I'm slightly tempted to believe the hype...

In my sometimes humble and woefully uneducated opinion I find that as a general statement prospective Major League Baseball players are far more difficult to evaluate than up and comers in sports like basketball and football. For nearly a century MLB scouts have scoured the country seeking out the ever-elusive "5 tool player": one who hits for power, hits for average, runs the bases well, has a sufficient arm and can field his position. Then Bill James came along with his sabermetrics blasphemy (read: logical and rational evaluation via statistically robust methods) and turned the whole sport on its ear. Unforunately, neither method is infallible as year in and year out teams waste millions of dollars on high school kids that will ultimately never pan out.

I say all that to say this: When you watch David Price pitch all that scouting and sabermetics business goes out the window because good lord he is going to be a dominant pitcher in the bigs. I'm betting the farm on it.

Obviously I'm biased due to my black and gold tinted cardiovascular system, but what's not to like about this guy? He's built like an ox, he has excellent command over every pitch in his repetoire, and his Vanderbilt education is proof that he doesn't have cotton candy between his ears.

I was lucky enough to make the trip to Pringles' Park in Jackson, TN this past Sunday to see David Price (AA Montgomery Biscuits) pitch against the home town West Tennessee Diamond Jaxx. We loaded down my 2002 Ford Explorer with:

Dan and Big Mama G (my parents, bless their hearts)

Matthew, my Auburn-bound (read: mentally challenged) younger brother

Dirty, my Benedict Arnold-esque roomate (on account of his preposterous dedication to the
sinking ship formerly known as the UT football program)

Marne, my roomate hailing from Kansas City (He still pulls for the Royales and the Chefs! haha!)

James, the scream-talking UGA fan and comic relief (I can't wait for UGA to drop their game at Arizona St.)

Despite the fact that tempratures in West TN in early July are comparable to the surface of the sun, and that our seats (1st row, right behind the Biscuits dugout) were in direct sunlight for the entirety of the game, Pringles' Park was really nice. I am slightly concerned about the future of the team however, as it appears that the entire organization is run by 15-year-old girls and a guy in a bear costume.

For some unknown reason, we arrived at approximately 3:30, one hour before first pitch. This was poor planning in that, we weren't quite early enough for batting practice, but we were left with a significant amount of time to kill before we could start drooling over David Price throwing long toss in the outfield. So we were left with roughly 30 minutes to mill around aimlessly with the other 50 or so Vandy fans in attendance looking for a nice seat in the shade, which brings me to my next point. As a fan base, we owe it to ourselves to come up with some sort of awesome little phrase with which we can greet complete strangers wearing Vanderbilt gear.

Case in point: my brother was wearing his Auburn shirt while we were walking around downtown Franklin the other day, and a guy that we were walking past wearing an Auburn hat saw him and simply said "War Eagle". My brother, fresh out of the brainwashing program Auburn sells as its freshman orientation: "Camp War Eagle" (there it is again...) responded cooly with a "War Eagle" and went about his day. Now, for the casual observer this may seem unremarkable or even weird, but as a Vanderbilt fan, I was green with envy. Our lack of a communal salutation such as a "War Eagle", a "Roll Tide" or a "Hotty Toddy" placed me in an incredibly awkward situation at this game, as I walked around Pringles' Park, literally making eye-contact with numerous Vandy fans and having nothing to say. I awkwardly made attempts to acknowledge some fellow fans with a meek "how ya'll doing" or a sheepish "go dores" only to be completely ignored or worse yet, given that awkward inquisitive stare you give to people you don't know who are all of a sudden trying to talk to you at a AA baseball game.

Yeah, it was weird, and it sucked. Go 'Dores simply isn't getting the job done, and I'm not sure what it is yet, but there HAS to be a better alternative.

Anyway, back to David Price. Of course the bulk of the Vandy fans (read: 90% of the people in attendance) crowded along the fence on the berm above the visitor's bullpen to watch David warm up. He looked comfortable, but not sharp. The national anthem was sung, and we took our seats and stretched out our legs out on top of the dugout to soak in what had become a beautiful afternoon. (Not exactly, it was still REALLY hot and I was sweating like a hooker in church) After a forgettable top of the first for the biscuits David trotted out to the mound and threw a first pitch strike, which was one of the few good pitches he threw that inning, as he gave up two total hits and a run to put his team in a 1-0 hole going into the top of the 2nd. Fortunately he would go on to retire the next 17 batters consecutively and put on one of the dominant performances that made him a fan favorite at Hawkins Field. His fastball topped out at 97, and his changeup was in the low 80s, and from some of the hacks the Jaxx batters were taking his slider seemed to be working well to say the least.

All told he went 7 innings giving up 4 hits, 1 walk and 1 run while striking out 6 to improve his record in AA to 3-0 in 3 starts. Dominance. Some diminuitive (read: midget) Carribbean reliever came on in the 8th to preserve the vistory (The Biscuits, after stranding about 13,000 runners, finally managed to score 3 runs at some point to give David some support). It wasn't just his performance on the mound that makes you think this guy is really something special. It was the way he waited outside the dugout to give his center fielder a fist-pound and thank you after he made a spectacular catch to end the inning, it was the way he acknowledged the support from the Vanderbilt faithful, and it was the way his constant smile lets everyone know that he's still just a kid out there playing baseball and having fun.


As Always,

Go 'Dores (until we think of something better)