When I saw Tim Alderson open San Jose’s playoffs last year, he threw 89-91. It is his curve that is exceptional. Tim threw only a couple of changeups that day and according to the guy with the speed gun didn’t throw many last season.

I felt at that time that if Tim had a changeup he had legitimate confidence in, he would be pretty close to being major-league ready. Although Mordy didn’t comment on the pitch, I did read elsewhere that Tim’s changeup is now pretty good. He needs that change to neutralize lefty hitters IMO.

I am surprised that Tim was getting behind hitters, as his control is quite good. As Mordy said, he can throw strikes when he needs to. In the bigs, though, some of his get-it-in fastballs won’t come back. That said, I think Tim has enough confidence in getting his curve over that he won’t be throwing all fastballs every time he gets behind.

As for Crawford, it’s amazing that he is hitting only one point lower at Connecticut than at San Jose. But I did notice that he has 12 strikeouts and only one walk, and that he has committed four errors.

Still, has any Giants prospect improved himself as much this season as Brandon? He appears to be this year’s Pablo Sandoval in that regard.

Thanks for the first hand impressions Mordy. It is always nice to receive an eyes-on view of our future major leaguers. When I saw Tim last year in Visalia his fastball was in the low 90s, so I wonder if the speed gun was a bit slow. It is nice to hear that his off-speed stuff is effective. Crawford does sound like this year’s version of Pablo – let us hope he keeps it up. I wonder why EME is not in Fresno – he is going to become the Mayor of Norwich if he isn’t careful; he is in what – his third year there already and he isn’t getting any younger. Perhaps his lack of consistent power numbers bothers the Brass.