Report from the Back Fields

Yesterday, Tim provided his impressions from Spring Training. Now...you get mine! I will go ahead and echo what he said for the most part like how awesome it was to meet Mike Fast, commenter Bill, and Terri from Tales from the Juicebox. As well as seeing Jayne from WTH Bobby again and spending some great time with AppyAstros and his son.

But, to avoid really boring you with me saying pretty much the exact same things, I'm going to give you a more in-depth report with some analysis and information.

Minor League Injury Report

• We spent a good amount of time searching Jiovanni Mier...but he was nowhere to be found. We found out later through a player that he hurt his scapula swinging a few days before. I have no idea what that means. He hurt his shoulder blade? Sounds like he hurt a muscle that attaches to scapula. Sadly, we had joked he was injured prior to finding out.
• Grant Hogue injured his shoulder during the season last year and rehab failed so he had surgery to repair his rotator cuff and labrum about 10 weeks ago I believe. He's a very nice guy.
• I was able to catch a glimpse of Vince Velasquez running around so he's healthy and participating. Here's to him having a great season since I'm high on that one.
• The mythical Jack Armstrong Jr. was also participating as I saw him leaving the EST field.

Current Notable Placements

(These are ever changing with ML roster cuts and evaluations continue)

• Carlos Correa and Rio Ruiz have been working the Quad-Cities group
• Brett Phillips, Chase Davidson, and Ariel Ovando are with EST group
• Brandon Meredith, Telvin Nash, Nolan Fontana, Matt Duffy, Chan Moon, Ben Heath, Tyler Heineman are all in the Lancaster group.
• Domingo Santana, Jonathan Meyer, Jonathan Singleton, Drew Muren, Asher Wojciechowski, Mike Foltynewicz, and Nick Tropeano are in the AA/AAA group
• This is all I can remember off the top of my head. If there are any other big names you may be curious about, ask and I may or may not remember. I didn't see everyone, especially pitchers since only a few are on the field at a time.

Evaluations

• Tanner Bushue still doesn't throw hard but man the curveball is something to make you drool. He was able to get some whiffs with it in live BP in the Quad-Cities group.
• Daniel Minor followed Bushue and his fastball looked a few MPH harder with good late life.
• Rio Ruiz doesn't wow you in HR power right now during BP. But, it's easy to dream on as he gets consistent deep OF with line drives.
• Nolan Fontana doesn't make the hard contact that Ruiz does but he connects with liners all over the field. A pretty impressive BP.
• Ben Heath is a monster with a bat in his hand. Just crushes balls.
• Jonathan Singleton is making an effort to be a leader. When there is a drill, he is stepping up and making sure he's the first one to go. Good to see a kid with questions surrounding his maturity after a second failed drug test put the effort to set the tone of a workout.
• Brandon Meredith is much thicker than I expected, but in a good way. Very broad shoulders. Solid BP and I think he'll perform very well in Lancaster this year.
• Domingo Santana is a man-child. It looks almost like Lebron James in a baseball uniform. He looks the part of a professional athlete.
• Jonathan Meyer has put on weight. Lots of weight. Not good weight. But, he definitely has a canon.
• Ariel Ovando is growing up. He's not the lanky kid we've seen in videos anymore and he's filling out that frame.
• Chan Moon is a pretty good athlete by the looks of him. Has very long legs. He is very open to being coached.
• Tempo is high. You don't walk to fields. You run!
• You are there to work. If you are late, you will have consequences.
• Although, things stay loose and coaches keep the tension low. They make sure the guys are having fun. Tim really covered that aspect yesterday.