7/28 Games

[ChiSoxJon]

Yep. Looks like Nick has the real scoop above and an article to go with it. I knew it was bad. Did not know about his mother and it appears he got hurt before being drafted.

I still think there's potential, wonder where he was committed to for baseballl

[ChiSoxJon]

The Kanny radio broadcast is fantastic, broadcaster knows his stuff, does great interviews (that I'd like to hear more of), and is funny as hell

[SoxAce]

Hello everybody. I am Brad's father. I will try to keep the emotion out of the discussion since I am obviously biased. I am only responding to this to provide some additional information. I certainly appreciate all of your positive comments & I hope Brad continues to improve & perform. Regarding the "velocity" concern. I was actually very happy to hear about all the movement of his offspeed pitches. I wonder if the person who wrote that was at the game? Anyway, regardling velocity, Brad typically sits around the 90-91 range, but on a few occasions this year, both at Great Falls & Kannapolis, he has been able to top out at 94. As you stated, more velocity will come as he continues to re-learn how to pitch. He hasn't pitched since his junior year of high school in 2009 & has only been a "pitcher" for about a year now. It was about this time last season at Great Falls that he actually got to pitch in games. Hope that info helps.

Welcome to soxtalk! And as I previously stated earlier, definitely rooting for your son. I was actually a fan of his as a position prospect (same with Blanke) so I hope he continues to progress.

[jmsalgado]

Welcome to soxtalk! And as I previously stated earlier, definitely rooting for your son. I was actually a fan of his as a position prospect (same with Blanke) so I hope he continues to progress.

Thanks Sox Ace. I really appreciate that comment. He loved playing shortstop & was a pretty solid defensive player. The bat just didn't quite have enough. I am very thankful the Sox didn't give up on him & have been fantastic about giving him every opportunity to succeed. Hopefully he's found his purpose on the mound. Very glad he at least had a decent background on the mound in his early years of travel-ball & high school. He has worked his butt off to get to this spot. Keeping my fingers crossed that he continues to improve.

[Feeky Magee]

The thing that impresses me most about Brad is his control. Usually that's the big thing that players switching to the mound struggle with. Santos was walking well over 10% of batters until his breakout year in Toronto. Blanke is walking nearly 20% in his first go at rookie-ball. Brad is walking 1.6%.

[MnSoxFan]

Reading some articles to see what college Thomore had committed to and I see he also tore his hamstring in his 2nd season of rookie league ball with the Rockies and that hampered him for a long time.

 

http://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/sport...agues/11714051/

[MnSoxFan]

Thomore was committed to Rutgers

 

http://www.nj.com/hssports/blog/baseball/i..._prospects.html

[southsider2k5]

Hello everybody. I am Brad's father. I will try to keep the emotion out of the discussion since I am obviously biased. I am only responding to this to provide some additional information. I certainly appreciate all of your positive comments & I hope Brad continues to improve & perform. Regarding the "velocity" concern. I was actually very happy to hear about all the movement of his offspeed pitches. I wonder if the person who wrote that was at the game? Anyway, regardling velocity, Brad typically sits around the 90-91 range, but on a few occasions this year, both at Great Falls & Kannapolis, he has been able to top out at 94. As you stated, more velocity will come as he continues to re-learn how to pitch. He hasn't pitched since his junior year of high school in 2009 & has only been a "pitcher" for about a year now. It was about this time last season at Great Falls that he actually got to pitch in games. Hope that info helps.

 

Welcome to Soxtalk. I love the personal angle, and the behind the scenes stuff that doesn't show up in the numbers. Feel free to offer thoughts on not only Brad, but any of the other kids you see. Information like that is priceless as far as I am concerned.

[jmsalgado]

The thing that impresses me most about Brad is his control. Usually that's the big thing that players switching to the mound struggle with. Santos was walking well over 10% of batters until his breakout year in Toronto. Blanke is walking nearly 20% in his first go at rookie-ball. Brad is walking 1.6%.

