Zack Weiss entered the 2015 season as one of the top relief prospects in the organizations. The right hander had a 2.42 ERA over 63.1 innings for the Dayton Dragons in 2014 with 80 strikeouts and he had three saves.
Fast forward to April of 2015 and Weiss has made his 2014 look poor by comparison. It’s early in the season, but he’s moved into the closers role for Advanced-A Daytona where he’s already matched his save total from 2014 with three. What’s really stood out though is that he’s allowed a grand total of one base runner, a walk, in 7.2 innings. He’s faced 23 batters this season and he’s struck out 15 of them.
I had a chance to talk with Zack over the weekend about his start. Here’s what he had to say about his start:
You’ve struck out 15 of the 22 batters you’ve faced this year. You had great numbers last year, but has something changed this year?
I wouldn’t say anything has really changed. I’ve been throwing a little harder but I’ve been ahead in a lot of counts which has allowed me to get to my slider in good leverage counts. I’m still throwing all four pitches. Naturally in shorter appearances you’re not trying to use all four but I have in certain situations. Primarily just trying to be aggressive and be comfortable throwing my best stuff over the plate consistently and not nibbling against guys and finding myself behind in counts.
You mentioned that being ahead a lot is helping, do you feel that your control has improved? Is that something you worked on in that specific area or just something that’s working for you better this year?
My command has definitely been better this year. As I’ve gotten older I’ve started to get better feel for my body. But also I’ve been better mentally. Trusting my stuff and trying to attack hitters over the plate early in counts instead of trying to throw perfect pitches and falling behind.
He mentions that his command has improved. Not that it was bad in 2014, but his walk rate is vastly improved early on this season. He also mentions he’s throwing a little bit harder. Let’s dive a little deeper into the scouting report.
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Fastball | Last season he was throwing in the 91-93 range and he would touch higher at times. This season he’s been sitting in the 94-95 range with his fastball. That’s a decent jump up in velocity and boosts up his value as a guy who maybe didn’t have the fastball velocity to pitch in the 8th/9th innings to a guy who could get chances to do that at the big league level a little bit sooner.
Slider | This was his best pitch last season, an above-average offering. It’s doing more of the same this season, working as his go to pitch to put away hitters and remains an above-average pitch that works in the low-to-mid 80’s.
Curveball | His second breaking ball, an average pitch that comes in slower than his slider working in the mid-to-upper 70’s. It’s not one he uses too often, but he does still mix it in at times.
Change Up | The pitch he uses the least often, it’s a below-average pitch and clearly the 4th pitch in his repertoire.
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