Kyle McPherson

And now, McPherson is taking a short break before he heads down to my neck of the woods and plays some Fall Instructional League ball with the Pirates.  Kyle believes that the time in Florida will allow him to pick up his velocity.  If he follows suit, he will be one guy you never want to see on the mound as a batter on the opposing team.

McPherson recently talked again with a website that has become a big fan of the black belt baseball player.  Rum Bunter’s interview posits why McPherson was sent down last year (their assumption is correct), talks to Kyle about his 2009 season, asks some questions about next year, and compares McPherson’s numbers with Rudy Owens’ numbers (another great Pirates prospect).

Here is my favorite Q&A of the piece:

KYLE WHERE DO YOU WANT TO BE NEXT YEAR?

“My overall goal is make it to the big leagues. Of course, the organization will place me where they see fit for me to reach that goal. My goal is to have a healthy spring training and offseason.  I’m going to go down to the Instructional League and I will be all ears. I will pick many things up for the betterment…to take with me for next year.”

“Wherever they decide that they want me to end up is up to them, I cant control that, so I will give myself every opportunity I can and let the chips fall where they may.”

McPherson also had an interview with George Von Benko of Scout.com and PiratesDugout.com.  A lot of the same topics were discussed in the article on Rum Bunter.  I particularly liked the very end of the interview:

GVB — Are you pleased with your progress through the minor leagues, do you have any sort of timetable?

KM — Age has been very beneficial for me since I was drafted at 19. This is my third professional season and I’m 21 now. I’m just as old as the new draft guys are and looking at it from that standpoint it’s progressing just fine.

While Kyle’s stats are extremely impressive with the Spikes, him receiving this award is much more noteworthy when one realizes that he spent roughly half the year with a different affiliate in the Pirates organization.  While with the other affiliate, the West Virginia Power, McP was 5-2 with 32 strikeouts and only 6 walks.  But those stats were not taken into account when the voters selected Kyle as Pitcher of the Year.

Congrats, Kyle!  Finish the year strong.  Everyone is looking forward to seeing what type of campaign you will put together in 2010.

Kyle McPherson

Instead of complaining, McPherson understood the situation.  The Pirates wanted to see how he would perform against young, future big-leaguers, and Kyle only being twenty-one years old himself, focused on doing whatever he could to impress his coaches.  He has done just that.

Since joining the State College Spikes Pittsburgh Pirates affiliate, McPherson has a 3.03 ERA and the opposition is only batting .253 against him.  The most impressive stat is his K/BB ratio, currently sitting at 5.6.  In 68.1 innings, he has struck out 56 batters and only walked 10.  Also impressive, is that the right hand pitcher has a slightly better ERA against left handed batters than right handed ones.  This is something that will help McPherson grow as a starting pitcher within the organization.

Since joining the Spikes in June, Kyle’s ERA has gone down every month, with his best month of the season being August.  In August, Kyle has pitched 30 innings in 5 games, going 6 innings in each game.  He has racked up 23 strikeouts in that span and allowed the opposition to bat a meager .204 when he is on the mound.  His ERA in August is 2.10.

Here is what Guy Cipriano of the Centre Daily Times wrote about McPherson’s performance last night:

McPherson’s ability to locate inside fastballs, some as hard as 93 mph, mixed with changeups, many below 80 mph, fooled one of the NY-PL’s most aggressive teams.

McPherson allowed three singles and one walk in six scoreless innings. He struck out eight, including two in the first and third innings to foreshadow later success.

“He got strikeouts with his fastball, but he used his changeup to keep them off his fastball,” manager Gary Robinson said. “He used it just right. He sped the hitters up and then slowed it down and then sped them up. He did a great job.”

“The changeup was a devastating pitch,” McPherson said. “They are a very aggressive team and that made the fastball that much more beneficial.”

The outing extended a strong streak. McPherson, who started this year at full-season West Virginia, has lasted six innings in his past five starts. McPherson’s previous start was a no-run, seven-strikeout performance against Brooklyn on Aug. 21.

