This is the second of my published pieces and this involves profiles on three players: Tim Murphy, Clark Murphy, and Corey Young.  As I mentioned in the Neil Ramirez fan post, I will periodically check back and answer any questions readers might have, but I will be out till later this afternoon.

89. Tim Murphy | LHP

via www.baseball-intellect.com

Deceptive, hides ball well, stays closed, doesn't really show the ball into just before release.

Not efficient with his body. Tucks his arm behind his hips, but he keeps it there for too long in my opinion. Murphy works between 87 - 91 mph, but his velocity might be more consistent if he didn't lose out on the rotational forces a pitcher needs to produce velocity. I slow down the key sequence in his delivery. Watch how the upper body is uncoiled forward, but notice the arm is still rising to its loaded position, meaning it isn't in position to come along for the ride.

Yes, the Rangers could work with Murphy to make these adjustments, but like any adjustment, making them is easier said than done because other facets of the delivery need to be changed due to timing differences. You also have to deal with a variety of issues such as muscle memory--how well the muscles adapt to a change in one's mechanics

WIth that said, he is deceptive, his curveball is close to plus, and his control is solid. I'm not sure he has the quality kind of stuff to be a starter at the major league level but nothing wrong with a quality arm out of the bullpen.

153. Clark Murphy | OF | B - L

via www.baseball-intellect.com

Murphy is one reason you have to take the use of these video clips with a grain of salt, especially ones in which contact was rarely made and the player appeared to injure himself multiple times.

All of the above occurred in Murphy's draft video, but the mechanics of his swing look pretty good.  His best swing actually came on a pitch he swung-and-missed on (above).  He really loads his hand with a jerk of the bat away from his body and then back.  He keeps his swing pretty short in the process.

He looks to take an aggressive hack at the ball and it appears, should he make contact, it would be after he let it travel deep into his hitting zone.  All this lends itself to solid power.

The tendency for him to swing and miss could be from a number of issues.  It often appeared he was too far out in front, meaning he was possibly fooled on some sort of breaking pitch.  Nevertheless, Murphy put up some fantastic numbers in the Arizona League and should monitored as we head forward.

353. Corey Young | LHP

via www.baseball-intellect.com

I like guys with unique or deceptive mechanics and Young is one of those types.  He's got a fast tempo (number of frames from the point in which the knee reaches it's upper most point to release), but he isn't a high-velocity thrower mostly because he doesn't efficiently use his body in that he doesn't achieve good separation of the torso and hips...similar to the problem Tim Murphy suffered from.  His arm isn't in position to come along for the ride.

However, Young is deceptive in that he has a relatively long stride, he looks like he throws harder than he actually does, and his pitches have some quality movement on them.  He's got a lot of tailing action on his fastball, but can get in trouble when he leaves it up in the zone.  His curveball is more of a frisby type curve that you can see below.

via www.baseball-intellect.com

He has a lot of parts to coordinate so there is a question of whether his command will be good at higher levels of competition.

He's not a flashy pick nor a high upside pick, but he's another player that could be useful for the Rangers out of their bullpen.  His ability to generate ground balls will also be welcome at the Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.

Hope this article provided a little more in-depth information on these prospects and again thanks for the support.

Hi everybody, before I begin, I wanted to express my appreciation to the Lonestar community as it has been among the most supportive of the work I do for Baseball-Intellect and I guess you can say readers here have been among the most "link-happy" readers.  I wanted to reward you guys for the support given to me.

I am creating two fan posts--one being a follow up on my article on Neil Ramirez and the other being a review of three draft prospects--Tim Murphy, Clark Murphy, and Corey Young.  I will also pop in periodically to answer any questions people might have.  I have to leave for now, but will be back later this afternoon.

As for Ramirez, there is an interesting comment in the fan shot posted by t ball from NoNameOnCard.  Here it is:

I don't know if it's selection bias or not...

but in the fastball and curve videos he picked to show Ramirez’s delivery, Ramirez’s motion is remarkably consistent. Typically, even the best pitchers in the game have more of a variance between their fastball and curve.

Eisenberg mentioned it briefly, but when coupled with Ramirez’s stuff, the deception this creates is otherworldly.

I looked earlier so I’m not sure if Eisenberg fixed it, but the sideview wasn’t working properly this afternoon. The high elbow is really only a concern with regard to timing. From the front-view photos, it’s hard to tell exactly when his elbow drops back down. Typically, problems only occur if a pitcher picks that elbow up and then drags his arm behind his shoulders while still picking up the ball.

