8/7/08-Augusta @ Greensboro

First, let me start off by saying that minor league baseball is alive and well in Greensboro, NC. I live fifteen minutes from Durham, NC and go to a lot of Bulls games. It is common knowledge that Durham loves the Bulls, but I think Greensboro might love the Grasshoppers even more. They both have beautiful, new downtown stadiums that are packed. It was "Thirsty Thursday" and there had to be at least a thousand people just drinking and hanging out in the bar area in left field. Anyway, onto the game....

This was the best game I had seen Angel have. He broke his bat on his first AB but the ball landed in LF safely for a hit. The kid is so strong, the bat made it to LF, as well. His next AB was pretty poor, he looked lost. The first pitch was a slider for a strike, the second pitch was another slider that he was way ahead of and swung and missed. The third pitch was another slider and he was way ahead of it and grazed the ball for a weak groundout to the pitcher. As bad as his second AB was, his third AB was that good. He knew the pitcher was going to throw him offspeed junk, so he sat back on a first pitch slider and smashed it down the line for a double. That is what I call growth, the kid is coming along....

The star of the game offensively was Nick Noonan....He had a nice opposite field double and a HR to right. I really like Noonan a lot. He doesn't talk or have any expression at all. He just shows up and plays hard. You know the Giants braintrust loves the kid because of his "gamer" attitude. He has played very solid defense in every game I have seen him play and he runs very well. He just needs to learn to take some more pitches, takes some walks and become more selective.