July 19 Game Notes: Arroyo Seco Saints (California Collegiate League)

Notes & Comments

Sat back on a good two-strike slider in his first at-bat of the night and hit an absolute rope up the middle; didn’t get out in front, didn’t jump the gun down in the count, just sat back on it and reacted to the pitch, let his hands do the work. Then came up in second at-bat and hit another rope (this time early in the count) and jumped on a fastball for another barreled missile, this time through the hole at shortstop to his pull side. Hands are quick, plenty of hand/forearm strength with some ability to manipulate the barrel, decent contact skills and doesn’t panic when down in the count. Good hitter, strong kid. Foot speed OK, had him 4.78 on the turn when he busted it up the line and thought about two in that second at-bat. Big, physical kid with thickness through body; probably not a ton of physical projection left in him, but plenty of natural strength for leverage, ought to produce some power.

Big, thick build kid like Peterson but a little sloppier in his body, particularly through his core and lower half; no physical projection but some natural girth for power/leverage, real pull-side look to him at the plate for power. Conejo shifted pretty radically against him in every at-bat; at one point, he tried to bunt against the shift and fouled it off, but when he was doing what he was supposed to do, he was lifting balls to his pull side with good bat plane and decent bat speed. Pull power when he gets good wood on it; need to see what he does when he gets sat on away, if there’s an ability to go the other way with authority there, too.

Switch hitter with some speed and athleticism; went 3.75 up the line on a base hit bunt from the LHH box last night, shows good foot speed right off the first step from both sides of the plate even if he’s a little more otherwise limited offensively. Decent speed to track balls down in center field, too; moves well, glides, good first step. Not a great arm, though; couple tag-up plays on him from mid-center field, rainbow throws back in that weren’t on a line (and still weren’t particularly accurate); definitely an arm to run on in most cases/scenarios based on that.

Notes & Comments

Really undersized kid; simple mechanics, no real balance point and sort of a weight gathering/slide step to the plate that gives him a little momentum there, but leaves him susceptible to really getting out in front of his arm and dragging it through late. Stuff finished high/arm-side quite a bit because of it; struggle to get timing down to get arm extended out front and release to consistently work down in the zone and/or get out to his glove-side … Fastball 82-84; curveball 72-75; very, very curveball heavy all outing, almost like he was pitching off his curveball instead of his fastball across every batter he faced. Went to breaking ball early to establish, late to try to wipe out, fastball was the after thought here; interesting sequencing/feel for stuff there, especially considering curveball had some of the same issues the fastball did, flew up and arm-side, hung out, suffered from lack of ability to really get arm out front, etc. Some mechanics work to be done here to keep from leaking out; ultimately feels like low-leverage middle/long relief arm wherever he ends up next year.

Pretty decent arm strength, particularly early, but velo faded fairly quickly down the stretch when pitch count got up; broadly sat 85-90 but was more in the top half of that spectrum early and the bottom half there from about the third inning on. That said, decent feel for stuff; Changeup 74-76, Curveball 73-77 as well as fastball look. Ample arm-side run to fastball from three-quarters release; pitches ride hard in but generally lacked late downward life, liable to stay up on one plane and stay hittable. Got barreled up quite a bit early because of that, struggled to see any depth from fastball and stayed on one plane to the tune of three first-inning runs … Decently sharp/impressive curveball at times, became his go-to pitch down the stretch, particularly when ahead in the count; struggled to get it over the plate for a called strike early in counts, but really had feel for wipeout ability with it on two strikes; later in the game, feel for early called strike curve became a bit better, made a feel adjustment there after the first few innings … Decent tempos with nobody on, but pace really, really slowed down between pitches with runners on base; lacks life there, lulls defense to sleep? Major tempo change, very noticeable. Typically 1.33 - 1.42 to the plate with runners on base, though with clearly slower runners, he’d sometimes sit 1.50-1.55 and give himself a little more of a chance to get his arm through the zone efficiently … Impressive outing considering he’s a JuCo arm, very much worth following over the next couple seasons.

Fastball 79-84; Slider 69-73. Low three-quarters look, pitch life to his arm-side but very flat, gets barreled hard without two-plane depth at all; no real manipulation for sink, just run right into RHH bats. Slider is slurve-like; slow with horizontal life, lacks depth and real break, nothing sharp/late about it. Easy to see out of the hand and follow trajectory after from there. Some work to do to develop into more significant middle/late reliever than look I had tonight.