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Aberdeen Home Opener vs. Hudson Valley


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#1 Luke Jackson

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Posted 20 June 2012 - 10:18 PM

Aberdeen's home opener was tonight, and the Ironbirds' opponent was Hudson Valley (Rays). Starting for HV was 2011 first rounder Taylor Guerrieri, and boy was he good. His line: 5 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 6 K, 1 HBP. Guerrieri had a nice, smooth, effortless delivery and displayed easy velocity on his fastball, which was clocked at 93-94 on the stadium gun but if you told me he was 95-96, I'd believe it. He threw his fastball most of the time, but mixed in a changeup (had Torsten Boss in knots with the CH in his first AB), and threw just two or three breaking balls. Aberdeen hitters didn't have much chance at catching up to his fastball and never made hard contact against him. Guerrieri is probably way too good for the NYPL, but the Rays really like to take it slow with their arms and you can't really argue with their success at developing young pitching.

Aberdeen's starter was Jorge Rivera, who was Kevin Goldstein's Orioles sleeper in the system heading into this season: "A 21-year-old Dominican who just pitched in the Gulf Coast League, left-hander Jorge Rivera has above average velocity and a plus curveball and projects as a potential reliever with more than just situational potential." First, the good with Rivera. Definitely has some nice velocity on his fastball (was probably working low 90s) and was able to do work down in the zone for the most part with it, allowing him to get quite a few groundballs in his five innings of work. Next, the bad. His delivery needs some serious work, because he's all arms. He doesn't use his lower half well at all to get drive towards the plate. I was half expecting his arm to fly off and kill a fan in the fifth row. Rivera flashed a nice breaking ball with depth maybe twice all game, and the rest were all over the place. His command in general was very loose, but was able to keep his team in the game by making opposing batters beat the ball into the ground. His line: 5 IP, 3 R/ER, 2 BB, 2 K. MiLB.com has his GO/AO ratio for the game as 11.00, so yeah, that's a lot of groundouts.

I'll have thoughts on the position players as I see them more because it's not really fair to say anything about a hitter based off one look, but Roderick Bernadina is not as big or as physical as his big brother. He hasn't even turned 20 yet so I guess that's expected. Ha
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#2 Tucker Blair

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Posted 21 June 2012 - 11:07 AM

Spot on with Rivera. I'm probably not as high on him as others though. Yesterday I was afraid he was going to hit ME, and I was watching through MiLB.tv!!! (Yea, I ended up not going)
His arm is very live, but at a point he is going to need to control that some, and from the looks of it I am not sure he ever will be doing that.

I was impressed in my first time seeing David Richardson though. Had a decent line with 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 4 K, 3 BB, allowed. He is a little wild too, but stands tall on the mound and has some decent stuff.

Bernadina has such a violent swing and moves around a lot, but you can see the potential is there just by looking at him. and he is FAST.

Also I thought Jerome Pena looked very good at 2B. However, I didn't realize that he was 23 (guess I never looked into it). 23 in Aberdeen is probably not a good sign.
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#3 Oriole85

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Posted 21 June 2012 - 11:20 AM

Also I thought Jerome Pena looked very good at 2B. However, I didn't realize that he was 23 (guess I never looked into it). 23 in Aberdeen is probably not a good sign.

I know the leagues have(or had) limits (this was a decade ago) for how long players and coaches could stay with one team in the minors. But any consideration to putting age limits excluding rehab appearances?
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#4 Tucker Blair

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Posted 21 June 2012 - 11:26 AM

I know the leagues have(or had) limits (this was a decade ago) for how long players and coaches could stay with one team in the minors. But any consideration to putting age limits excluding rehab appearances?



Not sure if they'll ever do that because some of these guys come and play right from college so they could be 22,23,24.
The season is also kinda short too.
I think the Orioles have a 26yo too on the roster. Needless to say, if you are that old on the team, then you probably aren't very good.

#5 Luke Jackson

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Posted 21 June 2012 - 12:58 PM

Also I thought Jerome Pena looked very good at 2B. However, I didn't realize that he was 23 (guess I never looked into it). 23 in Aberdeen is probably not a good sign.


Being 23 in Frederick isn't a particularly good sign, let alone Aberdeen.
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