“I feel like it’s great to get to the end of the year and stay strong,” said McPherson, who has thrown 1191/3 innings between State College and West Virginia. “Everybody wants to end their season on a high note. I hope to do that. I’m working to do that.”

• Sometimes, even we forget that we have clients that aren’t pitchers.  Ben Billingsley, currently with the Everett Aquasox of the Seattle Mariners organization, hit a homerun last night, which is his 3rd of the season.  Not bad for the guy who is known for his defense and speed on the bases.  Billingsley had a short stint in Triple A earlier in the year.
• On the other side of the country, Eric Valdez, got the save for another Seattle Mariners affiliate (Pulaski).  In 1 inning of relief, he struck out two batters.
• Kyle Gunderson, usually inserted as the closer, came into a tight 3-2 game between the Jupiter Hammerheads and St. Lucie Mets.  He pitched a perfect inning to pick up his second hold of the season.
• Last night, the Potomac Nationals moved into a tie for first place in the Carolina league.  The P-Nats won the league last year, with Dan Leatherman being a major contributor in the playoffs.  Leatherman is once again pitching great in the latter half of the season.  Last night, he pitched the 9th inning, giving up no runs.  His ERA is now a very impressive 3.13 in 54.2 innings pitched (highest amongst P-Nat relievers).
• While Kyle McPherson was charged with the loss in last night’s game against the Hudson Valley Renegades, he did pick up his fifth quality start in his last six outings. McPherson went 6 innings and gave up only 3 runs, 4 hits, and struck out 2.  He did not give up a single walk, improving his K/BB ratio: 39/6.

• Last night, Dan Leatherman picked up his 3rd save of the season. He pitched 2 innings, logged 3 strikeouts, and gave up no hits or no runs to improve his ERA 3.30.  Dan has been on fire as of late.  In his last 7 games, he has pitched 10.2 innings, given up 0 earned runs while striking out 12 batters, walking only 4, and giving up only 5 hits.  He has notched 2 saves in that span of games.  If Dan keeps it up, he won’t be in High A Potomac for long.
• Ryan Platt was not with the AZL Brewers for long.  The 2009 draft pick was just moved to Short Season Helena.  Enjoy the beauty of Montana!
• The site Rum Bunter at FanSided.com, is in the middle of a multiple part interview with Kyle McPherson.  Part I talks about McPherson’s class and the revamping of the State College Spikes.  Part II speaks of the role of Kyle’s father in Kyle’s life and has an interesting tidbit about him at the very end.  Part III will be up tonight.
• Enough about Pitcher U; our position players have been doing well, too.  Rand Smith went 2-4 with 2 runs scored last night for the Jamestown Jammers (Marlins affiliate).  The Jammers won the game by a score of 6-2.  And Tommy Johnson is having a great start to his season.  He went 1-4 with a walk and a run scored last night, and is batting .344 on the year.

Dan Leatherman of the Potomac Nationals went 3.2 innings in relief in a shortened 7 inning game (Potomac played a double header).  He only gave up 1 hit and 0 earned runs.  Dan has been getting a lot of time lately and has lowered his ERA in the process.  On the season, his ERA is sitting at 4.61.  For relievers on Potomac, Dan leads the team in innings pitched with 27.1.

Pete Parise is also leading his team in innings pitched (among relievers).  Pete has been on an absolute tear in his first season with the AA Springfield Cardinals, and has some newspaper columnists calling for his assignment to AAA Memphis.  Last night, Pete threw another 2 innings in his normal set-up position and added another tally in the hold column.  He struck out 2 and gave up 0 ER.  ERA is sitting at 2.79.

Kyle McPherson of the West Virginia Power went 5 innings in his start.  He only gave up 2 earned runs and left the game with his team ahead.  Unfortunately, the Power could not hang on, and ended up losing the game.

