Thursday Pebble Report: Josh Rutledge Extends Hitting Streak

by Russ Oates on Jul 28, 2011 7:08 AM MDT in Pebble Report

Colorado Springs, W 9-5
Ryan Rohlinger (8), Mike Paulk (5), and Matt Macri (9) each hit a home run in Wednesday night's victory. Rohlinger went 2-for-3 with three runs scored, a triple, a homer, three RBI, and two walks. Paulk picked up three hits.

Edgmer Escalona pitched the last two innings of the game and struck out four.

Tulsa, L 3-6
Third baseman Ben Paulsen went 3-for-4 with a double, a home run (13), and two RBI. Thomas Field hit also came up with a homer, his 14th of the season. Tim Wheeler collected two singles.

Rob Scahill got hooked with all six runs, though only three were earned (Hector Gomez started off the bottom of the second inning with a throwing error). Five runs scored in the second inning. Scahill allowed the damage on 10 hits and four walks in seven innings.

Modesto, L 2-6
Shortstop Josh Rutledge extended his hitting streak to 20 games with an infield single in the first inning. He finished 2-for-3 with both RBI.

Parker Frazier allowed six runs in eight innings, four in the fifth inning. That came on a Brodie Greene grand slam.

Tri-City, W 7-4
Jayson Langfels fell a home run short of the cycle, going 3-for-3 with two RBI and a walk. Timothy Smalling picked up two doubles. Ben Alsup pitched five innings of relief for Chris Jensen, allowing one run and striking out four.

Casper, L 3-10
Starter Daniel Winkler kept Helena to three runs (one earned) for the first four innings of the game, but Alving Mejias let the bottom slip out of the pitching. Mejias allowed a total of seven runs over 1-2/3 innings, including a five-run seventh inning. He got singled to death while also throwing a wild pitch, walking a batter and watching Rosell Herrera commit a throwing error.

Trevor Story went 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI, while Carl Thomore went 0-for-4 with two whiffs. Will Swanner followed in Thomore's path.

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The guy from Bullpen Banter who saw Chad Bettis touching 97-98mph in the seventh inning has video of the start.

You can watch it here.

by Rox Girl on Jul 28, 2011 8:20 AM MDT reply actions

Thanks Rox Girl

I’d say his best pitch is definitely his fastball as he’s able to control it well and also seems to put a little sick late life on it. It’s as if the ball jumps out of his hand when he throws that pitch – Magic to watch. If he can perfect that slider (I’ve read that he tends to overthrow it) and develop the changeup (which probably still needs some work) into a decent pitch that major league hitters have to at least think about, he’ll do quite well as a Rockie because those pitches will make that fastball impossible for hitters to deal with. Only once in that video was a hitter able to pull his fastball (fair or foul), every other time the batter either hit it weakly the other way, fouled it off becouse he was late, or missed it completely.

I'm pretty disgusted right now!

by RhodeIslandRoxfan on Jul 28, 2011 10:13 AM MDT up reply actions

ooh, thanks

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by Muzia on Jul 28, 2011 12:42 PM MDT up reply actions

same poster also has video of Nolan Arenado fielding in practice, taking BP both in a MiLB game and the futures game, then some in-game pitches.

here</a

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by black_knight101 on Jul 28, 2011 12:42 PM MDT up reply actions

another more recent one of Arenado fielding

here

Check out my blog about undergraduate science research

by black_knight101 on Jul 28, 2011 12:47 PM MDT up reply actions

Matthes...

hit his 37th double in 87 games…a pace of 69 over 162 games. I don’t know what the minor league record is, but the MLB record is 67.

If only he weren’t being held back by his home park…he has 23 in 45 games on the road.

by DenverBears on Jul 28, 2011 10:02 AM MDT reply actions

So is the Cal League in general a good hitters league,

and Modesto in particular a pitchers park? I get somewhat confused.

"My eyes! The goggles do nothing!" - Rainier Wolfcastle

by BittenAnkles on Jul 28, 2011 10:20 AM MDT up reply actions

That's the gist of it.

San Jose and Stockton are also pretty pitcher friendly. Since all three of those teams are in the same division and they use a very unbalanced schedule, often hitters from the Cal North (besides those coming from Visalia) will actually be underrated by the standard “don’t trust Cal League stats” method.

So people always get surprised when hitters like Tim Wheeler this year, or Nolan Arenado last season break out in the TL, but they should know better by now.

by Rox Girl on Jul 28, 2011 10:26 AM MDT up reply actions

So it should really be the

"don’t trust Cal League SOUTH stats" method then right?

I'm pretty disgusted right now!

by RhodeIslandRoxfan on Jul 28, 2011 10:40 AM MDT up reply actions

Yep. It's usually a little safer. It really should be a bit of a case by case basis.

Players from Visalia, Lancaster and High Desert are going to be hugely inflated, those offensive stats in particular need to get disregarded (it’s why I waited until this year to start worrying about Paul Goldschmidt) others need to be adjusted according to the park. With Modesto, the biggest adjustment is that a lot of 2B’s will actually turn into HR’s at a higher level. And yes, I realize what kind of monster this makes Matthes. Possibly our most underrated prospect right now, even by me.

by Rox Girl on Jul 28, 2011 10:50 AM MDT up reply actions

Matthes has turned this around so fast though

At the start of May, it looked like he wasn’t going anywhere. He figured out something big three months ago and transformed as a player (the numbers are night and day) and hasn’t looked back since.

I'm pretty disgusted right now!

by RhodeIslandRoxfan on Jul 28, 2011 11:06 AM MDT up reply actions

Oops, not "Nolan Arenado last season"

I meant Wilin Rosario.

by Rox Girl on Jul 28, 2011 10:45 AM MDT up reply actions

or did you mean Nolan Arenado next season?

"I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious." - Albert Einstein

by Andrew T. Fisher on Jul 28, 2011 10:52 AM MDT via mobile up reply actions

that too.

Arenado’s power will jump next year.

by Rox Girl on Jul 28, 2011 10:53 AM MDT up reply actions

He's on fire (and I'm not really sure what he's still doing in Modesto to tell you the truth)

Since the start of May, he’s batting .363 with a 1.102 OPS. He’s also launched 19 HR’s in just 299 PA’s during that time – Or to put it another way, he’s hitting slightly more HRs per PA than Tim Wheeler in the last three months, and Wheeler’s on pace to hit just over 40 boms this season in AA.

I'm pretty disgusted right now!

by RhodeIslandRoxfan on Jul 28, 2011 10:34 AM MDT up reply actions

I realize this topic has gotten a lot of people's attanetion already, but Rutledge has blown up.

Look at the first half-second half stat breakdown from MiLB:
1st Half – 48G, .262BA, 9XBH, .351OBP, .669 OPS
2nd Half – 29G, .420BA, 20XBH, .470OBP, 1.142OPS

I realize his walk rate has gone down, but it’s hard to find fault when he is getting on base nearly 50% of the time. In addition to all that, he’s hitting righties better that lefties, what happens when he figures out lefties? Finally, he’s hitting better at the “pitching friendly” home park than he is on the road. Never saw this coming after poor Tri City stint and skipping low-A . . . can’t wait to see how he performs the rest of the season.

by blooming rock on Jul 28, 2011 2:07 PM MDT reply actions