Hitting west Texas for a few games
I traveled to El Paso to take in the first two games of Albuquerque’s series against the Chihuahuas–the AAA affiliate of the San Diego Padres. This tilt featured twenty-three-year-old Sean Sullivan pitching for the Isotopes drafted out of Wake Forest in 2023. He has had good numbers in his professional career to date. He possesses an interesting motion for a starter but does well with it. I’m not sure if it will play at the MLB level as a starter—you are often more accustomed to seeing guys with this sort of delivery come out of the pen. He is a lefty though, so if you can get him to be more than a specialist that is a plus you have to take. He doesn’t throw hard–sitting at 88–it almost seems like his pickoff attempts to first are thrown harder. He did touch 90 by the fourth inning and several pitches exactly 89.7. His breaking stuff and off speed have been in the upper 70s consistently, so there is a good disparity there, if nothing else. The way that power arms of failed and/or young starters have been the norm in bullpens recently, and despite his uncommon throwing motion, perhaps his best chance is as a starter.
Sean Boyle was on the hill opposite of Sullivan pitching for the Chihuahuas. He has had some success in the high minors but at 29 he still hasn’t made the show. He almost seems to be a mirror image of Sullivan throwing from the other side of the mound but gets to 90-91. Maybe that is what makes Sullivan succeed where Boyle does not. Sullivan is just slow enough to keep hitters off balance, if that is such a thing. I’m not saying it necessarily is but there may be something to that. Major League hitters can more easily speed up their bats than slow them down. There are plenty of examples of soft throwing pitchers making a livelihood in the majors.
Sullivan ended up skating by four innings while issuing four free passes and one hit. He struck out three and surrendered one run. As I portended, Boyle had much less success, lasting 3.1 but getting tagged for six runs on eight hits and a pair of walks and didn’t fool anyone with a goose egg in the K column.
Blaine Crim hit a high fly ball that ended up going out of the park for an altitude aided HR. Crim will be 29 this year and has had a cup of coffee in the majors with the Rockies and Rangers. He did show off that pop in the majors with 5 round trippers in just 65 at bats. He has been .284/.373/.485 in over 1,700 AAA plate appearances in his career. Should the Rox need another first baseman or DH I would think he gets another chance.
Cole Carrigg’s second AB he looked like he knew there was room up the middle with the way the defense was positioned. He reached out for a pitch to hit a ground single up the middle; nice piece of hitting and showing good bat control while understanding and adapting to what the defense was going to give him. He has been one of my favorite players to watch so far this season and I’m looking forward to seeing more of him until he gets that final promotion. I don’t think a promotion is imminent but he does have promise and one to watch throughout the year.
Charlie Condon returned to action after a hiatus lasting several days due to a cyst removal. As a result of the medical procedure he wasn’t in action when I attended the Isotopes game the previous week. In his second AB in El Paso he showed good plate discipline in taking a walk. He took said walk on two very close pitches I thought were strikes when he had two strikes on him already. Condon looks like a professional hitter—someone who sticks out among the veterans he is playing with and against in AAA. We shall see if that translates to success, but he is off to a good start in ABQ.
Pablo Reyes of El Paso hit the first hard ball off Sullivan that was a line shot to CF; an at’em ball. The next batter, former Twin Jose Miranda hits a blooper down the first base line and that’s an RBI single. I guess they do all even out. It was the fourth inning and it was the first hit for the Chihuahuas. A few walks got Sullivan in trouble but he got himself out of it with just the one run. That would end Sullivan’s night at 77 pitches and four innings of one-run ball.
El Paso’s fielding has been an adventure all night. I’m not talking about just some bad bounces eat guys up. I mean, several players all over the field let the ball play them–infield and outfield. This was almost amateur level stuff at times. The Chihuahuas have a pretty mature roster with no one below 25 years old. I’m not sure if it is an indifferent approach to teaching these guys fielding or if they just aren’t that good at it. But it was definitely noticeable, even on plays that the fielders ultimately made outs on.
Samad Taylor with a HR blast to dead center off Parker Mushinski in relief. Taylor turns 28 in July with 38 games of MLB experience across three seasons and this is his fifth organization. Mushinski is 30 and similarly has 31 appearances across three MLB seasons. Taylor has had a little better AAA career than Mushinski and he also won that battle tonight.
Yuki Matsui tossing in relief who is on a rehab assignment and throwing a bit harder than others. Ryan Ritter made solid contact off him with a ground single up the middle after Matsui made him look bad on the previous pitch. You get three strikes in baseball for a reason in baseball, so looking bad on one pitch is nothing to be ashamed of; it is what you learn from it that separates the successful ones. Ritter has mashed AAA pitching in 58 games. He was with the big league club to start the season but has continued mashing in AAA since getting optioned again.
Luis Peralta had a nice quick inning with three ground outs. Good to see him have a clean inning without control issues—something that has been a major bugaboo with him in AAA and his brief stints in Denver. He is 25 so there is time to find his control again, but he needs more outings like these.
Jase Bowen took Welinton Herrera deep. Herrera had him off balance during the AB. He had him late and out in front on foul balls. Bowen then had his goldilocks moment by finding something that was just right and yanked one on a line drive he pulled to left. Second straight game I’ve seen Herrera not do well. He didn’t make it out of the inning giving up the two run HR and then followed it with a walk. He was pulled after 0.2 innings. Unlike the last time I saw him pitch, I didn’t see the same electricity from him.
Misael Tamarez had a nice clean inning for the Chihuahuas. He looked like he belonged against Carrigg and Ritter, two guys that have or will play in the majors. Tamarez’s minor league numbers haven’t been great to date so far—not in AAA nor even in AA. But the Padres system is pretty shallow right now so he will get a chance to improve in El Paso.
TJ Shook looked alright in relief. No walks is a good thing for him.
Garrett Hawkins for El Paso throwing mid 90s with command. Veen did get a line double off him and Crim hit a hard ground ball that the SS made a very nice play to get him out. But I thought Hawkins looked good. He is regarded as probably the best prospect for the Chihuahuas—and he is a reliever—again showing that the Padres system, at least at the upper end doesn’t have as much going for it as it has in years past. Nonetheless, I liked what I saw from Hawkins, living up to his billing as someone who can make the jump to the next level.
I’ll do a separate post some time on El Paso’s park and game day atmosphere. I was impressed by both. If you are ever near El Paso—a scenic area—try to stop in for a game. They serve nachos in a dog bowl that looked like a legitimate dog bowl to give to your own pooch if you needed any other incentive other than the baseball.
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