Contemplating the Crawdads

(pictured, Joe Wieland)

My wife, who is a third grade teacher in Hickory, scored me some free tickets to the Crawdads game last night; only one potential problem—my seat was surrounded by 9 year olds.

Around lunchtime yesterday I was given word that Joe Wieland was flown in and was going to get the ball for his first start in an official, pro game. Needless to say, I was ready for some baseball.

There were maybe 500 people scattered across a sea of empty red seats. It’s taking a while for word to get out that the local team isn’t an absolute joke these days. The terrible teams fielded by the Pirates all but eliminated the local’s taste for baseball. 16% unemployment doesn’t help attendance either. You folks in Texas need to go buy furniture and put some boys here in the foothills to work.

It was a surprisingly cold night, cold enough to make me head to the car early. When I left after the 7th inning, the thermostat was dipping below 50 degrees. I woke up this morning to learn that we only watched half of a game that ended up going 14 innings.

All eyes, well at least mine, were on Joe Wieland. The talk during spring training was that hall of fame pitcher and Rangers team President, Nolan Ryan, had taken Joe under his wing. So, the question is “why Joe?”

The first thing you notice about Joe Wieland is his size. He’s every bit of 6’3” and looks bigger than his listed weight of 175 lbs. Joe has a big lower body. I told my baseball buddy, “The guy’s got linebacker calves.” It’s commonly said that Nolan’s leg strength is what allowed the strikeout king to have such a long, prolific career. Perhaps this is part of Ryan’s attraction to Wieland.

The stadium radar gun only functioned about 20% of the time. I saw Joe touch 92mph but due to the pitch speed board frequently firing blanks, I didn’t look to it often.

During the first inning, Joe was leaving the ball up a bit. Luckily a couple line drives flew directly to RF Mike Bianucci. Wieland settled in nicely and started working the lower half of the zone. Joe’s fastball has good downward sink that led to 5 groundball outs over his last 3.2 innings. Over 4.2 innings, the big righthander induced 5 groundball outs, 5 flyouts, and 5 strikeouts. One of those strikeouts came on a nice changeup away from a right-handed hitter.

The wheels started flying off a bit in the 5th. Joe’s curveball was his best friend and his worst enemy during this inning. Wieland struck out the first two batters of the inning on curveballs that bounced in front of the plate. After making the first two batters look silly, the next two batters singled on a line drive and a groundball that found a hole in the infield. The 5th batter was struck out by another curveball that bounced in front of the plate, unfortunately for Wieland, catcher Zach Zaneski couldn’t block this one. As the ball skittered towards the backstop, Jerome Hoes ran safely to first base.

With the bases loaded, Joe gave up another single resulting in 2 RBI's before being pulled from the game. The 19 year old has nothing to be ashamed of. He was a wild pitch away from going 5 scoreless innings with 5 K’s.

Here’s some video from the third. Listen for Queen’s “Fat Bottom Girls” when the chunky Delmarva catcher Victor Castillo comes to the plate. While playing this song every time Castillo came to the plate borders on being bush league, it still made me giggle.

When I left the game, Hickory had not yet scored a run. It was a pretty boring night from the offense up to that point.

Another 4-error night for the Crawdads. While 1B Clark Murphy was not charged with an error, all three of the throwing errors hit Clark’s glove before racing towards the stands. It’s likely that catching these balls would have pulled Murphy off the bag, but man, when this happens at least twice a game I begin to question the first baseman’s stretch.

Finally, you asked and I provide. Reliever video! Enjoy some tape on Fabio Castillo. I have seen Castillo 4 times now, and to me, he’s not a command guy nor is he a guy with overpowering stuff. Fabio trusts his pitches and keeps the ball around the plate. Castillo frequently allows base runners but always seems to wiggle out of trouble. The cold caused me to miss Nam, again. 5 K’s in three innings?! Wow. Anyways, enjoy watching Castillo.



Read Mark's observations below!