The Billings Mustangs have been on Milb.tv over the past several days. That has given me a good luck at a lot of their pitching staff over the past few days. Today I will look at Amir Garrett, Werleen Taveras and Jose Guzman. More will come next week.
The Reds made a sizable investment in Amir Garrett right out of high school despite his basketball scholarship. His bonus was spread out over several years as it is allowed for multisport players. In his first season he struggled a bit with consistency but came along very quickly. So far in four starts this season he has a 1.89 ERA with 8 walks and 15 strikeouts in 19 innings pitched.
Scouting Report
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Fastball: Garrett was throwing his fastball in the low 90’s. He uses a low 3/4’s arm angle which gives his fastball good run across the strikezone.
Curveball: An inconsistent pitch, but a strong pitch with good break when it is at its best. With the arm angle it also comes across the zone to give an appearance of two plane break. With consistency it could be a true out pitch.
Change up: Garrett didn’t show the pitch much, but when he did he was slowing down his arm a little bit and giving the pitch away. It is still a new pitch for Garrett so it will take time to improve, but he will need to be able to better sell the pitch with his arm action than he is currently showing.
Other: The defense wasn’t the best behind Garrett and he was also called for a balk in the game. He was visibly upset with the situation to the point that pitching coach Tom Browning had to make a visit to the mound.
Werleen Taveras threw the last three innings of the game for the Mustangs that Garrett started. An unheralded pitcher who will turn 23 next month has yet to allow an earned run in 11.1 innings out of the Billings bullpen so far this season with 4 walks and 13 strikeouts. Given his age I wasn’t expecting much from him, but after the game I was impressed.
Scouting Report
Fastball: His fastball was working in the low 90’s and was consistently at the bottom of the zone with good downward plane due to an over-the-top motion.
Change Up: The better of his two offspeed pitches, his change up has good arm action and nice tumbling action. An above-average pitch.
Curveball: A little inconsistent, but a good pitch when at its best. A short breaking ball thrown in the mid 70’s.
Despite his age and current level making him a bit older for where he is I believe that he should be taken seriously as a relief prospect. While he certainly isn’t a back end of the rotation guy his stuff has a chance to play at the Major League level.
Jose Guzman pitched mostly out of the bullpen in 2012, but the Reds have transitioned him to the rotation again (he started one season in the Dominican Summer League). The 21-year-old has 4 walks and 14 strikeouts in 17 innings pitched so far with a 4.24 ERA.
Scouting Report
Fastball: It mostly worked 89-91. The pitch has good armside run to it at times, but it was also a bit flat at others and when it was, opposing hitters were on it.
Curveball: Inconsistent, but when it was at its best it was an above-average pitch with good depth and late break.
Change Up: He didn’t show it often, but it was an average pitch when he did show it.
Guzman will rely on his curveball as a go to pitch as it was easily his best pitch. He struggled with his control, overthrowing at times.
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