Well just got back from the Grasshoppers games. They lost 5-3.

 

Volstad was our starter. He went 5 innings giving up 3 runs, 2 earned. I liked his stuff a lot. He obviously wasn't "on" tonight either. His fastball topped out at 92 but for the most part hung around 88-91. His curve wasn't really working today. He couldn't get it over for a strike and the hitters weren't chasing. He did have a pretty good change that was about 79/80. Of the hits he gave up 4 of them were seeing eye singles. That was the thing that probably impressed me the most about him. He pounded the zone and made the batters swing the bat. The vast majority of balls were grounders. There were maybe 4 balls in the air through the 5 innings he pitched. He was keeping the ball down and his fastball had some good movement on it. In the 6thI think he just tired out. Gave up a single then a long bomb to leftcenter. The inning before he got out of a bases loaded jam by striking out back to back batters. His problem today really was he just didn't have that "strikeout pitch" which ended up hurting his pitch count. I liked what I saw though. Not bad from a 19 year old.

 

The other big news of the day was the return of Bretty Hayes. Man I love this guy already. He hasn't played in a good while and he goes 3-3 2B 1RBI 1R(sac fly). His first hit was a rocket back up the middle. This is off a guy throwing 92 mph too. Second one was an infield single. Then he comes up with a man on third. Hammers one to deep left, but the LF leaps against the wall to catch it. And fourth AB he goes the other way into the corner for a double. He wasn't too great in the field though. The ball got by him 3 times I think and Hickory had 4 or 5 SB. He does have a pretty good arm although I feel like he was tiring out towards the end of the game because his throws slowly got worse as the game went on. It will be interesting to see what happens with Jenkins/Gaby/Hayes. Jenkins is kind of left out now so does he get a promotion or do they send Gaby up? There really isn't room for them because they also have Van Houten who is commonly a DH.

Zabala got an appearance and was extremely hittable. 85 mph fastball. Needless to say he was gone after a couple batters. Galbizo redeemed himself by pitching much better tonight. Was able to throw strikes. Not sure what happened to him on Sunday, but it's good to see him bounce back.

 

hmmm what else. Harvey had a good day. I think he had two hits. Burns looked good at the plate. Smashed one 400 feet to straightaway center but it was caught. Hit the ball hard another time then finally broke through with a triple in the 8th.

 

Fulton is quite possibly the worst 3rd baseman to ever step on the diamond. I've been to three games so far this year. Error in all three and they are real bad errors too. He is terrible at the plate too. That was how the first run scored off Volstad.

 

There's probably more but I can't remmember right now.

 

I have pics...I'll show later time to watch Lost

Nice writeup. Thanks

Are you going to the Game Tonight ? 5/4/06

If so....give us another report.

I love this stuff ! Great Job, Thanks

Nah I'm not going tonight..it's the last poker night of the year

 

Here are some pics from last night:

 

Gaby playin a lil First

 

 

Brett Hayes up to bat

 

 

 

Volstad...dude is tall

 

 

 

A little more Volstad

 

 

 

Hayes after his 1st inning single

 

 

Greg Burns is the man

Great pics, Mr. Flamarlins.

 

The new ballpark looks great, but I was wondering: do you ever miss the old one? Was World War Memorial 'old-school' kinda cool, or was it just plain old?

 

Thanks for sharing.

Great pics, Mr. Flamarlins.

 

The new ballpark looks great, but I was wondering: do you ever miss the old one? Was World War Memorial 'old-school' kinda cool, or was it just plain old?

 

Thanks for sharing.

 

As a guy who went to tons of games there I definitely miss it just for the sentimental value but it was really really crappy and the location wasn't very good at all either.

The new ballpark is amazing...great place to watch a game

 

I never went to Memorial stadium. I didn'thave my car on campus freshman year and that was the last year they played in it. But from what I hear it was a pretty bad stadium. From the people I've talked to at the games its more of a sentimental thing like NC said.

 

Also, as to my question of how they could fit Jenkins, Gaby, Hayes, and Van Houten all in the lineup. Last night they had Jenkins playing 3B apparently in the place of Fulton.