Sand Gnats Lose Rubbermatch in Rome, Taylor Strong Over 5.1 IP (Pitch Coverage, gifs)

Savannah Sand Gnats @ Rome Braves

August 21, 2014

Logan Taylor @ Brandon Barker

Teams	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Savannah	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	2	5	0
Rome	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	X	3	5	0

Win: Kimbrel (2-2, 5.82 ERA); Loss: Frias (5-2, 3.31 ERA)

The Highlights:

Pitchers

Logan Taylor (2.89 ERA) – 5.1 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 3 BB, 5 SO, HR, 8 GO: 1 FO

Darwin Frias – 2.1 IP, H, R, BB, 3 SO, HBP, 1 GO: 2 FO

Batters

Yeixon Ruiz – 1-5, R, 3B (5), RBI (35), SO, GIDP

Champ Stuart – 1-3, RBI (22), BB, SF, SB (25)

Dominic Smith – 1-4, BB, SB (5)

Jonathan Johnson – 1-3, BB, 2 SB (6), SO

Colton Plaia – 1-3, BB

Recap:

The Sand Gnats offense missed some early opportunities and got shut down late Thursday night, as Savannah lost the rubber game in Rome. Savannah starter Logan Taylor was very effective over his 5.1 IP, but some high pitch at-bats early prevented him from going deeper into the game. He just kept getting better throughout the game though, retiring four of his last five batters via the strikeout. Darwin Frias and John Mincone came out of the pen for the Gnats and were pretty effective over the final 2.2 IP, but Rome reliever Matt Kimbrel was a little better out of the Braves pen, allowing only two hits and two walks in four shutout innings. Rome would pick up a big two out hit from Carlos Franco off Mincone in the 8^th to go ahead for good 3-2.

Both teams loaded the bases on a single and two walks in the 1^st inning, but only Rome was able to capitalize with a run on a groundout. ChampStuart picked up a 1^st inning hit for the third straight game – triple Tuesday, double Wednesday and single Thursday.

Jonathan Johnson led off the 2^nd with a single up the middle, and the Gnats would load the bases again, but Dom Smith hit a weak groundout back to the mound on the first pitch he saw.

The Gnats scored both of their runs in the 4^th. After Patrick Biondi was walked with one out, Yeixon Ruiz tripled him in. Ruiz would come in to score on a Stuart sac fly to RF. Ruiz has turned it on lately, hitting .349/.388/.651 over his last ten games, and .280/.317/.493 in 83 August PA’s.

Dominic Smith led off the 7^th with a single and stole 2B with two outs, but the Gnats couldn’t get anything else going in the inning.

They had a chance to score in the 8^th after a one-out single from Colton Plaia and a walk to Biondi, but Ruiz would hit into an inning ending double play.

I had read some good things about Taylor since the Mets drafted him in the 11^th round of the 2012 draft, but had only seen sparse video of him since. Although it’s not the same as seeing him live with a radar gun, the MiLB.tv coverage in Rome is pretty good for following a pitcher. Taylor is a big kid at 6’5, and he uses his height and overhand motion to generate a lot of sink on his two-seamer – I labeled pitches that seemed like sinkers as such below. He also threw a straighter fastball that he could spot around the zone pretty well, which I figure to be his four-seamer. I had read that he also throws a cut-fastball, but they were less obvious to my still-in-training eyes, although there was one pitch on the outside edge that appeared to cut away from a righty. From what I’ve read, he throws low 90’s and can hit 95 MPH, but I wasn’t getting any velocity calls Thursday night. He keeps hitter honest with a big overhand curve that looked very good at times Thursday, although he also bounced a number of them. Some curves are intentionally bounced to get hitters to chase, but these were generally not the right time to be bouncing curves, and Rome was not chasing early. He was a little wild with the curve over the first three innings, getting strikes on only 5 of 14 pitches, but became nearly unhittable over the his final 2.1 IP, when he got strikes on 11 of 16 curves. He mixed in a few change-ups throughout the start, but I would’ve liked to see more of them. The homerun Taylor gave up was on a fastball above the belt and on the inside corner, so I think you got to tap your cap to the hitter for getting the barrel on the ball and depositing it over the LF wall. Looking ahead to next season, Taylor is more of a ‘sleeper’ in this system right now, but I think he can be a fast riser with his fastball/curveball combo. A general rule is that starters should have three usable pitches, so Taylor will likely have to use his change-up more in the upper minors. The change-ups that I did identify tonight were very effective; Taylor just didn’t need to use the pitch as often when his curve started falling in regularly.

