Tennessee Smokies Wrap -- September 12

Really liked what I saw from Cashner. His fastball consistently sat between 91-94…still think the gun is a little slow, was probably more like 93-96 mph. Many times the gun read 52 on a fastball, so you know it’s off! He seemed to rely heavily on his fastball, occasionally throwing a curve and what looked like a change. Ran into a tight zone in the 4th inning…missed on some questionable pitches. In the bottom half of the inning after Lalli struck out, Ryno went off on the home plate ump demanding him to call the zone both ways (and get his head out of his ass)…nice to see some fire in a manager.

Smokies looked great at the plate…a lot of the base hits were line drives, which is always nice to see. Colvin had some hard hit outs, including a deep drive to the wall in the 4th to dead center. If the ball was 20 ft left or right, it would have been a homer. His swing looks so much better this year than it did last year…perhaps the elbow surgery has really helped with his swing too.

Castillo has had a very similar year to Soto. He struggled early on in the year, but has looked great lately. Although his bat has been not been there all year, his defense is top notch. Unless he can find consistency with his bat he may struggle in advancing, but his defense is major league ready.

The other player to be excited about is Starlin Castro…I’m not a communist, but I love Castro! Although he is 19, he doesn’t play like it. I really think the main causes for his defensive struggles in Daytona was his aggressiveness. He gets to balls and tries to make plays that many SS would not get. He had some fantastic DP turns last night. At the plate he looks very confident and makes very solid contact on the ball, especially for a player his size. He definitely has some filling out to do, so hopefully the Cubs won’t rush him too fast through the AA and AAA levels. As long as he continues to work on his decision making at SS, I would say he definitely could play the position in the majors. He has the arm and the glove to do it. I would project him to reach Chicago by the 2011 or 2012 season, barring an injury. Would be great if Trammel could start working with him.

As far as the relief pitching went…Schlitter is the only one that really sticks out. Cales tops out in the upper 80’s, a lot of movement in his delivery…looks to hide the ball well. Maestri topped out around 90. Have seen him pitch a few times this year, but have never been overly impressed. Perhaps someday he could make it as a MRP. Schlitter is the only one of the 3 I could see making it to Chicago in the next few years. He has a strong arm and a great build for a reliever. His fastball ranged from 90-94 on the gun, but seemed to get on the hitter very quickly. I have only seen him pitch a few times this year, so it’s hard to give too great of a report on him. However, I would have him on the 40-man roster over Mateo.

Can’t make it to the game today, but hopefully will see them in the championship!! Go Smokies!!!