Amid some triumphs and struggles in the last week, the Hillsboro Hops have had plenty in the way of league news to report. The extension of the team’s contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks through 2018 should come as no surprise to any Portland-area baseball fans; the youngest team in the league drew the third-highest attendance last season with a 3,774 average ticket sale. The organization also helped foster two young players into MLB careers. The D-backs would be foolish to give up an affiliation with the Hillsboro market or the brand new facilities for their developing talent.
The other bit of news was a common tale for Single-A teams. A new player has joined the ranks. Cuban-born and New Jersey-raised Alex Gouin, 24, has pitched one game for the Hops and for his MiLB career as of this writing, and so far he’s shown us the goods. The July 10 road game against the Eugene Emeralds resulted in seven innings for Gouin (an uncommonly long deployment for a Hops pitcher), in which he struck out 11 batters and earned two runs. Kevin Ginkel and Riley Smith relieved him for the final two innings, and Eugene’s batting rotation was rendered immobile for a 2-1 Hops victory.
While the game was definitely won off Eugene’s wild pitches and costly errors, Gouin’s performance was the best starter of the season for Hillsboro. No wild pitches, no batters hit by a pitch, and only two walks. While this is clearly important to his future with the higher leagues, it’s also a step in the right direction for the Hops. Gouin is one of the two oldest pitchers on the team, and at 204 pounds and 5’11”, he’s a powerful presence on the mound that Hillsboro can definitely use. It couldn’t come at a better time, since Hillsboro favorite Kirby Bellow recently got called up to the Kane County Cougars (a full-season affiliate for the Diamondbacks at the Single-A level) in the Midwest League. Bellow was the older arm in the bullpen, as well as a formidable brick wall of a man, so Gouin’s assignment was likely to fill that void best in his absence.
Baseball is a team sport, no doubt about it. Like the movie says, “You throw the ball, you hit the ball, you catch the ball.” I might add that the Hillsboro Hops have spent the first half of their season picking two of those three ballpark commandments at a time, to the detriment of a team dynamic. Shelley Duncan and pitching coach Mike Parrott have spent June and much of July treating their bullpen as a cohesive unit, with relievers sometimes racking more time than starters. This is advantageous for the players, and it’s democratic. But it also ignores the odd contradictive nature of pitching: it’s the most individualistic position in the game, and each starter needs to learn how to carry a game through the seventh inning at very least.
Gouin’s presence on the team, and his example of the confident starter from last Sunday, might signal a new strategy that could cover some of the defensive gaps in the team’s ability. If promising young starters like Tyler Mark and Anfernee Benitez can be conditioned to handle seven innings with aplomb (and without throwing meatballs early in the game), perhaps some of the nasty errors in the infield and those pesky sixth inning snoozes can be avoided altogether. That’s all speculation at this point, but it is likely that Gouin will get more games as a starter if he continues to push himself and his new comrades.
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