Pat Stover of Santa Clara was drafted by the Oakland Athletics in the 7th round of the 2009 draft. He obviously didn't sign, and is draft eligible again. He was playing left field when I saw him. If he really is a corner outfielder, he has to really hit. I don't really like his swing, as he seems to get unbalanced and rob himself of power. He takes a step and then swats at the pitch it seems like. He counteracts this by having a good eye and plate discipline. He was pitched outside and wasn't really biting. Of course, the starter he faced didn't really appear to be a prospect. In one at-bat, after a called strike 2, he panicked and chased a curveball way out of the zone. Defensively, his arm isn't much to write about, but he is an above average runner on the basepaths and in the field. He can hit the breaking ball, and should make plenty of contact, but it appears he is a ground-ball hitter.
The guy I was a little more intrigued with was Lucas Herbst, the center fielder for Santa Clara. He hits lefty and has a good combo of size and speed. He is a good runner, and has good bat speed. He had one really long at-bat before striking out on a curve. Defensively, he doesn't really seem to have a good arm.
J.T. Chargois is a guy pegged by many to go in the supplemental round (the compensation picks between the 1st and 2nd rounds). The right-hander DHs for the Rice Owls, but his draft value is in his relief pitching. He has good velocity, as advertised, as he hit 95 MPH. It has a little tail, but its not really a "moving fastball". He throws it away to lefties and into righties. He also has a hard curve that has good speed differential, okay movement, and he can throw for strikes. He has a lot of confidence in the pitch and throws it a lot (at least when I saw him). He not only has swing and miss stuff, he also has ground-ball stuff. He keeps the ball low, can throw the breaking ball in the dirt, and in both sides of the zone. Every once in a while the breaking ball stayed up, but that was the only thing lacking polish. He doesn't have a starters delivery, but has bullpen ace stuff. He shouldn't have crazy splits, even though he seems to only have two pitches. Other than Damien Magnifico of Oklahoma (who I would pick over Chargois just because of fastball velocity and the slight chance he could be a starter), Chargois is the best relief prospect I have seen (I am not counting Stroman of Duke, who many people see as a future reliever because of his height).
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Scouting Report: Josh Bell
Josh Bell (not to be confused with Pirates prospect Josh Bell) is a former 4th round pick who has had a disastrous MLB career. In 79 games, he has an OPS of just .485 (33 OPS +) and -.9 WAR. At the start of the 2010 season, he was ranked as the 37th best prospect in all of baseball. After a .094/.256/.250 start to 2012 in 9 AAA games, the Orioles traded him to the Diamondbacks. He has responded to the hitter friendly PCL very well in 24 games with a batting average over .400 and OPS of almost 1.100.
According to the Baseball Cube, his best attribute is power (Baseball America said he was the best power prospect in the Dodgers organizations in 2008), which is rated at a 79 out of 100. Contact has been his real problem, at 26. He has below average speed at 42, but decent patience and batting ratings.
As a switch hitter, he is hitting for a slightly better average and OBP on the right side, but is hitting for more power on the right side so far this year.
I got to watch him on May 18th 2012 (the same day I watched Bauer). His first at-bat was against Aneury Rodriquez and he started by taking a low pitch. He then got a fastball down the middle, and Bell got way under it and flew out to medium deep center field.
In his 2nd at-bat, he got in a 1-1 count before a wild low inside fastball was taken. He was then fooled on a curve in the zone with a swing and miss. It is such a violent violent swing. He was a ground-ball hitter in his short MLB stint, but his swing does not look like a ground-ball swing. He looks like he is trying to hit a homer every time up. Rodriquez then tried to throw the same curve in the same location and Bell made him pay for it. Bell went the other way and hit the ball hard, mashing the wall for a double.
At-bat 3 started with a way outside fastball taken before Bell flew out to medium center on the next pitch.
At-bat 4 was against a lefty, so he batted right handed. He faced some hard velocity and took a low pitch for ball after a first pitch strike. He then swung and miss on a breaking ball that was low and just out of the zone. He then took a low hard fastball in the dirt, but was fooled by a breaking ball that he chased for a swinging strikeout.
I didn't get a read on him defensively, but in his short MLB stint, he saved 2 runs above average according to Baseball Reference. Baseball America rated him as the best defensive 3rd baseman in the Southern League (AA) in 2009. Fangraphs' UZR also had him as a positive fielder.
According to the Baseball Cube, his best attribute is power (Baseball America said he was the best power prospect in the Dodgers organizations in 2008), which is rated at a 79 out of 100. Contact has been his real problem, at 26. He has below average speed at 42, but decent patience and batting ratings.
As a switch hitter, he is hitting for a slightly better average and OBP on the right side, but is hitting for more power on the right side so far this year.
I got to watch him on May 18th 2012 (the same day I watched Bauer). His first at-bat was against Aneury Rodriquez and he started by taking a low pitch. He then got a fastball down the middle, and Bell got way under it and flew out to medium deep center field.
In his 2nd at-bat, he got in a 1-1 count before a wild low inside fastball was taken. He was then fooled on a curve in the zone with a swing and miss. It is such a violent violent swing. He was a ground-ball hitter in his short MLB stint, but his swing does not look like a ground-ball swing. He looks like he is trying to hit a homer every time up. Rodriquez then tried to throw the same curve in the same location and Bell made him pay for it. Bell went the other way and hit the ball hard, mashing the wall for a double.
At-bat 3 started with a way outside fastball taken before Bell flew out to medium center on the next pitch.
