Before Wednesday night, the only time I saw Brent Morel play a full game was in the Arizona Fall League championship game. That day, he didn't get one ball hit in his direction.
The hot corner wasn't that hot in Syracuse, either. He had precisely two chances -- a chopper that went over his head, and a bunt on which he made a beautiful barehanded play.
I've condensed Morel's entire night of action into a three-minute clip for your enjoyment (you can also hear the heckler I was tweeting about on a lot of the segments):
Obviously, I couldn't get any idea of his lateral range, but the one thing I noticed throughout the night is that he's pretty springy. Midway through the video, you'll see a clip of Donny Lucy throwing out a baserunner. I left that in there because you can see Morel's pre-pitch preparation. He's very methodical, repeating the same crouch on every delivery.
It transfers to the bases. He got a huge jump on his stolen base (so huge, in fact, that I was late in hitting record), and for the few pitches on second, he got big secondary leads. That would explain the 25 stolen bases at Winston-Salem with good, not great, speed. He also runs back to the dugout pretty fast after the third out, for what it's worth.
He used right-center on both of his line drives, and I didn't see a lot of wasted motion in his at-bats, which is likely why he's been able to keep the strikeout rate down despite early struggles in his adjustment to Triple-A. But it probably costs him some power. I didn't get the sense that the ball jumps off his bat (once again, based on one game's worth of evidence).
Hopefully I'll be able to see more tomorrow. The online schedule for the local cable access has the game being broadcast live. My DVR says otherwise. If I see more, I'll add to it, and expect photos by the end of tomorrow, too.
Update: Here's the photo gallery:
[flickr-gallery mode="photoset" photoset="72157624241665211"]
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Minor league roundup:
- Syracuse 2, Charlotte 1
- Morel went 1-for-4 with a stolen base.
- Jordan Danks struck out twice in three at-bats, and laid down a sac bunt.
- Buck Coats went 4-for-4; Alejandro De Aza had two singles.
- Erick Threets pitched a scoreless 1 2/3 innings, striking out one and jamming the rest.
- Chattanooga 6, Birmingham 5
- Christian Marrero went 3-for-4 with a double and an RBI.
- C.J. Retherford singled and walked in five trips to the plate.
- Justin Edwards allowed two runs on 10 hits over six innings. No walks, two strikeouts.
- Bristol 8, Elizabethton 4
- Matthew Heidenreich allowed three runs (two earned) on five hits and a walk over five innings, striking out five.
- Jose Martinez homered, driving in two on a 1-for-4 day.
- Josh Phegley went 1-for-3 with a double and an RBI.
- Great Falls 7, Billings 0
- Thomas Royse struck out six over four innings, allowing just a hit and a walk.
- Juan Silverio went 3-for-5 with a double, walk and two strikeouts.
