There was a rain delay last night, but the Suns did end up playing in a high scoring affair. Good crowd, here are some things I noted:
- First, Bryce Harper made the biggest impression by a long shot. He was a spark plug for the Suns offense and hit the ball harder than anyone else on the field by a long shot. One of his outs was hit so loud, I was certain it was gone, but it was out just barely at the left CF wall. On the bases, Harper caused chaos. It seemed like even when they knew he would steal, he still went and made it. He should have been out on one steal, but the throw was bad, and on a single he tried to go from second to home but was thrown out. To his credit, it was an aggressive baserunning choice that put a ton of pressure on the outfielder, but the throw was perfect even with Harper barreling the catcher over. It was a good hard play, real good baseball. He whiffed at a bunch of pitches, but also got a good diet of breaking balls that were not close to strikes. He also played in CF last night and looked fine. He doesn't have great range out there, but he read the ball well and took good routes to any ball hit out there. The opposing team was very afraid to challenge his arm on throws to third and just his presence probably changed the minds of three or four Lexington runners. He is ready to be moved up without a doubt.
- A.J. Cole looked good as well, but no one should expect him to rise to the MLB too quickly. He is a tall, lanky guy that throws from the 3/4 slot and could stand to grow into his frame a little bit more. His fastball is powerful (no guns around that I could see, but he easily threw the fastest out of any pitchers last night) and can blow by people, but Lexington's batters were able to make good contact on it at times. His slider was good at times, but it looked like the ump called a few of his better ones balls. The pitch isn't a true out pitch yet and probably needs to develop more. He used the changeup a few times, mostly early in the count. It looked like a good pitch from what I saw. His two biggest problems were a very long first inning in which he probably threw close to 30 pitches and pitching from the stretch. He also struggled with putting away hitters in a 0-2 or 1-2 count. This kid has awesome potential though.
- Blake Kelso brought a ton of energy to the top of the lineup. He is a small guy, but walked twice and got two hits. Once on base he caused a ton of havoc and twice went from 1st to 3rd on singles. He was playing SS last night, but he doesn't seem to have the range or arm to be much more than a 2B.
- It was obvious last night that David Freitas is not challenged at all at this level, he needs to be promoted to AA. He made great contact, mostly to the gaps, and was able to work the counts and look for a good pitch each at bat. Behind the plate, he was able to block a bunch of pitches from the sometimes erratic Suns pitching staff. One guy ran on him and Freitas couldn't get him, about average arm strength. The biggest complaint would probably be that he didn't do a very good job of framing the ball for strikes, but overall he looked fine behind the plate.
- Finally, the last guy that really stood out was Kevin Keyes. He is a big dude and has a very good power swing. He also had a very good eye at the plate. He half swung at a couple pitches he knew were good, seemed like a confidence issue. He made really good contact on three of his at-bats, getting singles in two of them. He doesn't have great speed and I didn't see enough of him in RF to tell if he could stick there, but my guess would be he is an eventual 1B with a ton of power. He is a kid to watch and one that is definitely on the rise.
