April 17th Top 10

1. James Shields welcomed Kris Bryant to the Big Leagues. And Shields showed him what a veteran does in the Big Leagues. Bryant looked out of sorts on those changeups and curveballs, only natural for Bryant I think in that situation. To get called up with all the hype surrounding him, and hitting him 4th at Wrigley with 35,000 people in the crowd and  ready to comment on him is one thing. Then to face Shields on top of it. I give Bryant a thumbs up. He has handled this well and has said all the right things.


2. Ian Desmond just looks horrific at shortstop. Concentration level is shot and he just is not playing well.


3. Ryan Howard hitting 7th today vs Nationals and Ben Revere hasn't even see the outfield in the series. Is Sandberg fed up already? 150 more games Ryno.


4. Last night Napoli played a nice 1st base. Maybe one year he can be considered in Gold Glove talks.


5. To me, from a mechanical standpoint in pitching, if you have a kid or know a kid that tucks the ball behind his back like Jimenez does, please work on changing that ASAP, for many reasons, which I wont get into. One is that the arm does not catch up to the body in the delivery. This is one reason he is not a consistent strike thrower with good command and for him to hit his spots, it is a process.


6. 3rd inning. Mookie walks with 1 out. Petey up next. Why Farrell doesn't elect to straight steal Betts or hit and run in that situation has me confused. So 3rd pitch, Petey hits a fastball into a 6-4-3 doubleplay. Is Farrell going to play Earl Weaver ball? And count on the 3 run homers?


7. Ok Red Sox have Betts shifted to the right field side of second base for Adam Jones. So this tells you Red Sox looking to pitch Jones away. So what do Kelly and Hannigan do? They throw Jones a slider inside that he hits shortstop side of second base in the gap for a basehit. Pitch to your defense. Who screwed this one up?


8. 5th inning. Kelly makes Joseph look terrible on two nice sliders. Then for some reason he comes back with a fastball over the heart of the plate at 0-2 and Joseph hits one around Pesky Pole. Kelly should have come back with a heater inside and tight and then gone outside with a heater and Joseph would have walked back to the dugout with a K in the scorebook.


9. At times Kelly looks great. Looks to be the guy who wants that number 1 title. He has great stuff and a number 1 attitude. Then at times, he looks like a thrower. I hope as the year goes by he can put together games with more command and hit location better. I personally think his fastball would be more effective with more changeups in the mix. Especially second and third time around the order and in fastball counts. But that comes with his confidence in his ability to throw the changeup and hit his spot. Command on the changeup at times doesn't have to be perfect. It's a nice change of speed and the hitter, if not sitting on it, most likely is on his front foot or taking the pitch. He threw 118 pitches and still topped out at 98 on his 112th pitch. So the stuff is there. Let's hope he can be injury free and put a injury free season together.


10. I actually did like Farrell's decision to hit Nava for Victorino in the 6th inning. O'Day being a sidewinder with a slider that is more like a rising slurve and Victorino off to a 4 -25 or so start. Nava who has been squaring up the ball pretty much every at bat and being lefthanded probably wouldn't see as many slurves from O'Day and if he did, he would see the slurve better as a lefthanded hitter. Result wasn't good. But at least Farrell is thinking a bit.


That's my Call