Thursday, March 18, 2010

Spring Training Update: Off Day

Not much to say on an off day. I'll just mention an impressive performance by an A's prospect, and a truly homegrown one at that. Tyson Ross put up this line today against Arizona: 3 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 7 K's. His line so far this spring is 1-0, 2.70, 6.2 IP, 2 BB, 10 K's. Ross is a big pitcher, 6'6", 225 lbs, drafted out of Cal in 2008. Last season he split time between high A Stockton in the Cal League and AA Midland in Texas League, both fairly challenging environments for pitchers:

High A- 5-6, 4.17, 86.1 IP, 33 BB, 82 K's, GO/AO= 1.70.

AA- 5-4, 3.96, 50 IP, 20 BB, 31 K's, GO/AO= 2.87.

It's not hard to see that if Ross makes it to the majors, his ticket will be a hard sinking fastball. He certainly has the requisite height and size to pound the strike zone with it. If he can develop a secondary pitch or two to make batters swing and miss, he could turn into that rare combination of strikeouts/ground balls that is the nirvana of pitching. A nice looking prospect who I hadn't really noticed before.

P.S. BA ranks Tyson Ross as the A's #6 prospect. Their scouting report has him with a hard sinking fastball that sits at 93-94 MPH topping out at 97. He also has a 90 MPH cutter and a low 80's slider. His changeup is not as advanced. The change is probably what he needs to develop to become #3 or #2 starter in MLB.

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