At-bat 4 was against a lefty, so he batted right handed. He faced some hard velocity and took a low pitch for ball after a first pitch strike. He then swung and miss on a breaking ball that was low and just out of the zone. He then took a low hard fastball in the dirt, but was fooled by a breaking ball that he chased for a swinging strikeout.
I didn't get a read on him defensively, but in his short MLB stint, he saved 2 runs above average according to Baseball Reference. Baseball America rated him as the best defensive 3rd baseman in the Southern League (AA) in 2009. Fangraphs' UZR also had him as a positive fielder.
Scouting Reports on Jake Odorizzi and Trevor Bauer
Jake Odorizzi in the Kansas City Royals organization made his first start in AAA on Friday night. He has a moving fastball (2-seamer looking type pitch) that tails down with good movement. His 4-seamer straight fastball is very straight with not much movement, and good not great velocity. He also had a soft curve that he broke out in the 2nd, and mixed with a change, it is a pretty impressive assortment of pitches.
On the curveball, he had back luck on a soft grounder hit up the middle, but he also wasn't getting the pitch down early on in the game. As the game went on, it is almost like it over-corrected and he couldn't get it out of the dirt. With the 4 seamer, he got a fly-out to the warning track to the 2nd hitter of the game (Luis Rodriquez). In the first inning, he did get 2 grounders. The changeup was hung in the middle of the plate to Carlos Peguero who turned it into an absolute bomb. He seemed to be really inconsistent with it, and it wasn't a great pitch. In the 4th, he gave up a double to Luis Jimenez on a decent looking low moving fastball. Overall, he wasn't hitting his spots, and had control problems. He went 6.2 innings and gave up 9 hits, 3 runs, 1 walk and 4 strikeouts. In the 3rd, he gave up back to back BABIP type hits, as one was hit hard, but it was on the ground. He got out of the inning with a fly-out, a strikeout on a breaking pitch, and a ground-out. The run he gave up in the 5th was pretty bad luck, with an infield single, a steal, and a bloop single. He then got a lucky double play on bad base running, so it evened out somewhat.
Trevor Bauer in the Arizona Diamondbacks organization also made his first AAA start Friday night against a pretty pedestrian Oklahoma City Redhawks (Astros) lineup. He struck out Brian Bixler on 3 pitches to start the game, and it took just 8 pitches to get through the first. He loves to throw a high fastball that has great velocity in the mid 90s. He threw a couple ones low, but most of them were high. He started the game with a lot of fastballs, but threw more off-speed stuff as the game went along. He has a big curve that he hung the first time he threw it, but he got the fly-out to end the first. There has been a lot of discussion around ground-balls to fly-balls when discussing Trevor Bauer, as he seems to want to go for strikeouts at the risk of getting fly-balls. I am as much of a ground-ball to fly-ball ratio guy as there is, but there are different types of fly-balls. Infield fly-balls are almost automatic outs, and there is a difference between weak fly-balls versus deep or "hard" fly-balls. Just looking at ground-ball to fly-ball ratio can be misleading sometimes if you ignore the quality of those fly-balls. So I decided to keep count of weak fly-outs versus deep fly-outs. According to my count, he got 4 weak fly-balls and just 1 deep fly-ball. The deep fly-ball was a homer to lead-off the 8th. I was a little surprised they let him pitch into the 8th, as it was a close game, and he had to bat in the bottom of the 7th. He fell behind the next hitter 3-0 before getting the batter out. Overall, he got a lot of grounders, more than he got fly-balls. I thought he did a good job of working both high and low overall, mixing his pitches. He didn't get many swing and misses on the fastball, it may be too predictable, meaning he may have to start working it in different locations. He gave up a line drive double to Bixler in the 3rd with 2 outs on a fastball down the middle. The curveball is just nasty, especially once you consider the speed differential he gets between it and the fastball. This and his hard splitter seems to be his out pitch. He got 11 strikeouts in the game, and even if 2 were to the opposing pitcher (Aneury Rodriquez), it was pretty impressive. He also has a change-up that he has a lot of confidence in, which he showed when he got behind 2-0 and threw one in the middle of a plate for a strike. He ended up striking out the batter (Jimmy Paredas) on a splitter way out of the zone, but the ball got away from the catcher and extended the 3rd inning. He responded by striking out the next guy on a splitter. The 4th was pretty easy with a ground-ball, another ground-ball, and a strikeout. He really can throw all his pitches for strikes (other than his splitter, which you really don't want for strikes anyway). The best example may have been in a 3-2 count where he threw a curve in the 5th. It ended up being a ball and a walk (his only walk) but it speaks to how advanced he is as a pitcher in my opinion (he would go on to strikeout the next hitter on the curve). He was really impressive, as his line showed: 8 innings, 4 hits, 1 run.
On the curveball, he had back luck on a soft grounder hit up the middle, but he also wasn't getting the pitch down early on in the game. As the game went on, it is almost like it over-corrected and he couldn't get it out of the dirt. With the 4 seamer, he got a fly-out to the warning track to the 2nd hitter of the game (Luis Rodriquez). In the first inning, he did get 2 grounders. The changeup was hung in the middle of the plate to Carlos Peguero who turned it into an absolute bomb. He seemed to be really inconsistent with it, and it wasn't a great pitch. In the 4th, he gave up a double to Luis Jimenez on a decent looking low moving fastball. Overall, he wasn't hitting his spots, and had control problems. He went 6.2 innings and gave up 9 hits, 3 runs, 1 walk and 4 strikeouts. In the 3rd, he gave up back to back BABIP type hits, as one was hit hard, but it was on the ground. He got out of the inning with a fly-out, a strikeout on a breaking pitch, and a ground-out. The run he gave up in the 5th was pretty bad luck, with an infield single, a steal, and a bloop single. He then got a lucky double play on bad base running, so it evened out somewhat.
