This guy throws hard
by Brett Perryman on Jul 8, 2008 10:43 AM CDT
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I think that pretty much everything from Neftali's AA debut has been covered by someone, but to summarize, he is basically as advertised. He could probably survive in a pen right now, just based on his fastball, but to be an effective starter, he has a ways still to go. He has no faith in his breaking ball, at least at the new level, and it hurt him as he struggled through his last trip through the order and some fatigue (he only threw 80 pitches, but I think that he was pitching on adrenaline early and ran out of gas quickly as a result). He needs to improve his secondary pitches, but at this point, he just has to accept that he has to throw them, and that seems to make AA a good level for him right now.
Besides making the usual wish for good health for a pitching prospect, you just have to hope that the Rangers are able to finish off his development. From a basic standpoint, he has workable command of his fastball, and from reports ordinarily has better movement on it than he showed last night (possible trade-off for the extra velocity, and as everyone else has said, all guns did have him at 100 and 101 a couple of times). But he has pretty dramatic improvements to make on his second and third pitches. The change is no more than a "keep in mind, I may not throw it as hard" pitch at this point, but I think that the breaking ball is the key. As the scouts sitting behind home plate were noting, on the occasion that he did throw it, it was a mid-70's pitch with a little sharpness. Against his nasty fastball, that's the weapon that would give advanced hitters fits.
He's in AA, but I could see the timetable being anywhere from about four baseball months to as much as two years before he's truly ready. Hopefully he'll have a full arsenal of weapons by that time.
(sorry for the fuzziness, had completely the wrong lens with me by accident)
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The radar readings are fun and all
but I’ll trade them for more control and command. FBs in the mid-90s range will probably have a little more movement; if he is more deceptive with the changeup (tipping according to some) and mixes in the curve well, that will be plenty fast enough. And I would much rather wait two years if that’s what it takes then rush this jewel.
Exciting night last evening with Hunter throwing a gem also. Wieland and Bleier off to good starts,the Latin kids doing well. The only downer to this season in the minors for me is Castillo and Christian Santana. I expected much more from both.
Time you enjoy wasting was not wasted.
He is
tipping his change with a more cautious, slower motion. His command on his fastball is more vertical command than side to side. He works in upper part of the strike zone well. It helps he can do that with a 100 mph fastball however his best fastball was low and away. To me, it seemed his secondary pitches will develop with time. Did it seem like he was throwing a little bit of a slider as well? I only caught one CB all night clocked at 79.
by booyahcaveman on Jul 8, 2008 10:59 AM CDT up reply actions
Castillo has been a huge disappointment
luckily he can repeat in Clinton next year and still be young for the league. Also, I have to say i am pleasantly surprised Swanson returned as quickly as he did, and it has been nice seeing Kirkman, a big lefty, come back from two poor years and establish himself in the Clinton rotation.
Font isn't a downer?
I remember a few of us being pretty high on him…
"No, Donny, these men are nihilists, there's nothing to be afraid of."
by Walter Sobchak on Jul 8, 2008 11:37 AM CDT up reply actions
Font is still only 18
and throws a Felizian fastball. The love will return when he gets back on the bump.
Well, disappointing in that he hasn't pitched
sure. But we’ve been talking about Blow Rider a year longer, and I expected him to have some success this year. He’s been knocked around a bit lately. I’m not real worried about him yet, just a little disappointed.
Santana I’m worried about. That is just way too many strikeouts.
Time you enjoy wasting was not wasted.
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My friend posted some pictures of Feliz from last night to the Lone Star Ball Facebook group. There’s also one linked from Flickr in an earlier post I made.
Didn’t think about going over to the pen. Good idea!
I believe...
He was only throwing fastballs, change ups, and sliders last night. My personal belief is that the 79 MPH pitch was a slider off which he took something (no dangling participles for this guy!). Most of his sliders were 86-90 – ridiculous.
I think his change up can effective now. He likes throwing it and he had good command of it. It might be a little firm for a normal person’s change up, but at 85 or so, he’s still getting about 12 MPH of separation.
I’m sure the kid was amped, so it will be interesting to see how things change when he’s a little calmer.
Notable areas for improvement:
(1) slider command – most of these were up. i wasn’t charting, but it seemed like most contact made against Feliz came on sliders up.
(2) slider spin – from where I was sitting, i couldn’t see any break in the pitch. to me, it looked like a cutter with a 10 MPH speed drop off.
(3) composure – he seemed pretty unhappy with one of the base runners during his 5th inning, the inning in which things weren’t exactly going his way. maybe it was something specific that the runner did, but maybe it was because things were kind of falling apart a bit at that moment. i can’t say, but i know what it looked like.
There was plenty of
contact made on fastballs in the 97 mph range.
As far as the curve/slider, I wasn’t watching the motion or grip or anything, but the scouts behind me called it a curve and talked about it for a minute. It also broke a lot more than the “sliders” he threw, and I use quotes because those pitches were pretty hard to distinguish from the change because of little break on either pitch. They were basically just change of speed pitches, whether they spun like a slider or change.
by Brett Perryman on Jul 8, 2008 12:17 PM CDT up reply actions
He definitely attempted to throw
a CB at least once because he was calling for it during his warmups between innings. I think he realizes he needs to work on his secondary pitches but then goes back to his hard stuff because he knows he can get guys out with it. It is just matter of confidence and time. He has very solid mechanics and seems like he wants to get better so the offspeed will come with time.
by booyahcaveman on Jul 8, 2008 1:24 PM CDT up reply actions
Man i need to buy a new camera, our point and shoot digi cam blows.
i need a digital slr so i can take decent pic’s at rider games
"I'm against picketing, but I don't know how to show it." - Mitch Hedberg
It may take some time...
But I still think this kid will be the Rangers ace of the future. He just turned 20. As Z says he’s in the right spot to work on the offspeed stuff.
I’ll bet he’s called up late next year or starts with the team in 2010 which means the Rangers will have a very highly regarded 21 year old pitching prospect. I’m not a religious man, but I will pray this kid stays healthy and ends up being as good as we all think he can be.
"The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance."-Socrates
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