Martin Perez is the fucking shit. There’s no other way to say this. The difference between him and Wilmer Font was equal to (if not greater) than the difference between Wilmer Font and Jake Brigham. The little lefty only threw one inning in an effort to limit his total IP’s this season, but oh what an inning it was. He was pumping every single fastball at 93mph or higher. When he got into a bit of trouble (an “excuse me” check-swing double right down the line) he reached back and went right up the ladder on consecutive pitches. 93… 94… 95… 95… 96. Ninety Fucking Six. And he’s still only 18. Jeezus.

But even aside from the velocity there was a reason to get excited about Martin. When I saw him earlier in the season it was perhaps a bit easy to tell when he was gonna throw that curve of his. His arm and body would slow down just a bit. Not anymore. Everything looked the same right up until it left his hand. That’s huge. And the curve itself has some serious teeth on it. He was mainly throwing fastballs the inning I saw, but when he did break one off, it broke plenty. Definitely a plus pitch.

This guy could handle AA right now. I really and truly believe this. He’s special, special, special. SPECIAL. Johan special.

Wilmer Font. Yah, he’s big. And he throws hard. To say he has an ideal pitcher’s build is perhaps undestating it a bit. He’s big and thick with long arms and just plain looks like a pitcher. He has an exagerated move where he kind of flips of his glove arm out toward the batter that almost puts his arms in a big V just before he throws.

The biggest thing I took away from finally seeing Wilmer is that… I wasn’t blown away.

Maybe I was expecting too much. Maybe it was the fact that I’d already seen Martin throw this year and was comparing him to the incomparable kid. I dunno. Whatever it was, I just wasn’t that blown away by the Font. The fastball was good, but nothing too great. It hung around 91-92 all game, touching 93 on occasion. It seemed to have some good movement on it, as no one really squared up on him. He reminded me a lot of Vicente Padilla, right down to the looks. (And that’s not really an insult, btw… Vicente had real plus stuff and could be borderline dominant when he was on and his head was screwed on right.)

The real disheartening thing about Font is just how raw he appeared. I know this is to be expected, and not everyone’s gonna be a super crazy advance-bot like M-Per, but man oh man is Font raw. Right now he has the single biggest mechanical discrepancy between his curveball and fastball I’ve ever seen in pro baseball. And the pitch itself was very iffy. One would be an absolute knee bender, then the next one would be a big flat offering that would do nothing spin, followed by one that would bounce three feet in front of home plate.

I cannot overstate how raw Font is. The arm is top notch, his motion is lose and easy, and the frame is huge and lends itself to easy projection, but this kid is a long, long way away from even Frisco at this point, imo.

Jake Brigham. His fastball is so straight. Painfully straight. Straighter than me at a good old fashioned all-girls cheer camp tickle fight. Unless he still has something left to gain as he comes back from TJS, I don’t think there’s enough here to every be anything more than a AAA/5th starter-type. He does pound the strikezone, and the breaking ball showed a bit of promise, but I cannot overstate how straight that fastball is. And at 90-91mph, I’m not sure he’s gonna have enough to succeed at the bigs without his stuff taking a step forward. I’m not saying he’s for sure done or anything like that, I’m just saying there’s not a lot of ceiling there. Best case scenario for him is as a Rick Helling-type innings eater, imo.

Fabio Castillo. First time seeing him, and I was impressed. This kid will pitch in the majors someday. (Assuming health, of course.)

Forget about him ever starting again, the dude’s a reliever. He has a quick whippy 3/4 arm action that, while clean, has too much effort in it to sustain for 100+ pitching an outing, imo. He’s got a big frame with long arms and legs. The fastball was 92-93 and touched 94 once with good movement. He threw some tight little breaking ball (in live baseball I sometimes can’t tell the difference between a hard curve and a slider) that flashed some potential as well.

I was very impressed with Fabio and definitely moved him up a few notches on my list.

Yoon-Hee Nam. This guy is going to be a LOOGY in the bigs. The fastball is a bit slow at 85-88 and looked a bit straight, but his motion is a bit funky and the angles he creates are going to make him murder on lefties. The curve is gonna be even tougher on ‘em. A real plus pitch in the making, imo. I don’t think he’ll ever be able to get righties out at the higher levels with that fastball, but I suppose there’s a chance he could dvelop into an Okajima/Howell type who learns to sneak pitches by righties. I think he’s a future big leaguer, though.

Leury Garcia. In the field he was as advertised. Lightning quick with pure shortstop actions and a cannon arm. There was a hard grounder hit up the middle where my instant reaction was to think there’s a chance somebody gets there in time. Not only did Leury make it there in time, he was there with time to spare. Unfortunately the ball skipped off the edge of the base and away from where Leury was waiting for it, but that’s just hard cheese. The kid can make all the plays you want a SS to be able to make.

There’s some downside with Leury. First, he’s raw defensively. He made some nice plays tracking down tough plays in the hole and one up the middle, but then the next inning he let a routine grounder go right under his glove and into CF. He’s gonna be an error machine the next few seasons, but many young SS’s are like this. The tools are what matters at this point. If he’s willing to do the work, the rest will come in time. Second, he hasn’t got a freaking clue at the plate. He’d stand in there and put some pretty good looking swings in, and then all of the sudden just completely bail out. He had one of the uglier strikeouts I’ve ever seen during the game. But the athleticism and the raw swing tools looked okay at times. He’s fast enough that if he can become even a slap hitter he should be able to be a big league SS or utility guy. Put him on your watch list, just prepare yourself to be patient. He’s not gonna come fast.

Matt West. Looked much better than before. More comfortable defensively and was really squaring the ball up nicely at the plate. He’s still got a long way to go, but he didn’t look lost like he had in the past.

Erik Morrison and Doug Hogan. Obviously good for this league, but they’re both older than shit and need to do this at a higher level before anyone’s gonna give a shit.

Cristan Santana. Is pudgy and fat and shitty at baseball. He should retire and then be killed. Doesn’t even pretend to look like he cares. He’s horrible and I can only assume he has no idea how to pleasure a lady.