Pig Impressions

I see my fair share of IronPigs baseball living 15 minutes from the stadium and having a partial-season ticket plan. The games are fun, and the baseball is relatively good. This season, the IronPigs primarily have been used to get a look at younger talents, to mixed results, and that's particularly true right now. David Buchanan is just leaving again for a two month audition with the big league club to get into next year's rotation. There's likely to be a steady stream of players coming up behind him. At one point in the game today, almost every player on the infield was on the 40 man roster.

With seeing them a lot, I've developed some opinions on some players. Here's what I've got right now:

• Maikel Franco- It's important at almost every level to throw out the full season stats. That's really important with Franco. Yes, he's hitting .244 for the year, but he OPS'ed .967 in July, as opposed to .435 in June. The player playing now is not the player who played in June. He doesn't have a lot of experience in cold weather before this year, and I think it played a role in his poor start. I also think it was good to get him up to a level that had a lot more advanced breaking stuff. I personally like him at third base, he has a really good arm. With that said, if you like Asche a lot, I can understand the push to make him a first baseman.
• Cesar Hernandez- I've been on the Cesar train, and I still am. Personally I think they are going about him wrong. I'm on the rebuild train, so my first preference is to deal Chase Utley while his value is high, and get a look at Cesar as an every day player. If he's going to be a utility player, I'd like to see him play some outfield too. I know, they tried that already. Guess what though- they said they "had enough depth in the outfield" at the time, and they were wrong. He's hitting .300 in AAA, as he's done throughout the minors so far, but he needs regular at-bats to do well. He should really be able to play everywhere but catcher or first.
• Ethan Martin- I'm alarmed at his lack of command. He has a really plus arm, and his fastball velocity is getting back up there (I saw him hit 93 today). I have no idea what the issue is/was, but I'd like to see him get right.
• Cameron Rupp- Much like we saw in the majors, he has a great arm. He seems to handle the pitchers really well too. His bat worries me. He has struggled royally in AAA this year, and I fear he might not have a major league bat. I still basically see a back-up catcher.
• Miguel Alfredo Gonzalez- Okay, he was bad today. His command was off and he got behind a lot of hitters. With that said, his first two appearances up where excellent. His velocity today was generally 94 mph, which is an improvement. I'm not sure if I want him to try starting again or not, but I do want to see a little more consistency. I can see a good future still ahead.
• Freddy Galvis- Freddy remains a really good defensive player. Today he had four hits, and he's having another strong Freddy finish to the year. He's up over 40 points since returning. Galvis has to hit consistently to be a big leaguer, that's his challenge. Though he hit a lefty homer today, I question if he should switch-hit, given the difference in his swing.
• Cam Perkins- I wish they'd have played him more. He certainly has struggled, but he's showing some signs of life. Given the complete lack of MLB depth in the outfield, I'd really like to see him not sit anymore.
• Leandro Castro- I might be wrong here, but I see a potential late-bloomer. He seems to do stupid stuff that sets him back sometimes. Overall I think his chances are low of making it, but I wouldn't rule him totally out, yet.
• Tyler Knigge- Yesterday he was awful, but he was still in the mid-90s throughout his appearance.