Thoughts from Keys-Indians game, 9/3

I posted this in the game thread for last night, but I see that Jay has suggested that I make it a fanpost, in case folks missed it.  Added a couple comments.

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Had a chance to attend the Frederick Keys vs. Kinston Indians game today. TJ House had a simply awful outing. He didn’t have anything from the get go. Velocity seemed a bit down, but I don’t really trust the stadium gun at Harry Grove and it was a cool, windy day.  It was clear from the get-go that he had nothing. I haven’t followed House all that much this year, so I’ll chalk it up to a bad outing, but quick question – have their been concerns on his arm action? Because I really didn’t like what I saw. I’m no expert, but it sure seemed like a lot of wasted energy/movement from where I was mainly sitting (3rd base side).  He seemed really frustrated, particularly after he made an error (HBP, walk, and then a guy came up to bunt, it was a bad bunt, had House cleanly picked it up, he had a shot at the runner at 2nd, he didn't, and then didn't get the runner at 1st either.  I will say this for House, from what I recall, it wasn't horrible control that led to his HBP's.  They just grazed the jerseys.).  Give Billy Rowell credit in the 4th - from the third base side, it seemed like a decent pitch, but Rowell just took it opposite field for a solid hit).

I’ll end with the guy I went to see, but some other quick thoughts. Kyle Bellows can really pick it at 3rd. Abner Abreu really put a charge in that line drive home run. I mean, it wasn’t a thing of beauty, but it was a LD shot that went to straight away center before hitting the outer wall, probably a good 415 feet or so (straight-away center is 400, I forget how far back the outer wall is). David Roberts really tired in his 3rd innings of work. Don’t know much about him, but guessing it’s a 2-seamer/sinker of some sort, and that the pitches started sitting up, as the Keys batters started teeing off. Jeremie Tice had a decent game at the plate, but on one of his hits, I was in the bathroom. Diaz has good arm strength at short.  Webb showed off a good, accurate arm from the OF and had a HR, but IIRC, it was somewhat wind-aided.

I really went there to see Chun-Hsiu Chen, and I came away impressed. He made a nice catch on a pop up around the plate, blocked the plate real well when the LF gunned it in (really nice throw by Webb). I thought he had fairly solid reactions behind the plate. He threw to 2nd once and left it short, causing the ball to skip to CF, but warming up, he clearly has the arm strength, so it seems to be simply a bad throw (and the guy was going to be safe anyways). He had a very good approach at the plate. I know he has loft in his bat, and while I missed seeing power, I see a good approach and I saw him adjust to the pitches, rather than trying to force things. Now, I can sort of see why folks question the bat speed. For example, as a Cubs fan, Josh Vitters swing is a thing of beauty, and the bat explodes through the zone. Chen, IMO, has enough bat speed to prevent him from collapsing offensively at the upper levels, but how good of a bat will he have is something I’m not certain of. I’m not into the technical terms, but he shifted his weight real well at the plate.

Overall, I came away thinking that, provided he continued to work on defensive consistency and game calling, that Chen should have a shot to at least be a backup backstop in the bigs. The ability to reach the bigs seems to clearly be there. Very impressed.