http://www.baseballamerica.com/blog/prospects/?p=83
Big Arms In Tribe Camp Day
Posted Mar. 21, 2007 6:33 pm by Chris Kline
Filed under: Daily Dish
WINTER HAVEN, Fla.—It was a camp day across the majority of Florida, and at Chain O’Lakes Park, the intrasquad games and side sessions were a literal who’s who of arms in the Indians organization.
At one point or another, on one mound or another, righthanders Edward Mujica, Carlton Smith, Sung-Wei Tseng, Joe Ness, Neil Wagner, Scott Sumner and lefthanders Jeremy Sowers, David Huff and Rafael Perez were on display.
And for the record, only Sowers got a ride back to the clubhouse after he finished.
Anyway, we caught up with Tribe pitching coordinator Dave Miller to get some insights on a few of the club’s more intriguing arms:
On righthander Adam Miller: “Well, today was his first day here from major league camp, and just from talking to (major league pitching coach) Carl (Willis), he’s done basically everything we’ve asked him to do. He’s commanded his fastball to both sides of the plate which is huge for the major league level so that’s one thing. His changeup has really progressed, which is kind of the final piece. His two-seam fastball that he incorporated during the second half of last season’s been very good. Really, he just needs to work on controlling the running game and fielding his position better. Right now, he’s doing all those things and we just have to keep him there.”
On lefthander Chuck Lofgren: “Chuck’s another guy who just came down from big league camp. He didn’t pitch a whole lot, but he threw the ball well the other day. He’s kind of right where we need him to be. His fastball command still has to get better, but he’s making strides that way. You know he added in a slider last year, and it’s coming. It’s still not where it needs to be, but it’s coming . . . it’s something we added in just to help him just to finish some hitters with something other than just his fastball and his changeup, but he’s throwing it well right now and he’ll be ready to go out and compete at the Double-A level.”
On righthander Sung-Wei Tseng: “He’s been very good. His English is getting better. He understands a lot—a very bright kid. He understands, he’s got an idea as far as his routine goes. Very good ability with his fastball—he’s not the biggest guy, but he does throw his fastball downhill and commands it. He’s got as slider and then he’s got that split that he finishes guys with. Here’s a guy that’ll probably start in Kinston, he should do well just because he’s got fastball command, he repeats his delivery and then that splitter can overmatch hitters.”
On righthander J.D. Martin: “J.D.’s fine. His velocity’s back for the most part to where it was in 2005. The crispness of his cutter, his breaking balls . . . we’re stressing the changeup with him and that’s been good. From a health standpoint there’s no restrictions on him, although we will hold him to 80-85 pitches from the get-go just to try to monitor his innings a little bit early on. From there, we’ll progress him by 15 pitches each month and he should be full-go after the third month of the season.”
On another heavily monitored arm, lefthander Scott Lewis: ‘Scotty’s going to start out the first month where he left off—at 65 pitches. Then we’ll progress him up to 85 the second month, then we’ll jump to 100 pitches from there.”
