Down On The Farm: Price Throws 5 Hitless Innings
David Price May 18th. 2009, 6:00am
Rochester 3, Durham 2. Big night for David Price who pitched 5 hitless innings, striking out 9 and walking 2. Price was pulled after throwing 82 pitches. At one point, he struck out 5 in a row before walking back-to-back batters with 2 outs in the 4th. Those were the only 2 batters to reach base…Justin Ruggiano drove in 1 run with a double in the first, and later scored on a ground out…Reid Brignac was 1-3 with a walk and Matt Joyce was 0-3 with a walk.
Montgomery vs Mississippi (ppd. rain).
Charlotte vs St. Lucie (ppd. wet grounds).
Bowling Green 5, Charleston 3. Joe Cruz allowed 2 runs (1 earned) in 4 innings…Tim Beckham was 1-3 with a walk…Isaias Velasquez had the game-winning 2-run triple in the 8th inning.
Notes from Down on the Farm…
- Montgomery and Charlotte will both play double-headers today.
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Maybe this warrants a call up? Although his pitch count needs to be higher for him to pitch at the major league level, but frankly I’d much rather see him or Davis pitching than Sonny or Niemann at this point. Niemann looks like he has potential and sending him to the bullpen could kill his trade value, also his lack of control would scare me in the bullpen. Sonny on the other hand, besides his rbi double, looks awful. If he isn’t locating perfectly he’s in big trouble, could be a solid long reliever but Lance has been very good early this year.
I have no faith in Niemann or Sonnestine, so I see Price being called up as, It can’t really get any worse than the two prior mentioned. Call him up I say.
Well, here is where it gets tricky. Friedman has always said that the needs of the prospect outweight the CURRENT needs of the team. They won’t promote somebody just because he is a better option now unless they think he is 100% ready.
Of course the question would then be: is he ready now? I think he still needs a little work. And if that is the case, they would rather he got that work in Durham.
And the screams get louder…
This is very encouraging, but keep in mind that he only threw 61% strikes and had no ground ball outs. Perhaps not critical points, but worth noting.
And one game does not erase the previous month and one half when Price has been something between mediocre and poor.
Agreed. Knowing the Rays they probably look at this start as a step in the right direction, but they still want to see more. Specifically, some more consistency.
The home plate ump’s strike zone was quite small last night; both Price’s pitch count and his strike % could easily have been better with a more generous umpire. Only two balls were hit hard off of him, both by Trevor Plouffe. Price’s stuff was generating pop-ups; didn’t seem like the sort of night where grounders were what you’d expect to see.