2011 Draft Eligibles: Mat-Su Miners

Bermudez, Mee and Scott headline big class of potential picks.

Senior Andy Mee made a case for himself in the ABL,
but where will the scouts slot him for the 2011 draft?

It's never too soon to look ahead to next year's draft, so why wait until spring time to start going over next year's potential draft picks? This year, we'll go in the order of last year's league standings (because I thought that would be a fun way to do it, I guess) and that brings us to the Mat-Su Miners for our first stop. And man, do the Miners have a big ol' list of potential draft picks. There's a lot of names below, mainly due to the big number of Sophomores and Juniors recruited by the valley club in 2010. And just like the famous Matanuska Valley giant produce, the Miners farmed some pretty big draft prospects this last year. Here's a couple who've caught my eye; feel free to suggest your own if you're so inclined:

Pablo Bermudez: One of my favorite players in 2010, a real electrifying guy. Good power and ability to drive the ball to all fields, and great instincts in the outfield. Ranked by Perfect Game as #4 prospect in the league last year.

Andy Mee: I think Andy very possibly had the best season in the whole ABL in 2010. He can pitch, he can hit, he can play the field, he can do it all. I think he'd be drafted as a RF because he can rake, he really flies in the field, and his pitcher's arm gives him a good cannon from right. He'll also be a senior in 2011, and I can't imagine him falling through the cracks and becoming an insurance salesman or something.

Oilers force their way past San Diego

Peninsula advances in NBC tournament on a 3-1 win

Eddie Orozco threw 5.1 innings of three-hit baseball.

The Oilers must not have partied too hard after last night's 8-0 trouncing of the Rock City Red Sox in Wichita, because they were able to get out of bed in good enough form to dispatch the San Diego Force in today's early game by a final score of 3-1.

This win came thanks in no small part to the efforts of right-hander Eddie Orozco (UC Riverside), who three-hit the Force through five and a third innings, striking out 4, walking 2 and allowing no runners to cross the plate. Matt Applegate (Kansas State) finished out the sixth and seventh innings perfectly, Erik Draxton (CS Bakersfield) gave up the only run on one hit (a homer), and Chad Smith (USC) picked up the save with a one-hit inning to close out the event.

On the offensive end of the scoresheet, Pablo Bermudez (Florida Int'l) and Tyler Grimes (Wichita State) had two hits apiece with Bermudez scoring one of the runs, and James Lilley (New Mexico State) and Michael Miller (Cal Poly) each had RBI's. Bermudez has hit safely in each of the Oilers' games so far in the tournament and is carrying a batting average of .429 as of tonight.

With tonight's win, the Oilers advance to face the League City Hornets, who were their original first-round opponent before the Goldpanners-withdrawal-induced bracket shuffling occurred. The game is set to take place at 1:00 p.m. central time (10 a.m. Alaska).

Oilers drop shocker at NBCWS

Alaskans lose opening match 6-3 to the Sluggers

Garrett Wittels was successful at the plate, but the
Oilers couldn't top the Elite Sluggers on Wednesday.

In an opening-round upset, the Wichita Elite Sluggers handed the Peninsula Oilers -- the Alaska League's sole representative at the NBC World Series tournament -- a stunning upset defeat, plating six runs to the Oilers' 3 and advancing to the next round. The Oilers find themselves in the loser's bracket and facing elimination should they lose another game between now and the title game.

The Oilers' bats picked up nine hits but were only able to push the three runs across. Garrett Wittels led the offense, going 2-for-4, knocking in two of the runs and touching the plate once himself. James Lilley, Patrick Wisdom, and Michael Miller each had two-hits a piece; Miner-turned-Oiler Pablo Bermudez went 1-for-2 and drew two walks on the day.

With as many hits as the team put together, it's hard to imagine losing the game, but the pitching staff couldn't hold up their end of the bargain. After four solid innings by Kellen Moen (7H, 1ER, 6K) things started to unravel. The next four pitchers covered four innings pitched and surrendered five runs. Mike Wolford got the loss for his two-run inning, though it was somewhat of a tough-luck loss as neither run was earned.

Moving into the loser's bracket, the Oilers will get a chance at redemption against the Rock City Red Sox of North Carolina tomorrow. The game begins at 10:30 AM CDT, which is 7:30 AM AKDT.

