I was in Lansing ten days ago for two games. Here is my scouting report on those games.
Kevin Ahrens hit the ball hardest of any hitter over the weekend. Ahrens was hitting a lot of line drives, some were caught, some were hits, but in general he hit the ball hard. Defensively he was fine, he has a good third-baseman's arm. Sal Fasano thinks Ahrens is getting his head into the right place, I can't say for sure but he has been on a hot streak lately.
Justin Jackson was up and down as Sal Fasano mentioned. He will have one at-bat where he looks uncertain and hit a weak ground ball and another where he hits the ball hard. His batting practice was not very good, he didn't hit the ball well and just as I thought his power was gone he hits a couple of deeper fly balls in the game.
The one thing that Justin appears to be better at is not chasing the breaking ball. When I last saw him in Lansing two years ago he would chase the breaking ball down in the zone and now he seems to have better control of the strike zone. At this stage I think we can say that Justin has the talent to be better than a Lansing player but putting it all together consistently is a problem for him.
Jake Marisnick is a big guy, 6'4". He plays a very confident centre-field, he likes the just-in-time arrival as he coasted after a number of fly balls. I didn't see him have to make a really hard play but all reports suggest he is a good centre-fielder. Offensively he has pop in his bat and uses all fields. In the two games I saw he hit the ball to the right side more than half the time. He hit a nice line drive single off a 95 mph fastball from a lefty and he hit a deep fly ball to the right centre field wall. He has a good eye and wasn't swinging at bad balls. But he can get fooled by pitchers which is understandable given his age and his jump of two levels a few weeks ago.
From left: Marisnick, Crouse and Jackson.
Michael Crouse is similar in size to Marisnick but maybe 15 pounds heavier. Also like Marisnick he is not afraid to take a pitch and appears to have a good eye at the plate. In the first game he struck out twice and walked so not much to scout there but in the second game he had a line drive single in his first at-bat. But his second at-bat was more interesting. Crouse squared around and pushed a bunt past the pitcher between first and second base. As he took off for first base, about twenty feet out of the box, he found an extra gear and just exploded to first, easily beating the pitcher and the first baseman to the bag. He then took off and easily stole second. I am not sure of his first step quickness but I would love to see him to first to home on a double. Crouse showed a lot of raw power in batting practice. The one question on Crouse has been bat speed, the rest of the package is there. Defensively Crouse looked a little uncertain at-times, backing up Fasano's "raw" description.
KC Hobson just played one game over the weekend. Hobson is a solid left handed hitter, about six feet tall. He tends to finish his swing with a one handed sweep which works for big papi but not many other hitters. Hobson made a bad error on a routine bouncer where he took a casual approach and had the ball clank off the end of his glove. Hobson struck out in his first two plate appearances before walking and lining out. Of the three newly promoted players Hobson looked to be the furthest away from adapting to the Midwest League.
Sean Ochinko is a burly hitter who caught one game. He did drive a double off the wall and he hit the walk-off home run on Sunday but he reminds me of many of the fastball hitting sluggers who make it up a few levels before more advanced pitchers take advantage of them.
Brad Glenn has had an up and down season but he is a nice looking hitter with good doubles/line-drive stroke. His fall-off in the middle of the season might have been injury related and if so he should get a chance at Dunedin next year.
Pitchers
Ryan Shopshire has average stuff, a 90 mph, pretty straight fastball, a change-up and a curve. No pitch is an above average pitch.
Matt Fields is somewhat similar to Shopshire but he had a little more movement on his pitches. Fields also has a 90 mph fastball, a change and a slider rather than a curve. Fields has a nice loose action and in this game he started well but seemed to lose command in the middle innings which caused him to be pulled. I am not sure if this is typical or not.
When you first see Brian Slover throw you say wow, a 96-97 mph fastball, a change and a slider. A great combination. Then the hitter steps in and Slover throws 20-25% fastballs, he turns into a junk pitcher. Why you ask? The answer is he doesn't know where his fastball is going. Great stuff, terrible command.
Matt Wright is a shorter lefty pitcher with a 92-93 mph fastball, a curve and a change. On Saturday he wasn't able to get his curveball over for a strike but he does have a good fastball and change combo so he could move up next season.
Steve Turnbull, the closer, throws hard but that's about it. He is at 92-94 with the fastball and adds a curve that like Wright he had trouble getting over for a strike.
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