Logan Taylor Pitch Coverage

Table 1 – Breaking down pitch count by type and inning

Count (Strikes)	1^st	2^nd	3^rd	4^th	5^th	6^th	Total
Fastball	18 (8)	13 (8)	9 (6)	6 (3)	4 (4)	5 (3)	55 (32)
Change-up	2 (2)	0	3 (3)	1 (1)	0	0	6 (6)
Breaking Ball	3 (1)	5 (3)	5 (1)	9 (5)	7 (5)	1 (1)	30 (16)
Unknown	0	0	0	0	0	2 (1)	2 (1)
Total	23 (11)	18 (11)	17 (10)	16 (9)	11 (9)	8 (5)	93 (55)

Table 2 – Breaking down pitch results by type

Strike %
Total	Call	Sw	Foul

BIP%
LD	GB	FB	PU

Results
AB	BABIP	ISO	K

Fastball

58.2

16.4

3.6

20.0

.333

.364

Change-up

100

16.7

33.3

100

.000

Breaking Ball

53.3

20.0

13.3

17.2

100

.000

As always, doing my best on the pitch identification from MiLB.tv coverage with no velocities

1^st inning

1) Connor Oliver walked (BB)

i. Fastball, knee high and outside – ball 1-0

ii. Fastball, bounced outside – ball 2-0

iii. Fastball, belt high and outside – ball 3-0

iv. Fastball, knee high and outside – ball 4

2) Connor Lien popped out to Plaia in foul territory (2/P)

i. Fastball, just below the knees over the middle – ball 1-0

ii. Fastball, knee high and inside corner – strike 1-1

iii. Fastball, belt high and inside corner

3) Jacob Schrader lined a single into CF (S8/L)

i. Fastball, belt high and inside corner – strike 0-1

ii. Fastball, belt high and inside corner – foul 0-2

iii. Fastball, knee high and inside corner

4) Joey Meneses walked (BB)

i. Fastball, shin high and inside – ball 1-0 (Lots of sink and run 3B side)

ii. Fastball, belt high and inside corner – foul 1-1

iii. Sinker, bounced inside – ball 2-1 (Lots of sinking action)

iv. Curveball, thigh high and inside corner – foul 2-2

v. Sinker, shin high and inside – ball 3-2

vi. Curveball, bounced outside corner – ball 4

5) Carlos Franco hit an RBI grounder to Smith for a force out at 2B (36/G)

i. Curveball, knee high and inside – ball 1-0

ii. Sinker, shin high over the middle – ball 2-0

iii. Fastball, knee high and outside corner – foul 2-1

iv. Change-up, knee high and outside corner

6) Sal Giardina hit a groundout back to the mound (13/G)

i. Fastball, knee high over the middle – strike 0-1

ii. Sinker, shin high and inside – ball 1-1

iii. Change-up, knee high and outside corner

2^nd inning

1) Ross Wilson hit a groundout back to the mound (13/G)

i. Fastball, bounced inside corner – ball 1-0

ii. Sinker, shin high and outside – ball 2-0

iii. Fastball, knee high and outside corner – strike 2-1 (cutter maybe)

iv. Fastball, knee high and outside corner – strike 2-2

v. Curveball, bounced outside – ball 3-2

vi. Fastball, thigh high and outside – foul 3-2

vii. Fastball, thigh high and outside corner – foul 3-2

viii. Fastball, belt high and outside corner

2) Codey McElroy homered to LF (HR/F)

i. Fastball, above the belt and inside corner

3) Alejandro Piloto hit a groundout back to the mound (13/G)

i. Fastball, knee high and outside corner – strike 0-1

ii. Fastball, thigh high and inside – ball 1-1

iii. Fastball, knee high and outside

4) Oliver struck out looking (K/Lo)

