I went to see the final game of the Rock Cats’s series in Portland on Monday. Because I was only watching one game, didn’t see BP or fielding drills, and am not a professional scout I am not making any conclusions. My purpose was more to provide details that cannot be found in a boxscore as well as a very modest scouting report. I focused on Sano, Rosario, and Pinto. Unfortunately Danny Santana wasn’t in the lineup, as I was hoping to get a look at him playing shortstop.

Hitting

Sano

• 1^st AB: Struckout swinging
  
  • I thought he checked his swing on the 3^rd strike. He had some words for the ump, and the 3^rd base coach (manager?) was ejected arguing the call
    

   

  [*]2^nd AB: Flyout

  • Swung at first pitch, pretty weak fly ball
    

   

  [*]3^rd AB: Flyout

  • Sano hit a routine fly ball to right center. I would have liked to have seen him go the other way (runner on 2^nd, no outs), but it was a good pitch to hit. If he had hit it hard it probably would have gone a long way and I wouldn’t be complaining
    

   

  [*]4^th AB: Flyout

  • Skied a flyball to left
    

   

  [*]Overall impression

  • Was generally pretty aggressive early in at bats against fastballs, but couldn’t seem to square one up. It was good to see that he has a pretty controlled swing, as opposed to an all out, swing from the heels (like Fielder or Harper).
    

   

Rosario:

• First AB: Struck out swinging
  
  • He was fooled by a breaking pitch for strike 3, and swung off of his front foot
    
  • He thought strike 2 was low
    

   

  [*]2^nd AB: Result: BB

  • Took a few close pitches for balls, including ball 4, which was the breaking pitch that fooled him in his first AB
    

   

  [*]3^rd AB: Struck out swinging

  • Took a few close pitches early in the AB to get the count in his favor and he fouled off a good pitch with 2 strikes, but he was fooled by the breaking ball again. He struck out swinging on a pitch in the dirt
    

   

  [*]4^th AB: E6

  • Swung at first pitch and hit the ball sharply just to the shortstop’s left. The ball skipped once off the dirt and glanced off the shortstop’s glove into centerfield. Ruled an error. It would have been a really nice play. Might have been ruled a hit if the Rockcat’s had been at home
    

   

  [*]Overall impression: Was generally quite patient early in at bats and often worked the count into his favor. The one ball he put in play was hit quite sharply. Seemed to have trouble picking up breaking balls.

Pinto

• 2^nd AB: just missed a fastball. He was clearly frustrated with himself on way back to dugout
  
• 3^rd AB: doubled on a hard hit line drive to left center. I was surprised at how well he ran
  

Fielding

Sano

• No groundballs were hit near him.
  
• Caught two popups that he barely had to move for. He did use both hands, which I liked to see.
  
• Overall impression: Wasn’t a whole lot to see here as he was never even remotely tested. I won’t pretend to know whether or not he is going to outgrow 3^rd base, but he hasn’t yet.
  

Rosario

• Caught a pop up in the first, barely had to move. Caught the ball with one hand, with his glove at his shoulder rather than over his head.
  
• Made an easy play on a routine bouncing ball in the fourth. Was very casual making the play
  
• Made a nice play on a hard hit ground ball in the 7^th. Ranged a few steps to his right and made a sort of sliding stop (fielded cleanly). He then popped up quickly and made a relatively routine throw to first.
  
• Made a great catch on a weak line drive in the 7^th that seemed destined to drop into shallow right. His route wasn’t perfect, but he recovered well and made a great leaping catch while running backwards and to his left. Displayed really good athleticism.
  
• With runners on 1^st and 2^nd and the Rockcats up 2 in the bottom of the 9^th, there was a hard hit ground ball up the middle. The runner on second scored and the other went first to third. I would have liked to see Rosario lay out to try and stop the ball from reaching the outfield. He probably couldn’t have gotten there but I would have liked it anyways
  
• Overall impression: has a sort of lazy flair to his game that he displayed on the pop up in the first and grounder in the 4^th. I also found it interesting that Rosario didn’t creep before the pitch; he went straight from a relaxed position to a ready position.
  

Other notes

• Sano is going to be a fan favorite. He threw balls into the stands whenever he got the chance, once from the pitcher’s mound. The kids picked up on this pretty quickly and went crazy calling “hey 24” every time he got the ball. That was good to see.
  
• Daniel Ortiz hit a homerun right down the rightfield line (330 feet at the foul pole). It was more of a line drive than a fly ball but it still cleared the 15 foot high wall.