Thursday, August 20, 2009

Checking in on Bowling Green

Matt MooreNick Barnese and Matt Moore took the mound in Greensboro earlier this week and did not fail to impress. Greensboro has one of the better lineups in the South Atlantic League, and is currently second in the league with a .727 team ops and leads the league in homers by 17, likely thanks to the hitter friendly confines in Greensboro. In the first game of the series on Monday, Nick Barnese took the hill and tossed five quality innings against the Grasshoppers. Moore followed him on Tuesday and threw five equally good innings of his own.

Nick Barnese’s fastball sat in the 90-92 mph range all night and featured heavy sinking movement, especially when he kept it down in the zone. He did a fairly good job commanding this pitch. Even though he only got two groundouts in this outing, this pitch is a great groundball producer, as his 1.49 ground to fly out ratio on the year indicates. He paired this pitch with a quality changeup around 80 mph that had similar movement as the fastball. He got several swings and misses with this pitch but did leave it up in the zone a few times. Barnese’s curveball was good at times but still needs work on consistency. When thrown in the upper 70s it had good ¾ break, but when he powered it up into the low 80s it had a bit more depth than lateral movement and a sharp break. He still needs work refining this pitch and his command but it certainly has plus potential. Three of his five strikeouts came on curveballs, while his fastball and changeup each netted him a strikeout. Barnese still has plenty of projection left so his fastball could increase its velocity in the coming years.

Barnese’s night could have been better were it not for two Tim Beckham errors. After loading the bases in the 5th inning and bringing in a run by hitting a batter with no outs, Barnese struck out the next better then induced what should have been an inning ending double play. Beckham fielded the ball near second base, but hesitated a moment before touching the bag for the second out, then rushed and misfired the throw to first, allowing two runs to score. Beckham also mishandled a grounder in the first inning. Beckham did hold his own at the plate in these two games though, displaying the quick wrists and good bat speed that made him the #1 overall pick in 2008. He went 5-10 over the two games and hit two doubles, including one ripped down the line that yielded two runs for Bowling Green. He did not hit any of the balls with much loft, but I think that as he gains experience and becomes stronger, his power will develop.

Moore featured a similar arsenal in this outing as Barnese had the night before. Moore threw his fastball in the 90-91 mph range according to the stadium radar gun. He may have been throwing mostly two-seamers as this pitch had very good armside movement. He’s certainly been known to throw harder in the past. Regardless of the pitch’s velocity, it was still overpowering Greensboro’s hitters, as no one was really able to turn on the pitch or hit it with much authority (or at all). Moore’s curveball also showed promise, with sharp ¾ break at times. He did struggle commanding this pitch and let a few fly well out of the zone, up and into left handed batter’s box. His changeup was also surprisingly good and could become an above average pitch. Three of his six strikeouts were with his curveball, while two came via high fastballs and one from a changeup. He still needs work refining his command and feel for his off-speed pitches. He didn’t allow a hit until the fourth inning, and only allowed two during his five innings, but did issue three walks.

12 comments:

  1. I have seen all of the home games and a few road games this year. The quartet of Moore, Barnese, Andujar, and De Los Santos have been solid starters for the Hot Rods. The only reliever that is doing the job is Josh Satow.

    There are no outstanding position players in Bowling Green and yes that includes Tim Beckham aka the 6 million dollar man.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Andrew: Very nice article, as always. Hope you had an enjoyable trip. Inevitable question, so I'll just ask it here, even based on limited observations, who should we rank higher on a post-season Top Pitching Prospects list?

    diamondtom: No love for Joseph Cruz?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Doug- That's a tough question. There are plenty of reasons to like both of them and I could easily justify either one being better than the other. It's very close for me now but I'll go with Moore simply because he is left handed.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I know it's not really a fair question, but someone would ask so I thought I'd get it out of the way. I still like Barnese a tad better, but there are plenty of reasons I could be wrong. Projectable lefties don't grow on trees, I know, but there's just something about Nick. And the control issues with Moore probably worry me more than most.

    Anyone else stand out? Kang maybe?

    ReplyDelete
  5. For me Moore is clearly higher... He leads the entire minors in K/9... I think his suppressed fastball velocity could be because he's thrown a lot more innings this year than he has in the past.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I know KG, I'm definitely going to be in the minority on this one, but I was just looking for a possible convert. Andrew was very diplomatic in refusing my overtures. Oh well, maybe I'll go back to Bencomo > McEachern, I know you'll support me there! :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'm bumping this past the game stories FYI.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I saw Bencomo finally pitched again tonight, good to see he's (apparently) healthy

    ReplyDelete
  9. Great post.

    What will the plan be with the offseason looming? I assume Moore will mostly be shutdown, but with Barnese missing time is there any chance he might pitch in a winter league?

    ReplyDelete
  10. I would just guess that Barnese makes up the time in Instructs. He's a little too young to be sent to the AFL, and the Rays generally don't sent players to the Hawaii Winter League.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Is there any particular reason why the Rays don't send players to the HWL?

    ReplyDelete
  12. The Hawaii Winter League is no more, so Barnese definitely won't be pitching in the HWL.

    ReplyDelete