Today I sat on the first base side even thought it was the KU side because it was in the shade and it was sunny and 85 degrees. I was just right of home plate, 5 rows back from the field. First and foremost, KU designated hitter Rudy Karre's mother is DROP DEAD GORGEOUS!! I lost approximately 10lbs during the game from dehydration due to drooling. Now on to baseball.
I won't get into minor details, as everyone here knows what Pat Casey and Beaver Baseball are all about. Suffice it to say they played a typical, good Beaver Ball game. They faced KU's ace Ben Krauth today and he pitched a very good game. He's a 6 ft. lefty that kept hitters off balance most of the day and picked two base runners off of first with a good move, including Trevor Morrison who had led off the game with a single. What impressed me most about Krauth was his ability to change speeds at any point in the count, and he was money on change-ups on the outside of the plate with 3-1 counts. He rarely, if at all hit 90 on the gun but his off speed stuff made those 85-88 mph fastballs feel like 95+. He held the Beavs to 4 hits and 1 run through 7 complete innings, but the Jayhawk pen couldn't hold the lead. Once they got to the bullpen, the flood gates opened and it wasn't pretty for a non-Beaver fan. Reminded me of a game I saw in Seattle in 2004 or 2005 when the Beavs played UW and Dallas Buck faced Tim Lincecum on Friday night. Buck kept the Huskies in check and battled pitch for pitch with Lincecum until the Beavs got to the bullpen in the late innings, then they put the game away. Travis Eckert did the same today. While I wouldn't consider his performance over powering by any stretch of the imagination, it was extremely efficient and he did what he had to do every inning to keep the Beavs in it.
The biggest take away for me today for the Beavs though, was how great, and yes I mean GREAT Nick Madrigal was, as was Cadyn Grenier. Madrigal flat out scalded the ball every time he was up except the time he walked and could have easily been 4-4 except he hit the ball right at someone twice. Grenier wasn't as good at the plate, but each of them made a sportscenter top 10 play of day on defense. Madrigal started a DP on a ball hit in the hole between him and 1st base in which he had a long way to go to reach the ball. The way in which he got to the ball, stopped and turned his body, got rid of the ball and delivered it to on a rope, right on the money to Morrison was frickin amazing. It was Darwin Barney and Chris Kunda like.
Even on routine grounders I can't believe how quick he get's the ball out of this glove and on to first or second. I can see why folks say he is special, because he is!!
Grenier had the other jaw dropper today. One of the KU hitters hit an absolute bullet down the 3rd base line that should have gone into the outfield corner for a double. But Grenier not only made an unbelievable cat like reflex dive to his right to get the ball, he was up and throwing before you could blink, and again delivered an absolute B.B. right on the money to KJ. I've only seen that kind of fielding at 3B from gold glove MLB players. That these two are both just true freshman playing there second week of major college baseball on a top 10 team blows my mind. I can't wait to see them again tomorrow!!
One last note about Nick Madrigal. I sat by KU 3B David Kyriacou's parents. Very nice folks and David is a true freshman himself from Oakland, CA. David played with and/or against Nick on summer teams in NorCal and his parent couldn't stop talking about what a talent Nick is, but more so how nice of a kid he is. While their son plays for KU, the Dad said he just couldn't help but cheer for Nick and the thing that solidified their decision to come to Surprise for the weekend games was a chance to see Nick play again, in addition to their son. He's made that kind of impact on other parents that know him!
It just seems to be my fate that whenever some new "phenom" comes along, no matter who it is, when I get to see them they do nothing. For instance, the first time I ever got to finally see Jacoby Ellsbury in person at OSU happened to be the start of is only slump towards the end of his last year at OSU. Every game I ever attended in person during Darwin Barney's career seemed to be his worst games ever at the plate. JP can tell you how I single handedly kick started Joey Wong's offensive career at OSU by getting so frustrated about his horrible at bats during games I attended, I lashed out and just ripped him on blitz for his "pathetic" hitting ability, to which he proceeded to hit damn new .500 after that just to make sure I fit my entire foot in my mouth, up to my knee caps. So when I heard about Madrigal and Grenier, I fully expected to not see too much today, but oh contraire Montclair!! Their first impression exceeded my wildest imagination!! It's going to be a pure pleasure ride watching these 2 for the next 3 years, so fasten your seat belts!!
