Short Review On Todays Short "Scrimmage"

Hey all. Yesterday the team held a short unofficial scrimmage during practice to simulate the 7th, 8th, and 9th innings. I'm assuming to let them get a look at their set-up men. I wasn't able to stay for the whole scrimmage as I had prior commitments, to my grades, but I was there long enough to get a little bit of handy info.

• For the seventh inning they put freshman Scott Simon of Central Valley HS in Spokane on the bump. Simon is the tallest kid we have on the roster at 6'7" (3 inches taller than the second tallest, Jason Monda and Chad Arnold) which of course instantly made me think of Doug Fister. Simon gave up solid contact to the first two batters, but still coming up with two outs. He ran the third batter of the inning to a 2-1 count (after starting the at-bat with a sick breaking curve first pitch) before giving up a single into left. No matter though, first pitch of the next at-bat Jay Ponciano threw out the runner by at least 3 feet. Simon pitched 2 innings giving up 3 hits and 1 ER.

• Bottom of the 7th and fellow freshman Kellen Camus was on the hill. Maybe the exact physical opposite of Simon, Camus stands at 5'9". He may be short, but Camus can pitch, and the team likes what he can bring to the pen this year. The most notable event while Camus was throwing was the massive hit he gave up to Matt Argyropoulos in the bottom of the 8th. Argy hit it deep into the gap in right-center and landed it on the track, trying to stretch the guaranteed double into a triple Argy was thrown out at third, bailing out Camus. Kellen pitched two innings and gave up 2 hits and 1 walk.

• So let's talk about JC transfer Taylor Ard for a minute. Ard comes in as a huge addition to the lineup as a kid who can flat out rake. I hadn't seen anything from him until last night, and although I only saw one at bat, I liked what I saw. Ard is a presence at the plate, at 6'0" and 229, he is a big kid. Great level swing and an eye for the strike zone as he knows how to draw a walk too. In the only at-bat I saw from Ard he roped a double into the right-center gap. Now he may not be the best runner but hey, when you can hit like this kid can it doesn't really matter all that much.

• Last thing I have to say is unfortunately the new scoreboard was not up and running, so I can't say what the video quality is like. It should be running on Sunday however, so I'll let you know how it looks then.

That's all I've got until the last scrimmage on Sunday, I'm planning a post about another counting stat I despise in between now and then, we'll see how my study schedule allows me free time.