Sunday, January 29, 2012

Down on the Farm: #32 Chris Marlowe

#32 Chris Marlowe, RHP. 6'0", 175 lbs. BD: 10/26/1989.

College(OK State): 3-3, 5.05, 41 IP, 34 BB, 71 K's, 4 Saves.

Rookie AZL: 1-0, 0.00, 3 IP, 1 BB, 5 K's.

Christopher Marlowe is a smaller guy with a big arm and two plus-plus pitches. He just needs to be able to control them. Marlowe pitched in JC ball before transferring to Oklahoma State. He put up huge K numbers out of the bullpen there but the walks obviously hurt his ERA. BA's scouting report has him sitting at 93-95 MPH with the fastball, maxing out at 97 MPH. He has a sharp putaway mid 80's breaking ball to go with it. If he adds even an average changeup, he could probably be a starter. At worst, he can be a dominant arm out of the bullpen. As Kruk would say, he can get a wild hair up his nose, so the Giants task is to help him get the walk rate down, something they haven't been as good at as some other aspects of pitching development.

14 comments:

  1. The Giants have helped two pitchers with too many walks learn to control enough, Cain and Lincecum. So that gives me hope they can do likewise with Marlowe.

    But, yeah, Runzler is still struggling with that, Hinshaw too, sonotevery one figures it out, the Giants coaching staff is not always magicians. But I have some hope.

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    1. There is more of these types to come in Bandilla and Black, so the Giants must have some faith in themselves to teach these guys control, but yeah, it hasn't always happened.

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  2. Christopher Marlowe is my son .. and I wish him the best at his first spring training in March with the San Francisco Giants! Love you kid .. follow you dreams!

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    1. Best wishes to you and Chris as he starts a journey that hopefully leads to the major leagues. We're all rooting for him to succeed as we do all prospects in the organization.

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    2. Congrats to your son for making the pros!

      One way to easily monitor how well your son is doing is to look at his K/BB ratio (strikeout to walk ratio) and K/9. The good pitchers have a K/BB ratio of at least 2.0 and ideally above 2.4 (he had a 2.1 in college last year and 5.0 in AZL). So getting his walks down is not the be-all and end-all, though nice obviously, as long as he is striking out enough to keep the ratio high. If he wants to be the best, though, he will need to get the walks down.

      But as I noted, Lincecum was very wild in college as well, and he figured out how to get it down when he got in the pros and majors. And Cain worked at it in the minors and majors and got it down over time.

      And in the minors, as long as he continues to keep his K/9 (strikeouts per 9 innings pitched) above 9.0, then he is one of the top strikeout pitchers in that league, and that improves his possibility of making it in that league and getting promoted. The higher he can keep it (and still keep his K/BB ratio above 2.0), the more likely he is to advance to the next level.

      Good luck to you and your family, it must be very exciting for you all, and I hope it is a good experience for you all. I will be rooting hard for your son, I hope you come back periodically and share your thoughts and experiences, we rarely get to hear the player's side of the story.

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    3. This is what its all about, a young man chasing his dream.. Best wishes to Chris and your family as he begins his journey in pro ball. May you experience the thrill of one day watching Chris in a Giants uniform making his MLB debut.. Its always great stuff watching a rookie making his MLB debut with family in the stands..

      LG

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    4. Thanks so much for the insight -- we are new to the "pitching" part of the game as Christopher was a short stop until his sophomore year at Navarro Junior College -- we all have a lot to learn about being the family of a pitcher, but we will give it our best shot! I would be more than happy to stop by ocassionally and post here -- thanks for welcoming us to the Giant family .. appreciate all the kind words -- we have a Google Alert set up for Chris Marlowe and Giants .. hope I can handle the good with the bad -- UGH! LOL! Talk to you all soon!

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    5. The Giants have a track record of converting shortstops to pitchers. Joe Nathan, Steve Edlefsen and Jake Dunning are a few others who have gone that route.

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  3. Thank you -- he has been working really hard in the off-season and looking forward to getting back to Arizona in the coming weeks -- I'll be keeping up with your blog -- thanks for posting!

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    1. Thank you. We like to think this is the best Giants blog out there although ObsessiveGiantsCompulsive and Giants Nirvana are both very good too.

      During the season we try to post a Game Wrap of the Giants game and a rundown of the minor league highlights every day. Hope you find it interesting and informative enough to become a regular reader and commenter.

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    2. I agree, DrB is the best, but thanks for the compliment, high praise indeed, thanks!

      DrB is particularly good for following prospects, but I love his game wraps too. You will learn a lot about prospects reading here, and he is understanding that the prospects are people too, and have friends and family. He is a good person, he tries to be very inclusive here, which makes it easy to have conversations here and to share and to learn something as well.

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  4. I met Chris Marlowe charting pitches after he had pitched 4 innings the night before. He was very mannerly, yes sir-no sir. I was very impressed with him and I hope he keeps this part of his personality. He even tolerated my very noisey son. I hope nothing but the best for him, he seems like a classy guy. Good Luck!

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  5. Sorry, I forgot to say where I met Mr. Marlowe. It was in Savannah w/ the Green Jackets playing the Sand Gnats

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  6. Thank you for the kind words..now I know he is minding his manners when he is away fron home!

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