As someone who frequently discusses prospects in his
writing, one of the most important ways for me to get and stay informed about
the minors is to attend minor league games. Certainly, statistics, video clips,
and even MiLB.tv are invaluable resources as well, but nothing is quite like
sitting right behind home plate and taking everything in.
So, without further ado, here are my thoughts on some of the
more notable players I’ve had the pleasure of watching in person over the last
couple of weeks.
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| (Cliff
Welch/Icon SMI) |
Dylan Bundy, RHP, Orioles (Double-A
Bowie)
I’ll start with the obvious: Dylan Bundy is a fantastic
pitching prospect. You don’t need to go see him to know that. At this point,
he’s essentially the consensus top pitching prospect in baseball, which is no
small feat for a guy who hasn’t even escaped A-ball and is the least progressed
of the top four picks of the previous season’s draft.
So yes, Bundy is terrific. He has four distinct pitches: a
fastball with riding life up and in that’s usually in the 92-94 range, a
curveball with sharp, big break in the mid-70s, a solid changeup at 81-84, and
an upper-80s cutter. The fastball is easily a plus pitch, the curve is
unhittable when he sets it up and locates it, the changeup flashes plus, and
the cutter is a nice change of pace when he locates it.
Many reports mention the curveball as Bundy’s worst pitch and
the cutter as a plus offering, but in my viewings, the cutter looked a bit on
the soft side, and several ran out over the plate, while the curve was
inconsistent but deadly when he stayed on top of it, forcing some absurd swings
by unprepared batters. He’s supposedly been asked to deemphasize the cutter in
favor of working on the curve this season—at least the latter half of that
seems to be paying off.
Given all the talk about Bundy’s polish for his age, some
have suggested he could succeed in a major league rotation right now. Great as
Bundy is, that idea is quite a bit off the mark. His biggest flaw at this point
is a lack of pitch sequencing ability—compared to some of the polished college
arms he was facing, Bundy didn’t have much of a feel for when to go to his
offspeed pitches or what to use to strike batters out. It’s completely
understandable why this is the case—until he reached High-A, Bundy probably
went his whole life getting batters out using whatever pitch he cared to use.
Only now is he starting to get any sort of pushback and negative feedback from
hitters that will really allow him to assess what is working and what is
lagging behind as he advances.
That makes his issue, which isn’t all that big of a deal for
a teenage A-ball pitcher, not too difficult to fix, and given that Bundy
receives high marks for his acumen and work ethic, there’s no reason he won’t
get a better sense of when and where to throw what as he continues to progress.
Still, Julio Teheran and Jacob Turner have been waylaid by similar issues in
Triple-A and the majors, so it’s not out of the question that Bundy will
experience some bumps in the road when he gets to those levels.
Overall, Bundy looks on a path to have a lot of major league
success. He has a diverse and effective arsenal with good mechanics and
control, with a lot of development time in front of him to tighten things up.
He might not quite make it into the Justin Verlander/Clayton Kershaw class of
ridiculous aces, but a career along the lines of Matt Cain’s seems feasible.
Barring a total meltdown, he’s a #3 starter at the worst.