Reflections/Photo Post: Fire @ Miners, 7-14-2010

Tyler Ruch's walk-off sac fly put the Miners over
the Fire in the bottom of the 9th.

EDIT: I made some corrections to this. I got my middle infielders dyslexified and referred to Matt Wessinger as Bret Schwartz. My bad. I am now giving Wessinger the credit where credit is due, and Schwartz is still cool. Thanks to the reader who made the catch; and let this be a lesson to those who would blog at 1 a.m.

It was a month ago to the day that I first saw the AIA Fire take on the Mat-Su Miners for my first game of the ABL season. Well, as chance would have it -- and I totally did not plan it to be this way -- I found myself, again, at a Fire at Miners game on the 14th of the month, which was last night. I took some pictures and made a few notes, but  most of all I was trying to get some video footage for the series of scouting videos I plan to post up on YouTube over the off-season. But for now, I'll share some of my thoughts and photos from the game with you.

One guy I should have had the camera on was Matt Wessinger (Miners). He looked phenomenal at second base tonight. He made some very good plays with the glove, including a great charge and off-balance flip to first to beat Will Watson by the thinnest hair and save an infield single against his team. Very good soft-handed defense on his part.

I have to tip my hat to Fire pitcher Harrison Helms, if for nothing else, creativity. With Miners on first base, Helms was having a fun time making them get their uniforms dirty diving back under the tags as he tried to keep them close. His best pickoff move of the night, though, was probably the one where he hid the ball in his hat as he pretended to wipe the sweat from his brow before making the throw to the bag. I suppose I could have just missed it all these years but I have never seen that before.

2010 Player Profile: Pablo Bermudez

Pablo Bermudez
CF - Mat-Su Miners
Bats: Right - Throws: Right
Height: 5'11" - Weight: 190lb
School: Florida International
Year: Sophomore
Hometown: Miami Shores, Florida
All posts regarding Bermudez

I've been writing plenty about the Miners, that's for sure. But did you know that they're the only team I haven't written a player profile for (until now)? And if I'm going to rectify that situation right here and now, and I have to pick one guy to be my first Miner profile of 2010, who better to choose for a subject than the one guy who gets every Miners fan hooting and hollering every time he comes to the plate? The big fan favorite this year is Pablo Bermudez, and here's his profile.

Bermudez was Florida International's starting center fielder this past season and appeared in all of their games. For his effort he was awarded second-team all conference honors. Last summer he played in the Valley League, and I exchanged e-mails with John Leonard of the fine blog All Things Valley League for his take on Pablo. John pointed out that one of the more unfortunate parts of Pablo's legacy out there is his free-swinging plate approach which led to 58 strikeouts in 170 at-bats. However, people who saw him play in the Valley last year should note that he has tightened up his pitch selection and is reaping the benefits, striking out only 15 times in 86 at-bats, which is actually really good. As a result, he's getting some good pitches to hit, putting up a .372 average and a .973 OPS (.426 + .547). His walk-to-strikeout ratio is 7/15 which is pretty decent as well.

Reflections/Photo Post: Miners @ Pilots, 7/6/2010

Gene Escat: The Smaller Unit

Hello again, friends. I promised some scouting notes on last night's Miners at Pilots match-up, and here they are. I also said that I wouldn't take many photos...well, I took a few. I'm running a little behind though, so I'm going to forego the typical introduction and cut straight to the notes.

- Gene Escat (Pilots) reminds me of Randy Johnson in so many ways. It was like hopping into a time machine and going way way back. He doesn't throw sidearm like The Big Unit but geez. Tall, skinny, a little bit of a wild man (from his control to the mop of hair sticking out the back of his hat), all wrapped up in the same Glacier Pilots uniform. He's listed as 6'3" 175lb; but he looks taller than that, probably due to his lankiness. Maybe we should call him the Smaller Unit? Anyway, Escat threw a lot of pitches and looked like he had trouble finding the zone, and the Miners hammered him early on. After a bad first inning, though, he looked like he settled down a bit and looked pretty decent in innings 2-4. By that point, though, he was just out of gas and had to get the hook.

