Sunday Pebble Report

But you see a little fire from Rodriguez coming all the way back out to get in on the fight that he caused.

First impression is that he has begun to fill out his frame somewhat. He’s certainly not full, and would still be considered lean, but compared to where he was entering the system, he’s done okay with that. Very long arms and legs and uses those to his advantage, getting a high release point on his pitches.

Delivery, Roe still isn’t as crisp as you’d like. He’s good in the wind-up, where he stays balanced and under control, with a little effort upon release. It’s the stretch that got him in trouble last night. Roe seems to rush himself out of the stretch, including a bit of a head whip and dragging his arm in behind him. There looks like a bit too much effort in his delivery from the stretch than you’d like to see. This also effects his command, as he got behind too many hitters while throwing from the stretch. He rushes through the delivery and tends to leave his plus curve too high with runners on, but it didn’t hang last night either. The nice thing is that this should be something that McLaughlin and co can correct in time, since he stays pretty composed in the wind-up with pretty good command. It just needs to carry over.

Stuff-wise, he really hasn’t added much from a velocity standpoint yet. His stuff was strong for three innings, and then started to lose it’s crispness, and I’m sure some of it has to do with the adrenaline of pitching in AA for the first time, as well as his late start to the season. Fastball was 89-92, consistently above 90 in the first two innings, but did dip to 87-89 as we wore down. The pitch has average movement, but the life looked late. He also throws from a high release point, making the pitch tough to elevate. The fastball should lead to an above average GB rate. I wouldn’t call it a plus, but it was above average.

The curve is the money pitch. It had both a sharp break and great depth, sometimes going shoulder to mid thigh at around 80 mph. He can play with the break a bit, using it as a freeze pitch or as a chase pitch, depending on the velocity and point of release. The curve plays up the fastball late in counts because hitters are expecting it.

All in all, he pitched better than his line, and he looks like a number 3-4 starter with good but not great strikeout potential. He still needs more weight to hold his stuff longer in games, but he’s still young enough to make some pretty large gains. After watching them both, I do believe he’s a better prospect than Brandon Hynick.

Weathers was not as crisp last night in terms of control, but he could have used some help. The first single he allowed would have been caught by an average major league left fielder, but miller broke late and pulled up early. The second hit was a flair by the pitcher that got over the dimunitve Young’s leap (nice vert though).

Weathers stuff looked great. Fastball was 95-97, mostly 97 and had very good arm side action. He didn’t spot it well, but down the road, he won’t have to if it holds its life and velocity. The slider is straight filth, 88 mph with two plane break, and it breaks hard. However, he only threw it twice, as his fastball command was off. Bottom line, he’s not going to be hittable, the stuff is just too good. He wasn’t as impressive as Chris Perez two years ago, but don’t consider that a slight, I think VERY highly of Chris Perez.

I finally got to see Fowler use his arm, it’s better than I thought, but I wasn’t expecting it to be average either. He’s got plenty of room to fill out, so it should be an above average tool in two years. Great speed in center and covers a lot of ground, sometimes unneccessarilly. At the plate, he was electric with a homer to the opposite field and a triple over the right fielders head (who didn’t play the ball right either). His left handed swing still has its warts, but I’m less concerned with that now because his plate disclipline has remained with the bump to Double A, and though he isn’t walking at a 15% clip, his also not striking out 26% of the time either, and rates of 11% and 20% with more pop is making him a better contributor. Bottom line, I look at him as Carlos Gomez with more patience but a lesser arm, making him the more valuable of the two.