I really feel that has been the key to Brad's success so far is that he is simply not giving up free passes. He's only had 10 - 3-ball counts in 62 plate appearances. (16%) He exclusively throws from the stretch, so there's no adjustments needed going from a windup to the stretch. Less moving parts means less chance for a mechanical error & less things to think about since it's just a repeat of the throwing motion just like the previous pitch. He is throwing strikes at 66% rate & first pitch strikes at 68%. When you get ahead of hitters basically 2/3 of the time, advantage goes to the pitcher every time. I keep track of his 1-1 count pitches as well & since that's the 2nd most important pitch. (after the FPS) There's about a .200 point swing in batting avg. if that 1-1 pitch is a strike vs. a ball, he is at 67% throwing a 1-1 strike. He's still got a long way to go, but he is very focused & dedicated & I'm very proud of him for that.

[ChiSoxJon]

Reading some articles to see what college Thomore had committed to and I see he also tore his hamstring in his 2nd season of rookie league ball with the Rockies and that hampered him for a long time.

 

http://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/sport...agues/11714051/

Such a shame although he still has it, if Morris didn't have such a cannon I'd love to see Thomore in RF, maybe he'll repeat Kanny next year or at least start there

[Feeky Magee]

I really feel that has been the key to Brad's success so far is that he is simply not giving up free passes. He's only had 10 - 3-ball counts in 62 plate appearances. (16%) He exclusively throws from the stretch, so there's no adjustments needed going from a windup to the stretch. Less moving parts means less chance for a mechanical error & less things to think about since it's just a repeat of the throwing motion just like the previous pitch. He is throwing strikes at 66% rate & first pitch strikes at 68%. When you get ahead of hitters basically 2/3 of the time, advantage goes to the pitcher every time. I keep track of his 1-1 count pitches as well & since that's the 2nd most important pitch. (after the FPS) There's about a .200 point swing in batting avg. if that 1-1 pitch is a strike vs. a ball, he is at 67% throwing a 1-1 strike. He's still got a long way to go, but he is very focused & dedicated & I'm very proud of him for that.

This is great info for a stats/farm nerd. Keep posting man!

[caulfield12]

This is great info for a stats/farm nerd. Keep posting man!

 

 

Sounds like Pitching 101 from the Minnesota Twins from 2001-2010 (Rick Anderson)...first pitch strikes can make up for a lot of deficiencies, although having Radke, Santana and Liriano helped a lot, too.

[LDF]

I really feel that has been the key to Brad's success so far is that he is simply not giving up free passes.

He's only had 10 - 3-ball counts in 62 plate appearances. (16%) He exclusively throws from the stretch,

so there's no adjustments needed going from a windup to the stretch. Less moving parts means less chance

for a mechanical error & less things to think about since it's just a repeat of the throwing motion just like the

previous pitch. He is throwing strikes at 66% rate & first pitch strikes at 68%. When you get ahead of hitters

basically 2/3 of the time, advantage goes to the pitcher every time. I keep track of his 1-1 count pitches as

well & since that's the 2nd most important pitch. (after the FPS) There's about a .200 point swing in batting avg.

if that 1-1 pitch is a strike vs. a ball, he is at 67% throwing a 1-1 strike. He's still got a long way to go,

but he is very focused & dedicated & I'm very proud of him for that.

 

welcome to the site, these guys are the best knowledgeable group of people you can find. the mods do a wonderful

job outside being professional baseball employees.

 

I was taught in the 70's when I was playing ball the second pitch the was equally important is the running high

fast ball which was perfected by, according to my coach, sandy kofax (sp) . only to being use sparingly when you

need a K.

 

no offense, who is your son?

[witesoxfan]

welcome to the site, these guys are the best knowledgeable group of people you can find. the mods do a wonderful

job outside being professional baseball employees.

 

I was taught in the 70's when I was playing ball the second pitch the was equally important is the running high

fast ball which was perfected by, according to my coach, sandy kofax (sp) . only to being use sparingly when you

need a K.

 

no offense, who is your son?

