Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Down on the Farm: DrB's 2011 Giants Top 50 Prospects- #19 Heath Hembree

#19 Heath Hembree, RHP. BD: 1/13/1989. 6'4", 210 lbs. B-R, T-R.

Rookie AZL: 0-0, 0.82, 11 IP, 0 BB, 22 K's. 3 Saves. College(College of Charleston): 5-3, 6.52, 29 IP, 18 BB, 42 K's, 4 Saves.

Heath is actually Hembree's middle name, so you may find him under Richard Hembree when you are searching for information about him. He's a big, hard throwing righty who had some command issues in college. He had a big jump in velocity during his 2010 college season. He as at 87-89 MPH in 2009, improved to 91-94 early last year and then to 94-99 mph. In one game he wowed the scouts by sitting at 98 MPH for 8 consecutive pitches! He also has a cutter that goes 84-88 and could be a dominating pitch against wood bats. His perfectgame.org scouting report mentions that he has very long fingers which would be perfect for adding a splitter to his repertoire. BA ranked him as the #16 prospect in the AZL, a bit unusual for them to rank a college draftee. Their scouting report had his fastball at 93-98 MPH and him using a power slider there. I wonder if it wasn't really a cutter? They also said he has the makings of an effective changeup that he was going to work on during instructional league.

Despite his command problems in college, he showed no such issues in his pro debut. Wow! A K/9 of 18? 0, that's zero, BB's? Small sample size and probably too low a level for his skills, but still.....

Needless to say, this is a prospect with future closer potential who should move very fast through the system. Since he already has a dominating FB and a cutter, if he can add a decent splitter or changeup in instructionals, he's an exception to my rule of not letting closer prospects close in the lower minors. With that arsenal, he should take the fastest track to the majors he can get on!

4 comments:

  1. Dr B: I know that you have the previous 3 2010 draftee pitchers ranked as Rosin(16) followed by Kickham(17) then Hembree(19), but who do you think will improve their stock the most in 2011?

    I think that Hembree will catapult up the ranks and be the best prospect of the 3. I think he only fell to the Giants later in the draft because he didn't pitch much in college as a closer, but I hope that the Giants stretch him out to be a starter because his size, the reports on his stuff and his dominant minor league numbers, especially the gaudy k/9 thus far are enticing. I would then say Rosin because I think he can be taught/encouraged to nibble more a la Tom Glavine used to do with his excellent control. In regards to Kickham, I just can't seem to get aboard the hype train for him because his upper 80s fastball sounds fringy, but those MINK league stats are pretty gross and I hope that this is more of the pitcher he will become.

    Thanks for the interesting input about each of these prospects and I am looking forward to your write up on Matt Graham as I am really rooting for him to put it together.

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  2. I'm going to go Rosin, Hembree, Kickham. I just looks to me like Hembree is on the reliever track, but I do think he will move up fast, faster as a reliever than a starter. I agree with you on Kickham. His FB doesn't seem to be quite enough to call him a power lefty, but sometimes these guys gain velocity with a little mechanics tweaking.

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  3. The Giants tend to be pretty fluid with moving their pitching prospects between starting and relieving. It just depends on where they thrive and what the MLB team's needs are at the moment. Right now, Hembree seems to profile more as a reliever, but I wouldn't be at all surprised to see him starting at some point either.

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