A slender 6'0 lefty, Valiquette came in and started firing 96 and 97 MPH fastballs with relative ease. He got Triunfel to ground out to the second baseman, and the inning was over. Valiquette came back out for the ninth to go through the middle of West Tennessee's order. This time, he decided not to mess around, and brought out the big guns.
You don't see legit 100s on the radar gun from the left side very often. It was, to the say the least, an impressive fastball.
The command wasn't great and the secondary stuff was borderline awful, but the fastball was enough for him to make hitters look foolish. Given the velocity, I figured when I checked his career minor league line upon returning home that he'd be running big strikeout totals at the least. To my surprise, he's only racked up 245 strikeouts in 311 innings pitched over six minor league seasons, and his second trip through Double-A isn't going very well this year. The walks aren't a big surprise, but I was shocked to see that he's been this ineffective in the low minors with a huge fastball.