Lately, we've been spoiled by watching Baseball's top young arms dominate Major League offense's in the late innings. Incredibly enough, some of those top young arms were scrubby AA infielders or back up catchers not too long ago. I really wonder, what makes a position player a good pitcher or even a bad pitcher for that matter? First and foremost, Kenley Jansen and Jason Motte are two former catchers and Kenley caught in the WBC as recently as 2009. I don't by any means think that soemone like Ryan Budde can become a strikeout machine on a Major League mound, but then again, if you had told me that some of these guys like Motte, a former catcher in his own right, were throwing 97 MPH strikes at a young age AFTER converting, well thats just crazy isn't it? The stories of Motte and Jansen are bit contrary to the other since Motte broke his left thumb and was never able to hit for average and Kenley was turned in to a reliever because of his strong catchers arm, but there must be some way to determine these random hitters at a young age and whether or not they can remain a position player much less throw hard off a mound.
According to Baseball America's Jim Callis, Tyrell Jenkins, a two sport star is an incredible athlete and is a good comparison to a great athlete (much like Carlos Marmol and Sergio Santos): "Athleticism matters a lot with pitchers. The more athletic the pitcher, the more likely that he'll be able to repeat his delivery, which should result in better consistency with his pitches and command. Athleticism also should lead to a sounder delivery with less effort, which should help keep a pitcher healthier in the long run." So by reading that quote from Jim Callis in one of his "Ask BA's," can somebody like Carlos Marmol, a good athlete, a former infielder, but as good of a hitter as the worst hitter on the planet show signs that he may be able to pitch in the long run? Or is there some other way to determine future pitchers? Back in '08, Sergio Santos and Steve Singleton pretty much teamed up to see which left side of the infield infielder was worse. Apparently size matters, as seen with Santos and Jansen, but not for Tony Pena Jr. What a funny story Tony Pena Jr. is, of course the Royals would lose 19-4 right? Well in the late innings of that game, Tony performed mop up for the great Trey Hillman, he dominated the Tigers in that inning throwing 2 really good curveballs and hitting 90+ on the gun. It was then that he was (obviously) released by the Royals and signed to a Minor League deal by the Giants in the not too distant future. Brian Anderson, a similar story, couldn't hit any better than yours truly, but threw hard from the outfield. He had a fine season pitching for the O-Royals.
So as you can see, from the few players I examined, 3 infielders, 1 outfielder, and 2 catchers. Of course thats the case right? My opinion, anytime you can play your position well and make good throws from wherever you are playing, you have a chance to at least be decent off a mound. I don't think just anybody can be a pitcher. But it obviously takes a good athlete as Callis said. Also keep in mind, our good friend Matt Bush. He's someone to watch next season. The two things that all of these players have in common though, they have really good stuff, and their respective organizations saw that they had a pitcher inside of them, and it obviously turned out well. If only we could determine who could be the next Carlos Marmol, Kenley Jansen, or Jason Motte. I have my money on a Rangers prospect named Michael Thomas, but he just converted in to a pitcher. Interestingly enough, he is a former catcher, which seemed to be the theme of most position player turned pitchers.
No comments:
Post a Comment