“Robble, robble!”
First of all I have to say it was surreal driving through the downtown area of Cedar Rapids to get to the game. There was all sorts of trash everywhere, and I’ll spare you from a description of the smell.The town just looked like a cross between a war zone and a dump. Anyway, about the players…
I was excited to see the statistical wonder that is Nick Additon pitch, until he started pumping in 81-84 MPH fastballs. I think the stadium gun was a tick or two slow, because CR’s pitcher Trevor Bell reportedly throws 91-92 and he was at 88-89. I was going to write this detailed report on how he looked, but I don’t think it’s worth my time. The bottom line is 85 MPH isn’t where you want to be topping out at, even if you are left handed. He has pretty decent command, but all too often was up in the zone. He has a big, slow 12-6 breaking ball at 68-73 and a changeup. I’m not a scout, but it’s hard for me to envision him making the big leagues. Just mediocre stuff, in my view.
Blake King on the other hand looked alright, but the man has some funk. He has a weird delivery, very much over the top and with a lot of effort. He can pump in some gas, throwing 89-91 and hitting 92 on the slow gun, so I would guess he was really hitting 91-94. He does have a plus slider. I wasn’t blown away, but following Additon he looked pretty good.
One player who did come as advertised is Tommy Pham. The man is a walking tool shed. I’ve said stuff about putting him on the mound before due his lackluster performance so far in the minors, but I take it all back now. He’s got wrinkles, of course-his swing is pretty long making it not hard to tell why he whiffs so often-but he’s a pretty impressive specimen. He shows plus range in center field, and we know about his arm. He smacked a double into the right field corner and stretched it into a triple faster than you can blink. When he made contact, it had that “different sound” you here scouts talk about. His other two hits that he collected were liners that were just smoked. After seeing him in person, I’d have to say he may have as high of a ceiling as anyone in the system other than Colby. On the other side of the coin, his floor is pretty low because of his plate discipline issues. But if he starts to figure things out, watch out.
Other bullet pointy-points:
- Pete Kozma stroked a liner down the first base line for his double. He looked pretty good at short, very sound and fluid defensively. He also looked pretty rough on his strikeout. He took two ugly hacks at sliders out of the zone, looking totally fooled. I don’t think he is quite out of the woods when it comes to his May swoon yet. For me, Kozma is like a nice Buick, whereas Pham is a Ferrari. If you had to choose between the two cars, your “fun side” would say “Ferrari! Ooh! Ferrari!”. But then the responsible side of you would eventually take over and start talking to you about gas mileage, insurance, and the odds of you killing yourself driving a car like that. OK, so that is a sucky metaphor. The idea is Kozma isn’t super exciting, but he’s by far the more safe and practical bet of being successful in the majors.
- Fransisco Rivera is a guy I liked quite a bit. This isn’t a perfect comparison, because I’m not sure Rivera has as much pure power, but he reminds me of Padres supplemental pick Jaff Decker. On the down side, both are shorter, less athletic looking players who will be relegated to playing a corner somewhere. But on the positive: both are young and pure left-handed bats. Rivera is different in that he is short and very quick to the ball. He went the other way in smacking a double off the Kernels’ lefty reliever Chris Armstrong. I know he hasn’t shown the power yet with his .137 ISO, but I’ve been told it’s in batting practice in a spades. Right now, he’s more line drives. I think he may be my new personal cheeseball.
Filed under: Blake King, Francisco Rivera, Nick Additon, Pete Kozma, Tommy Pham
erik
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roarke49
theredbaaron
Fantastic stuff Eric. . .
Wallace still hasn’t signed yet, I think. I google his name on the news alerts every hour, but nothing yet. And for those that are wondering - no, I don’t have a life, but yes, I am employed. That second point is amazing in itself.
Is Kozma like a LeSabre or a Rendevous? I think the Rendevous is ugly, but the LeSabre, despite it’s reputation as a grocery-getter, is always dependable.
Ok, so my attempt at analogy wasn’t much better.
“One player who did come as advertised is Tommy Pham. The man is a WALKING TOOL SHED.”
Hahahahaha
Erik, I don’t know if you read my comments on scout.com, but I had nearly the exact same reaction on all of these players. I will say that I’ve previously seen Additon pitch better than he did last night, so maybe it was jsut an off night for him. I saw Additon and Diapoules pitch on the same night a while ago, and at that time I thought Diapoules was the better prospect because of his sinker. Lately, Additon has been on a tear, so I was starting to consider him the better prospect based on stats. However, after last night I have Diapoules back on top, as Additon’s stuff was not impressive enough. He needs a fastball that moves, as his came in straight and true last night. That gun had to have been slow…every time I’ve watched Additon he has usually pitched at 87-89 on his fastball and his curve will come in at 76-77.