Eisenberg mentions some violence in Ramirez’s delivery, but the examples he shows really don’t accent that point. In fact, the examples he chose look pretty impressive from a mechanical standpoint with the elbow position being the only obvious question mark.

Just my opinion, feel free to react or not.

It touched on several points and hopefully I can help expound on some of the points raised:

1. Thank you for pointing out the graphic of Ramirez from the side angle was not working.  It is fixed now for everybody to see.

2. Ramirez's motion is certainly consistent...this is where his athleticism helps him

3. Selection Bias - this is obviously part of the limitations on using video, but I do my best to take a pitch representative of what the pitcher usually throws...unless I try to make a point about the problems a pitcher exhibits.  The fastball is typical for him.  The curveball was among his better one's thrown.  His motion, as mentioned earlier is similar for each pitch type.

4. The high elbow...that's an excellent point of when the elbow drops back down because the point of maximum stress on the shoulder is the actual rotation to release, not the point in which the elbow rises above the shoulder.

Personally, I'm not big on predicting injuries.  I just take note of the risk factors involved.  I collected clips from most of the 30+ pitchers who had either a torn labrum or rotator cuff and there was no single mechanical attribute that showed up in each pitcher, or even a majority of the pitchers.  You had pitchers with a wide variety of mechanics and arm actions.  It's easy to take a few pictures of injury prone pitchers with similar mechanics and make it appear a high percentage of pitchers with those mechanics get injured.  But that's not really the case.

I'll go more into pitcher injuries in future articles.

5. Violence...it doesn't really show up in the behind the catcher views.  You'll notice in the side view that Ramirez's velocity isn't easy...it's sneaky, but he appears to use a lot of force with each pitch.  I reference the hat almost being knocked off his head after the release of each pitch.

I would recommend watching Ramirez in full-speed (see pick 44) to get a good feel for how deceptive he is and how forceful the release of each pitch is.  He has tremendous arm speed.

But remember, violence/aggression does not equal injury.  Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't.

In any case, comments like the one by NoNameOnCard do an excellent job of generating discussion and allow me to expand on what I write in each article so thanks again.

Hey guys, I thought everybody would be interested in this piece.  I wrote it about a week ago, but I wanted to wait until Harden's second start to post it here.  And despite the loss, he didn't disappoint in his performance.  Here is the link:

Rich Harden

What the article does is break down Harden's mechanics, stuff, and outlook for future health.

Harden (I guess over the offseason) made some changes to his arm action.  In my view it looks smoother than in 2007 and less stressful for the arm.

I must add...Harden's fastball/change-up combo is just sick.  If you scroll down to where it says "Stuff", you'll see just how similar a plane each pitch comes in on, which is partly why he is so difficult to hit.

For discussion purposes, try to put all biases aside and factor in the players given up in both deals...what pitcher would you ultimately want: Harden or Sabathia.

My opinion is that while Harden has the better raw stuff, Harden's health risk makes me take Sabathia.  But when you factor in the Cubs receiving a quality pitcher in Chad Gaudin, you have to figure that the Cubs got the better value.  So Iike the Harden/Gaudin deal better but would prefer Sabathia over Harden though tonight's start does make me question if that's the right call.

In any case, hope you enjoy the read.  Thanks again.

Hey guys, I'm in the middle of a draft review for the Hardball Times and I am looking for input.

Justin Smoak was not apart of the first installment, but this was because I had already created a scouting report on him before the draft using the usual video analysis, which readers can get here:

Justin Smoak

Congrats on getting this guy because as an Oriole fan, he was the guy I wanted all along.  And to get him at 11 is a real coup.  I found this interesting tidbit over at McCovey Chronicals via Baseball Prospectus:

College first basemen are the most valuable group of draft picks by an enormous margin. College first basemen selected in the first round have gone on to have Hall of Fame-caliber careers approximately one-third of the time.

Now, for this draft, you'll see me report on Harold Martinez and I'll probably do Robert Ross.

But now I need your input on other prospects (draft related) you would like to see broken down.  I can't promise to do everyone, but I promise to come back and break down 3 or 4 of the guys you choose specifically for Lone Star.

So let me know.

Hey guys, I'm in the middle of a draft review series for THT over the next few weeks, and I want some suggestions for players to look at.

I've already done a profile on Jemile Weeks , who while I think is an overdraft, should still give the A's some solid value once he is ready for major league pitching.

I'm already planning to do break downs on players up to pick 50, but I realize Oakland didn't have a selection after Weeks until 58.

So here are some thoughts on some Oakland picks:

58. Tyson Ross - I've seen scouting reports that have his velocity up to 94 or 95, but the video doesn't show that.  It showed him working in the mid - upper 80's and his mechanics bear that out: little use of his lower body, short stride.  Of course, the video was taken in 2007, and I'm very interested to see the changes made to his mechanics that allowed him to see a jump in velocity.