Trevor Bauer in the Arizona Diamondbacks organization also made his first AAA start Friday night against a pretty pedestrian Oklahoma City Redhawks (Astros) lineup. He struck out Brian Bixler on 3 pitches to start the game, and it took just 8 pitches to get through the first. He loves to throw a high fastball that has great velocity in the mid 90s. He threw a couple ones low, but most of them were high. He started the game with a lot of fastballs, but threw more off-speed stuff as the game went along. He has a big curve that he hung the first time he threw it, but he got the fly-out to end the first. There has been a lot of discussion around ground-balls to fly-balls when discussing Trevor Bauer, as he seems to want to go for strikeouts at the risk of getting fly-balls. I am as much of a ground-ball to fly-ball ratio guy as there is, but there are different types of fly-balls. Infield fly-balls are almost automatic outs, and there is a difference between weak fly-balls versus deep or "hard" fly-balls. Just looking at ground-ball to fly-ball ratio can be misleading sometimes if you ignore the quality of those fly-balls. So I decided to keep count of weak fly-outs versus deep fly-outs. According to my count, he got 4 weak fly-balls and just 1 deep fly-ball. The deep fly-ball was a homer to lead-off the 8th. I was a little surprised they let him pitch into the 8th, as it was a close game, and he had to bat in the bottom of the 7th. He fell behind the next hitter 3-0 before getting the batter out. Overall, he got a lot of grounders, more than he got fly-balls. I thought he did a good job of working both high and low overall, mixing his pitches. He didn't get many swing and misses on the fastball, it may be too predictable, meaning he may have to start working it in different locations. He gave up a line drive double to Bixler in the 3rd with 2 outs on a fastball down the middle. The curveball is just nasty, especially once you consider the speed differential he gets between it and the fastball. This and his hard splitter seems to be his out pitch. He got 11 strikeouts in the game, and even if 2 were to the opposing pitcher (Aneury Rodriquez), it was pretty impressive. He also has a change-up that he has a lot of confidence in, which he showed when he got behind 2-0 and threw one in the middle of a plate for a strike. He ended up striking out the batter (Jimmy Paredas) on a splitter way out of the zone, but the ball got away from the catcher and extended the 3rd inning. He responded by striking out the next guy on a splitter. The 4th was pretty easy with a ground-ball, another ground-ball, and a strikeout. He really can throw all his pitches for strikes (other than his splitter, which you really don't want for strikes anyway). The best example may have been in a 3-2 count where he threw a curve in the 5th. It ended up being a ball and a walk (his only walk) but it speaks to how advanced he is as a pitcher in my opinion (he would go on to strikeout the next hitter on the curve). He was really impressive, as his line showed: 8 innings, 4 hits, 1 run.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Scouting Report: Dae-Eun Rhee
Dae-Eun Rhee is a 23 year old right hander from South Korea currently pitching for the Tennessee Smokies (the AA affiliate of the Chicago Cubs). He has a good curveball that looks like it is of 12-6 variety. It definitely qualifies as a "slow curve". When I saw him (May 15th 2012 against the Jackson Generals), he was getting opponents to chase a lot, especially on the curveball. He has decent looking velocity on a moving fastball that can run in or tail away (and usually moved down as well). He also threw a couple of straight, high 4-seamers with good looking velocity. His numbers are nothing special, but he looks pretty advanced as far as his different pitches and pitch selection. Nothing is real straight, and he changes speeds pretty well. In the game I saw, he didn't give up much hard contact, and has always had a pretty respectable GO/AO ratio. He did have some control problems in the 3rd, and that seems to come with pitcher that have heavy movement like Rhee, as they can't always control it. His minor league walk numbers suggest that he has had this problem a lot. However, there is nothing in his delivery that suggests that he won't be able get control at some point (as in, it is not a quirky delivery). The moving fastball was really the wild pitch for him, as he can throw all his breaking pitches for strikes (but doesn't necessarily have to, as he can get hitters, at least minor league hitters, to chase). He has a little bit of a goofy body type, and looked pretty awful defensively.
Overall, there is obvious potential for Rhee. It all seems to hinge on what he is able to do command wise. I don't really see any reason why he won't be able to gain more command as he develops further. The stuff is there for him to be a solid MLB starter.
Overall, there is obvious potential for Rhee. It all seems to hinge on what he is able to do command wise. I don't really see any reason why he won't be able to gain more command as he develops further. The stuff is there for him to be a solid MLB starter.
Monday, May 14, 2012
Scouting Report on Neil Ramirez (Updated)
Neil Ramirez was ranked as the 5th best prospect for the Texas Rangers coming into 2012 by Baseball America. He was picked in the Supplemental First Round by the Rangers and signed for 1 million dollars. According to Baseball Cube, his best attribute is his strikeout ability, which is ranked as a 79 out of 100. He has really low control and versus power ratings.
He doesn't have crazy splits this year, with a .267 OBP against righties and .278 OBP against lefties (the SLG is .103 higher against lefties). He has a decent strike percentage of 64.68% (all numbers are not counting the start I detail below), but has really struggled keeping the ball on the ground with a 22/38 GO/AO ratio. In 25 AAA starts, he has a 4.06 ERA, 1.28 WHIP and 9.44 K/9IP. This is really impressive once you consider that the 22 year old (will turn 23 years old later this month) pitches in the very hitter friendly AAA. According to our AAA (PCL edition) metric, this is projected to be a 3.59 ERA in the big leagues.
