Logan Bawcom
Q. What is the general consensus on Logan Bawcom?
A. That he's a reliever with a certain amount of upside, decent fastball good slider, who will likely pitch in the bigs at some point. And who at any rate didn't deserve to make the top 20, or particularly close to it, in LAD's org prospects list.
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Q. Does SSI vary from this consensus?
A. Actually we'd be kind of excited about this pitcher. It's not so much what he's done - though what he's done is consistent with impact relief in the bigs - as it is his pitching template.
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Q. His template being what?
A. The basic Jonathan Broxton, Craig Kimbrel type of over-the-top power reliever.
Not that Bawcom has their raw velocity, of course, but not so many pitchers really "throw downhill" in Tim Lincecum style. Lincecum rocks back and points uphill before he does anything else ... then he sort of climbs to the peak like a roller coaster, crests at the top, and then rocks back downhill. He comes way overhand and the result is a pitch plane that is angled sharply down.
Other pitchers who do this include Doug Fister - though he doesn't have to climb uphill first to do this - and Stephen Pryor. Back in the day, Jose Mesa used to throw this way. Matt Thornton does it from the left side.
It's a tough kind of pitcher for them batters to deal wit'.
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Q. Throwing downhill is a Dr. D hobby horse or it's valued within baseball generally?
A. It's valued within baseball even more than Dr. D values it.
When a pitcher comes over the top as extremely as Bawcom does, all kinds of goodness results. Not only does the pitch plane angle differently than the bat plane ... but as a separate problem for the hitter, usually the ball is hard to pick up early (because it's behind the pitcher's shoulder and head).
Also, there is typically a lot of rise or "hop" to the ball.
Also, it's usually hard for the hitter to quickly differentiate between high and low fastballs. You see a lot of chasing up the ladder, because half the time the batters are just guessing at the level of the ball.
Also, usually a pitcher like this has a breaking ball that rolls off the table. Also, the overhand curve is VERY hard to differentiate, early, from a high fastball. ... Pitching coaches love, love love it when they can get a reliever "throwing downhill."
Judging by the vids, Bawcom does indeed seem to have a Nintendo power curve. You can see the break on it from the cheap seats, Sele-style.
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Q. Does Bawcom become :- ) the M's fourth big time power righty in the pen?
A. Wouldn't go that far myself... it's pretty early in his career. Dodgers fans have been ga-ga over his chances to succeed Broxton.
Will say this much, though. I like the looks of him a lot more than some other generic 94-MPH right hand reliever. Supposedly the M's had lots of offers on League, "this is what we settled on" and it's easy to see why Zduriencik grabbed Bawcom.
Cheers,
Dr D