Contemplating the Crawdads

Richard Bleier made me look silly, at least on this occasion. In my (admittedly amateur) game reflections I have been tough on the groundballer. Bleier doesn't get my baseball pants crazy like Perez, Font, and Boscan do. The three guys just mentioned produce "wow" moments when they pitch. Richard makes me wonder when the wheels are going to fly off. To his credit, they never did.

Before Bleier disappears over the horizon as he journeys on, let's look at his work as a Hickory Crawdad.

Over 24.7 innings pitched, Bleier allowed a league that carries a .249 batting average to hit only .225 . Left-handed hitters were especially on their heels, hitting an anemic .087. Richard Bleier allowed only 1.46 BB/9 while maintaining a 65% groundball rate.

In my view, Bleier's promotion was the result of his mature approach on the mound. Unlike the younger pitchers, Bleier gets outs throwing strikes. He doesn't dance around the plate. In Hickory, he located all three of his pitches, and all three of those offerings seemed to induce the groundball.

In his first start for the Blaze, Bleier went an impressive 7.2 innings, allowing 2 earned runs and striking out 6. The lefthander continued to keep the ball in the infield as he produced a groundball/flyball ratio of 14-3. Richard walked 3 and allowed 7 hits.

I still worry about the 87ish mph fastball. Bleier's game also relies on throwing his offspeed stuff for strikes. His curveball is good, his slider is a bit better than good, but it could get nasty if he stops locating those pitches. If Cal League hitters are given the opportunity to sit on the 86-88mph sinker, things could get nasty.

Congrats Mr. Bleier and good luck in California. You know you'll miss us...