Comments on: The Dirt on Drabek’s Debut

By: Josh

Josh — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 05:44:49 +0000

I checked the vid of his start on mlb.com, the breaker is true filth, a nose-diver. I also noticed on his 2nd or 3rd K, the K pitch was what appeared to be a two-seamer…I had a good old-fashioned double take when I saw it, looked to be headed straight to the outside corner but broke what looked to be about near a foot off the outside edge to a lefty, don’t know who it was but man that thing looked scary. Good things I saw from the baby Drabek.

By: James

James — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 00:45:46 +0000

I’m getting my info from another website from spring training and they described his normal 4 seam fastball as one of the flattest pitches they saw in spring training. Don’t blame me.

By: Bryan Smith

Bryan Smith — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 23:54:39 +0000

Thanks. There was meant to be a tease on the “Quality Start” idea in there, but I half-edited it out.

As far as the “bad luck route with the hit total”, I think I’m as guilty of it as anybody, specifically with pitching prospects. Last night was a nice reminder that a groundball pitcher allowing a bunch of hits doesn’t HAVE to mean that he was unlucky.

By: frank

frank — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 23:53:51 +0000

To be clear, I’m not suggesting that DRabek will be middle of the road just that 6IP and 3R outings will rack up their fair share of losses and won’t always be Wins or ND’s

By: frank

frank — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 23:52:36 +0000

Nice summary. Also nice job not just going down the bad luck route with the hit total which unfortunately is all too common on this site.

On minor quibble – he allowed ‘just’ 3 runs in 6 innings? You make it sound like that deserved a W or ND and he shouldn’t have got a loss. A 4.50 ERA pitcher is a middle of the road pitcher and will lose some of those 3R/6IP games.

By: Bryan Smith

Bryan Smith — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 23:31:15 +0000

Flat in general? If that’s what you mean, that is dead wrong. He has really good movement on his fastball down in the zone.

By: James

James — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 23:17:36 +0000

Project Prospect says he brings his arm through late to get his good command. This puts stress on his shoulder. They made it seem like a concern.

And his fastball is flat. That is probably why he doesn’t strike too many out. He only has his 2 seamer to set up that curve and cutter.