July 3 for July 2 Update

Thursday night was somewhat disastrous, as I drove all the way up to Chatham only to find out they weren't playing. None of the night's hosts was able to get its field ready after this afternoon's thunderstorms except for Yarmouth-Dennis, and by the time I drove back to Y-D they were already in the bottom of the sixth inning.

So here's an abbreviated post about the 3+ innings I saw of Y-D's 4-1 win over Wareham.

The best of the four relievers I saw Thursday night was Yarmouth-Dennis righthander Kevin Rhoderick from Oregon State. Rhoderick had a small frame at 6'0" 190 and he threw with a lot of effort in his delivery so what you see now may be all you're going to get from him. His mechanics weren't especially smooth and he sped up his body late in his delivery. But he had good stuff. Rhoderick's fastball sat in the 91-92 mph range and once touched 94, but he had trouble spotting it and worked primarily off his off-speed pitches. He threw a good 79-81 mph curveball with tight break he could throw for strikes, and a very good 80-81 mph changeup with nice down-and-in movement. Rhoderick doesn't project well, but he has one of the better arms up here.

The only interesting pitcher for Wareham was right-handed reliever Josh Slaats from the University of Hawaii. Slaats is tall with a solid build at 6'5" 230, but he doesn't get all he can out of his body as he short arms his pitches and looks almost uninterested on the mound. Throwing with ease and without effort is usually a positive for a pitcher, but in Slaats case it just looks like he isn't willing to exert himself. He stands tall and doesn't follow all the way through. Slaats' fastball sat in just the 85-88 mph range, and he showed a decent 77-78 mph curveball that he could throw for strikes. He could make the curve more effective if he threw harder, and there are definitely a few more mph in his body if he improves his mechanics.

Among the hitters, second baseman Blake Kelso from the University of Houston ripped a double to left-center in the bottom of the seventh inning then scored the eventual game-winning run on a wild pitch. First baseman Mickey Wiswall from Boston College and shortstop Josh Rutledge from the University of Alabama each added RBI singles in the inning.

For Wareham, right fielder Brett Eibner showed very quick hands when he turned on a Rhoderick fastball and ripped it foul down the leftfield line. Eibner eventually struck out.

AROUND THE LEAGUE:

All other games were rained out.

E-mail: schimmeldbk@gmail.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/greg_schimmel