Missions v Travelers Apr 30, 2024
Apr 30, 2024
Author: 3-1Count.com
Missions vs Travelers recap
It was another perfect day for baseball in North Little Rock, AR at Dickey-Stephens Park. An early start time of 11:05a had the Arkansas Travelers hosting the San Antonio Missions on the second “School Day” of the year at DSP. It was a pretty full house with kids from all over Central Arkansas in attendance.
Game highlights:
Reid VanScoter started for the Travs and went 6 innings, giving up just 7 baserunners and 1 run while striking out 4. This lowered VanScoter’s ERA to 2.77 on the year. A really nice start to his second pro season and coming off 143.1 IP of 3.27 ERA at high A last year. VanScoter was a 2022 5th rd pick by the Mariners out of Coastal Carolina.
This was my first live look at VanScoter. He was efficient using 81 pitches to get through 6. Command is there, he appeared to pretty consistently hit his spots. VanScoter’s fastball has arm side run and sat 87-89 today, which may be a little understated as the gun at DSP always seems to be a tad low.
Here’s a look at VanScoter’s 3rd inning of work today:
Cole Young had the day off so for the Travelers I primarily grabbed video of Harry Ford and Tyler Locklear.
Ford was off to a really slow start to the year and has been steadily improving his numbers over the last week or so. Today he went 2 for 4 with a run scored. While I haven’t seen Ford hit a stretch where he is really driving the ball, the contact is improving and he continues to show a willingness to work the count and hit to all fields. Today, for example, his single was to LF while his double was down the RF line. It’s a great approach, particularly for a player with his skill set. I like the player and remain curious if his future will be behind the plate or possibly elsewhere in the field. He does remind me a bit of Craig Biggio coming up. In body type, skills, and approach.
Here’s a look at several of Ford’s at bats today:
Tyler Locklear had a fairly quite day, and yet still productive. He was 1 for 2 with a bloop single (shown below), a walk, a SB, and a run scored. Locklear looks the part of a future big league contributor, particularly given his improving walk and strikeout rates over the last couple of years.
My last note is on Jakob Marsee of the Missions. He’s coming off a strong AFL in 2023 that elevated his prospect status significantly. I was out in Arizona for the full AFL season and caught many of Marsee’s at bats. He grabbed my attention as a guy that was playing well and someone that was not on my radar prior.
Seeing Marsee sent back to AA to start 2024 was a bit of surprise but not totally unexpected given he only had 69 prior at bats at that level. His start to 2024 has been rough but appears to be primarily BABIP driven. Walk rate is still good at 14.7% and he has 10 SB’s already. Today I saw Marsee pull a LHP down the line for a double and you can see that video below.
That’s all for today’s game.
