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Post by greatscottcooper on Jun 7, 2018 11:58:09 GMT -5
We haven't been exactly blessed with pitching prospects who make it over the years, heck besides a few reliever the last first round pick to really make it was Jon Lester. You expect even less after the 10th round but for us prospect loving folk it's fun to dream on these guys when they get drafted and you hear about their "potential".
I can't think of the last time a guy past the 10th round that I followed actually made it to the big leagues. Now Beeks probably ain't no Lester, but I'm rooting for him to carve out a MLB career for himself in some capacity. Hopefully a productive one for this team.
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Post by tonyc on Jun 8, 2018 10:06:53 GMT -5
Having never seen Beeks before here's what I observed last night. I don't agree with Eck that he was a "total disaster." Detroit got a few Fenway hits and lucky placements and timely hits so it wasn't as horrific as the number of runs. Also, he made some adjustments and did better. Obviously he had juices overflowing which may have compromised his command and also when fastballs didn't play as well at this level started nibbling to put fuel on the fire. That said, I did not see potential for a top or middle starter in the sense that his fastball lacked plane, and movement so that if he did not command it or sequence it well it was hammered by big league hitters. Ironically, I saw him more as a starter than a reliever based on the single performance. Granted, I was oblivious to how smooth his delivery was, and won't project how many clicks he'd add out of the pen. But I saw a three to four pitch mix without anything plus, other than perhaps the cutter. The backdoor curve had movement and he kept it down and got strikes. The changeup could become fringe/ average- he located it down and away, but just didn't get strikes. Cutter had nice movement, and the fastball in the zone got hammered too much- unless he got it up in the zone or on the peripheries or sequenced it off the offspeed pitches. He's got some homework in AAA and may perform better in spot starts, and could be in the running next year for a spot (assuming and hoping we don't have rotation injuries this year).
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Post by pedrofanforever45 on Jun 8, 2018 10:09:35 GMT -5
Yeah I liked his mix of pitches. I still think he ends up as a reliever, but he's the Sox 6th or 7th starter at the moment. Hoping for better performance next time, but he's still young though. He's got plenty of time to figure it out and the Sox depth is good enough where they can keep him down in AAA to figure it out.
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danr
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Post by danr on Jun 8, 2018 11:33:47 GMT -5
It is interesting that they said he was not throwing his slider anymore, and while I was watching, I didn't see one. But in that Pawtucket game that was on NESN I saw him throw several sliders and they were good ones. He also threw some curves that broke sharply down. I didn't see those last night. He did not look as sharp as he did in that Pawtucket game, when he was pitching against a near ML lineup of Yankees. Probably as tonyc wrote, he was too excited when he started.
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Post by patford on Jun 8, 2018 13:13:49 GMT -5
As far as I remember four of the runs he gave up were on a HR which would have been a fly out in any other MLB park and a routine ground ball through a hole in the shift. And pf course he only gave up one run over his last three innings.
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Post by Addam603 on Jun 8, 2018 13:20:00 GMT -5
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Post by patford on Jun 8, 2018 13:37:57 GMT -5
Nice chart. The HR in particular was almost a pop fly. There might not be another park where it would have even reached the warning track and it was hit so high that it would have been an easy out.
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Post by Addam603 on Jun 8, 2018 13:59:59 GMT -5
Was it a good start for Beeks? No. Was it as bad as it appeared? Also, no.
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radiohix
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'At the end of the day, we bang. We bang. We're going to swing.' Alex Verdugo
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Post by radiohix on Jun 8, 2018 15:37:24 GMT -5
Let's also remember that he was facing one of the top offenses vs LHP, the 3rd highest OPS in baseball precisely. Now that this 1st start is out of the way, I think good things are coming.
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Post by Coreno on Jun 8, 2018 19:06:27 GMT -5
Yeah, I hadn't seen any numbers until that tweet, but I didn't think he was really getting hit all that hard. A few things break differently and he probably gets a quality start.
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Post by telson13 on Jun 9, 2018 23:34:43 GMT -5
As far as I remember four of the runs he gave up were on a HR which would have been a fly out in any other MLB park and a routine ground ball through a hole in the shift. And pf course he only gave up one run over his last three innings. Yeah, I’m inclined to be a lot more sanguine on his performance than some. For one, his FB has MLB velocity (sitting 92 as a LHSP is basically average to a hair above). His cutter looks like a plus pitch to me. That he’s short and lacks plane and probably extension obviously hurts the FB quality, but I don’t think that’s a crippling issue. He may need to pitch a little more backwards and lean on the cutter. But his BABIP against was .429, and as noted, the HR was a bit of a Fenway gimme job. As I recall, Lester learned to pitch specifically for Fenway by utilizing his cutter as a pop-fly pitch, to reduce damage as a fly-ball LHer in a ballpark that kills fly ball lefties. On top of that, his 46.5% strand rate is totally unsustainably bad, and I his control isn’t 3 walks in 4 innings bad. To top it off, the Sox has a terrible desfensive alignment behind him and he was facing a team that destroys lefties. His contact numbers were atrocious (88% overall, 96% zone, an awful 76% O-zone, only 5.7% SwStr). But he got 4 Ks, and I think there’s going to be some adjustment. Obviously a little amped for that start; as the novelty wears off and it’s business as usual, he’s going to adjust. I mean, this is a guy who basically wholly remodeled his repertoire (from 2-seam/SL/Ch in college to 4-seam/CB/Cu/Ch now) in order to make it to MLB. The tools and desire are there. I still think he’s got 3 potential, with a high liklihood of settling in as a first-division 4/5. That’s **tremendous** value from really any pick, but it’s an absolute coup in rd 12. Again, just going back to the FB...he has major-league velocity, and he has a plus pitch in the cutter. Nothing about this start says he’s not a major leaguer.
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Post by telson13 on Jun 9, 2018 23:44:51 GMT -5
This is a terrific find, and after I posted I thought again of Lester. He had similar velo on arrival, and he had similar trouble with cheapie fly balls. As I mentioned, he got around that by just tweaking and upping the angle “hit under” such that his IFFB rate steadily improved. And it was his cutter that allowed him to do it. I hope Bannister has some old Lester film to show him, because Beeks absolutely has MLB stuff. Refining sequencing and getting a (much) better defense means he’s not going to have to nibble, and...ugh...those worm-burners and weak flares are going to be outs a LOT more often. Travis-Benintendi-Martinez is NOT the OF alignment for this kid in his first MLB start.
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Post by philsbosoxfan on Jun 23, 2018 0:25:22 GMT -5
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