9/3 Altoona Curve - What I Learned

I was at the Altoona Curve game last night. This post is very late because of the long drive home I had, I'm not going to give a recap, just point some things out that I saw.

First of all, Aaron Pribanic made a good start for the Curve. He went 6 innings and gave up just one run. However, I was thoroughly unimpressed with his stuff. Sitting down the first base line, I couldn't see the break on his pitches very well, but his velocity was unimpressive and the other team's hitters had very little trouble putting the ball in play. They seemed to be on pretty much every pitch they swung at, they just couldn't find many holes. That said, you can't argue with what Pribanic did last night, and his season as a whole hasn't been a terrible one.

The other thing big thing that caught my eye was Tony Sanchez's defense. He had some highlights and some lowlights. The big highlight was a put-out he made at home plate to keep the game tied in the 9th. A single was hit to left field that was fielded by Quincy Latimore and fired home. The throw was high and wide, but Sanchez made a very athletic play to go get it and then dive towards home to apply the tag. The runner made just an awful slide and had no business not being safe there, but Sanchez took advantage and got the huge out. There were some balls in the dirt that Sanchez blocked routinely, looking very comfortable in doing so. However, Sanchez made an awful throw on a dropped third strike to first late in the game. Also, he did not even attempt a tag on a play at the plate that I thought he had a shot at. There was a runner on third and a ground ball was hit to the left side of the infield, the ball was thrown to first for the out there and then fired home. Sanchez had done a nice job positioning himself in the way of the runner, forcing him to slide wide of the plate, which gave Sanchez a chance to get the out, but he neglected to even attempt a tag and the runner was safe easily.

Another thing was Starling Marte. He has had a phenomenal season for Altoona and had three hits again tonight, but there was something that confused me. He was extremely patient at the plate tonight, and not how you want your hitters to be patient. He never once even considered swinging at the first pitch, which is okay for a leadoff hitter, but you have to at least be ready to swing, and that wasn't the case for him. Another time he got the count to 3-0, and was taking all the way on the next two pitches, even though there was no one on base and two outs. Really? Bases empty and two outs, and you aren't ready to swing at a 3-1 pitch? That's the perfect time to have the green light and swing for extra bases, but Marte never even considered swinging. That confused me. However, on the 3-2 pitch, Marte singled to left and then stole 2nd immediately, which made me feel better about him temporarily. I think this kid can be a good major leaguer, but I just didn't understand what I saw from him tonight in the plate patience category.

Bryan Morris pitched three innings tonight and did not give up a run, although that was aided by a pair of brilliant run-saving defensive plays. His velocity never reached 93 from what I saw, but he did strike four batters out. It was encouraging to see him put the 0's, but the velocity just isn't enough to make me confident in his abilities at the big league level.

Andrew Lambo had a good night, collecting three hits in six at bats. His season average is now up to .278, which is a long ways from the .241 he was hitting when I wrote this post on August 2nd. He didn't show any power tonight, but it's definitely there. He's going to continue to be one of the guys I'm most interested in in the minors, just because there's a lot of potential there. He looks like a big league player, he just hasn't been hitting like one since he's joined our system. I'm not ruling him out, and I wouldn't be shocked to see him turn into a serviceable major leaguer.

That's all for now, I have a couple videos that I'll try to get up tomorrow.