6/15 Games

[caulfield12]

http://www.milb.com/scoreboard/index.jsp?s...mp;ymd=20140615

 

 

Barnum with two hits already. Had a triple last night. Anderson with an RBI, Hawkins 1/2 (.250) with a K.

 

Jirschele continues to be hot, but is basically an overage singles' hitter.

 

Wendelken starting.

 

 

Scared to look at AAA.

 

Okay, why not? Well, it would be nice to have Betts and Doubront from Pawtucket, haha. Davidson 0/1 with a K (.183), surprise surprise. Semien and Micah Johnson with pedestrian averages in the .230's/.240's.

 

Actually, Saldino and Carlos Sanchez are the only 2 over .250 in the starting line-up. Yikes. Heath starting. Double yikes.

Edited June 15, 2014 by caulfield12

[fathom]

Hawkins needs to start hitting for power again. Charlotte getting dominated by Dubront

Edited June 15, 2014 by fathom

[fathom]

Davidson 2 AB, 2K

[caulfield12]

Hawkins now 2/3. Hasn't had many 2+ hit games recently.

 

Keenyn Walker's doing his best Tyler Flowers impression down there.

 

Piwnica-Worms one of the more interesting last names in A ball.

Edited June 15, 2014 by caulfield12

[Ozzie Ball]

Nathaniel Stoltz ‏@stoltz_baseball 31s

 

Leyer continues to impress, working 92-95 t96 with command.

[fathom]

Two more errors for Anderson

[caulfield12]

Error pace for Anderson mid 60's...hopefully he improves enough in the 2nd half to end up under 55 AND/OR is promoted to Birmingham.

[Quin]

I feel like Davidson needs to go to the DL with a phantom injury or down to AA to regain confidence.

[fathom]

I'm all for Davidson going back to AA just to try and see if he remembers how to hit a baseball. He's been in the .180 range for so long now.

Edited June 15, 2014 by fathom

[Heads22]

Only 6 errors for the Dash

[Feeky Magee]

Micah 0-5 with 4 strikeouts.

Davidson 0-4 with 2 strikeouts.

 

Yikes.

[thxfrthmmrs]

Nathaniel Stoltz ‏@stoltz_baseball 31s

 

Leyer continues to impress, working 92-95 t96 with command.

 

He's only 21 years old as well, decent ERA and all. If he can finish the year strong in Kanny, he can be a real sleeper heading into next year.

[Bigsoxhurt35]

Time to demote Davidson to AA

Edited June 16, 2014 by Bigsoxhurt35

[witesoxfan]

Time to demote Davidson to AA

 

No.

[royoung]

Only 6 errors for the Dash

 

Two more for Anderson (#27 and #28) and #12 for Barnum. Which, considering he's strictly a first basemen, might be worse.

[royoung]

He's only 21 years old as well, decent ERA and all. If he can finish the year strong in Kanny, he can be a real sleeper heading into next year.

 

http://www.chicagonow.com/future-sox/2014/...ues-to-impress/

 

Recap posted highlighting Leyer.

[Eminor3rd]

http://www.chicagonow.com/future-sox/2014/...ues-to-impress/

 

Recap posted highlighting Leyer.

 

Also, here's this on Leyer: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/prospect-wa...14-improvement/

 

Robinson Leyer, RHP, Chicago White Sox (Profile)

Level: Low-A Age: 21 Top-15: N/A Top-100: N/A

Line: 62.2 IP, 72 H, 35 R, 43/21 K/BB, 3.16 ERA, 3.97 FIP

 

Summary

Leyer brings easy heat and knows where it’s going, and his game has taken a quantum leap forward in the past year.

 

Notes

I first came across Robinson Leyer last July in the Rookie level Appalachian League. I was interested in what he brought to the table mostly because his older brother, Euclides Leyer, is also a White Sox farmhand. I had seen the elder Leyer (pronounced “layer,” for those curious) several times and was intrigued by his raw stuff–a 91-95 mph moving fastball and a hard curve that flashes plus–so I was curious what the younger sibling–who bears a striking resemblance to his brother, more so than most non-twin siblings–had to offer.

