A bunch of different folks at the Complex today ( as compared to last week ) with the organization’s amateur scouts and supervisors in town for the week to observe and interact. In addition more players arrived for what appeared to be a strength conditioning mini camp embedded alongside Fall Instructs.
There was plenty of activity going on with all four fields in use at various times and often simultaneously, in particular when hitting rounds took place. The hitters rotated from field to field presumably to work on different types of deliveries with pitching machines in use.
We got to see a couple bullpens and one very intriguing live BP. On Ashburn Field twenty one year old RHP Luis Gomez
threw a short bullpen to catcher Jordan Dissin. It’s the first time we’ve seen Gomez live and he showed a strong arm with a quick fastball - didn’t have a speed gun so don’t know velocity but it was crisp.
Lefty Mavis Graves threw next on Ashburn - the nineteen year old from Greenville, South Carolina has been noted for his ability to spin the curve ball at a high rate. We saw that first hand today in his session, he’s a big fella at 6’4” and has a classic tucked delivery with a high front leg rise which seemed to hide the ball well. The bender had a lot of break - saw a couple that had late vertical movement and later one that seemingly had horizontal action - they were sharp and quick - not the big loopers I used to throw 😎. Good stuff.
The most intriguing observance of the day was a live BP on Roberts Field with RH Jonh Henriquez on the hill throwing to catcher Rickardo Perez. Gavin Tonkel and Ezra Farmer were the hitters although they were tracking only - not swinging. Henriquez came to camp with a reputation of having a big arm - from the first pitch it was evident, very crisp fastball deliveries down in the zone and a nasty slider that had late life and break out of the same arm slot. He threw both consistently for quality strikes with a short compact delivery. Henriquez has been clocked as high as 97 to 98 mph at the Dominican Academy and while he likely was a few clicks lower than that today the stuff seemed electric, potentially dominant. The young man is a late discovery as he’s 22 years old from San Pedro de Macoris in the Dominican Republic but if what we saw today is a true indication of his potential he could push up quickly thru the system next season. Certainly got my attention, while only a bullpen session we were very impressed - just sayin 😳.
Left the complex shortly thereafter - did get quite a few chances while we there to chat with a few of the scouts and players - always enjoy the opportunities to talk baseball.
Happy Day, Happy Baseball ⚾️
Jonh Henriquez throwing to Rickardo Perez - Gavin Tonkel is the batter
Mavis Graves throwing to Jordan Dissin
Luis Gomez throwing to Jordan Dissin
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