AFL Update: October 11, 2011
The Scottsdale Scorpions picked up where they left off on Saturday and won their third straight, 4-3.
Bryce Harper drove in his first run with an RBI groundout in the 4th and snapped an 0-for-15 streak with a single in the 6th. He was intentionally walked in the 8th. Both times he reached base he stole second. On defense, he played left field and made two putouts.
Zach Walters was the designated hitter but went 0-for-4 with a strikeout.
The two teams meet again this afternoon. Sammy Solis is most likely going to start tomorrow, while pitchers Rafael Martin and Matt Purke have yet to appear in a game.
Just discussing things relating to baseball, not necessarily to this post. How has Norris improved this year defensively? Can’t remember seeing any comments on this. We know he has a great arm but is he making any strides in the other areas?
The vibe that I’m getting is that he’s getting better at blocking pitches in the dirt but still gets crossed up way too often, resulting in an inordinate number of passed balls (15 in 95G). Unfortunately, the minors is sorely lacking in sortable defensive statistics or advanced metrics such as RAA (Runs Above Average), and any inferences we might draw from looking at the team metrics are skewed by having a backup (Devin Ivany) that most of us know to be very strong in every facet of the game except throwing out runners (where he’s merely average).
Norris turns 23 in February. With Ramos and Flores the most likely catching tandem to start the season — please let’s save the I-Rod arguments for/against for elsewhere, this a minors site — the question is how much longer will the Nationals wait before deciding they’d rather have him play elsewhere.
don’t have a link for it right now, but I know that Sickles has said that it’s improved enough where he won’t become an “all bat” kind of guy.
And thanks says I.