- Pablo Bermudez (Miners) showed us some of that power when he took Escat yard. There are several things that I noted watching Pablo. First of all, he drove that homer to the opposite field and sent it sailing over the right field wall. It's great to see a guy hit a ball the other way with authority. Second, he got way ahead in the count and jumped on a good pitch. Last year he played in the Valley League and his strikeout rate was atrocious. I don't remember what it was, and I don't care to look it up, because I would hardly believe it if I did. His rate in Alaska this season is far better; still not fabulous or anything but within an acceptable range. In any event, it seems like he may be working on his plate discipline and in this case it paid off. Third, I observed his stance and compared to the other guys around the league these days, and he's got some different swing mechanics. Other players (Matt Ozanne is a good example) take a batting stance with their legs spread wide, and when they load up they barely go up on their front toe before shifting forward. Bermudez starts with a narrow-legged stance and takes a big stride forward. There are various reasons why players would choose not to take this stance (it can jolt the batter's eyes off the pitch for one) but he makes it work for him and it seems intuitive that it might generate more power.

Dieterich, Miners get revenge in 13-inning no-hitter

Miners LHP Blake Dieterich held the Oilers
hitless through nine innings.

The Mat-Su Miners, fresh off a no-hitter loss to Eddie Orozco and the Oilers, showed last night that they weren't quite ready to give up first place in the ABL. What did they do? Put up a no-hitter of their own in a game that proved to be about as perfect a definition of the phrase "pitching duel" as any I've ever heard of.

Blake Dieterich got the start on the mound for the Miners and threw nine stellar innings of baseball, giving up no runs on no hits and walking just two. Dieterich also struck out three over the nine complete frames. At the end of regulation play, however, the scoreboard was still reading all goose-eggs. This game would go into extra innings and Dieterich would not get the official complete game.

The pitchers for the opposing Oilers were throwing beautiful baseball as well. Kellen Moen went five strong innings, surrendering three hits and two walks while striking out five. Taylor Garrison carried the shutout through the eighth with three innings, two hits, no walks, and sitting down a pair. Jorge Marban came in to close out the ninth with a perfect frame, and went on to total 3.2 IP, 1 H, 0 BB, and 3K. In extra frames, Adam Heredia threw a hit-less 1/3 inning, walking one as well.

It was big man Kolby Moore of the Oilers who stumbled in the top of the 13th to break the logjam, though he had plenty of help from the Oilers defense in giving the game away. Miner Brett Schwartz doubled and scored the go-ahead run on an error; Matt Ozanne and Nick DeBiasse would cross the plate on some manufactured insurance runs thanks to another error and an RBI by Pablo Bermudez.

2010 Players to Watch: Mat-Su Miners

The Mat-Su Miners contingent in the 2010 Colony Days
Parade in Palmer, Alaska

The Mat-Su Miners were the last team in the league to release the names of their 2010 roster, which left us all scratching our heads when I was writing up watch lists for all the teams. When I wrote up the 2010 season preview, I kind of assumed that the Miners would be a team to beat based simply on the fact that they've won more games over the past three years than any other team in the league, and it would be a pretty dramatic fall for them to drop below .500 this year. So far on the young season they haven't disappointed in the winning department (although we still have a lot of games left to play).

So before we get too deep into the year, let's take a look at some of the more intriguing names on the team. The Miners will be led in 2010 by a plethora of talented pitchers, many of whom are also two-way players who can handle the bat pretty well to boot. I've picked a handful of players who I think will be interesting to follow throughout the season. The names on this list are not necessarily the "best" players on the team, but rather those who I feel have an interesting combination of talent, potential, interesting background stories, and/or previous performance to make them worth watching. There's also a "peripheral vision" list, with some guys who also roused my curiosity but maybe I didn't have enough info on to write a whole paragraph. Here's the list:

Players to Watch

RHP Robert Benincasa
Florida State
Freshman - 6'1" 180lb

Benincasa is our "already been drafted relatively high" pick for the Miners. As a high schooler he was drafted during the 33rd round by Toronto, which is pretty high for a prep non-uber prospect. High enough that a lot of people thought he would sign. Word has it that he was also on the radar of several other teams. He'll be untouchable for a couple more seasons as a DI freshman, but if he can make the most of his college career -- not to mention in front of the scouts up here in AK -- he'll be a pretty nice draft prospect for 2012 and/or 2013.