The Fall Practice season has now reached the halfway point and
the team is starting to round into to shape. Today was
another intra-squad game and I was able to catch the majority of
it. Here are some notes ...
* The hitters had a big day this afternoon as the two teams
combined for 16 runs. The four pitchers who saw action on
the hill were Ryan McCally, Moses Kopmar, J.D. Willcox, and Dan
Rich. Willcox had some decent success, but all the others
were hit around a bit.
* Team A Lineup/Highglights : Danny Putnam (CF), Jonny Ash
(2B), Brian Hall (SS/3B), Chris Carter (1B), Donny Lucy (C),
Tobin Swope (3B/SS), Scott Dragicevich (no position).
* Brian Hall continues to have a big fall season as he crushed
a deep home run over the scoreboard off Kopmar and also doubled
to deep left off Willcox. He played perfect defense at
short and third as well. Interesting to note that Hall has
not been playing any outfield this fall, only at third and short.
* Donny Lucy also hit a home run as his was to left field off
Willcox.
* Scott Dragicevich continues to only hit and not play in the
field. He had a nice double down the left field line but it
was obvious that he couldn't run full speed around the bases.
* Team B Lineup/Highlights : Sam Fuld (CF), Andy Topham (SS),
Chris O'Riordan (2B), Carlos Quentin (RF), Ryan Garko (C), Arik
VanZandt (3B), Billy Paganetti (1B), Andrew Cleary (DH/C).
* Interesting lineup note as Topham moved up to second, while
O'Riordan dropped to third and Garko to fifth.
* Biggest offensive game was from freshman Andrew
Cleary. The catcher blasted two home runs, one of McCally
and the other off Rich. Looks like there is going to be a
battle for the back-up catcher position this year.
* Chris O'Riordan continues to smoke the baseball as he hit a
homer to left-center. Both O'Riordan and Quentin are having
huge fall seasons in terms of the long ball. Quentin just
missed a couple of bombs today and seems to be hitting the ball
hard every time up. This guy is only going to build on his
outstanding freshman campaign from a year ago.
* Billy Paganetti has been very impressive so far this
fall. He ripped a double off the base off the wall early in
the game and just missed a homer when he flied out to deep center
later on.
Other Notes
* Interesting to see VanZandt not play any first base.
Don't know if Coach Marquess just wants to get a better look at
the two freshman over there, or if it's more of a permanent
thing.
* Andy Topham is seeing a lot of time over at shortstop.
If Dragicevich isn't ready to go by opening day, it appears that
it's going to be Topham starting at short. It's certainly
not a problem for Topham as his natural position is at
short. If this does happen then it opens up a spot at
third. Likely candidate would be Brian Hall, but VanZandt
and Swope are also seeing a lot of time over at the hot corner.
* Left field is also a question mark. Danny Putnam has
played pretty well and would supply a lot of speed at the bottom
of the order if he were to start. Carter has also played
some in left and Cooper can play left when he returns from his
injury. Probably going to be Cooper's job to lose, but he
could also start at DH.