Future Redbirds

So Adam Ottavino got knocked around a little bit the other day. Chris Kline at the BA Prospects blog took notice and had this tidbit of interest:

“His slider looks a little short,” a scout from a National League club said. “Not a lot of depth to it (yesterday). His change-up was OK, though he left a few up in the zone. And then he has that in between pitch; that slurvy breaking ball that just doesn’t show a whole lot of movement.

“His four-seamer was very good, but he didn’t have real good command of his two-seamer either. He really battled himself at times, and when things went wrong behind him (the Palm Beach infield committed four errors), he didn’t show he could hit that next gear.”

Eep. It seems the indoctrination of Adam isn’t going as smooth as we would have hoped. He isn’t going to be encouraged about throwing the 2-seamer when his infielders can’t field. It’s also not good news hearing he looked like a 1-pitch pitcher, even if his fastball sounds like a very good one. Maybe it’s a case of “it’s early so I’m still try to get a feel for my breaking stuff” blues.  I’ll give Ottavino the benefit of the doubt while he learns to hone the sinker, but this could be seen as a little more irritation for those who feel that the Cardinal should let the power pitchers just be power pitchers, verses trying to make them ‘pitch to contact’.