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General Discussion => The Bus Ride Discussion Forum => Topic started by: austro on May 25, 2010, 09:20:35 am
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I'm headed to Colorado Friday to watch the first four days of the Juco World Series. This year is particularly interesting, because College of Southern Nevada qualified from one of the regions, so I'll get to see at least a couple of Bryce Harper's games (who apparently finished the last two games of his region tournament 12-13 with 4 home runs).
The 10 teams that have qualified are
Temple College
College of Southern Nevada
Iowa Western Community College
Faulkner State Community College
San Jacinto College-North
Crowder College
State College of Florida
Chattanooga State Community College
Pitt Community College
Hutchinson Community College
San Jac usually has a couple of people to keep an eye on, but I don't know if they do this year. Do any of the bus drivers know of any prospects on these teams that I should keep a look out for?
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Several of those schools have other guys who could go in the top 10 rounds, but I don't have the names. I think San Jac had a couple.
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Callis had this in his latest Ask BA column:
CCSN also has several intriguing pitchers who could go in the first 10 rounds, led by righthanders Donn Roach and Tyler Hanks. So does San Jacinto (Texas), starting with righthander Clay Schrader and lefty Miguel Pena. State College of Florida lefty Alex Burgos' polish could put him in the same range in the draft.
Don't know about the other teams, but that should give you a few other players to look at while everyone else is gawking over the chosen one.
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My nephew plays for San Jac, he's a backup catcher - #39, Braden Fickel. Looks like Kelly Gruber's son Kory plays for them too.
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Callis mentions some of the top prospects in the JUCO World Series in his latest ASK BA. LINK (http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/prospects/ask-ba/2010/2610034.html)
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Watched Pena (San Jacinto) pitch last night, and he was fairly impressive, throwing mid to upper 80s, and working in a slider for the first time this year. He held Hutchinson to 3 runs, after they had scored a bunch on Saturday. San Jacinto was taking no prisoners on the basepaths, and they forced Huthinson into some uncharacteristic errors in their 8-3 win.
Bryce Harper's been ok, but not particularly special. He does seem to have pretty good speed, which I hadn't heard about before. I think he's over-swinging, but that's easy to understand for a 17-year-old who is suddenly playing in front of 10,000-12,000 fans.
His brother Bryan pitched a very nice game yesterday afternoon, holding Faulkner State to 1 hit and 1 run (a towering homer) over 6 innings. Velocity wasn't great (low 80s), but location was very good. That 6 innings was a "complete" game, because his teammates were bashing the hell out of the ball, and the game was ended by the run rule at 18-1.
My favorite player from Southern Nevada so far is Gabe Weidenaar, who has played 3B and CF for them, and has a sweet, sweet swing from the left side. He's hit a couple of home runs, driven several other balls very hard for base hits, and seems completely comfortable pulling inside pitches and driving away pitches to the opposite field. They say he projects to be a SS later (that's what he played in HS), but they're moving him all around this year because of his versatility and some holes created by injuries.
Some of the losers' bracket games are getting pretty wild as teams get into the back half of their pitching staffs. Crowder just eliminated Faulkner State in a 19-18 game that see-sawed back and forth.
Today's my last day here; tonight we'll watch Southern Nevada play Iowa Western, who beat Crowder 12-0 on Sunday. This will only be Iowa's second game so far (this will be Southern Nevada's third game), so presumably their pitching is still in good shape and should offer a good challenge for Southern Nevada's offense.
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Well, Weidenaar took the collar last night, going 0-5, I think.
However, Harper got over whatever was affecting him, going 3-5 with 2 HRs, a "double", and 8 RBI. The double was a fly to medium deep LF that was misplayed by the left fielder and fell in; in his defense, however, the fly was about a mile high and went way above the lights, causing him (and damn near everybody else) to lose track of it.
There was nothing to apologize for on the two homers, though. the first was a screaming line drive that went over the fence at about 390 feet. The second was a mammoth opposite field shot to left that may still be travelling. He also played RF last night (instead of C) and acquitted himself well, although he acted like the high schooler that he ought to still be on one play when he threw behind the runner at first on a single and threw the ball away. Luckily for him his catcher was back there backing things up and prevented the runner from taking the extra base.
Tonight's game is #1 San Jac versus #2 Southern Nevada, which should be an outstanding game. If the Astros game turns ugly and you're looking for something else, the game will be streamed at www.jucogj.org starting at 8:30 CDT.
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Here's a video of Bryce Harper being ejected from the JUCO World Series. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXccEtfmerE
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Here's a video of Bryce Harper being ejected from the JUCO World Series. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXccEtfmerE
That puts him out of today's elimination game, too (a rematch with Iowa Western).
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Here's a video of Bryce Harper being ejected from the JUCO World Series. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXccEtfmerE
Horrible call, and unless he used some foul language, a weak ejection.
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Horrible call, and unless he used some foul language, a weak ejection.
He threw dirt (with his bat) in the direction of the umpire. What more should he have to do to get run?
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He threw dirt (with his bat) in the direction of the umpire. What more should he have to do to get run?
He drew a line to show where the ball was outside. That is showing the ump up. It will get you run every time.