bigdommer
08-10-2010, 02:29 PM
I sat a couple rows off the field last night and thought I would share what I saw from our new guys.
Jackson - His stuff can be pretty electric. The gun at the game seemed low for him, with a lot of fastballs clocked 91-93, but it looked more like 93-95 as a lot of guys had late swings early in the game. His slider was just nasty when down in the zone. A lot of bad swings and shaking heads on the way back to the dugout. We all know this, but his command is pretty shaky. He threw multiple balls to the screen in his warmup tosses, one of which AJ didn't come close to catching. I guess you could call him wildly effective, if he's down in the zone. His stuff really started to flatten out in the later innings when the O's were getting lots of good swings off of him. You can tell that he has the ability to be a top of the rotation guy, and is at worst a back end guy who can't log a ton of innings because of his pitch count. Jackson was shorter than I expected, but well put together.
Sale - Body wise, the opposite of what Jackson: taller and lankier than I expected. His motion is a little funky because he is tall and then gets down to a 3/4 level. The fastball had a ton of zip on it, and because of the arm angle, looks faster than the 95-96 on the gun. I saw a couple of 2-seamer's in the low 90's with some good sink. Slider was short and quick. I did not see a changeup as he did not throw many pitches. I like his ceiling because of how hard he throws and his funky delivery is deceptive. He walked around with a little bit of confidence too. My only complaint would be that tacky chain.
Other thoughts - I was suprised at how much some guys hustled (TCQ, TCM, Dayan) and not surprised by others lack of hustle (AJ, Konerko). Thornton throws absolute gas. I understand why AJ only puts down one finger. Dayan absolutely rakes and will be an above average slugging first baseman. Buck Schowalter is about 4 and a half feet tall. Brian Roberts doesn't get cheated.
Jackson - His stuff can be pretty electric. The gun at the game seemed low for him, with a lot of fastballs clocked 91-93, but it looked more like 93-95 as a lot of guys had late swings early in the game. His slider was just nasty when down in the zone. A lot of bad swings and shaking heads on the way back to the dugout. We all know this, but his command is pretty shaky. He threw multiple balls to the screen in his warmup tosses, one of which AJ didn't come close to catching. I guess you could call him wildly effective, if he's down in the zone. His stuff really started to flatten out in the later innings when the O's were getting lots of good swings off of him. You can tell that he has the ability to be a top of the rotation guy, and is at worst a back end guy who can't log a ton of innings because of his pitch count. Jackson was shorter than I expected, but well put together.
Sale - Body wise, the opposite of what Jackson: taller and lankier than I expected. His motion is a little funky because he is tall and then gets down to a 3/4 level. The fastball had a ton of zip on it, and because of the arm angle, looks faster than the 95-96 on the gun. I saw a couple of 2-seamer's in the low 90's with some good sink. Slider was short and quick. I did not see a changeup as he did not throw many pitches. I like his ceiling because of how hard he throws and his funky delivery is deceptive. He walked around with a little bit of confidence too. My only complaint would be that tacky chain.
Other thoughts - I was suprised at how much some guys hustled (TCQ, TCM, Dayan) and not surprised by others lack of hustle (AJ, Konerko). Thornton throws absolute gas. I understand why AJ only puts down one finger. Dayan absolutely rakes and will be an above average slugging first baseman. Buck Schowalter is about 4 and a half feet tall. Brian Roberts doesn't get cheated.