Blogging About Baseball

The College of Charleston’s baseball season is over.

During their late season playoff run, the Cougar’s usually potent bats went dead. The Citadel Bulldog’s swept them in a regular season series and then Furman beat them in the first round on May 21, effectively ending their run at the SoCon Championship. It was a disappointing end for the league’s most dominating offense, but it was perhaps deserved: the team was entirely too focused on slugging for a good chunk of the season.

For C of C, next year will be all about rebuilding. The team will lose eight seniors, most of which formed the team’s everyday roster, including Southern Conference first team second baseman Brandon Sizemore and second team selections Jesse Simpson and Joash Brodin. The team will still have several promising players, including SoCon co-player of the year Joey Bergman, but will have noticeably depleted depth.

I’ve spent a good amount of time watching College of Charleston games over the past year. Every game I go to, I sit in the front row behind the home plate. It allows me to see the movement on pitches and also to steal radar gun readings from the opposing team. I hate being behind the net, but there’s something to be said for being within an earshot of amateur umpires.

I’ve sat next to the same guy for most of the year. He’s an older man, probably in his 60′s. He brings his own gun and pad of paper and he usually leaves around the 4th inning, only to return around the eighth.

For a while I thought he was Charleston’s statkeeper. For a while I thought he was someone like me, someone keeping score and scouting so we can someday say, “I saw so-and-so and knew he was going to be good in ’99, three years before anyone else.” Then I realized a) they usually have an off-duty pitcher or first-year player do the stats thing and b) he’s doing something during the time he leaves in the middle of the game.

At the Charleston versus Citadel game last week, I finally broke down and asked him what his deal was.

“If you don’t mind me asking, what organization are you doing this for?”

“Atlanta,” he said back.

As in the Atlanta Braves. I’ve been sitting next to a professional scout for an entire baseball season and not said a single word to him until the last series of the regular season? Nice move, Dylan.

Still, it got me thinking. Who is he watching? Over the last four seasons, 24 Cougars have been drafted by MLB teams. Atlanta, despite its relatively close proximity to Charleston, has yet to draft from the school. There’s someone they’re watching closely enough to have a scout attend every game, but who is it?

Obviously there’s Sizemore. As a junior, he was drafted in the 46th round by the St. Louis Cardinals. He chose to return to school and it’s probably a good thing he did. After an impressive senior year, which saw him get promoted to the Golden Spikes watch list, there’s no doubt Sizemore will be drafted in a higher round.

I don’t think it’s Sizemore though.

With Atlanta’s first ten picks last year, they took eight pitchers. Unlike 2007, when they drafted bats, this tends to be the team’s draft focus. I don’t think it’ll be any different this year.

For that reason, I think Atlanta is looking at Jesse Simpson.

Could RHP Jesse Simpson become a Brave?

Simpson acted as Charleston’s ace in 2009 and bolstered what was never truly a great starting rotation. He stands at 6’0″, 175 pounds, and throws right. This is an unofficial scouting report (done myself at a game versus Appalachian state):

Fastball: It sits routinely at 86-88 mph and looked to have good movement. It tails in on righties and dips away from lefties. I think it was of the two-seam variety, but it could also just be a straight fastball with good movement.

Changeup: At the two games I saw him pitch, Simpson’s changeup sat at 79 mph. He throws it consistently and gets swings and misses. Obviously a 79 mph change will be a meatball at higher levels, but it’s a good pitch.

Curveball: Thrown in the high-70′s, Simpson throws it overhand, but it tends to be more of a power-curve. Of all the college games I’ve been to this year, I’ve yet to see a good 12-6 curve and Simpson’s is something like 11-5, or 10-4.

Simpson has a good pitcher’s body that’s compact, lean, and built. From the games I saw him pitch, his motion look extremely repeatable and fundamentally sound. There didn’t appear to be any added wear-and-tear on his elbow. I do not remember much about his makeup.

I am hesitant to comment on how Simpson’s stuff would translate at a higher level because I need to learn more about added velocity, the tangible differences between college and the minors, and the like. He doesn’t appear to have anything dominating, but hey, what do I know?

The Brave’s scout was also at the Appalachian State game on April 16 where Simpson truly impressed by going 7 innings, striking out nine, walking three, and giving up three earned runs. Simpson’s pitching during this game was particularly dominating and he showed amazing control of all his pitches.

Of the pitchers that Charleston trotted out this year, Simpson is the only one I can picture Atlanta taking a flyer on.

I need a career in baseball.

I don’t care if it’s cleaning urinals, peddling popcorn, or writing about it (although I would certainly prefer the latter). Right now, my professional life has no other direction.

As a result, I’ve gone out of my way to meet “baseball men.” One of the first was Newport Gull’s General Manager Chuck Paiva in 2007. The Gull’s are part of the New England Collegiate Baseball League, oftentimes amateur players’ first experience with wooden bats.

Read the rest of this entry »

San Diego State’s Stephen Strasburg is good. Very good.

He has a 23 strikeout game under his belt. He pitched and dominated for the U.S. Olympic team as an amateur. And to top it off, he threw his first no-hitter yesterday.

The consensus No. 1 pick of the Washington Nationals in this year’s MLB draft, Strasburg struck out 17 Air Force batters on his way to the career milestone.

Strasburg’s rise to stardom has been swift and fast. As little as three years ago, he was a chubby high schooler struggling to reach 90 on the radar gun. With the guidance of strength and conditioning coaches and SDSU manager Tony Gwynn, the 6’2″ righty got his weight under control. As he shed the pounds, he gained velocity.

Today, his fastball is legendary.

He’s been clocked at 103 mph. Only Detroit’s Joel Zumaya has ever been clocked higher. His catcher, Erik Castro, has had his glove’s leather ripped on more than one occasion. According to lore, a crossup on a fastball means more than a bruise, it means life or death.

Scouts say that Strasburg doesn’t need to go to the minor leagues; that he’s major league ready at 20-years-old. He’s already being compared to Roger Clemens in his prime, justifiably earned by his outright domination of college competition: 11-0, 1.24 ERA, 164K’s in 87.1 IP.

There is a possibility that we will see Stephen Strasburg facing MLB hitters by the end of this year. Here’s his scouting report so you’ll be ready.

Fastball: Has been clocked as high as 103 mph, but it routinely sits at 96-98.

Curveball: The pitch is actually a slider/curve hybrid. It comes in at 86-88 mph, and when paired with the fastball it’s a true knee-buckler.

Changeup: Thrown just a few times a game, he’ll have to develop it to get major leaguers out.