Video of the Day: Roger Clamens eats batboy.
There’s so many reasons to love minor league baseball. The beer is a cheap, you can move through the stands freely, and finding parking doesn’t make you want to stab yourself in the throat. And where else can you see a mascot named Roger Clamens eat the home team’s batboy?
Know Your Prospects: Jose Ramirez, RHP, New York Yankees
Jose Ramirez.
During my two-plus years of religious attendance at Charleston RiverDogs’ games, I don’t think I’ve seen a better product come through this system.
I wasn’t planning on going to tonight’s game against the Hickory Crawdads, the Ranger’s low-A affiliate, but when I saw Ramirez was the starter, I packed up the camera, the notebook, and my program and headed out to Joe P. Riley, Jr. Park. I was so intrigued by the sneaky-fast fastball and the it’ll-make-you-look-foolish changeup he displayed on April 26 that I had to find out if they were mere figments of my imagination or if this guy could possibly be the real deal.
And once again, Ramirez blew me away.
In six very, very strong innings, the 6’1″ righthander gave up just two hits. One of those hits, a first inning double by Hickory’s Cody Podraza, was all the Crawdad’s needed to secure the 1-0 victory. Still, we all know wins and losses don’t mean everything.
Sitting at 80-83 miles per hour, Ramirez’s changeup is as advanced as any pitcher’s I’ve ever seen, at any minor league level. With his motion, you can’t tell the difference between his fastball, which ranges from from 89-93 and routinely touches 94, and his changeup. At this level, the batters are completely overpowered, overmatched, and overwhelmed.
He shows the ability to adeptly work both halves of the plate, popping fastballs in on hitter’s hands and stretching them out with changes on the lower half of the zone.
Ramirez’s curveball, which ranges from 79-84 and is an 1-to-7 offering, leaves a lot to be desired, but it has shown flashes of development. He threw it much more tonight than during Monday’s game against the Rome Braves, but he routinely left it up in the zone or down in the dirt. Still, it’s clear that it’s the pitch he’s working on. He never seemed to get a good feel for it tonight, but if he ever does, well…
What makes Ramirez so intriguing isn’t his great natural stuff, but the projection left in that stuff. He’s so tall (6’1″) and so thin (just 155 pounds), that it’s not improbable to believe he can add another 2-3 miles per hour to his heater as he ages.
Did I mention he’s not even 21 yet?
Ramirez’s free and easy motion makes me like him even more. There aren’t too many moving parts and it appears as though he’s made an unnatural movement as natural as possible. I’m no expert on pitching mechanics (that’s a direct shout out to you, Adam Foster, of Project Prospect), but if I had to wager a bet, I’d say his mechanics are as close to clean as you can get.
All of this means his stuff should play well at higher levels. And if I had to guess, I’d say he has two starts max, if they decide to promote him aggressively, at this level before he moves on to high-A Tampa. If he deals anywhere near as well as he has here in Charleston, he’ll be on the fast track to the upper levels of the minor leagues.
In 2009, Ramirez added the MLB.com Short-Season Pitcher of the Year award to his resume after going 6-0 with a 1.48 ERA and a paltry .159 batting average against. If they keep him with the RiverDogs for just a little bit more of the season, it’s easy to imagine him bolstering that resume.
This year, I’ve seen the Braves’ RHP Arodys Vizcaino in game action. Sure, it wasn’t the best game Vizcaino has ever pitched, but I didn’t see anything from him that would make me take him or rate him higher than Ramirez. When each pitcher develops and grows into their physique, I don’t think it’s at all preposterous to propose that Ramirez will have a better fastball, a better changeup, but a worse curve.
I really don’t think that Ramirez is having a good run or that he’s facing inferior competition; he’s just the latest of the Yankees’ international signees to breakout.
And that’s the true story of the game.
Game Recap: Charleston RiverDogs vs. Rome Braves 4/26/10
It was hard to harness my excitement for this one since Rome was trotting RHP Arodys Vizcaino to the mound, the most heralded prospect I’ve had the chance to see this year. Vizcaino was a pivotal facet of the deal that brought Javier Vazquez to the New York Yankees this offseason.