I watched him on Sunday May 13th 2012 against the Tacoma Rainiers (Seattle Mariners' AAA). The Rainiers have a weak PCL lineup. To give you an idea of just how weak it is, Carlos Triunfel was batting 3rd. Triunfel has been extremely disappointing as a prospect, with a .697 career MiLB OPS. On the under hand, he definitely was getting squeezed by the umpire.
His curveball was ranked the best in the organization by Baseball America in 2007. I really saw him go to it when it looked like he was in trouble early on. Most of the time his curveball didn't get as low as you would like and stayed up. When it did get down, it was clearly his best pitch. It wasn't a big looping curve, but it had good speed differential.
He can throw all his breaking pitches for strikes. Especially his changeup. He threw one changeup on a 3-1 for a swinging strike in the 2nd against Savastano. It doesn't have a lot of movement, so it is all about speed differential and just making the hitter guess. It is certainly not a Tim Lincecum, Felix Hernandez "here is my changeup, and you can't hit it" change, but few of them are. It is a serviceable pitch.
The breaking stuff induced a lot of weak pop-outs, 4 in 3 innings (2 in 1st, 1 each in the 2nd and 3rd). His fastball was in the low to mid 90s and he showed a lot of promise with it, commanding it on both sides of the plate and both up and down.
He definitely had some hard downward movement. His fastball had real sink when it was kept low, almost like he has a separate sinker. His velocity did show off, as a lot of hitters were late on the fastball early. He was really fastball happy, and I think to a detriment. I thought he should have thrown more curveballs. He gave up a double on a fastball down the middle and really started to have major control problems in the 3rd (and he got no help from his defense, I felt bad that the left side of his infield was Matt Kata and Tommy Mendonca. The Detroit Tigers think that is a dreadful defensive infield). With the bases loaded, he threw a fastball up and in to fastball up and in hitter Luis Jimenez, and predictably, he hit a grand slam. Whether this is simply a lack of scouting report or just awful command one can't be real sure, but it was not pretty. Overall, his fastball isn't a "put away" pitch, even though it seems he wanted it to be. He had some really wild fastballs up high, which might be a product of an inconsistent release point. He hit a batter in the 4th, and there was definitely a regression from the first time he went through the lineup to the 2nd time. However, he still got some swings and misses, which I thought was very encouraging.
Overall, he has a very simple delivery, with no real deception but no real mechanical flaws or major injury risks (although our understanding of pitching mechanics are not very good). He displayed what I thought was mid rotation stuff, but he looks really far from polished and is clearly not ready for the big leagues yet. The promise is there, which I thought was magnified when he made Johan Limonta (to be fair, a player with no big league future or potential) look really silly on his fastball/changeup combo. He threw too many pitches in the middle of the plate, and even with decent (not great) movement on his pitches, it is just not a recipe for success. Whether Ramirez lives up to his stuff or not will depend on location, like most pitchers.
Update: I saw Ramirez again in Round Rock against the Sacramento River Cats (Oakland A's AAA). Here is some poorly done video (by my brother Daniel):
He was throwing 90-92 MPH, and had real control problems early. He got better as game went on. He was nasty when he hit the corners with the fastball and curve. He gave up a homer that was a typical PCL homer, it didn't appear to be hit hard and it just carried. Jason Cole of Lone Star Dugout told me (on the twitter machine) that he has had a really odd season, with times where he has had excellent command and then times where he has had no command. I saw both on Thursday May 24th 2012.
Some other notes from the game:
Michael Taylor of the A's is an absolute monster as far as size goes. He takes a huge hack, but the bat speed is pretty slow and he swings and misses a lot. He seems to have a decent eye (he walked when Neil Ramirez was walking everyone and then struck out when Ramirez was striking out everyone).
A.J. Griffin started for the Rivercats and he was 88-89 MPH with a 78-79 curve and then a slow curve/change that got a couple of 68 MPH readings. The stuff doesn't really match his minor league strikeout totals. He had a couple of bad luck plays in the first, followed by a good fielding play. Matt Kata of all people took him all the way to the wall later in the game.
Tyler Tufts for Round Rock has an overhand delivery with a little bit of tail on a 87-91 MPH fastball (Cole notes that he was hitting 93-95 earlier this year). He has an 80 MPH curve, and kept all 3 balls in the infield.
Pedro Figueroa is a lefty that was throwing 90-93 MPH out of the bullpen for Sacramento.
Tanner Scheppers of Round Rock was throwing 95-97 MPH, and hit 98 MPH twice. He hung the 82 MPH slider the first time he threw it and gave up a single, but then got a double play. He got a nasty swing and miss in the last at-bat on the slider, and then got a called strike 3 to the end the game.
He doesn't have crazy splits this year, with a .267 OBP against righties and .278 OBP against lefties (the SLG is .103 higher against lefties). He has a decent strike percentage of 64.68% (all numbers are not counting the start I detail below), but has really struggled keeping the ball on the ground with a 22/38 GO/AO ratio. In 25 AAA starts, he has a 4.06 ERA, 1.28 WHIP and 9.44 K/9IP. This is really impressive once you consider that the 22 year old (will turn 23 years old later this month) pitches in the very hitter friendly AAA. According to our AAA (PCL edition) metric, this is projected to be a 3.59 ERA in the big leagues.
I watched him on Sunday May 13th 2012 against the Tacoma Rainiers (Seattle Mariners' AAA). The Rainiers have a weak PCL lineup. To give you an idea of just how weak it is, Carlos Triunfel was batting 3rd. Triunfel has been extremely disappointing as a prospect, with a .697 career MiLB OPS. On the under hand, he definitely was getting squeezed by the umpire.
