Live From Greensboro: JP Massey Continues To Struggle With Control

The righty walks four in 2.2 innings during his latest start for the Grasshoppers

As most know, I’m in Greensboro for the next couple of days taking in the Grasshoppers. So the next couple of daily features will be based off of my observations while I am there.

There will be some bigger projects I will be working on once I get back, but in the meantime here are some instant reactions over what I saw during the game.

Massey’s Control Struggles Continue

He was a great story coming out of the gate, going from mid round pick as a senior signing, to Future’s Game the following season.

Since Massey has been moved up to Greensboro, the control issues that haunted him in college started to resurface. In his first 19.1 innings in High-A, he walked 16 batters. He spent some time on the Development List and actually had a two appearance streak of not walking a batter before Thursday’s game.

In just 2.2 innings, the righty walked four along with five hits and four runs. He struggled to locate the fastball, which sat around 88-91, topping 93 (from what I noticed).

He did go on a string where he looked like he might stabilize and get past the originally control issues, going breaking ball heavy.

But the control issues were just too much for him, and it was a quick outing for him.

One thing to note, at least for me, is the continued velocity drop. He was getting up to as high as 96/97 to begin the year.

You can get away with a bad fastball shape (which he has), which good location and higher velocity - Massey doesn’t have any of that working for him right now.

Shawn Ross

It wasn’t an easy night to be the catcher, as the Greensboro staff put a lot in the dirt and didn’t have their best stuff overall. While it doesn’t feel like it was the game plan going into the season, Ross was thrust into action behind the plate with Greensboro

He played well behind the plate on Thursday, even throwing out a would be base stealer. A lot of stuff went into the dirt and he stayed in front of it. With 11 home runs the attention rightfully goes to his offense, but it was a strong performance behind the plate.

Sweet Swing By Sammy Siani

I moved around a lot but ended up settling down the third base line behind the Grasshoppers dugout, mainly to get me an open look at Termarr Johnson at the plate.

Ended up getting a good look at the Tres Gonzalez home run and Sammy Siani double, one of two hits on the night for the latter.

He’s a guy with a lot of tools, but hasn’t been able to completely translate it on the field. Outside of Gonzalez, Siani was probably the biggest contributor offensively, and the only one in the lineup with multiple hits on the day.

The swing is nice, and he’s still just 22-years-old, but a second year mostly struggling in High-A isn’t the best of signs.

Termarr Pressing?

While he’s still showing great discipline at the plate, I got a sense of frustration after walking a couple of times by Termarr Johnson. He looks very eager to swing, but also isn’t going to chase out of the zone.

He did strike out swinging, and had a few whiffs on the game, and he eventually tried to bunt for a base hit, but ultimately finished the day hitless.

Video Recap

In no particular order, here is a collection of videos that I put together from the night. Jase Bowen hit the ball hard a couple of times, with one reaching the warning track, the other taking the second baseman to make a really great play jumping to keep it from goin into the gap with the bases loaded.

Jack Brannigan is near a 20/20 season and he just got under one and still sent it to the warning track.

Next Up

Po-Yu Chen is expected to start on Friday. I haven’t been as high on him as others, so this will be a good opportunity to get a close look.

Wyatt Langford left Tuesday’s game early, which looked like it could have been due to it being a blowout, but he hasn’t played since. He was a potential option for the Pirates at the first overall pick this year, and picked up two hits, including a home run, in his first two at-bats on Tuesday.