 

His son is Bradley Salgado, reliever for Kannapolis.

[LDF]

His son is Bradley Salgado, reliever for Kannapolis.

 

 

again many times for helping.

[ChiliIrishHammock24]

I really feel that has been the key to Brad's success so far is that he is simply not giving up free passes. He's only had 10 - 3-ball counts in 62 plate appearances. (16%) He exclusively throws from the stretch, so there's no adjustments needed going from a windup to the stretch. Less moving parts means less chance for a mechanical error & less things to think about since it's just a repeat of the throwing motion just like the previous pitch. He is throwing strikes at 66% rate & first pitch strikes at 68%. When you get ahead of hitters basically 2/3 of the time, advantage goes to the pitcher every time. I keep track of his 1-1 count pitches as well & since that's the 2nd most important pitch. (after the FPS) There's about a .200 point swing in batting avg. if that 1-1 pitch is a strike vs. a ball, he is at 67% throwing a 1-1 strike. He's still got a long way to go, but he is very focused & dedicated & I'm very proud of him for that.

 

I hope your son takes the same cerebral approach to pitching as you seem to. I think baseball is a perfect sport for the athletic nerds out there. Maybe Bradley and Brian Bannister could be friends!

[jmsalgado]

I hope your son takes the same cerebral approach to pitching as you seem to. I think baseball is a perfect sport for the athletic nerds out there. Maybe Bradley and Brian Bannister could be friends!

He does. We talk about this stuff after every game. Ok, I am going to back out of this discussion for now. Brad doesn't usually like me talking about him with stats & stuff too much. I probably divulged more than he would have liked. He just takes it one ptich at a time & one batter at a time. Thanks again for all your positive comments. I'll go back to being an "observer" of the discussions. Great day to you all.

[ILMOU]

He does. We talk about this stuff after every game. Ok, I am going to back out of this discussion for now. Brad doesn't usually like me talking about him with stats & stuff too much. I probably divulged more than he would have liked. He just takes it one ptich at a time & one batter at a time. Thanks again for all your positive comments. I'll go back to being an "observer" of the discussions. Great day to you all.

I only needed to see one stat to be sold. 1 BB in 16 IP. He's already a breath of fresh air to the system! Good luck to him and you.

[witesoxfan]

He does. We talk about this stuff after every game. Ok, I am going to back out of this discussion for now. Brad doesn't usually like me talking about him with stats & stuff too much. I probably divulged more than he would have liked. He just takes it one ptich at a time & one batter at a time. Thanks again for all your positive comments. I'll go back to being an "observer" of the discussions. Great day to you all.

 

Yeah, share what you can and keep private what you have to. Wish Brad luck from all of us!

[southsider2k5]

He does. We talk about this stuff after every game. Ok, I am going to back out of this discussion for now. Brad doesn't usually like me talking about him with stats & stuff too much. I probably divulged more than he would have liked. He just takes it one ptich at a time & one batter at a time. Thanks again for all your positive comments. I'll go back to being an "observer" of the discussions. Great day to you all.

 

Again, thanks for the info, and don't be shy about giving your general insights and thoughts, especially the behind the scenes stuff that none of us will ever see. It is priceless.

[jmsalgado]

Again, thanks for the info, and don't be shy about giving your general insights and thoughts, especially the behind the scenes stuff that none of us will ever see. It is priceless.

Thanks. I will when it's called for. I listen to every game regardless of where I am or what I'm doing. Josh Feldman does a great job doing play by play. He's knowledgeable & funny. Makes for a fun broadcast.

[ChiliIrishHammock24]

Thanks. I will when it's called for. I listen to every game regardless of where I am or what I'm doing. Josh Feldman does a great job doing play by play. He's knowledgeable & funny. Makes for a fun broadcast.

[/quote

 

Even if Brad doesn't want to you talking about him too much, anything you observe from other players is obviously welcome as well. It's great to get this kind of insight that the rest of us can't provide. Best of luck to both of you, I can't wait to watch this transition he is undertaking, even from a far.