His curveball was ranked the best in the organization by Baseball America in 2007. I really saw him go to it when it looked like he was in trouble early on. Most of the time his curveball didn't get as low as you would like and stayed up. When it did get down, it was clearly his best pitch. It wasn't a big looping curve, but it had good speed differential.
He can throw all his breaking pitches for strikes. Especially his changeup. He threw one changeup on a 3-1 for a swinging strike in the 2nd against Savastano. It doesn't have a lot of movement, so it is all about speed differential and just making the hitter guess. It is certainly not a Tim Lincecum, Felix Hernandez "here is my changeup, and you can't hit it" change, but few of them are. It is a serviceable pitch.
The breaking stuff induced a lot of weak pop-outs, 4 in 3 innings (2 in 1st, 1 each in the 2nd and 3rd). His fastball was in the low to mid 90s and he showed a lot of promise with it, commanding it on both sides of the plate and both up and down.
He definitely had some hard downward movement. His fastball had real sink when it was kept low, almost like he has a separate sinker. His velocity did show off, as a lot of hitters were late on the fastball early. He was really fastball happy, and I think to a detriment. I thought he should have thrown more curveballs. He gave up a double on a fastball down the middle and really started to have major control problems in the 3rd (and he got no help from his defense, I felt bad that the left side of his infield was Matt Kata and Tommy Mendonca. The Detroit Tigers think that is a dreadful defensive infield). With the bases loaded, he threw a fastball up and in to fastball up and in hitter Luis Jimenez, and predictably, he hit a grand slam. Whether this is simply a lack of scouting report or just awful command one can't be real sure, but it was not pretty. Overall, his fastball isn't a "put away" pitch, even though it seems he wanted it to be. He had some really wild fastballs up high, which might be a product of an inconsistent release point. He hit a batter in the 4th, and there was definitely a regression from the first time he went through the lineup to the 2nd time. However, he still got some swings and misses, which I thought was very encouraging.
Overall, he has a very simple delivery, with no real deception but no real mechanical flaws or major injury risks (although our understanding of pitching mechanics are not very good). He displayed what I thought was mid rotation stuff, but he looks really far from polished and is clearly not ready for the big leagues yet. The promise is there, which I thought was magnified when he made Johan Limonta (to be fair, a player with no big league future or potential) look really silly on his fastball/changeup combo. He threw too many pitches in the middle of the plate, and even with decent (not great) movement on his pitches, it is just not a recipe for success. Whether Ramirez lives up to his stuff or not will depend on location, like most pitchers.
Update: I saw Ramirez again in Round Rock against the Sacramento River Cats (Oakland A's AAA). Here is some poorly done video (by my brother Daniel):
Some other notes from the game:
Michael Taylor of the A's is an absolute monster as far as size goes. He takes a huge hack, but the bat speed is pretty slow and he swings and misses a lot. He seems to have a decent eye (he walked when Neil Ramirez was walking everyone and then struck out when Ramirez was striking out everyone).
A.J. Griffin started for the Rivercats and he was 88-89 MPH with a 78-79 curve and then a slow curve/change that got a couple of 68 MPH readings. The stuff doesn't really match his minor league strikeout totals. He had a couple of bad luck plays in the first, followed by a good fielding play. Matt Kata of all people took him all the way to the wall later in the game.
Tyler Tufts for Round Rock has an overhand delivery with a little bit of tail on a 87-91 MPH fastball (Cole notes that he was hitting 93-95 earlier this year). He has an 80 MPH curve, and kept all 3 balls in the infield.
Pedro Figueroa is a lefty that was throwing 90-93 MPH out of the bullpen for Sacramento.
Tanner Scheppers of Round Rock was throwing 95-97 MPH, and hit 98 MPH twice. He hung the 82 MPH slider the first time he threw it and gave up a single, but then got a double play. He got a nasty swing and miss in the last at-bat on the slider, and then got a called strike 3 to the end the game.
Friday, April 13, 2012
Minor League and College Prospects Notes
Note: As regular readers of this blog know, I have been going to college and high school games and providing scouting reports on all the players. Due to a combination of time, money, and the fact that the MLB and MILB seasons have started, I will no longer be doing this (consistently that is, I may do an occasional one). Instead, I am going to be doing posts on minor leaguers and some college players using a television and a MILB.tv subscription. I don't know how often these posts will be (Blogger has been doing its best WordPress impression and has been deleting stuff I saved, so that is why this took so long), it just depends on time and how much notes I have. What I want to do is all original work, so I won't be using stats or outside scouting reports because you can (and should) find those at other places on the Internet. I won't necessarily be doing full scouting reports on players, it will just be some general observations. I also won't be doing full team reports, it will just be players I have something interesting to say on, so not even necessarily top prospects. I am not a scouting expert by any means so I expect to be wrong at times, but I would hope consistent readers would I agree that I know at least something about baseball and would find some observations helpful. I find it interesting that this blog went from a general sports ranting/comedy blog to a sabermetrics blog to a scouting blog. By the way, I am still writing about the Mariners at Seattlesportscentral.com, and random sabermetric/fantasy stuff at fantasycpr.com. Thanks for reading.
Omar Poveda of the Jacksonville Suns has a big looping breaking ball that he can both throw for strikes and throw low to get hitters to chase (Kentrail Davis looked pretty comical trying to hit it). His fastball isn't overpowering, but it is hard enough and has good sinking action.
Josh Stinson in the Brewers system (already on the 40-man) has a 2-seamer with a ton of movement, a mediocre 4-seamer, with what looks like a slider. The slider he only threw occasionally in what I saw, and he didn't look like he had good control of it. The 2-Seamer wasn't exactly going where he wanted to either, but if he harnesses that pitch with any kind of consistency, the big pitcher could break a lot of bats and be successful.
