Quote:
Originally Posted by duncan_idaho
Throwing from low 3/4 should normally give you a little run on your four-seamer. Singer already has good four-and-two seam fastballs and attacks both side of the plate well with them. Good control, working towards command (this is what Lynn does really well, which is actually a really good comparison I hadn’t thought about). His slurve is plus some nights and above average most of the rest of the time.
The changeup is just a weird thing. He SHOULD be able to throw a badass circle change from that arm angle.
That was my arm angle and I had no problem with that. It was my best pitch.
I’d also think he should be able to find a tighter, harder slider that he can use to backfoot lefties. If he can work the fastball to both sides with good movement (current skill) and also throw a few variations of his breaker, may not need the change for more than a show-me pitch.
Even with the current mix I think his floor is a solid back-end guy.
Kowar was the best of the bunch in the Texas league, which this Summer Training session is perhaps obscuring. His change gets 70 grades, just wish he could find a breaker.
I think the key for KC is that there is good SP prospect depth behind Singer/Kowar/Lynch/Bubic/Lacy. In addition to them, you’ve got guys like Yefri Del Rosario, Yohanse Morel, Austin Cox, Zach Haake, Jonathan Bowlan (another Lynn-like profile), Alec Marsh, Carlos Hernandez.
Odds of getting 3 quality starters out of that are much better than if you had 4 key guys you were pinning hopes on.
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The problem with trying to back-foot that slider is you absolutely, positively, 100% cannot miss. Hang a slider to a righty as a righty and there's a pretty good chance he still opens up a bit early or squibs it a bit. But man, you hang one to a lefty, especially one you're trying to bury inside instead of back-door, and it's going FAR.
You have to have a burgler's constitution every time you throw it and complete confidence in it. And you have to have pretty damn incredible depth with it or it gets telegraphed a bit and hitters can sit on it too easily (has to start too high to be a strike or too low to keep from getting obliterated).
I was a bad hitter so I always looked at it and thought 'man, that should be an impossible pitch to hit...."
But good hitters? Not so much - a lot of pitchers try to throw it an ultimately it's gotta be a 70+ slider or it's gotta be a complementary pitch that catches them off guard.
Sounds like he has a quasi-curve. Maybe if he could incorporate the both of them to keep lefties off balance he might be able to use the slider off the curve to keep hitters from cheating on it or get them diving at it.
I used Lynn as a comp because he was a guy who I ultimately just accepted for who he is. I stopped waiting for him to develop a pitch to truly neutralize them and instead hoped he'd simply attack them to minimize damage. And in so doing I recognized "y'know what? This will work. He won't win a CY, but he'll be damn valuable even if he always has some lefty issues"
This may be a situation where the guy just has a wart. And if he can play to his strengths, that could easily be good enough. Trying to bury sliders at their back feet? Man, that sure seems like a surgery that's likely to kill the patient...