On Assignment: Tennessee vs. Vanderbilt
By Patrick Ebert

The Tennessee Volunteers traveled east to Nashville to play their in-state and Southeastern Conference rivals, the Vanderbilt Commodores, last weekend, and I was in attendance for the first game of this series to cover the highly-anticipated matchup between two talented lefthanded pitchers: Tennessee ’s James Adkins and Vanderbilt’s David Price.

My first observation was the relatively low number of scouts in attendance. While there were apparently a number of front-office people on hand, there were only about 12-18 radar guns focused on Price and Adkins, which I’m guessing had more to do with the fact that most organizations assume that Price will be taken with the first overall pick by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

The contest really became a story of three pitchers—the two starters, Price and Adkins, and Vanderbilt closer Casey Weathers. There were plenty of talented hitters on both teams on display, but given the pitching performances the bats were rather quiet on this night.

David Price

Price alone was well worth the trip. He showed very good command of the strike zone all game, and his fastball sat in the 92-94 range in the first inning. The Volunteers hitters had a hard time catching up with the fastball all game long, and he added a few ticks to his velocity as the game wore on and his arm loosened up. When Price had the opposing hitters thinking about his fastball, he mixed in his slider, more so in the later innings. It’s a wicked pitch that disappeared from the strike zone and made several batters look quite foolish.

Price took a perfect game into the seventh inning. With two outs in that frame, Tennessee second baseman Tony Delmonico laced a single to right field to break up the no-no. The fans in attendance did a very good job not to jinx the effort, as not a word was spoken about the numbers of zeros on the scoreboard. The crowd gave Price a very nice standing ovation after the hit.

Price picked up where he left off by striking out Tennessee catcher J.P. Arencibia on a slider in the dirt to end the inning. He struck out the side, getting Andy Simunic, Julio Borbon and Arencibia swinging on sliders.

How many times have you seen a pitcher become unraveled after a no-hitter is broken up late in the game? Not this time, as Price did a nice job settling down, despite giving up a hard single to Yan Gomes to open the eighth inning. Price added two more strikeouts in the eighth, finishing the game with 14.

However, Price should not have been allowed to pitch the ninth inning, something I wrote down in my notes before he stepped out of the dugout. Closer Casey Weathers was already warming up in the Commodores bullpen in the eighth inning, and after Adkins labored a little bit through the bottom of the eighth, Price re-entered the game after sitting for at least 15 minutes. That idle time seemed to have caught up to him as he gave up a double to Simunic to open the frame, a single to Borbon and then an RBI single to Delmonico before Weathers came on.

Price finished the game by tossing eight-plus innings, allowing five hits (only two before the ninth), no walks, one run (none before the ninth) and the 14 punchouts on 106 pitches.

It’s hard to fault Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin too much for sticking with his ace as his pitch count was below 100 entering the frame, but it seemed clear to me that the coaching staff should have been happy with Price’s eight shutout innings, especially when he had a horse like Weathers ready to step in and close out the game.

Regardless of how the game ended, Price was dominant through eight innings on this night. If the Devil Rays take anyone other than this young man, they are doomed to continue to repeat their perennial presence atop the draft board.

Casey Weathers

When Weathers stepped in, the game was over. His fastball was clocked in the 94-96 mph range and his slider recorded readings of 86 to 89.

With two runners on base upon taking the mound in the ninth inning, the only mistake Weathers could have made was to give Arencibia, the first batter he faced, a fastball on the inner half of the plate. He got Arencibia to swing on a low, outside fastball, which Arencibia weakly chopped back to Weathers. It did advance Borbon and Delmonico, but neither runner would touch home plate.

Weathers made Gomes look silly by striking him out on a wicked slider, and induced Jeff Lockwood to hit a shallow fly ball to left field to end the contest.

Weathers, another projected first-rounder, would also appear in the second and third game of the series, which included plenty of dramatic moments as the Commodores swept the series, winning three close games. In his three appearances, he struck out five batters in 3 1/3 innings of work, allowing two walks and no hits or runs.

James Adkins

While Adkins wasn’t as dominant as Price, it’s important to note that few pitchers are. He was throwing his fastball in the 85-88 mph range in the first inning, and did a good job working up and down as well as inside and out, while not giving the Vandy hitters good pitches to hit. His curveball, normally a very strong pitch, wasn’t as sharp on this night although he did throw a few good-looking sliders and a couple of promising changeups.