Daniel Nava for the Pawtucket Red Sox looks absolutely silly on curveballs, while Jose Iglesias showed some plate discipline when I saw him (although he may have been too patient as he took a 1-1 fastball down the middle).
I watched Aaron Cook pitch, and he was throwing an 89 MPH 2-seamer that has some movement, but not a lot.
Pat Misch of the Phillies AAA team threw a bunch of breaking balls early on when I saw him, with a soft fastball. The lefty got a fly-ball, ground-ball, infield fly-ball, hard hit ball in the infield, ground-ball, line drive, and a strikeout on an outside fastball.
Chris Schwinder of the Buffalo Bisons (the Mets AAA affiliate) had problems getting his curve down, but it looks like his fastball has good movement and decent velocity.
Daryl Thompson of the Rochester Red Wings, the AAA affiliate of the Twins, has a slow curve that would make most Korean pitcher blush. The fastball provides some nice speed differential, but he doesn't seem to have much control of it.
For the Greenville Drive (in the Red Sox organization), Keury De La Cruz plays a good left field despite not having superior speed. His arm is very pedestrian though. Yeiper Castillo has a nice breaking ball that he can throw for strikes and get swing and misses with.
Wes Benjamin is a lefty freshman starter for the University of Kansas. He isn't even close to what you would call overpowering, but his arm angle gives him some interesting movement. He was leaving the breaking ball up, and really had control issues. He walks way too many batters, but he doesn't give them a lot of good pitches to hit. He looks like a ground-ball type pitcher.
Robbi Rea of Oklahoma State plays a decent 2nd base, and has good plate discipline with really long at-bats with fouls that lead to walks.
Omar Poveda of the Jacksonville Suns has a big looping breaking ball that he can both throw for strikes and throw low to get hitters to chase (Kentrail Davis looked pretty comical trying to hit it). His fastball isn't overpowering, but it is hard enough and has good sinking action.
Josh Stinson in the Brewers system (already on the 40-man) has a 2-seamer with a ton of movement, a mediocre 4-seamer, with what looks like a slider. The slider he only threw occasionally in what I saw, and he didn't look like he had good control of it. The 2-Seamer wasn't exactly going where he wanted to either, but if he harnesses that pitch with any kind of consistency, the big pitcher could break a lot of bats and be successful.
Daniel Nava for the Pawtucket Red Sox looks absolutely silly on curveballs, while Jose Iglesias showed some plate discipline when I saw him (although he may have been too patient as he took a 1-1 fastball down the middle).
I watched Aaron Cook pitch, and he was throwing an 89 MPH 2-seamer that has some movement, but not a lot.
Pat Misch of the Phillies AAA team threw a bunch of breaking balls early on when I saw him, with a soft fastball. The lefty got a fly-ball, ground-ball, infield fly-ball, hard hit ball in the infield, ground-ball, line drive, and a strikeout on an outside fastball.
Chris Schwinder of the Buffalo Bisons (the Mets AAA affiliate) had problems getting his curve down, but it looks like his fastball has good movement and decent velocity.
Daryl Thompson of the Rochester Red Wings, the AAA affiliate of the Twins, has a slow curve that would make most Korean pitcher blush. The fastball provides some nice speed differential, but he doesn't seem to have much control of it.
For the Greenville Drive (in the Red Sox organization), Keury De La Cruz plays a good left field despite not having superior speed. His arm is very pedestrian though. Yeiper Castillo has a nice breaking ball that he can throw for strikes and get swing and misses with.
Wes Benjamin is a lefty freshman starter for the University of Kansas. He isn't even close to what you would call overpowering, but his arm angle gives him some interesting movement. He was leaving the breaking ball up, and really had control issues. He walks way too many batters, but he doesn't give them a lot of good pitches to hit. He looks like a ground-ball type pitcher.
Robbi Rea of Oklahoma State plays a decent 2nd base, and has good plate discipline with really long at-bats with fouls that lead to walks.
Dallas Beeler for Tennessee Smokies is a tall right hander that keeps the ball low for the most part, with decent velocity and some movement on fastball. He doesn't seem to have a great feel for his breaking pitch, but it is a big dropping curveball. Also throws more of a straight 4-seam fastball that has good velocity that he likes to keep away from righties. He seemed to be throwing a lot of pitches down the middle of the plate and really developed control problems as the game went along. He looks to be a good fielder of his position.
Nick Struck of the Smokies has a big looping breaking ball that breaks to the left, but he can't really throw it for strikes. If he ever gets to where he can, it will be a really nasty pitch. He also has either a splitter or slider that is sort of a weird pitch, along with a moving fastball that he can throw for backdoor strikes. His 4-seam fastball has some nice velocity. Casey Weathers had no real control at all when I saw him, with a ton of wild pitches and walks.
Alberto Cabrera of the Smokies has a hard moving sinker with a hard breaking ball that possesses a lot of break but not much control. Stuff isn't the question with Cabrera, control will be. Also has a nice little curveball he can break out for speed differential.
Rebel Ridling is listed as a first baseman for the Smokies but played left field and doesn't have the arm to play there. Mike Burgess for Tennessee Smokies can run reasonably well and drove a pitch low in the strike zone. Defensively, he has a good arm.
Wellington Castillo of the Iowa Cubs has a violent uppercut fly-ball type swing. Adrian Cardenas drove a ball really well, but he is not a great runner. Anthony Rizzo brought up questions about contact and bat speed with a big hack and miss. Ty Wright has a big swing but can make contact on offspeed pitches. He also seems to have decent speed as well.
