Player Breakdowns: April 24th

Notable Performances, Nolan McLean, & Logan Evans

Jacob Misiorowski (MIL) - AA: 4.1IP 1H 0ER 1BB 7K

It was good to see Miso Soup be a control freak in this one. The command is what has plagued him in the early going and the 7 to 1 K to walk in this outing shows just how dominant he can be when he’s not giving up free passes and controlling his pitch mix. I’ve shared my thoughts on where he ultimately lands but Milwaukee is still stretching him out. Here is what I wrote about Misiorowski when I featured him in one of my Player Breakdowns two weeks ago:

Misiorowski is an interesting case. He has all the physical tools to be a capable starter yet I think he’s destined for a date with the bullpen. That’s not to say he’s not a good pitcher or a good prospect, rather I believe that that’s the role best suited for his highest positive outcome. And I think he can be a dominant one. It’s a niche he’ll have to embrace, though, because some pitchers think it’s a demotion. I think it’ll keep him healthy and allow his stuff to play better for an inning or two at a time.

There’s a lot of variance on his fastball from outing to outing & inning to inning. He can drop as low as 93 on his fastball and then touch 99. We’ve seen what he can do one inning at a time in last year’s Futures Game. He sat 98-100 and looked like arguably the best righty in the minors. I’m not sure that’s the case given a starter’s workload. There’s an erratic nature to Misiorowski and like what the Brewers did with Uribe last year and with Hader in the past, I think they can make him work out of the pen. There’s a high effort output I notice with him that I just don’t like stretching to 5 or 6 innings. Give the kid his best shot at success and that can be as one of the more dominant pen arms in the league. And I know the point of the minor leagues and AA is to develop him further and stretch him out to see what they have in him as a starter, but let’s cut the crap and call a spade a spade. He may have all the physical tools to be a starter but the bottom line is that his best positive outcome given his command and high-effort output is likely to come out of the bullpen as a high-leverage multi-inning reliever — who can get to the big leagues as soon as this year.

How does he generate his velocity?

Misiorowski has solid mechanics and when I was watching video, I noticed that he gets a ton of layback. I’m not sure of the actual level of degrees, but I took a backside and side-shot snap of his layback the best I could to give you a better idea:

Backside:

He gets great extension and great external rotation allowing him to provide enough force to produce velocity. Now, I haven’t gone back and captured stills of every pitch he threw to see if there’s a reason he has such variance on his fastball from inning to inning. Here is an example of his backside layback which looks to be greater than 165-170 degrees. In fact, it may even be close to 180 degrees at its full extension — and the scapular posterior tilt combined with his spinal extension looks to be good (in layman’s terms, his chest is outward and puffed up facing home plate during his delivery). Think Billy Wagner when you think of layback and how his arm cocked back allowing him to produce a tremendous amount of force and velocity from his smaller stature (I think he was 5’9 or 5’10). Misiorowski is 6’7 and he’s getting good rotation.

Here is a side view:

Same thing — I know these pictures look like injuries waiting to happen but throwing a baseball this hard isn’t a natural phenomenon and there’s obvious wear and tear, however, there’s also arm care. I’m not going to write about the seeming increase in the incidence of Tommy John surgeries because a few high-profile names went down this year — this has been going on for some time and there are a ton of variables at play — of course, velocity and max-effort throwing are a part of the cause, but there are likely other things we need to look at before concluding — after all, velocity is incentivized in the big leagues and some pitchers wouldn’t even be looked at if they weren’t throwing mid to upper 90s.

You can’t vilify a product of what was sewn by Major League Baseball itself — these pitchers are seeking velo and any edge they can get because it’s a fat contract if they make it out on the other side healthy. It’s also an opportunity to just get looked at in the first place. It’s the same reason I don’t vilify the steroid era — it was absolutely incentivized by Major League Baseball (and majorly profited) before they and the media decided to crucify those that helped them gain public notoriety in the first place. I feel like I’m ranting this morning, jumping from subject to subject, so let’s get back on track. Back to Misiorowski. He produces a ton of force with his extension and external rotation — and his layback, at first glance, looks like it’s almost 180 degrees or nearing it.

Christian Scott (NYM) - AAA: 6.1 IP 1H 2ER 1BB 8K

Christian Scott is mowing down hitters at the AAA level. It’s as simple as that. He allowed one hit on the night and of course it was a home run. He’s been plagued by the home run ball to start the year but is still posting a 3.48 ERA and a .151 Average Against. He’s pitched a total of 20.2 innings allowing only 11 hits — and 6 of them have been Home Runs. Kind of an absurd fact, there.