Vizcaino was also coming off his best outing of the short season, a seven inning, six hit, six K gem against the Kannapolis Intimidators. Building on that momentum seemed like a foregone conclusion before I got to the beautiful Joe P. Riley, Jr. Park.
I don’t know if he was tired or what, but Vizcaino’s outing was short and hardly sweet. He went just three innings, giving up three runs on three hits. The early lead Vizcaino gave up was all the ‘Dogs needed as they won the game 5-0.
Still, it looked like Vizcaino’s stuff was there. According to the stadium gun, his fastball sat at 94-95 miles per hour. His changeup lingered almost exclusively at 80. A velocity differential that large may be overwhelming any other night, but the seeing-eye singles kept dropping and his two walks came back to bite him.
Vizcaino struck out six in the abbreviated outing, so this was still an encouraging start. He could have used some help from his curveball, but the pitch refused to spin like usual and he ditched it midway through the second. Velocity-wise, the pitch ranged from 75-78 miles per hour.
His mound nemesis, Jose Ramirez of the RiverDogs, however, was nearly untouchable. The 6’1″ righthander out of the Dominican was dominant, pitching six very strong innings without allowing an earned run. He struck out nine in the process.
The lean and lanky righthander offers a lot of projection, so he could easily add a few miles per hour to his 91-92 mile per hour fastball. And that’s an intriguing thought because his changeup was outstanding, with a ton of downward movement. Rome hitters never got a good read on it and consistently swung well in front of it. It very well could be the best pitch I have seen all year.
I don’t know much about Ramirez, but he’s putting together a solid 2010 season, holding a 1.93 ERA through four starts, in which he has lasted at least five innings and struck out five in each.
Offensively, the game was just okay.
Christian Bethancourt, Rome’s young catcher, was still way too aggressive at the plate. Aggressive may not even be the word; stupid, well, that could work. In his first two at-bats, he saw a total of two pitches. His blind aggression worked in the first, as he picked up a single to left. In his second at-bat, he flew out on the first pitch if I remember correctly. And in his third, I thought someone may have told him, “Hey dude, calm down. Take a few,” but he still swung as soon as the ball left the pitcher’s hand. I don’t remember the result, but I was shocked at how poor his plate disciple truly was. He’s also got a lot of work to do against breaking balls.
Charleston’s batters, while they may have looked good in this game, still aren’t doing a whole lot for me.
Six foot-four inch first baseman Luke Murton has hit in 14 straight, so he looks alright. However, I don’t know if I have ever seen a batter more dependent on off-day pitchers in the stands. Before he steps into the box, he looks up to his teammates in the stands (you know, the guys with the gun or the pad meticulously recording every pitch) and asks if a pitcher is throwing a curve or a slider and whether or not his change is working. He may as well have a teammate sitting on second stealing signs.
And Deangelo Mack, a South Carolina grad and the RiverDogs’ pride and joy, knocked another roundtripper. He looks like he could be heating up. He’s easily one of the RiverDog’s more exciting players, so I’ll keep an eye on him as the season progresses.
The real story for me, however, was Rome’s bullpen. RHP Thomas Berryhill got in the game and did not live up to the bullpen session I saw on April 25. His fastball was around 89-93 with little-to-no control and little movement. His stride to the mound is real long and his arm tends to lag behind. As a result, he leaves a lot of stuff up in the zone. I was not impressed with his in-game action.
Another guy, who I know zero about, really impressed me. Julio Surinach, a 6’1″ skinny righthander from the Dominican, looked electric. Well, I should qualify that: wild, but electric. He hit two batters, but struck out two, too. He routinely and aggressively worked the inner-half of the plate, unafraid of hitting batters. His fastball ranged from 91-93 and had good pop and sweeping movement from a 3/4 arm slot. His changeup is a good offering, but needs refinement. It sits at 85. He’s also got a big curveball that spun in at 78-80 miles per hour.