Baseball

• Dan Leatherman – Last night, he picked up the win for the Potomac Nationals.  His final line was: 3.2 IP, 5 hits, 2 ER, 0 BB, 1 K.  This improves him to 2-0 with a 5.32 ERA on the season with the High A Potomac Nationals.  Leatherman has not walked a batter in his last 7 outings, which spans 12.2 innings.
• Pete Parise – Parise threw 2 perfect innings (1 K) in Springfield’s loss last night.  Parise has now thrown 11.1 consecutive scoreless frames over his last 8 outings and has a 0.59 ERA over his last 10 outings.  His season ERA is 2.86 in 34.2 IP (26 K’s).  We showed you a powerpoint slide on him yesterday.  His stat line has only gotten better since.
• Kyle Gunderson – Recently, Hi-A Jupiter placed Kyle on the reserve list.  Kyle is healthy and looking forward to returning back to the active list soon.  The Marlins put him on the reserve list as a precautionary measure to give his back some rest.  Since joining the Jupiter Hammerheads in a trade for Logan Kensing, Gunderson has a WHIP and ERA of 0.90 in 10 IP.
• Kyle McPherson – In his last 4 starts, McPherson has 3 wins and 1 no-decision. In the 22.1 IP over that span, Kyle has racked up 13 K’s and only walked 2 batters.  His overall record on the year with the West Virginia Power is 4-1.
• Ryan Kelly – R.Kelly has provided solid relief for the West Virginia Power thus far.  His ERA is sitting at 3.06.  When A-Rod was making his way back to the majors with rehab assignments, he could not get a hit off of R. Kelly.
• Brendan Murphy – Brendan got off to a scorching hot start with the Kalamazoo Kings of the Frontier League, but has cooled off a bit ever since.  He still has 2 HR in 8 games played, along with 6 RBI.
• The rest of our boys: Tommy Johnson, Nick Czyz, Ben Billingsley, and Zach Rosenbaum are doing very well in Extended Spring Training and will be on their respective teams’ Short Season A teams.

Bowling

• Our latest bowling client is Jason Belmonte.  He is currently in his home of Australia making the rounds with the press, but will be back in the U.S. shortly to bowl in the PBA’s Summer Series.  We have big plans for Belmo.  In the meantime, become a fan on his Facebook page.

Football

• Rulon Davis is doing well with the Denver Broncos.  The team needs all the help it can get on Defense and Rulon is just the type of guy who can give them that edge they so desperately need.
• Andrew Johnson had a very successful mini-camp tryout with the Cleveland Browns, but unfortunately, was not retained by the team.  We are now searching for other options for Drew.
• Kevin Grant is considering various options, but we still believe that he belongs in the NFL.  We continue to find the right fit for the former 4-year Akron LB.

Basketball

• We have recently added a bunch of new clients including, Terrrance Woodbury (leading scorer at UGA for the past 2 years), John Gilchrist (former standout at University of Maryland), and Jamarcus Ellis (University of Indiana – named Honorable Mention All Big-Ten).  All of them are receiving considerable interest in the United States (NBA/NBDL) and overseas.

Coaches

• Been working on a new website.  Jason and I have been given important positions in a particular coaches association.  More information will be posted in the near future.

Entertainment

• Hopefully you know about the new EntertainmentAgentBlog.com.  The new site alone, has allowed us to receive more leads for our clients.  Additionally, we are starting to move away from being “agents” to our clients, to taking on more of a managerial role.

Anyway, McPherson picked up the win; it was his third straight victory.  For the season, he is 4-1. In his previous start, Kyle went 6.2 innings, struck out 3 batters, and gave up only 1 earned run.  So, for the last 11.2 innings pitched, McPherson has 2 wins, 9 strike outs, and has allowed two runs to cross the plate.

West Virginia has an overall record of 18-27.

Kyle McPherson held the Lakewood offense in check on Thursday night at Appalachian Power Park, allowing just a run on four hits over six and two-thirds, as West Virginia avoided the sweep with a 6-1 victory over the BlueClaws.

McPherson (3-1) earned the victory in his finest start of the season, snagging his second win of the home stand.

McPherson’s line: 6.2 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 3 SO.