i. Fastball, belt high and inside – ball 1-0

ii. Curveball, thigh high and inside corner – strike 1-1

iii. Curveball, knee high and inside corner – strike 1-2

iv. Curveball, bounced inside – ball 2-2

v. Fastball, letter high and inside – ball 3-2

vi. Curveball, thigh high and outside corner – strike 3 looking

3^rd inning

1) Lien hit a groundout to Zapata (53/G)

i. Fastball, letter high over the middle – ball 1-0

ii. Fastball, shin high and outside – ball 2-0

iii. Change-up, thigh high and outside corner – swinging strike 2-1

iv. Curveball, bounced outside – ball 3-1

v. Change-up, thigh high and outside corner – foul 3-2

vi. Fastball, knee high and outside corner – foul 3-2

vii. Sinker, knee high over the middle

2) Schrader walked (BB)

i. Curveball, knee high and outside corner – strike 0-1

ii. Curveball, bounced outside corner – ball 1-1

iii. Curveball, knee high and outside – ball 2-1

iv. Sinker, knee high and outside corner – strike 2-2

v. Curveball, bounced outside – ball 3-2

vi. Fastball, knee high and outside corner – foul 3-2

vii. Change-up, knee high and outside corner – foul 3-2

viii. Fastball, belt high and outside – ball 4

3) Meneses a hit a grounder at Johnson to start a double play (463/G)

i. Fastball, knee high and outside corner – strike 0-1

ii. Fastball, belt high over the middle

4^th inning

1) Franco hit a groundout to Johnson (43/G)

i. Sinker, shin high over the middle – ball 1-0

ii. Sinker, knee high over the middle

2) Giardina slapped a double down the 3B line (D7/L)

i. Fastball, belt high and outside corner

3) Wilson hit a groundout to Zapata (53/G)

i. Curveball, thigh high and inside corner – strike 0-1

ii. Curveball, knee high and inside corner – foul 0-2

iii. Curveball, shin high and inside corner – foul 0-2

iv. Fastball, above the head and inside – ball 1-2 (no intent)

v. Curveball, letter high and inside – ball 2-2

vi. Curveball, bounced inside – ball 3-2

vii. Curveball, shin high and inside corner

4) McElroy struck out swinging (K/Sw)

i. Curveball, bounced inside corner – ball 1-0

ii. Curveball, knee high and outside – ball 2-0 (no view, radio call)

iii. Fastball, bounced outside – ball 3-0

iv. Fastball, knee high and outside corner – strike 3-1

v. Change-up, knee high and outside corner – strike 3-2

vi. Curveball, bounced – swinging strike 3 (no view, radio call)

5^th inning

1) Piloto struck out swinging (K/Sw)

i. Fastball, knee high and outside corner – swinging strike 0-1

ii. Fastball, knee high and outside corner – foul 0-2

iii. Curveball, thigh high over the middle – foul 0-2

iv. Curveball, shin high and outside corner – swinging strike 3

2) Oliver struck out looking (K/Lo)

i. Curveball, shin high and outside corner – swinging strike 0-1

ii. Curveball, knee high and inside corner – swinging strike 0-2

iii. Curveball, knee high and outside corner – ball 1-2

iv. Curveball, thigh high and inside corner – strike 3 looking

3) Lien flied out to Stuart (8/F)

i. Fastball, belt high over the middle – foul 0-1

ii. Curveball, shin high and outside – ball 1-1

iii. Fastball, belt high over the middle

6^th inning

1) Schrader struck out swinging (K/Sw)

i. Not back from TV coverage

ii. Not back from TV coverage – 1-1

iii. Fastball, bounced outside – ball 2-1

iv. Curveball, belt high and outside corner – foul 2-2

v. Fastball, thigh high and inside corner – foul 2-2

vi. Fastball, shin high and outside – ball 3-2

vii. Fastball, knee high and outside corner – foul 3-2

viii. Fastball, belt high and inside corner – swinging strike 3

So thin, but keeping us alive. Another slow shutter to capture the #atmosphere at night pic.twitter.com/1O1q0NiSKh RT @astro_reid @csa_asc
— SpaceAstronomer (@SpaceAstronomer) August 22, 2014

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