CS Fullerton has 2 sophomore pitchers lined up for their Friday and Saturday starts so junior Grahamm Wiest, who would be a Friday Starter for many college teams goes on Sundays for the second straight year. Wiest was overlooked in the 2011 draft due to velocity concerns. I haven't been able to find any definite velocity numbers for him, but my feeling is he is probably in the 88-90 MPH range. He does have a 4 pitch repertoire and can throw all of them for strikes. He did say in one interview he likes to establish the FB early. In one brief game video, it looked like he had a sinker with fairly strong late downward movement. Here are his numbers from his first two seasons at CS Fullerton and the first 2 games of 2014:
2012: 5-5, 3.12, 86.2 IP, 18 BB, 57 K.
2013: 9-3, 3.27, 104.2 IP, 13 BB, 76 K.
2014: 1-0, 0.55, 16.1 IP, 1 BB, 17 K.
Wiest would be a consideration in the later single digit rounds of the 2014 draft. Whether he would sign or choose to stay in school for his senior season, I have no idea. Ceiling is probably AAA but you never know. A few of these guys sneak into the majors and have good, long careers.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Would you say a guy like this guy comps somewhere close to Nick Vander Tuig? I've hear 88-91 for NVT and I've heard low 90s.
ReplyDeleteThey are both pitchability college pitchers, so yes, I would lump them into the same general category.
DeleteWhich is also known as the Chris Heston category for righties and the Eric Surkamp camp for lefties.
DeleteIn your opinion, what about Clayton Blackburn and Ty Blach give them the edge over these AAA ceiling pitchers?
Blackburn and Blach have 3-4 MPH more velocity than Heston and Surkamp respectively.
DeleteNot according to Baggs, who threw in a little line about Blackburn "only touching 90 mph" in his CSN article today. I just don't understand all the back and forth on Blackburn's velocity. I know most of us here believe Clayton can bring it much better than that, but maybe Baggs is hearing something different these days? Honestly, I think he sometimes just throws things together, even if the statement doesn't have any backing. The line about Blackburn might be an example of this... Oh well I guess.
DeleteAll I can say is, I saw Blackburn pitch with my own eyes. Even though he didn't get good results in that game, the stadium gun had him sitting at 92-93 MPH with about half of his FB's at 93. Now, maybe the stadium gun at Rancho Cucamonga was hot that night, but in the past, when I've compared stadium gun readings with the pitch tracker readings, the pitch trackers have an extra 2-3 MPH. Based on other velocity readings on other pitchers that night, I tend to believe the stadium gun was close to accurate. That's what I saw on that night. Have there been games where Blackburn "only touched" 90 MPH? Probably, but I've seen him sit at 93.
DeleteThat's good to hear your first hand account, Doc. Do you suppose Heston had a night or two where he felt loose, maybe a little too straight, and sat 91-92?
DeleteNo idea. I've never seen any report of MPH for Heston's FB which usually means it's well under 90 MPH. On thing I have learned in prospect watching is to discount velocity reports by 2-3 MPH until I've seen the readings myself either on TV or in person. If you cannot find any velocity reports on a pitcher, it almost always means their FB is well below 90 MPH.
Delete