That was the best I’ve ever seen King pitch. I’ve seen him 3-4 times, and he’s been extrememly wild every time. He actually threw strikes last night, and when he was in the strike zone with his fastball he sets up his slider nicely. He threw one pitch that went about 55 feet last night…he usually throws 2 of those each inning during the other times I’ve watched him. Maybe relief will be his calling. Also, his delivery looked even less violent last night than it usually does, if you can believe that.
Lastly, my thoughts were the exact same on Pham, Kozma, and Rivera. I think Pham gets caught pulling his head, especially on that K at-bat. Every whiff I saw he was looking at the 3rd base coach. On his last at-bat, he kept his head in and stroked it the other way an an outside pitch. I completely agree with the “different sound” comment. Kozma has had a litle bit of trouble with breaking stuff the last couple of times I’ve watched him…inexperience I guess. Also, Kozma’s bat speed seems a little slower than earlier this season, but maybe I was just paying attention on a couple of bad swings. I should also include the disclaimer that I’m not a scout either.
Nice report Erik. I won’t be going to the games the rest of this weekend in Cedar Rapids…try to keep us updated if you go to them.
i agree on kozma’s bat slowing, i thought it may have been just me. he just was much more exciting to watch 2 months ago, I wonder what gives.
I agree with you generaly assement of Addition. Meh. He is definitely fooling the hell out of players though. When I watched him pitch only one hitter squared up on a ball. Everything tha hitters put wood on was some wierd cue shot off the hands or the end of the bat. The other thing I though after watching him was that he has a couple MPHs to add to his pitches just from mechanical changes. He doesn’t really bring it with his body and ends up having a very abrupt finish. Currently I would say that he is an injury risk with that finish but he doesn’t have that much arm speed to stop.
All the talk of Pham and I really think I would stand a good chance of striking him out. A pithcer just needs to throw a lot of junk because this guy is a dead red hitter. His major swing problem is that he doesn’t keep his weight back at all. This also leads to him pulling out as walt mentioned. Currently I doubt he has any chance of putting up a 700 ops at palm beach.
just from reading about addition…he seems to have a bit of barry zito in him…slow, straight fastball that he can spot really well…and a loopy but confusing curveball that he can also drop in for strikes…i’m not saying he’ll be as good as cy young zito, but if he can fool hitters for 4 or 5 seasons like zito did, then i like him….please tell me if i am completely off base. I’ve never seen him pitch, this is just based on different reports that i have read
Addition’s only shot is as a lefty specialist. Addition is not even close to Zito. Zito possessed and on some nights still possesses one of the best curveballs in the history of the game. Zito’s problem is that he has no other plus pitches and at times can struggle locating the curve.
His curve isn’t really great. It has a big break, but it’s loopy and i think hitters can just take it and wait for him to throw his not-so-fastball.
I see your Pham and raise you a Daryl Jones.
Thanks much for the report, Erik! While I’d sure prefer Additon to add 2 or 3 ticks to the heater (and his frame could fill out quite a bit over the next few years, adding velo), if I recall correctly Bud Smith topped out at 87/88 during his no-no.
Lefties are just a whole ‘nother species. Maybe Additon is crafty. Maybe supercrafty.
Anyone know *anything* about the teenager who’s off to such a fine start for the Bandits, Angel Rivera? The kid isn’t showing much pop, but a .320 average, with more walks than whiffs…that’s an attention-getter.
Oops. Sorry, Erik, I missed the Rivera remarks speed-reading through the first time. Did his strikezone judgement seem to match his excellent BB/K numbers?
Thanks again.
Yes, it does. He has a good eye and controls the strikezone very well. He can pull the ball and take it the other way. His swing portends to a lot of line drives…and sure enough, he’s hitting them at a 31% clip. I’m wouldn’t call him super patient, but I don’t think he’ll ever strike out a lot, either. He definitely strikes me as a high average, doubles hitter with some good HR hitting potential as he fills out.
As for Additon, I think you all want to believe he’s as good as his numbers. I stand by my judgment-he’s not a big leaguer.
Pham is rough, but improving, on pace for 30 homers in a season at the low A level. It’s impressive. He has an unusual gift in terms of hitting ability, and he has a strong arm and good speed.
King has been afflicted by walks. But in just his last two outings, a switch has been flicked. He has 11 Ks in the past 6 innings, with NO walks. For him, that is an amazing improvement. King’s slider and fastball are ML quality. He has been held back by lack of control. Relief seems a good role, given his violent delivery.
At this point, its unnecessary to have strong opinions about Additon’s career ceiling. He’s a good sized lefty who throws easily. He should improve further in the years ahead.
Some fascinating photos from CR that I thought might interest folks here:
http://quadcityimages.blogspot.com/2008/06/modern-woodmen-park-flood-2008.html