Minor Thoughts – February 23, 2017

I don’t write for money, the ads on this site last year made enough money to pay for the domain name and website hosting. This isn’t my job, it is a hobby, it is an obsession, and one I am not sure if I want to make it my job. This has led to a lot of frustration over the years and as writing has blurred into being an unpaid job. At the core I write for me regardless of whether others really want to read it. So with that in mind, I am trying to embark on a new goal for the 2017 season. The goal is to write everyday Monday-Friday about a baseball game I have watched, whether it is majors or minors. It won’t be scouting reports, it won’t be game recaps, it might not even have any meaningful content, but the goal will be to write about what I am thinking about. This may be spotty until we get to the regular season, but I am going to give it a go.

So that leads into the fact that there was a baseball game today…

Grainy video and bad camera angles do not make for good analysis. But the kids looked solid at the plate. Roman Quinn set the tone with a single and easy stolen base before Cozens drove him in. Quinn showed off his power with a solo home run from the left side. Quinn has a decent bit of power, and while he never will hit for prototypical corner outfield power, his glove and speed still give him plenty of value. He is probably a better bet in left field than Howie Kendrick, but there is no harm in him getting AAA time before making it back to the majors.

Quick Thoughts:

• Scott Kingery has turned himself into a pretty good defender at second base. His bat still needs to come along.
• Dylan Cozens did what he should do against bad pitchers, which is to say he hit a massive home run to center field. Cozens moved well on the bases and in the outfield, he is such a large human that he will need to keep himself flexible and quick to maintain defensive value.
• Nick Williams took a ball to the wall in right center before then drawing a walk off a LHP topping out at 80. The key isn’t that Williams doesn’t swing early, it is that he swings at the right pitches. Williams’ glove is underrated and he kept a double to a single with some hustle and his arm.
• Jorge Alfaro has good power the opposite way and he hit two balls almost to the wall in the right center gap, one of which was a double and the other a diving catch.
• After a bad error to open the game, Crawford showed why his defense is highly regarded with making plays look easy and joining with Kingery on some slick double plays.

The prospects did what they should do today. I don’t know if there is a ton to be gleaned other than baseball is back. I don’t know how the structure of these will evolve and sometimes they probably won’t be worth reading, but it is better than an unfiltered twitter feed for me.