (if the throw wasn't perfect) and made no effort to throw to first to complete a double-play later in the game. Both those plays were makeable but Andino just didn't make the extra effort. (OF Jeff Salazar, in stark contrast, ran hard on similar groundball to short.) He misplayed a flare that dropped for a hit in the 4th and made a throwing error in the 8th that seem to be extensions of the general lack of focus on defense that he displayed in Spring Training. It's just one game but I don't want to see him back in Baltimore. I'm not sure I even want to see him in Norfolk.

C Adam Donachie - Long time readers know that I have liked Donachie ever since the Orioles picked him in the Rule 5 draft in 2007. He didn't stick with the team that time but was signed by the O's later on. He works hard behind the plate, seems to have a good rapport with the pitchers and, on the rare occasion that he hits the ball, hits it hard. Donachie will never be a good major league starter but I think he could be a very good backup, a defense-first backstop with some power. I don't think he would be any worse than Craig Tatum and Tatum has found major league work.

1B Brandon Snyder - Snyder has not had a great start at Norfolk but it doesn't seem to be making him desperate. His approach is still good, he works the count and drew three walks on Thursday.

OF Corey Patterson - For the first time since the end of 2007, Patterson is back in the Oriole organization. He's not hitting much so far but was playing his signature stellar defense in rightfield last night and made3 a nice play on a foul ball down the rightfield line.

RP Pedro Viola - It's easy to see why the Orioles took a flyer on Pedro Viola and claimed him off waivers from the Reds earlier this month. The lefty reliever's fastball was sitting at 92-94 and hitting 97 on a regular basis. That kind of left arm doesn't grow on trees. Unfortunately, he didn't know where it was going last night as he gave up 2 hits, a walk and a run in just one inning pitched. If they can get him straightened out, he'll be nasty. When that fastball is over the plate, nobody can hit it.

Anatomy of a No-Hitter

Chris Tillman hurled a no-hitter against the Gwinnett Braves last night...right in my back yard. (I'm going to tonight's game...damn it.)

Here was Tillman's line:

            IP   H   R   ER   BB   SO   HR
Tillman    9.0   0   0    0    1    6    0
 

Only 6 strikeouts over the 9 innings. Tillman got a lot of help from his friends. A breakdown of the outs:

Groundball   Liner   Flyball   Pop Fly
    13         2        2         4
 

That's impressive. Only 2 flies and 2 liners (both liners, fortunately for Tillman, were hit at CF Corey Patterson....a superior defender).

Now, Gwinnett has the lowest Team OPS in the International League (.627) but it's an impressive feat nonetheless. Congratulations to Tillman and his fielders on the accomplishment.

LF Joey Gathright
CF Corey Patterson
RF Jeff Salazar
3B Josh Bell
SS Robert Andino
2B Scott Moore
1B Michael Aubrey
C Adam Donachie


I'm going to see the Tides take on Gwinnett tonight...I wonder if Jake Arrieta can make it back-to-back no-hitters?

Tides vs. Braves: 7/26/2009

I drove up to Lawrenceville last Thursday to witness what was probably the last minor league start of 21-year-old Chris Tillman's career. I watched Tillman warm up before the game and he was fairly wild, even during long toss. I was hoping he just needed to get warmed up but he was wild during the game too. After skating through the first two innings (4 Ks through 2 IP), the Braves lineup started to make Tillman throw strikes and started hitting him hard. Tillman only lasted 3.2 innings, striking out 4, walking 4, giving up 4 runs including a solo homer. He was hitting low-90's on the stadium radar gun. Looks like that performance won't keep him from the majors though; he's rumored to be called up for his major league debut this Wednesday.

Not much else of note to report from the game. Brandon Snyder went 0-4 and the Tides lost 5-1. On the bright side, Screech went 2-4 to continue his fine season (.315/.390/.524) and 2B Justin Turner went 3-4 with an RBI (.304/.353/.393 overall) and could have the makings of a good utility man for the O's next year.

Nice little stadium the Gwinnett Braves built. Classic design, not too overdone.






Tillman vs. Braves




(Over at Roar from 34, Matt has a similar post as he caught Jake Arrieta on the mound when the Tides moved north and took on the Durham Bulls this weekend. We've got the south covered when it comes to your Oriole coverage. Word.)

Tides vs Braves: 4/19/2009

Just a few thoughts on the Norfolk vs. Gwinnett game I attended on Sunday.

I was mildly disappointed that Uber-catcher Matt Wieters tweaked a hammy on Friday (who knew it was even possible for steel to get tweaked?) and did not play on Sunday. The most I saw from Wieters was when he stood for the anthem and jogged out to the bullpen.

The Matt Wieters vs. David Price matchup from last week would have been rivaled by a Matt Wieters vs. Tommy Hanson showdown (Hanson is Atlanta's own uber-prospect, a 22 year old RHP with wicked stuff) but it was not to be. Some highlights:

RHP David Pauley looked pretty good. He gave up a monstrous (though questionably fair) solo shot to C Clint Sammons in the third and that was it through six innings pitched. CF Gregor Blanco hit a rocket right back to Pauley. It knocked him 4 feet off of the pitcher's mound and, as he fell to the ground, for a split second I thought that the ball had killed him. But somehow he had gotten his glove up in front of his face in time and caught the ball. Amazing that he wasn't seriously hurt by that drive.

Justin Turner was playing SS today and made a great grab on a scorcher to his left, flipped the ball to the second baseman to start a nifty 6-4-3 double play. Turner will have no problem playing second in the bigs and could even be passable at short.

I have to give another defensive star to Lou Montanez in right. Braves 1B Wes Timmons shot a liner to right, Lou scooped it up on a dead run and gunned it to Jolbert Cabrera at first. Timmons legged it out but just barely. A fantastic effort by Lou.

RP Kam Mickolio was bringing it in the bullpen and entered the game in the 7th, his first action of the year. He promptly gave up a "just enough" solo shot to center to OF Joe Borchard but retired the next three batters in order. Alberto Castillo pitched a scoreless 8th and Bob McCrory (who was hitting 95 on the radar guns) struck out the two in the 9th for the save.

I was messing around with my camera's movie functions and caught a little vignette in two parts that I like to call "The Joy and Pain of Mike Costanzo"

Costanzo is number 24. There is no sound. Here's the first act entitled, "Costanzo Makes The Play".




Pretty nice, eh? Here's the second act entitled "Costanzo is hitting .111 and Is Not Very Happy About It, Thanks"





And now, Bob McCrory bringing it in the bullpen.





And some random snapshots from the game:




Tides vs Braves

This is only my second AAA ball game that I've attended and I've got to say that the level of play is real close to what you see in the Majors. Must be frustrating to some of these guys to be this good but never quite get good enough to make the big club.

Tides win 4-2 and sweep the inaugural series at Gwinnett Stadium.