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 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.