Teammate Sean Rodriguez is a career .226 hitter. He wasn’t worried about Velasquez in the outfield.Football mentality? In the bottom of the 13th inning, the Phillies pinch-ran for their pitcher Zach Eflin with ... another pitcher in Vince Velasquez. Vince Velasquez just finished another strong outing -- and against the Yankees' best lineup. "I could throw it, like, 10 or 15 yards. We'll never pass along your email address to spammers, scammers, or the like.Your favorite teams, topics, and players all on your favorite mobile devices.According to Statcast Velasquez threw the ball 94 mph. It was a perfect throw complete with a bounce right into J.T. The crowd went crazy. Absolutely. And so the Phillies, who cannot afford a slow start in this 60-game sprint, have lost their season-opening series and are …
He’d constructed an obstacle course for his kids to develop speed, strength, and agility. They left Velasquez in the following inning, but instead of letting him pitch, manager Gabe Kapler sent him out to left field and … Jose Alvarez #52.
Yep. Aaron Nola #27. One day, he took his glove off his left hand, jammed it on his right hand, and began catching fly balls with his pinky in the thumb slot, then throwing the balls back left-handed. Dive in the outfield? He's a…. If Patrick Mahomes can, why can’t Vince?Major-league pitchers, with their awkward swings and their slow trots to first base and their often odd fielding mechanics, aren’t supposed to be athletes.He’d been practicing. Nick Pivetta #43. Full Roster. — Scott White (@CBSScottWhite) July 21, 2020 Check. I should have just played.”He’s a pitcher, so he can throw hard, but can he run fast, too? As a freshman, Velasquez, quick and strong-armed, was recruited to play quarterback on the junior-varsity football team, but he had a secret weapon.Leonard had built a full-size batting cage in the backyard of their home in Pomona. One day, he took his glove off his left hand, jammed it on his right hand, and began catching fly balls with his pinky in the thumb slot, then throwing the balls back left-handed.“He’s probably the second-best athlete on the team,” said center fielder Roman Quinn, who was pitching at the time.
Both were bad in an ugly 11-6 loss to the Miami Marlins at Citizens Bank Park. Vince got bored. “I knew he could do it.”That’s the level of athlete the Diamondbacks will face when the Phillies’ hard-throwing starter takes the mound Monday night.Velasquez shook it off. ”“That was no problem for Vince,” said Monse Estrada, Velasquez’s coach at Garey High School in Pomona, Calif. Now retired, Estrada, 67, heard about the plays and pulled them up on YouTube. Velasquez broke immediately, took six steps and dived forward, catching the ball four inches above the turf at Citizens Bank Park. Zack Wheeler #45. Velasquez’s father, Leonard, picked up Vince after school and they practiced baseball at a local field: grounders, fly balls, switch hitting, whatever. Sure. "“Vincent might have made it as an outfielder,” Estrada said, “but he’d have even been a better catcher.”While you’re at it, how about being an emergency catcher? Phillies pitcher Vince Velasquez inserted into left field, makes number of impressive plays Phillies pitcher Vince Velasquez was called on to play the outfield in extra innings, and he responded with a number of great defensive plays. Velasquez was a skinny, 5-foot-8 center fielder, so other coaches at Garey High didn’t covet him much, but by the time he returned for his senior season, he’d grown five inches and he’d begun to fill out his broad shoulders.
Gabe Kapler left Velasquez in the game and sent Quinn from center field to the pitcher’s mound; Quinn is the team’s emergency pitcher, usually used when the team is trailing badly. This time, the Phillies had no choice, which, Kapler said, stunk. He was even thinking like an outfielder; he’d positioned himself against Abreu cognizant that Quinn had already thrown 33 pitches.Velasquez threw a one-hop strike and nailed Jose Abreu at the plate for the second out of the 14th inning.
Jake Arrieta #49. The dugout did, too.Get Phillies analysis in your inbox as the MLB season gets underway.Velasquez? I thought, ‘If I can do that, I can do it while throwing.' Vincent John Velasquez (pronounced veh-LAS-kehz; born June 7, 1992) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies of Major League Baseball (MLB). He’s a career .225 hitter. The Astros drafted him in the second round in 2010 and gave him a $655,000 signing bonus. Deolis Guerra #57. Velasquez made an even better throw with two out in the 15th, but Leury Garcia is a lot faster than Abreu, but Garcia still needed a perfect slide to score from second base.
Phillies mailbag: Vince Velasquez, the Phillies outfield, and Shane Victorino 03/29/2016. “Besides me.”Instead, he concentrated on baseball. Eflin had gone two solid innings of relief prior to being pulled.Vince Velasquez isn't just a starting pitcher. “I thought he might drive the gap or something, so I took two or three steps over.”“It was pretty wild,” Quinn said.“It was kind of weird at first,” he said. Philadelphia Phillies' Vince Velasquez (21) catches a line drive by Chicago White Sox's Eloy Jimenez during the 15th inning of a baseball game, early Saturday, Aug. 3, 2019, in Philadelphia.