MLB Draft

[longgame]

The 1st Rounder, Teel, played all of 3 games in the Florida Complex League and got sent to A+ Greenville. They decided to bypass A- Salem. He made his A+ debut last night with a 3-5 night and 2RBI. Even had a Caught Stealing.

Teel played three years at Univ of Virginia.  This past season he was the conference MVP, and recognized as the top college catcher.  Has the skills to play outfield, as he did for UVA as a frosh.  So he is well seasoned to get into A ball.  He just might have the potential of Rutchman of the O's, who got all the way to Baltimore in just 2+ years from the draft.

That is very good news Sea Dog.  I think we have struck gold with this draftee and hope we can see him at Fenway within two or three years.

Hopefully they're smart enough to recognize how hard it is to develop a quality catcher.  If he's anything like Rutchman he's a keeper.

[MongoLikeSox]

There's a link to a tweeter tweet thingy from the Soxprospects.com site in the Teel part. Looks like a quick-hitch type of throw to 2nd. He's the 5th player down the list in the main section.
https://www.soxprospects.com/index.html

[MongoLikeSox]

I watched last few innings of the Greenville game on the laptop last night as the Sox were closing out theirs against the Royals. I saw two Kyle Teel's AB's. He went 3 for 5 with a walk and 3 RBI. I saw the walk and a decently hit grounder to first. The walk was definitely worked for and well earned.  His swings looked hard, but not too long. Looked good behind the plate, but it was only 3 innings. 

His energy and enthusiasm looked like an easy compare to Adley Rutschman as some have mentioned.

The indescribable thing is that he did not look like a Rookie getting into his first couple of games with a new team, even after skipping a level. To the contrary, the way he carried himself made it look like it was HIS team. Roman Anthony had the night off, but seeing him and Teel leading the lineup in Greenville is going to be fun to watch for the next month or so.

[longgame]

Mongo have you ever made it down to Greenville for a game?  I keep saying I need to head down.  Then again I haven't even caught a Charlotte Knights game this year!

[MongoLikeSox]

Mongo have you ever made it down to Greenville for a game?  I keep saying I need to head down.  Then again I haven't even caught a Charlotte Knights game this year!

I've never even been to Greenville. We've the Durham Bulls and Carolina Mudcats each about 1/2 hour away, but have not been to either in quite some time. I wish I had known the Savanna Bananas were in Durham last Month, though.

Good fun was the old Durham Bulls A-ball when they were in the old park where the movie was shot. That was a real treat. My wife and I went a couple times a month when we moved to NC. I played there once long after they moved to the new park when I played Sr League. The City of Durham kept it up a little bit, barely enough to play on. I've been told they do a better job with it these days. I hope so. It's a real treasure.

[longgame]

Mongo have you ever made it down to Greenville for a game?  I keep saying I need to head down.  Then again I haven't even caught a Charlotte Knights game this year!

I've never even been to Greenville. We've the Durham Bulls and Carolina Mudcats each about 1/2 hour away, but have not been to either in quite some time. I wish I had known the Savanna Bananas were in Durham last Month, though.

Good fun was the old Durham Bulls A-ball when they were in the old park where the movie was shot. That was a real treat. My wife and I went a couple times a month when we moved to NC. I played there once long after they moved to the new park when I played Sr League. The City of Durham kept it up a little bit, barely enough to play on. I've been told they do a better job with it these days. I hope so. It's a real treasure.

It's the opposite here. We had the Knights in South Carolina, just over the line but it was a haul from the northern side where I live.  They built a great stadium uptown near the football stadium and it's a great place to watch a ball game.  A couple of years ago my daughter and I went to the new Kannapolis Cannonballers stadium which is also quite nice and an improvement over the old Intimidators ballpark.  AAA schedules are really weird post-Covid where they play one team at home for an entire week then go on the road the next week.

[Sea Dog 23]

I grew up in the Charlotte area.  The old ballpark was over in SouthEnd.  It was a Twins org. and one team had Harmon Killebrew, Bob Allison and Tony Olivo.

[Sea Dog 23]

There's a blog today about possible Brewers' move to Charlotte or Nashville, as early as this season.  Some problems with the stadium rights/ and or revenues.

[MongoLikeSox]

Teel had a day off and then followed that up with a 3-hit night going 3-4 with a walk. BA is now .643 and OPS of 1.402. Gotta love hot start statistics.  thumb_u

There's a blog today about possible Brewers' move to Charlotte or Nashville, as early as this season.  Some problems with the stadium rights/ and or revenues.

I can't believe that stadium has been there 22 years. Time is flying. They are caught up on a political battle that will hopefully get resolved. They ain't no Rays/A's that needed to move years ago. I still can't believe the A's thing isn't official yet.

I don't think MLB will ever put a team in Charlotte and maybe not even all of the Carolinas. The Braves would surely bitch and moan that idea off the table. Look what happened to Baltimore after they put a team in DC. Nashville I can see happening, though.

[longgame]

Teel had a day off and then followed that up with a 3-hit night going 3-4 with a walk. BA is now .643 and OPS of 1.402. Gotta love hot start statistics.  thumb_u

There's a blog today about possible Brewers' move to Charlotte or Nashville, as early as this season.  Some problems with the stadium rights/ and or revenues.

I can't believe that stadium has been there 22 years. Time is flying. They are caught up on a political battle that will hopefully get resolved. They ain't no Rays/A's that needed to move years ago. I still can't believe the A's thing isn't official yet.

I don't think MLB will ever put a team in Charlotte and maybe not even all of the Carolinas. The Braves would surely bitch and moan that idea off the table. Look what happened to Baltimore after they put a team in DC. Nashville I can see happening, though.

I know, I think of that as a new stadium. 

Of course I'd love a Charlotte team (NL please, I have an AL team!) but I've said for years, I can't see a lot of people showing up for a Tuesday night game when it's 85 and humid and they're playing the equivalent of this year's Oakland A's.  It's easy to fill a football stadium 10 times a year, but 80 homes games would be tough.  Plus I wonder what cities really are interested in pouring $1B or so into a stadium and improvements to move someone.  Charlotte's new stadium is bounded by streets, the only way to expand it would be build over existing streets, so would they build a new one and leave the other as a white elephant?  I just don't see it happening.

[MongoLikeSox]

On the Teel front, I am still digging this pick.

I watched a few innings of the Greenville game last night with Teel behind the plate. He made an exceptional play on a bunted ball down the 3rd base line for a big out with runners on 2nd and 3rd and no outs. He also threw 2 of 3 base-stealers out, but I only saw the one he did not get and it was stole off the pitcher with a massive jump.

The only AB I saw was in the 10th inning with 3 runs in already, 1 out and a runner on 3rd. They pitched carefully to him and were ahead in the count early, but he managed to get a walk out of it. A very old school Red Sox style AB. Darned impressive AB for anyone, let alone a kid who had gone 0-3 on the day with an easy RBI opportunity after his teammates had laced 3 doubles in a row earlier in the inning. He was aggressive, too. If they threw a pitch to hit, he went after it. If not, he laid off. Nothing tentative. Just good smart baseball.

[MongoLikeSox]

Portland is the free MILB-TV game starting at 6:00PM. The just posted the lineup. Teel will not be catching, but is DH'ing. Hitting .348 for Portland in his short stint so far.