John Sickels on Pelzer:
Grade B: A personal favorite, he strikes people out and gets grounders with plus stuff. Really like him a lot.
More from Sickels:
Padres prospect Wynn Pelzer has been one of my favorites since I Shadow-Drafted him in the seventh round in 2007 out of South Carolina. His usual pattern is to get off to a slow start in April, then push forward with improved performances in May and June. He’s following that this year, with early problems at Double-A San Antonio but better numbers lately, including a 10-strikeout, 3-hit, 1-run outing against Corpus Christi on June 16th. On the season, he’s now 6-5, 3.98 with a 63/30 K/BB in 61 innings, with a 1.28 GO/AO ratio. The stuff has always been here: 90-95 MPH fastball with some sink, effective-if-erratic breaking ball. The key has been developing better control and refining his changeup, and he’s gradually doing that.
Baseball America on Pelzer:
Pounds the zone with 93-95 mph fastball, touching 97 in short stints, maintains velocity deep into games. Batters can look foolish dealing with his slider. Changeup is far behind the other pitches. Starter now, but fits well as a closer.
Quote from Stephen Kuperman, who has seen Pelzer live three times this season:
Iffy on him as a SP, but could try. CH not as bad as advertised. Probably better suited as setup man, lacks closer-type velocity.
Video
My Thoughts
Fans are going to question Pelzer’s 56 walks in 94.1 IP this year, but we’re getting a guy with plus stuff and a high ceiling for less than half a season of Miguel Tejada and $1.1 million (about half of his remaining contract). Pelzer has shown the ability to keep the walks down with just 3.49 BB/9 last year.
Andy MacPhail continues to add to an already spectacular group of young arms, and while Pelzer isn’t on the same level as Matusz or Britton, he certainly has the potential to be there.
Not only did we get Pelzer, but we cleared the way for Josh Bell to become the starting third baseman. This move is an addition by subtraction.
A full scouting report will be up tomorrow from someone who has seen Pelzer live three times this season.
Great content on a guy we’ve had for like 5 minutes.Really good job, thanks.
Great info for a recent trade. Glad it might pan out for the team. I hope I can get to see him in Bowie too. That would be awesome.
I’m hoping to be there this weekend to see his debut!
Great post. Totally agree, especially on addition by subtraction. I liked Tejada’s attitude over the past few weeks and he’ll be missed in some ways, but there’s no way to regret this deal as he likely wasn’t coming back next year and Bell (who has come on at AAA) has more room to struggle this year than next. Meanwhile, stockpiling arms is a great thing–especially if they need to package some for a big bat in the off-season. I just hope the $3M is is going to a stud for next year and not in the deep pockets of Mr. Angelos…
Thanks! Hopefully the O’s keep Bell up for good this time, and like you said, let him get the struggles out of the way this year. And apparently it’s not the $3 million as first reported, but only $1.1 million.
Any idea whether the O’s are going to try him as a starter or in relief?
Now, let’s trade Guthrie to the Pads for Cumberland and Decker…
I’d continue to let him start, but O’s say they see him as a reliever. O’s have said he’s going to Bowie, but still unclear whether he’ll start or come out of the pen.
I’d love to grab Decker, big fan of his.
I noticed that Tanaka was taken out of the starting rotation in Bowie and used in relief earlier this week. Maybe this opens the door for using Pelzer as a starter.
Consensus on Tanaka has always been that his future is as a reliever, so it was about time they took him out of the rotation.
Not sure if they are related, but they need to give Pelzer a chance to start.
thanks for this info. too bad that Miggy had to go, but Pelzer seems promising. for some reason i see him as a reliever, though it looks like he has better ERA than Bergy does at present (it pains me to say that, i still like Bergy though).
with Miggy out, there’s more time for Bell to really get used to the Majors. at this point of the season, I don’t really care about the prospects’s dealing with their issues soon. what matters now is that they get to deal with it, period. Josh Bell is really a good player and we’ve seen that during his stints, and he’ll soon get the groove to prove his worth in the majors. and i want to say that same thing for the rest of the young ones in the team too. they’ll get their groove soon, and i’m really hopeful.
Mechanics write up:
You here the comments about him and you think he is damaged goods mechanics wise and erratic that is distend for the bullpen. Nope, I am not buying that Kool-Aid at all. BA thinks he is too active and too much movement pre-delivery. I can care less if the guy stands on his head during the pre-loading phase as it has more to do mental than any physical. I have seen some of the strangest deliveries from Fernando and Satchel, but both of those guys had flawless mechanics that led to extremely long and successful careers.
Once he wraps up his pre-loading phase, he is a bit up right in his stance. It is not the end of the world, but it is not a cause for his erratic strike zone issues entirely. I would live with it because it seems that it allows him to do the two following things.
1. He rocks his shoulders back, but both arms and elbows are below the shoulder girdle at all times. It looks as though his non throwing lead arm is above him, but it is just false reality. The angle of his shoulders never falls out of synchronization with his arms and he places little stress on is throwing shoulder and elbow.
2. It seems that rock shoulder allows him to get movement forward and downhill.
His arm slot is slightly behind him and pointing at about somewhere between 12 and1 o’clock, which is okay, but I would rather like to see 11 o’clock angle from a right handed pitcher to take away more pressure on the entire arm. His plant is directly in line and never crosses his body to throw.
The issue for his erratic strike zone discipline is most likely attributed to his follow through. If you look at the 12 second mark of the back stop angle, you will see that his hand is around his left knee and his back is about a 45 degree angle. He whips his back leg around and pushed towards first base a bit too much.
If I were his coach, I would want to see his right arm push closer to his foot and have it mid-shin. His back would be flatter and it could force the leg to lunge forward a bit more. The end result would be a consistent release point and curb control issues. It could increase velocity as well.
Overall, he is a very good prospect that has the foundation for quality stuff. There is nothing showing me at this point that bullpen is his future. He has the makeup, size, power, and drive for a sustainable innings eater. He just needs some very minor changes IMO.