FanPost

Report On Alex Dickerson, Michael Jefferson And Jordan Cooper

I am not a scout, nor do I play one on TV, but I had the chance to drive a couple hours to see State College play the Vermont Lake Monsters today, and thought I would give my feedback on Alex Dickerson, Michael Jefferson and Jordan Cooper.

I made the drive to Burlington wanting to see Dickerson and hoping Stetson Allie would get in, since he was moved to relief. Allie did not pitch but I did see a couple of great pitching preformances.

First, Dickerson. I had my 15-year-old son with me and let him know we where there to watch Dickerson. When he appeared on deck my son said, "Why did we come to see this fat guy?" Dickerson is not fat, but he doesn't have the best baseball body. He's 6-foot-3 and 235 pounds, so does have a little around the middle.

His first at bat with a runner on first and one out, he had a great cut at a 1-0 pitch and fouled it back. Then he was jammed on a fastball but muscled it into center for a hit, moving the runner to third. Then next ball hit was an easy double play ball and Dickerson slid hard into second, causing an errant throw allowing the run to score. That might not seem significant, however State College did win 1-0, so it was the difference in the game.

In the third, Dickerson struck out after fouling off a 1-1 pitch hard down the right field line. There was a thundering crack on the foul ball like no other I heard on the day. The last pitch was a high-and-away fastball that he foul-tipped into the glove.

In the sixth, he walked on five pitches, as the pitcher did not want anything to do with him with a runner in scoring position.

In the eighth, there was also a runner on second, and Vermont brought a lefty in just to face him. He grounded a ball headed up the middle, but did not hit it hard, and the second baseman made a nice play to throw him out.

Spikes lefty Mike Jefferson started and had an ERA over six coming in, so I didn't expect much. He struck out four of the first five hitters. (The other batter had a bunt single.) In the four innings he pitched, the bunt was the only hit he allowed.  There was no radar gun at the park, but he had decent velocity, although he was not overpowering. His most impressive pitch was a breaking ball that looked like a hard curve or slurve. This kept the Lake Monsters off-balance, and the only hard hit balls were pulled foul. One hit was hard to left, but was caught in front of the track on a field that was 355 feet to the gap.

Jefferson seemed to hit a wall in the fourth, walking two in the inning, but managed to get out of the jam. He finished with four innings, one hit, no runs, five strikeouts and three walks.

After Jefferson came Jordan Cooper, a big righty who didn't throw very hard. He seemed to constantly change speeds, keeping hitters off-balance. He did not strike anyone out, which does not bode too well for him, but he only allowed three soft singles and walked two in four innings.

Jesus Brito pitched the ninth and dominated the younger players and threw strikes.

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