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| I am officially on the Wittels Wagon. |
There were a lot of stars in this game, but if there was one guy who looked like a big-league player last night, it was Oilers third-baseman Garrett Wittels. I knew going to the ballpark that he was a guy to watch, but I was trying not to drink the Kool Aid. Well, I drank it. He's good. We all know he can hit, but that's not really what stood out to me. He's really got something special going on in two other areas of his game. First, he can flash the leather. He made several gritty plays in the field to save his team some runs. Great work in the dirt by this guy. Second, his makeup. He's a team leader, very fired up and vocal. Maybe a little too vocal sometimes, as the umpire threatened to bounce him and Miners' 3B Quinn Pippin out of the game for exchanging some unpleasant words early on. But he's also constantly encouraging his teammates and making sure everyone is aware of the situation.
Last night was my third look at Miners reliever James Allen, a guy I was really impressed with the first time I saw him. These previous two sightings of him he's been roughed up a little bit and looked like he's just missing his spots a tad. Obviously, since he walked in the tying run, he's not getting the calls that he'd like. But one positive thing I'd like to note about Allen is that I really like his mentality. He comes with a game plan and doesn't let the opposing team rattle his cage. On the other hand, when Wittels tip-toed from first to second to get a prancing stolen base, completely on Allen, without even drawing a throw, it makes me wonder if he's a little too locked in to his own mind, but I digress. My point is that he's unflappable. Even after he walked in the run to tie the game, he came back and struck out Wisdom 1-2-3. And to be fair, he didn't surrender a hit in that inning; it was all walks, one of them intentional, and some good sacrifice hitting by the Oilers.
Back on the Oilers side of things, I have to tip my hat to Ryan Gebhart. I really love his approach at the plate. He had several really good at-bats where he came up to battle. He doesn't give the pitcher anything for free; even with two strikes on him he stays in the box and works the count. He didn't get a hit in last night's contest, but he did walk twice, and if I'm not mistaken he had two strikes on him both times. One of those walks resulted in a run. He's definitely got some great discipline and toughness at the plate.
Some more quick notes before we get to the photos: I ran the stopwatch, of course. No one that I managed to catch running really made my eyes pop. Both Oilers catcher Kyle Leon and Miners backstop Wes Thigpen had pretty good throws down to second. Thigpen also showed a little bit of pop in his bat, driving the ball out to center field about 390 feet to die on the track. Miners P Joaquin Hinojosa looked good, bringing the heat from a side-arm slot. He was throwing hard but mixed his pitches well and wasn't afraid to use the offspeed stuff for a strikeout pitch. I thought the Oilers starting hurler, lefty Taylor Siemens, had a really interesting delivery. Very casual and relaxed movement toward the plate before he just kinda slings it up there.
So that's what I've got for scouting notes. On to the photos! This was a long game, and involved the usual Mat-Su gloom (I haven't been to a nice Miners game yet this season) so by about the 7th inning I couldn't get enough shutter speed going to snap really crisp photos. But I came away with about 80 decent ones, most of them Oilers photos since I wanted a good back stock of their guys. Below I'm posting some of the cooler ones; or you can view the full gallery. As always, if you want to use any of these on your own blog or whatever feel free, but please link back to 49thStateHardball.com. Thanks!
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