 

What unfolded that hot July day was one of the odder outings I took in last season. For the first three innings, Robinson Leyer looked like a non-prospect. He touched 92 mph with his fastball, which isn’t half-bad for an Appy League starter, but it was anywhere from 86-92 and often slid into the lower end of that range. His curveball mostly just spun, his changeup wasn’t particularly interesting, and his control was below-average even for the Rookie level. He looked like the sort of pitcher who would…well…post a 6.35 ERA and walk almost as many batters as he struck out, which is exactly what he did that year.

 

And then, suddenly, in the fourth inning, Robinson Leyer started to look interesting. His velocity jumped to the low 90s, and he even touched 95 once, his offspeed pitches were occasionally solid, and he started to pitch with confidence and aggressiveness. I can’t recall another outing where a pitcher suddenly found a bigtime extra gear like that so late in his outing, but I was intrigued by it. Needless to say, that form clearly was absent more than it was present last year, judging by his subpar statistical output.

 

Leyer got a chance to follow his brother’s path and join the Low-A Kannapolis rotation this year, and early on, it seemed like he was as ill-prepared for that task as you’d expect a poor Appalachian League hurler to be. In his first two starts, he allowed twelve earned runs on fifteen hits and five walks in six innings. Inconsistency has been a big issue for Euclides, and it looked like Robinson was going to fall prey to some of the same issues.

 

Since then, though, the younger Leyer has figured things out in a way his brother–who was moved to relief this year with High-A Winston-Salem–hasn’t, putting together a 1.59 ERA over his last ten starts. He hasn’t been quite as dominant as that seems–he’s allowed more unearned runs (13) than earned runs (10) in that stretch, and batters are hitting a reasonable .262/.315/.350 off him–but he’s throwing strikes (6.8% walk rate) and keeping the ball in the park (3 HR).

 

More importantly, his stuff is vastly improved from the 2013 version. I took in Leyer’s most recent start on Tuesday–his best of the year (7 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 9 K)–and was very pleasantly surprised on a number of fronts.

 

His days of throwing in the upper 80s are over. Leyer worked at 93-94 mph into the seventh, with a few 92s and 95s mixed in. He even touched 96 once, here:

 

Leyer didn’t need much more than the fastball to keep a talented Savannah lineup–featuring first-rounders Dominic Smith and Gavin Cecchini, SAL batting leader Jeff McNeil, and 2013 Appy League top prospect Amed Rosario, among others–at bay. The pitch gets on hitters quickly because of the deception on the backside of his delivery and his quick tempo to the plate, and he was aggressive with it throughout the night. He’s not quite a command artist, but he’s usually on the corners with the heater, and the majority of his misses were just overthrows that hit the dirt rather than mistakes in the zone that hitters could damage.

 

Leyer appears to have ditched the subpar curve he threw in 2013 for a true slider that arrives anywhere from 78-83 mph. It’s not consistent right now, to the point where it actually looks like two different pitches. At 78-80, it’s a soft, slurvy spinner that isn’t any better than his old curve, but at 82-83, it’s a power pitch with some tilt, grading out as an average offering. About three in every five fell into the latter category; given that the offering is fairly new to him, he should gain further consistency with the pitch and see it develop into a solid complement to the fastball.

 

Leyer’s third pitch is an 82-86 mph changeup that has similar inconsistency–sometimes it has nice sink and some fade, while other times it’s just flat. He doesn’t seem to trust it as much as the slider, and there weren’t as many good changeups in the outing as there were good sliders, but the pitch is far from hopeless. Here he uses it extensively to strike out the heralded Smith:

 

Given that he’s a smallish guy with a big fastball and inconsistent secondary stuff, the easy bet is that Leyer follows his brother to the bullpen, though his solid control and the intermittent effectiveness of his slider and changeup make him at least somewhat interesting as a starting pitcher. Further, he’s come a long way in the past year, and at 21, he may not be done developing. This is the sort of pitcher who could start climbing prospect lists, starting…right now.

[southsider2k5]

No.

 

Seriously.

[NorthSideSox72]

I'm more concerned with Barnum's 12 errors than Anderson's 28. 12 is a TON for a 1B in less than half a season.