AJ Smith-Shawver Called Up

[Deester11]

Don’t apologize to these animals

 

[Hulavol]

This is the new paradigm. With every young pitcher throwing every pitch as hard as they possibly can until they break, you bring them up at 20, squeeze all the juice out of them by 27, then let the Mets and Padres pay them for four years.

This is the way.

 

[GovClintonTyree]

This is the way.

Sure. So the smart team gets the best years, the pitcher makes $50M, and the rich team wins the offseason. Win-win-win.

 

[Hulavol]

Sure. So the smart team gets the best years, the pitcher makes $50M, and the rich team wins the offseason. Win-win-win.

And the smart team keeps its window from closing while the rich team never actually opens theirs

 

[Super]

I have a hard time seeing how that slider can be a good pitch. Guess we will find out. Much rather see him try than watching Dodd.

You also have a hard time seeing how 6’3” isn’t small so

 

[Russ2dollas]

This is the new paradigm. With every young pitcher throwing every pitch as hard as they possibly can until they break, you bring them up at 20, squeeze all the juice out of them by 27, then let the Mets and Padres pay them for four years.

This seems possible. Not sure how true it is, but it seems like AA has the idea that there is only so many times you can throw 95 plus, so if the guy is doing that as a starter, then you get him up before he drops down.

Maybe an extension is in there. Still a little surprised he locked up Strider so fast.

The difference here is that we have a kid with very little pitching. Very fresh arm. Also very raw as a pitcher. Interesting to let him learn at the majors. It's not like dominated at AA or AAA for a year or even half a year.

 

[CJ9]

Baseball America moved him to #49 in their top 100 today.

 

[UNCBlue012]

Baseball America moved him to #49 in their top 100 today.

The Braves just keep making it work... lol

 

[Garmel]

I hope we would get development from an OF but no such luck.

 

[Carp]

Back to the 90's/00' era of prospect success seems like. Literally didn't think we had anyone that would make a difference this year aside from Grissom who I didn't really consider a prospect anymore.

I also was for sure Elder wouldn't last in the rotation once Soroka was back. Elder now leads all of baseball in ERA.

 

[Enscheff]

Here's what we actually witnessed:

FA at 94.7, which is above average. Somehow he got 9.9" of rise...which is close to Grade 80. His 3.0" of arm-side run is below average, but who cares, this is a plus rising FA. AJSS somehow turns mediocre spin into massive rise on a relatively straight FA. The same metric has Strider at 10.1" of rise, and AJSS is right there with him, albeit a few ticks less in velocity. This FA is what what we would see when Strider backs off a bit if he could keep his rising action at lower velocity.

SL at 85.1, which is average velocity. Glove-side break of 2.5" is average horizontally, and 2.0" of "rise" is average vertically. What I saw was a kid unable to finish his breaking ball, and left it up and all over the place, but if he executes this is an average or better pitch.

CU at 77.9, which again, is right around average velocity. Glove-side break of 4.8" is right around average, and 8.5" of sink is like Grade 70. This is a downer curve that's a legit plus or better out pitch.

So, I don't really know what to say. It's almost like someone took a MLB-quality raw arm, stuck him in a Statcast performance lab for 6 months to optimize his spin efficiency, and then unleashed him on minor league baseball. The data I just posted does not match the eye test, and now I have to re-watch the condensed version of this game to see what I missed. If that is his true arsenal he absolutely should be starting the next time his rotation spot opens, and we get to witness someone "learn how to pitch" who actually has a chance to be an impact SP. He is now the most fascinating player on the roster to me.

In his 2nd start the FA was down almost 2 ticks, but the movement was still mostly there. He also lost some horizontal movement on the SL, and rarely used the CU. Probably why he only struck out 2 guys.

Hopefully the stuff ticks back up in his next start.

 

[jpx7]

In his 2nd start the FA was down almost 2 ticks, but the movement was still mostly there. He also lost some horizontal movement on the SL, and rarely used the CU. Probably why he only struck out 2 guys.

Hopefully the stuff ticks back up in his next start.

I thought it was strange he barely used his CU, given the reports—from your initial recap, and elsewhere—that his CU has rapidly surpassed his SL as his best secondary pitch. Hopefully we'll get to see more of the CU subsequently.

 

[UNCBlue012]

In his 2nd start the FA was down almost 2 ticks, but the movement was still mostly there. He also lost some horizontal movement on the SL, and rarely used the CU. Probably why he only struck out 2 guys.

Hopefully the stuff ticks back up in his next start.

I noticed the same. Given it was his first start, I’ll go with nerves. Hopefully, next start is a better story

 

[Heyward]

This seems possible. Not sure how true it is, but it seems like AA has the idea that there is only so many times you can throw 95 plus, so if the guy is doing that as a starter, then you get him up before he drops down.

Maybe an extension is in there. Still a little surprised he locked up Strider so fast.

The difference here is that we have a kid with very little pitching. Very fresh arm. Also very raw as a pitcher. Interesting to let him learn at the majors. It's not like dominated at AA or AAA for a year or even half a year.

Regarding Strider, he had a ton of team control coming in, so we only bought out, i think 2 FA years? And worst case if his arm blows out, he's a big arm in the bullpen.