I won't get into minor details, as everyone here knows what Pat Casey and Beaver Baseball are all about. Suffice it to say they played a typical, good Beaver Ball game. They faced KU's ace Ben Krauth today and he pitched a very good game. He's a 6 ft. lefty that kept hitters off balance most of the day and picked two base runners off of first with a good move, including Trevor Morrison who had led off the game with a single. What impressed me most about Krauth was his ability to change speeds at any point in the count, and he was money on change-ups on the outside of the plate with 3-1 counts. He rarely, if at all hit 90 on the gun but his off speed stuff made those 85-88 mph fastballs feel like 95+. He held the Beavs to 4 hits and 1 run through 7 complete innings, but the Jayhawk pen couldn't hold the lead. Once they got to the bullpen, the flood gates opened and it wasn't pretty for a non-Beaver fan. Reminded me of a game I saw in Seattle in 2004 or 2005 when the Beavs played UW and Dallas Buck faced Tim Lincecum on Friday night. Buck kept the Huskies in check and battled pitch for pitch with Lincecum until the Beavs got to the bullpen in the late innings, then they put the game away. Travis Eckert did the same today. While I wouldn't consider his performance over powering by any stretch of the imagination, it was extremely efficient and he did what he had to do every inning to keep the Beavs in it.
The biggest take away for me today for the Beavs though, was how great, and yes I mean GREAT Nick Madrigal was, as was Cadyn Grenier. Madrigal flat out scalded the ball every time he was up except the time he walked and could have easily been 4-4 except he hit the ball right at someone twice. Grenier wasn't as good at the plate, but each of them made a sportscenter top 10 play of day on defense. Madrigal started a DP on a ball hit in the hole between him and 1st base in which he had a long way to go to reach the ball. The way in which he got to the ball, stopped and turned his body, got rid of the ball and delivered it to on a rope, right on the money to Morrison was frickin amazing. It was Darwin Barney and Chris Kunda like.
Even on routine grounders I can't believe how quick he get's the ball out of this glove and on to first or second. I can see why folks say he is special, because he is!!
Grenier had the other jaw dropper today. One of the KU hitters hit an absolute bullet down the 3rd base line that should have gone into the outfield corner for a double. But Grenier not only made an unbelievable cat like reflex dive to his right to get the ball, he was up and throwing before you could blink, and again delivered an absolute B.B. right on the money to KJ. I've only seen that kind of fielding at 3B from gold glove MLB players. That these two are both just true freshman playing there second week of major college baseball on a top 10 team blows my mind. I can't wait to see them again tomorrow!!
One last note about Nick Madrigal. I sat by KU 3B David Kyriacou's parents. Very nice folks and David is a true freshman himself from Oakland, CA. David played with and/or against Nick on summer teams in NorCal and his parent couldn't stop talking about what a talent Nick is, but more so how nice of a kid he is. While their son plays for KU, the Dad said he just couldn't help but cheer for Nick and the thing that solidified their decision to come to Surprise for the weekend games was a chance to see Nick play again, in addition to their son. He's made that kind of impact on other parents that know him!
It just seems to be my fate that whenever some new "phenom" comes along, no matter who it is, when I get to see them they do nothing. For instance, the first time I ever got to finally see Jacoby Ellsbury in person at OSU happened to be the start of is only slump towards the end of his last year at OSU. Every game I ever attended in person during Darwin Barney's career seemed to be his worst games ever at the plate. JP can tell you how I single handedly kick started Joey Wong's offensive career at OSU by getting so frustrated about his horrible at bats during games I attended, I lashed out and just ripped him on blitz for his "pathetic" hitting ability, to which he proceeded to hit damn new .500 after that just to make sure I fit my entire foot in my mouth, up to my knee caps. So when I heard about Madrigal and Grenier, I fully expected to not see too much today, but oh contraire Montclair!! Their first impression exceeded my wildest imagination!! It's going to be a pure pleasure ride watching these 2 for the next 3 years, so fasten your seat belts!!