His K-to-Walk ratio is now sitting at 34:4. As simply as I can put it — he is ready to pitch in the big leagues. He has that low VAA fastball paired with mid-90s velocity to go with a heavy arsenal of pitches he can all command. I’m not going to cross the line and say he’s going to be the best pitcher in the Mets rotation and one of the better pitchers in the NL East once he makes his debut, but I’ve been known to be a habitual line crosser. RIP Charlie Murphy.

Andrew Morris (MIN) - High-A: 6IP 5H 0ER 1BB 5K

Morris came in at 72nd on the TiltValue leaderboard after a rough start last time out. After last night, I think he’s going to climb back into the top 30. The peripherals looked good coming into last night as he had a 27.12% K-BB% and a 16.36% SwStr%.

There’s reliever risk here but I think he’s going to be able to command his arsenal — which features a mid-90s fastball to go with a slider in the low-to-mid-80s, a curveball, and a changeup. Keep an eye out for Morris — he’s not in my arms to target just yet, but he’s one to monitor.

Carson Whisenhunt (SFG) - AAA: 3.2IP 3H 0ER 2BB 7K

Whisenhunt started the season hot — and it looked like we were seeing a potential breakout in the San Francisco system, but he’s had a brutal stretch of outings since then. That’s why I want to highlight Whisenhunt. He pitched well last night and hopefully, it’s a sign that he’s turning things around again.

He’s Sinker, changeup, slider — and his Sinker is averaging 93.1 mph this year with -13.4 inches of Horizontal Break. He’s in monitor territory for me. I’m not as sold as I was in the offseason, but the talent is there.

Jack Wenninger (NYM) - Low-A: 6IP 1H 0ER 0BB 10K

Wenninger had an excellent line last night as he pitched 6 innings of near-perfect ball and struck out 10. He’s mostly a changeup dominant guy as he’s thrown 60% in the early going and he pairs that with his 4-seamer, sinker, slider, curveball, and cutter. Yeah — he has that many pitches. The sinker averages 93.1 mph and has 17.9 inches of iVB and 13 inches of horizontal run — it’s an interesting shape for sure. Some of these Low-A arms for the Mets are intriguing, to say the least — now you can include Wenninger to that list to go with Jonah Tong.

Noah Cameron (KCR) - AA: 5.2IP 6H 3ER 1BB 8K

Is Noah Cameron back? I have to catch a start of his and see the metrics before I’m going to jump back on that train. What he has done is pitch to good results at a level he struggled at last year. He has a 2.66 ERA and has gone at least 5 innings his last 3 times out. Cameron come back special or just a fluke? We’ll know soon.

Nolan McLean (NYM) - High-A:

Nolan McLean started his night with his first 5 outs coming via the strikeout. There was a softly lined single to left field scattered between the 5 strikeouts — so he struck out 5 of the first 6 batters he faced. His fastball was up to 95-96 in this one T - 96.5 and I still think he has more in the tank. The 3000 RPM slider was on display last night and you can check it out below as I go over each inning. One of them was so nasty that it almost induced a swing but ended up hitting the batter (lefty) on the ankle. His command was as sharp as I’ve seen it and his presence was that of a bulldog — he was one of the fastest workers I’ve seen up to this point in the minors — the moment the ball was thrown back to him from home plate he was ready to pounce and deliver.

I’m not exaggerating when I say this and I say this with no hype or hyperbole — but McLean has the stuff to be in a Major League bullpen today. The fastball and slider play and if his command was as it was last night then not only would he just be in a major league bullpen, he’d also be a high-leverage asset. I like that they’re allowing him to start — last night was a glimpse into what he can be as a starter when he’s rolling. And I’m not even going to go into depth about the dual threat factor as he’s also hitting .350 with a 1.200 OPS and 2 homers on the offensive side. There’s a lot to like here with the stuff and athleticism, but I think I like his pitching ceiling more than his offensive one. Even though it’s hard to pick at this stage given the results offensively. I just think he’s more valuable as a high-leverage reliever or if a 90th percentile outcome were to be achieved, a mid-rotation starter with upside for more.

It only took him 66 pitches to get through 5 innings as his line was 5IP 2H 0ER 1BB 6K. Most of the contact against him was weak as you’ll see below. The lone walk came on a 9-pitch at bat and it came in the top of the 5th inning. He had the count 3-2 and threw three straight pitches in the zone which were fouled off before throwing a ball to send the hitter to first. It wasn’t one of those 4 pitch walks where his mechanics were off or he just didn’t have feel. He worked that at-bat and the batter won. It happens.