90. Preston Paramore - I liked what I saw, though I didn't see many swings (maybe that is due to his plate discipline), but he put a solid swing on the ball and let it travel relatively deep.  Not a lot of upside, but I like him nonetheless.

214. Brett Hunter - I like this pick.  Ross never really used his lower body, but Hunter maximizes his use of his lower body as evidenced by his mid-90's velocity.  I saw pretty good control as well and he could move quickly.

394. Daniel Thomas - shows good control and pretty solid 3 or 4 pitch mix.  Can get his fastball up to 93 with movement and I think he has some more velocity left in the tank as well

664. Preston Guilmet - this was a pure results-oriented pick.  He put up great #s at Arizona, but when you watch you see an awkward wind-up (helping with deception), and pretty fringy stuff.  He does all the things pitchers need to do like change speeds, pitch backwards, etc, but we'll see what happens....definitely a results vs. scouting battle here.

So if there any suggestions for players to profile (including more in-depth breakdowns on the players above) please let me know

Hey guys, in case anybody is interested I have a breakdown of Justin Smoak's swing mechanics here:

Justin Smoak 

I know he is a long shot to fall to the Nationals, but I think he would be a clear choice for if he were to fall.  I found this tidbit from Baseball Prospectus via the McCovey Chronicals:

College first basemen are the most valuable group of draft picks by an enormous margin. College first basemen selected in the first round have gone on to have Hall of Fame-caliber careers approximately one-third of the time.

First, let me point out this scouting report on Brandon Tripp that people should find interesting since it gives you video of his swing and the adjustments he has made since being drafted:

Brandon Tripp report 

Second, and I'm not sure if anybody has noticed, but Chris Tillman has been excellent his past two starts:

12 IP, 0 Runs, 4 Hits, 15 Ks, 5 BBs

Remember, just 20 years old and close to dominating in Double-A.  People don't realize he is the youngest pitcher in Double-A.  The second youngest?  Clayton Kershaw.

Jake Arrieta has also been dominating, striking out close to 30% of batters faced and he has had five starts in which he has gone at least five innings and allowed no more than two hits.

Matt Wieters continues to pummel Frederick, maintaining an OPS over 1.000

Billy Rowell has heated up after a slow start with an .877 OPS in May.  He still is striking out way too much and hitting the ball too often on the ground, but it is still nice to see him hitting well right now.

Add in the success of David Hernandez, Brad Bergesen, and Jason Berken in Double-A plus the emergence of little talked about Zach Britton, a projectable lefty in Delmarva that has showed off plus control and a GB% of 69% and there is a lot to like in the minors.

Hey guys, I thought everybody would be interested in this article Brandon Wood.  I know the guy has gotten off to a fairly miserable start at the major league level thus far, but my feeling is that Wood should at least become a low average, high power, good fielding SS as long as he works past any extended slumps that are bound to happen due to his propensity for striking out. I conducted a scouting report on Wood, which I link to below:

Brandon Wood 

Wood's value would obviously be much higher at SS than at 3b.  However, I do have a question: does Aybar have SS locked down?  His glove is sick, but I do still have some questions about his bat.

Hey guys, I thought readers might be interested in this piece on Tyler Colvin.  It isn't a positive review of Colvin, but readers who have not seen his swing might be interested in taking a look.

I've never really been high on Colvin because his plate discipline has been atrocious his entire career and while he is a good athlete, I don't see him as a guy who has all these great tools and just needs to put it together.

Now, he is walking slightly more this year, but his K's are way up and his power is down.

It is always possible the light bulb goes off in a player's head and they do put it all together, so I'm not completely writing the guy off, but the terrible K:BB ratio is just a giant red flag.  I think this should be a lesson for teams to be wary of college hitters who don't show much plate discipline and only show modest power, especially in the first round.  The link to the article is below, for anybody interested:

Tyler Colvin Scouting Report 

I'm sure many readers have heard of him, but if not he is a fourth round pick of Dodgers out of Newbury high school in CA.  I view him as a player that should be closely watched as he has the capability of breaking out in a big way.  I did a write up for him that includes some video of him here:

Andrew Lambo 

To start off, he's very young for his league and has already very solid power while still having a good amount of projection left.  He makes consistent, hard contact and has a very good looking swing.  He does need to cut down on the K's.  And there were questions about his character heading into the draft.

For discussion, are there any other really under the radar guys that could have a rocket type rise up the prospect rankings in the next couple years?