Minor League Weekend Recap July 20-22

Saturday evening I headed up to Greenville, with the family, to watch the Lexington Legends take on the Boston Red Sox A affiliate the Greenville Drive. It was a good game with the Legends coming out on top 7-5. Here are my impressions of that game.

Apologizes if this reads a little scattered brain. After a nine hour drive I'm finding this difficult to write.

Michael Foltynewicz started for the Legends and pitched well enough early. He got into some trouble in the third and fourth inning from what I perceive as his own doing. In the third inning Folty appeared to get a little upset with the homeplate umpire for calling ball four on what he thought was strike three. The one thing I harped on Folty about last time was his maturity on the mound. He tends to let his emotions get the better of him, so I was hoping that I'd get to see him face a little adversity on the mound.

After the walk, Folty made a bad pickoff throw to first that allowed the runner to get to second. Right after that he threw a wild pitch that allowed to get the runner to third. An infield hit scored the run. He then issued a walk and at this point there was a mound visit. A single scored another run and you get the picture. Folty has got all the talent in the world, but he really needs to work on that mound presence.

Mound presence aside, I saw Folty make a nice play on a bunt attempt for a hit.

Matt Duffy looks like a legit hitter. Zachary Johnson looks like a legit defender.

The Legends have got some speed. Nolan Fontana showed off some speed and aggressive base running legging out a triple. Justin Gominsky looked slightly faster than Fontana. Delino DeShields is faster than them all, but I didn't get to see him show off his wheels. I did, however, get to see him spray balls all over the park.

DeShields 3-5 with two doubles could have been 4-5 had the center fielder not made a nice diving play to take a hit away. I'm loving the power DeShields is developing.

Nolan Fontana, one of the biggest reasons why I was excited to go to this game, was interesting. His approach at the plate came as advertisted, his defense however was another story. I still think he can stick at short, but after watching Saturday's game I see why some people have questioned his defense.

On one particular grounder a bad hop played a role in him air mailing the throw to first into the stands. I was actually really impressed that he handled the bad hop as well as he did, unfortunately it appeared he didn't get a good grip on the ball. On another grounder, with the double play in order, he fielded the ball that he bobbled while moving towards second. He did manage to get control of the ball early enough to get the runner at second, but lost the double play because he speed up the play a little too much. Both plays seem like they can be corrected with experience.

Finally, for the second time in a row a Legend hit a homerun over the Drive's mini-Green Monster; this time it was Brandon Meredith.

Oklahoma City RedHawks - Weekend Record: 0-3

Friday

• Brett Oberholtzer 6IP, 7H, 6ER, 7SO, 3HR
• Brandon Barnes 1-4, BB
• Brett Wallace 1-2, 2BB
• Jimmy Paredes 2-4