Strange Days: The New Hampshire Fisher Cats have experienced flashes of brilliance over the last two weeks tempered by some serious head-scratching, particularly around hitting. With the All-Star break upon us this week, it’s a good time to ponder.
Yosver Zulueta, he of the 100 MPH fastball and the #19 MiLB Blue Jays prospect ranking, led a quartet of pitchers in striking out 17 Hartford Yard Goats on 7/7, though the Cats lost 3-1. Zulueta was tabbed for the 7/16 2022 SiriusXM All-Star Futures Game at Dodger Stadium where he threw one 3,100 mile pitch in the game and got a groundout with a 97 MPH fastball.
The Cats 7/8 game was punctuated by a concerning 8-minute delay as an adult fan was hit by a wicked foul line drive off the bat of Hartford DH Daniel Montano. The fan suffered a broken nose and a swollen eye and was treated and released at CMC. A batted baseball can travel 110 MPH. Be aware. A kid wanting a game ball is part of the thrill of attending, but please be careful.
Red Sox fans will forever remember Tony Conigliaro’s beaning in 1967. It came on the first pitch after a short delay as a fan had thrown firecrackers on the field in Anaheim. Tony C. was never the same. Fisher Cat’s pitcher Hayden Juenger’s first pitch after 7/8 delay was hit for a long home run by Montano and his next pitch was hit for a ringing double. Pitchers…ask the umpire for a few more warm-up tosses after lengthy delays.
Sunday afternoon’s 7/10 game saw the Fisher Cats lose 10-7 despite four home runs. Trouble was they gave up 11 walks in the type of game former Red Sox pitcher Bob Stanley called “a Fenway beauty.” Bedford’s Grant Lavigne had two hits for the Yard Goats, transformed for Latino Day to Los Chivos de Hartford. The Fisher Cats were Los Gatos Feroces, though tossing the verb for “fishing” in would have made it Los Gatos Feroces Pescar (I think). Just picture a cat with a bamboo pole and a bobber.
Manager Jeff Schneider led the Fisher Cats to a 2018 Eastern League championship and was named Toronto Blue Jays interim manager this week. The Blue Jays are underperforming at 48-43 and are 14+ games behind the supersonic New York Yankees in the AL East.
On consecutive nights routine fly balls became extra-base hits when lost in the lights of Reading’s FirstEnergy Stadium. Electric rates are increasing but you still gotta pay the bill. Hopefully, the Fightin Phils(Filaments?) can work this problem out.
One new Fisher Cats face has been most impressive. Addison Barger was hitting .300 with 52 RBIs at Vancouver High A when called up on 7/10. He promptly had back-to-back multi-hit games in Reading in which the Fisher Cats were shut out. The Cats ended the hitting drought on Thursday 7/14 with 16 hits. It’s also good to see Zac Cook stroking more homers and getting hit by pitches less.
Pitcher Paxton Schutz has been brilliant through his last four outings. He gave up one hit through 5.2 innings on 7/9 and Friday 7/15 marked his fourth consecutive game giving up one earned run or less as the Fisher Cats won 1-0. He went 6.2 innings deep into the game, the longest by a starting pitcher for the team this year.
Talkin’ Pitching: Don’t let his 0-5 record fool you. Hayden Juenger has been the workhorse of the Cats staff. As the starting pitcher, he can only get the win if he goes five innings, exits with the team leading or taking the lead in the bottom of the inning, and the bullpen maintaining the lead. His record doesn’t bother Juenger, who’s got mediocre run support. Don’t let it bother you.
The Missouri State graduate went over his pitches and the grips involved.
“I hold the four-seam traditional fastball on the horseshoe,” the pitcher explained, positioning his thumb under the ball and his middle and index fingers across the fat part of the horseshoe or “C” that the stitches make.
“For the slider, I go up the horseshoe,” Juenger continued. “The key here is getting behind the baseball and around it. I’m not a big thumb guy. My thumb just sits there. The slider and the curve are not different for me.”
With a slider, the middle finger can sit parallel to or even on the seam, though with all pitches, there’s room for variation.
“My changeup is similar to my fastball,” the pitcher said, the key here being keeping the thumb underneath and spreading the index and pinky fingers, so that they “just sit there.” According to the pitcher, it can be thrown with the same arm speed as a fastball.
“The slider is a feel pitch,” Juenger said. “Some days your fingers might be higher up on the ball. It can change from outing to outing. A couple of weeks ago in Portland I threw a lot of sliders in the dirt. I need to throw it in more of a zone-to see that I can get it over. It sets up my other pitches. I have to get it over. For the most part, I can tell from pitch #1 warming up whether it’s working. A few weeks ago in Binghamton I only had a fastball and had to gut it out. I did for three innings.”
Juenger has been bitten by the home run ball this year, but isn’t particularly troubled by that either.
“If a guy’s hitting .200 or .300 he’s going to go up there and I’m going to take my chances,” the pitcher said. “The Blue Jays are big at being in the strike zone.”
Juenger admits to being in love with baseball from as young as he can remember. And why not? His parents met on a softball field.
Extra Innings: Yes, the right field fence is shorter than left at Delta Dental, but that doesn’t explain why the ball carries much better to right field. My theory is the multi-story hotel in left center acts to deaden any breeze and with the prevailing wind coming off the Merrimack, right field gets the boost that left field never does, perhaps from a vortex effect from the building. The only way we committed scientists can prove this is to knock down the Hilton Garden Inn and replace it with the swirling winds of the Canobie Lake Park roller coaster.
As we approach the dog days of August I’ll toss out that the coldest I ever was at any outdoor event was the Mets opening day at Shea Stadium in 1970. With 50,000 fans, a championship flag to be hoisted and Tom Seaver pitching, they weren’t about to call a game because of sleet, snow or other puny forces of nature. The Mets beat the Dodgers with the game called as soon as it was official with the Mets getting the W. I’ve never been so glad to get on the New York City subway.
Almost all teams have a whacky post-home run award in the dugout. The Fisher Cats have a comical set of large faux gold chains that would humble Mr. T. Great for any wedding…. as long as the nuptials are on the Canobie Lake Park roller coaster.
