milb story on the pitching depth

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One of our regulars over at Rotojunkie.com put together this great breakdown of Shields.

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A sheet that shows the 2007 numbers as well as the 3 yr weighted averages for all parks. Just take a look at Vero Beach

Depodesta Interview

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He is joining the team today at the Trop with Zobrist going to the DL. While he hasn't exactly earned the spot, the fact that he could play SS helps because the team is currently extremely thin on middle infielders. At 6'6" and 250 lbs, guys might think twice when he is coming down the line to break up a double play :)

I put together a file every year for my own research purposes and figured I'd share it with others this year. If you go to http://www.rotojunkie.com/index.php?art/id:409 you can see a table that shows the league hitting and pitching totals for the past season. I've gone in and highlighted the lowest number in red as well as the highest one in green in each column.

I got to see Veal pitch tonight in Daytona vs the Brevard Manatees (Brewers). The Brewers have a pretty punchless lineup with Iribarren being the best hitter in the lineup but Veal was very dominant tonight. 6.1 IP, 2 hits, 0 runs, 3 BB and 12 K's. He was just blowing guys away tonight and he made Iribarren look pathetic at the plate. 2 or 3 guys hit some hot shots deep to left center that were caught. His 2 hits were tweeners that maybe went 120 feet. He was blowing guys with fastballs both up and down along with some breaking pitches away and 6-8 changeups. His move to first is very good; he picked someone off in the 5th but allowed a SB in the 4th when he was too casual about holding him. I was able to glance at a radar gun as I walked to the concession stand tonight and he hit 94 on that particular pitch late in the 4th.

I spent the morning at camp today with family and my godson. I thought it was pretty sad that the defending NL Champs only had about 75 spectators for camp - thankfully there weren't a lot of the annoying autograph hounds. In the diary earlier this week, some people had asked for a report on stuff so here it goes: Brad Lidge was further working on a change up and was having lengthy discussions with Garner afterwards on how he had been talking to other pitchers in the off-season about their change-ups. Couldn't quite hear who though. Both Gothreaux and Hernandez are up and throwing. Both threw live BP sessions to groups today. Gothreaux's session looked OK but he was getting hit pretty good. For video proof that Hernandez was actually pitching, go see this link: Click here to watch 'Carlos-Hernandez-bullpen' Bagwell was in hitting groups today but did not see him do anything in the field. McLain was also there again today making his rounds. There was not as much media today as was reported yesterday.



One of the great things about going to camps is that you get to go up close to the players to watch them work. We saw Steve Sparks throw his knuckleball today with the wind in his face - boy was that thing dancing. However, Dan Wheeler's slider looks filthy up close. Click here to watch 'Dan-Wheeler---check-out-that-slider' The most impressive thing I saw in camp today was Felipe Paulino. Click here to watch 'Felipe-Paulino-bullpen' He comes pretty much over the top with good heat and he was throwing a lot of spike curveballs along with a few changeups (need work). He also pitched live BP to the a group of hitters that included Biggio and Ensberg under the watchful eyes of Garner, Cruz, and McLain.



Click here to watch 'Felipe-Paulino-live BP'
Some of the video was shot with my 7 month old in one arm and it was on my 2 yr old digital camera so the quality is average. Not to mention, it was pretty overcast out there today.

Attended the game over in Clearwater tonight.....great looking park, not so great of a game. The rosters were peppered with a lot of guys too old for the FSL and most of the top talents didn't have the stats to merit an appearance at the game this year.

Brent Clevlen won the HR derby over the likes of Matt Moses and Reggie Abercrombie and others. The West team was pretty much the Lakeland Tigers who are currently 50-15 on the season. Clevlen, Span, and Moses highlighted the West roster offensively while the East did not have a lot of talent. The highlight on the East was the defensive play of Brendan Ryan who played a very solid 3B.

Pitching wise the biggest news was that Verlander never even as much warmed up for an appearance. Either the big club told the staff to keep him on the bench because he's on the move or he was resting from his start a few nights ago. Carlos Marmol was not sharp but he was 91-93 on the guns. Chuck Tiffany came in and was also 91-93 with a great curve. His first pitch was a 92mph fastball that Clevlen turned into a 492 ft HR to left center...absolutely crushed it. Justin Orendorff of the Dodgers impressed me tonight as well.

Line for the day

7 IP, 9 hits, 2 runs, 1BB, 3 K's.

The Tigers put up a 9 spot in the 5th and after that, Verlander was just out there throwing strikes and letting the defense do the work. He gave up his first earned run after the 2nd inning of the season today.

Report: 93-97mph all throughout - curveball with a very sharp break to it that was giving hitters fits. Threw a straight change and threw one with some drop on it 2x. Nobody could pull him at all - everything was to center or right center when they managed to get a hit. He worked very quickly and his walk was the very first batter of the game. Command was very sharp and his fastball moves.