Scouting Trip

One thing a couple friends and I had in common over this summer is that none of us had been to an Erie SeaWolves game this summer. Although they attend a college much closer to Erie than I do, all of us at some point do our best to make it up to at least one game, whether together or separate. On 7/27, all of our schedules were open, and we found that Detroit's AA affiliate would be facing the Altoona Curve, the Pirates' AA affiliate. Moreover, one of the Bucs' top pitching prospects, Bryan Morris, was to be on the bump that day; we could take in the game and take a glimpse at what we hope could be the future of Pirate baseball. With all that in mind, we decided to make the trip north to catch some minor league baseball. I made sure to take some pictures, and as you will see below, they are of better quality than the ones I took at Hagerstown. Little did we know that we'd be treated to quite the lengthy affair...


Erie's Jerry Uht Park, with some of the Erie skyline in the background, as the players warm up and fans file into the stadium. This stadium has always been maintained very well, and it is certainly more in line with the times than old Hagerstown Municipal. Situated in the middle of Erie right beside the arena where OHL and NBDL games take place, it's a nice AA-sized stadium, and a pretty nice place to take in a ballgame. Lake Erie is maybe a mile from the ballpark.

Bryan Morris warming up in the bullpen before the game. We had the surprising opportunity of briefly taking with both Altoona's catcher that day, Kris Watts, and pitching coach Tom Filer. I can't say that I had seen such openly nice guys at any level of professional baseball initiating conversation with people they didn't really know.

Morris delivering early in the game to what looks like Kody Kaiser of the SeaWolves. For the most part, Erie hitters have been struggling to find much success; many in their lineup that day were batting around .230 for Erie. In addition, with the numerous injuries to the parent club, the Tigers, the trickle-down effect of the injuries was players being called up to Erie who perhaps were not quite ready for the promotion. Still, Bryan Morris was incredibly impressive in his 5 innings of work. His fastball was hard and mostly low in the strike zone, and his curveball was on target and devastating to SeaWolves hitters who swung over the top of his curve often. Morris gave up only 2 hits, walked no one, and struck out 8.

This is shortstop prospect Chase D'Arnaud. Chase has had a rough season in 2010, and that night was no exception. He really didn't hit anything solid in any of his 6 plate appearances, and the frustration probably got released when he struck out looking and promptly argued a little bit with the umpire. On defense, he was pretty solid and showed some good hands on some slow grounders.

This was my attempt to get a picture of third baseman Josh Harrison after making a nice play on a high chopper hit his way. Although his short stature doesn't make him very ideal for 3B, he's always hustling both in the field and on offense. He went 2 for 6 that night with a nice bunt single.

What I've neglected to mention until now is that no one had scored at all in this game until the above picture was taken. With some exceptional pitching from Erie's Bryan Villarreal and Altoona's Michael Dubee and Dustin Molleken, no one could muster even a run in this game until the bottom of the 13th inning, when Cale Iorg went deep over the left-center field wall for the walk-off HR and the 2-0 SeaWolves victory. What an ending to a very closely-played game.

Side Note: Some computer issues have held up the ATL Draft, but that should take place any day now when I can get everyone free at some time. I didn't get quite as many teams as desired, but this should still be very fun.