Bobby Wahl of Ole Miss has 88-91+ MPH straight fastball. Hitters were really late on it but location wasn't always great and really faded. His 73-78 MPH curveball can be throw for strikes and get swing and misses, and he kept it away from righties. What I found concerning was that his velocity dipped rather early in the game and didn't come back. This could simply mean he doesn't have a great amount of arm strength built up, which isn't concerning at all, or he could just have to put a lot of effort to get the fastball up at its peak, which means he should be a reliever. Worst case scenario is that there is some kind of injury there.
At Ole Miss Alex Yarbrough is a great fielder at 2nd with the arm, range, and everything you look for in a middle infielder.
Georgia Michael Palazzone: It is hard to excited about a right handed pitcher who is hitting 85 MPH on the radar gun but he has a big looping curve (sometimes under 70 MPH) he can throw for some quality strikes. Also has a change-up at 78 MPH. That pitch is not near as good.
Peter Verdin (Georgia) nice double on a breaking pitch that stayed too high. He is a pretty good runner too. Kyle Farmer for Georgia has range, but the arm isn't great. He can run okay.
DJ LeMahieu Colorado Springs AAA, late on fastball in first at-bat, but pounded a 3-1 letter high fastball for an extra base hit the other way. Tim Wheeler made a terrible throw out in right field, but drew a couple of walks. Andrew Brown seems to be having contact and pitch recognition problems.
Christian Friedrich has a decent 90-94 MPH fastball with a curveball that looks like it could be a good pitch. He was really fastball heavy when I saw him, but it seems he can locate it well other than a few he placed in the heart of the plate.
D.J. Mitchell of the Yankees AAA has quite a bit of movement on all his pitches, including a slider and a curveball. He doesn't have hardly any control at all of those pitches, but his velocity seems adequate.
Jason Bulger has a decent loop his breaking ball, but can't really locate it well from what I have seen. His fastball really isn't very good. Chris Dickerson covers a lot of ground in center field.
Jeurys Familia of the AAA Mets, has a hard fastball that he can throw both low and high. Jeremy Hefner has sinking action on some of his pitches with an occassional curveball. The tall right hander throws high fastballs and is pretty athletic.
Scott Rice of the Isotopes (Dodgers' system) is a big lefty without great velocity. He was having a lot of problems with his breaking ball command. Josh Fields has a nice looking power stroke, and he hit a ball for a homer.
For Creighton University, Kurt Spomer has decent 2-seamer velocity for a side armer. He struck out hitters from both sides of the plate when I saw him, which may suggest that he isn't strictly a platoon pitcher. Mark Winkleman has a hard moving breaking pitch that he was able to keep low to go with his curveball. Jake Peter showed off some great defense at 2nd base.
Greg Reynolds from Round Rock has a nice breaking pitch with plate to plate movement that he can get for called strikes. Even though he broke a bat, he gave up some pretty hard contact. Tommy Mendoca struggled on a play at 3rd base, while Julio Borbon looked awful out in centerfield (but this is something we already knew).
Casey Fien in the Twins AAA has no real control of is breaking stuff (even though it has a big drop), even though he threw one good one low and outside. His fastball was staying in the middle to high middle of the plate without much velocity.
Monday, April 2, 2012
Scouting Reports on Texas A&M Kingsville and Tarleton
On Sunday April 1st (No April Fools I promise) 2012, I watched Texas A&M Kingsville play Tarleton University.
The starting pitcher for Kingsville was Zachary Pettiford, a right handed junior listed at 6-4 220. He was throwing quite a bit harder than Tarleton's starter (more on him later), but was most likely south of 90 MPH. He also had a hard slider and a curveball, and although he threw some good ones, he had real control issues with those pitches. He hit a batter with one, but they seemed to be good complementary pitches even though he will have to live with mainly his fastball while those pitches develop. I am not sure he can do that with his fastball. He gave up lots of flyballs and it turned into lots of runs in the game.
For Kingville's lineup, Sophomore Dustin Aguilar can fly, at 5-10 165. The center fielder has a decent arm but had some trouble with the breaking ball. For the most part he wasn't chasing but he really didn't do much with pitches I thought he should have crushed. Ben Villafuerte can play in both the outfield and 2nd base (where I saw him). The small junior wasn't real fast and lacks patience at the plate. Trent Wagner has good size at 6-3 200, but the right fielder is really slow out in the field. Catcher Jake Mediola has a good arm, with a relatively quick release. Predictably, the senior is pretty slow. 1st baseman James Wallace looked awful on most breaking pitches, even though he did smack a hanging one. The junior drove the ball to the wall once but struck out the next time. The DH was listed 2nd baseman/pitcher Cameron Dullnig. The senior had some pretty lackluster swings, even with a couple of hits. He can definately run though. 3rd baseman James Black drove the ball pretty well in his at-bats. The junior stands at 6-0 185. Mario Siller is a small freshman shortstop who isn't a quick runner. He did seem pretty solid in the field,but couldn't drive the ball very well. Julian Duran had an awful drop in left field, and was chasing a bunch of breaking pitches. He does run pretty well though.
Cole Foster is a freshman right handed reliever who stands at just 5-11 179. He isn't going to blow you away with velocity, but not many pitches were in the middle of the plate. He threw mainly fastballs, with a very mediocre breaking pitch that he couldn't get down. The glove flies ahead of him in his delivery and 2 of his first 3 pitches turned into contact. He does field his position pretty well.