Adkins cruised through the first two innings and the first two outs in the third, until Arencibia, his catcher, short-armed a ball to first base that allowed center fielder Jay Macias to reach on a wild-pitch strikeout. Second baseman Alex Feinberg made the most of the opportunity, driving in Macias on a single with Macias scoring when Tennessee center fielder Julio Borbon misplayed the ball, allowing it to roll under his glove. In a contest that ended 3-1 in favor of the Commodores, this run was crucial to the final outcome.

The misplayed balls seemed to throw off Adkins’ rhythm. Previously cruising, he now seemed to labor a bit, and allowed a double to shortstop Ryan Flaherty to open the fourth. Flaherty eventually scored, and the Commodores seemed to be hitting the ball harder and harder against Adkins.

Adkins settled back down in the sixth inning, retiring the side in order. His fastball seemed to have a little extra life to it, and he continued to cruise through the seventh.

By the time the eighth inning rolled around, as mentioned above, Adkins had clearly run out of gas. But Tennessee coach Rod Delmonico showed no signs of replacing him. Adkins did strike out Feinberg and Flaherty in the frame, but required quite a few pitches to do so, and he gave up a booming home run to Dominic de la Osa in between those two batters.

Another Tennessee error allowed sophomore third baseman Pedro Alvarez to reach base, which meant more work for Adkins to get out of the frame. He finally did so without further damage, but I had to wonder how Adkins would have finished the game if his defense would have been a little more crisp.

Adkins finished the game with an eight-inning complete game effort, allowing six hits, two walks and three runs (two earned) while striking out nine Commodores.

The Hitters

While the pitching performances in this game made it tough for any of the hitters to look good, there were a couple of noteworthy performers.

Sophomore infielder Tony Delmonico, son of the Tennessee coach, has taken over second base after previously playing shortstop. His bat on this day was probably the best on display, as he broke up Price’s perfect game in the seventh and drove in Tennessee ’s only run against Price in the ninth.

Julio Borbon and J.P. Arencibia entered the spring as potential first-round picks. Borbon has been slowed by a broken ankle, sustained in practice prior to the season, and still hasn’t fully recovered from it. He struggled to make hard contact against Price, a trend I noticed two weeks earlier when watching the Vols take on Kentucky on television. A scout in attendance commented that his ankle clearly is making it difficult for him to not only get out of the box as explosively as he has done in the past, but it also hampers his ability to drive the ball with authority.

Somehow Arencibia is listed at 195 pounds on Tennessee ’s website, but there is no way he weighs less than 220 pounds. That’s not to say that he’s out of shape as he’s built as strong as an ox. Like Borbon, he failed to drive the ball in this contest. Despite his throwing error in the third inning that led to an unearned run against Adkins, Arencibia handled himself well behind the plate, and clearly embraces the leadership role when the Vols are on the field. He probably will never be a Gold Glove candidate, but despite a few reports that he may have to move to first base, I see no reason for anyone to think about moving him from behind the plate at this point in time.

Yan Gomes and Jeff Lockwood give the Vols two talented freshmen hitters for the program to look forward to in the years to come. Next year they should be driving in Delmonico regularly.

Meanwhile, Vanderbilt’s lefthanded-hitting Pedro Alvarez didn’t have much luck against the lefthanded-throwing Adkins, but his bat speed is evident and I have seen him perform much better than what he did on this day. He’s a top prospect for the 2008 draft.

Infielder/outfielder Dominic de la Osa is a fun little player to watch. While he has some surprising pop in his bat, as shown by the home run he crushed well over the 20-foot wall in left field, bouncing off the roof of the athletic building located behind the stadium, he probably will be at his best playing center field or second base, and driving balls to the gaps while taking full advantage of his speed.

Vandy shortstop Ryan Flaherty is a good overall player. Nothing about his game really stood out. I’m not convinced that he has the range to play shortstop down the road and I’m not sure his bat projects enough power for him to play third. Along with Alvarez, he’ll return to Vanderbilt next spring to continue to carry the top of the Commodores lineup.

One player that I didn’t get the chance to see that I really was looking forward to was Vanderbilt’s Jonathan White, a four-tool talent whose arm is the only thing keeping him from being a true five-tool star. The extremely athletic White has enjoyed a good spring for the Commodores playing a multitude of different roles, from outfielder to DH to late-inning defensive and pinch-running replacement. As a draft-eligible red-shirt sophomore, his use as a platoon player will probably mean that he returns for his junior year of eligibility, which would probably enable him to patrol center field on a more regular basis.

It’s not often that one gets to see so many potential first-round picks in one ball game.

The thoughts and opinions listed here do not necessarily reflect those of Perfect Game USA . Patrick Ebert is affiliated with both Perfect Game USA and Brewerfan.net, and can be contacted via email at pebert@brewerfan.net.