For Tarleton, a team I have seen 3 times now (and will see them at least one more time), the starter was Matt Buckmaster, a pitcher I have seen before (read previous posts to see more detailed scouting reports on the team). The lefty junkballer threw a lot of strikes (his first two fastballs were down the middle), and had some hard hit balls. His breaking ball stayed pretty low, but it provides very little speed differential.
Landon Thompson is a guy who I have seen with the bat and in the field but hadn't seen pitch yet. He is just 5-11 190, and has okay velocity. His plan was clearly to just throw a lot of low fastballs. They weren't fooling anyone, and just made him get behind in the count. When the fastballs crept up he was hurt and he couldn't consistently throw them low. He broke out a curve but has little to no feel for it. He threw a couple good ones finally, only to hang the next one. Even though he was awful for the most part, his fastball seemed better when he put it on the inside or the outside of the plate (and not at the low part).
Kyle Supack came in and showed a good pickoff move. He got a nice jamshot and put a lot of fastballs in the middle to middle low part of the plate. He hit 2 batters in a row and was absolutely tattooed.
Tanner Ross was throwing a lot of curveballs and looked a lot better than the last time I saw him. He had some good stuff, and was getting quite a bit of swing and misses early but then walked 2 in a row as the stuff became less deceptive.
For the lineup on a day when the ball was carrying, Garrett Hardey hit a homer on a breaking pitch. That is pretty remarkable considering he hasn't done anything on breaking balls in other at-bats I have seen him. Defensively, he looked awful with 2 really bad defensive plays.
Ryan Small hit a double on a fastball right down the middle. Andrew Jacobi DH'ed but is listed as a catcher, and is really small for a catcher. He can run though, which he has to as he is a ground-ball hitter. Andrew Wolfe made a really nice play at center field, while Noah Ringenberger looked bad out in right field. He did drive a low fastball to the wall though.
The starting pitcher for Kingsville was Zachary Pettiford, a right handed junior listed at 6-4 220. He was throwing quite a bit harder than Tarleton's starter (more on him later), but was most likely south of 90 MPH. He also had a hard slider and a curveball, and although he threw some good ones, he had real control issues with those pitches. He hit a batter with one, but they seemed to be good complementary pitches even though he will have to live with mainly his fastball while those pitches develop. I am not sure he can do that with his fastball. He gave up lots of flyballs and it turned into lots of runs in the game.
For Kingville's lineup, Sophomore Dustin Aguilar can fly, at 5-10 165. The center fielder has a decent arm but had some trouble with the breaking ball. For the most part he wasn't chasing but he really didn't do much with pitches I thought he should have crushed. Ben Villafuerte can play in both the outfield and 2nd base (where I saw him). The small junior wasn't real fast and lacks patience at the plate. Trent Wagner has good size at 6-3 200, but the right fielder is really slow out in the field. Catcher Jake Mediola has a good arm, with a relatively quick release. Predictably, the senior is pretty slow. 1st baseman James Wallace looked awful on most breaking pitches, even though he did smack a hanging one. The junior drove the ball to the wall once but struck out the next time. The DH was listed 2nd baseman/pitcher Cameron Dullnig. The senior had some pretty lackluster swings, even with a couple of hits. He can definately run though. 3rd baseman James Black drove the ball pretty well in his at-bats. The junior stands at 6-0 185. Mario Siller is a small freshman shortstop who isn't a quick runner. He did seem pretty solid in the field,but couldn't drive the ball very well. Julian Duran had an awful drop in left field, and was chasing a bunch of breaking pitches. He does run pretty well though.
Cole Foster is a freshman right handed reliever who stands at just 5-11 179. He isn't going to blow you away with velocity, but not many pitches were in the middle of the plate. He threw mainly fastballs, with a very mediocre breaking pitch that he couldn't get down. The glove flies ahead of him in his delivery and 2 of his first 3 pitches turned into contact. He does field his position pretty well.
For Tarleton, a team I have seen 3 times now (and will see them at least one more time), the starter was Matt Buckmaster, a pitcher I have seen before (read previous posts to see more detailed scouting reports on the team). The lefty junkballer threw a lot of strikes (his first two fastballs were down the middle), and had some hard hit balls. His breaking ball stayed pretty low, but it provides very little speed differential.
Landon Thompson is a guy who I have seen with the bat and in the field but hadn't seen pitch yet. He is just 5-11 190, and has okay velocity. His plan was clearly to just throw a lot of low fastballs. They weren't fooling anyone, and just made him get behind in the count. When the fastballs crept up he was hurt and he couldn't consistently throw them low. He broke out a curve but has little to no feel for it. He threw a couple good ones finally, only to hang the next one. Even though he was awful for the most part, his fastball seemed better when he put it on the inside or the outside of the plate (and not at the low part).
Kyle Supack came in and showed a good pickoff move. He got a nice jamshot and put a lot of fastballs in the middle to middle low part of the plate. He hit 2 batters in a row and was absolutely tattooed.
Tanner Ross was throwing a lot of curveballs and looked a lot better than the last time I saw him. He had some good stuff, and was getting quite a bit of swing and misses early but then walked 2 in a row as the stuff became less deceptive.
For the lineup on a day when the ball was carrying, Garrett Hardey hit a homer on a breaking pitch. That is pretty remarkable considering he hasn't done anything on breaking balls in other at-bats I have seen him. Defensively, he looked awful with 2 really bad defensive plays.
Ryan Small hit a double on a fastball right down the middle. Andrew Jacobi DH'ed but is listed as a catcher, and is really small for a catcher. He can run though, which he has to as he is a ground-ball hitter. Andrew Wolfe made a really nice play at center field, while Noah Ringenberger looked bad out in right field. He did drive a low fastball to the wall though.
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