Here's a copy of my scouting report on Justin Verlander orginally posted at my 2nd home Baseball HQ. I often like to go to a game by myself when I'm in the mood for some serious baseball analysis and experience. I buy a good seet- (right behind home tonight- the upside of living in a city with a horrible team). I buy a rare beer and just soak it in. Tonight I was there to watch 1 guy Justin Verlander. Every year there are new phenoms (ah hem Zach Greinke) and most never live up to the hype. King Felix in Seattle is where most of the hype is -he may be great but this kid Verlander is for real. If he stays healthy he's the next THE GUY as in Roger Clemens, Pedro Martinez the next guy.
I'll soon post a very detailed breakdown- but long story short -simply the best pitched game I've personally witnessed in several years-yes it's the Royals but it's the way he shut us out- we couldn''t touch and after 4 we quit trying and just choked up and went opposite field with little grounders and soft liners. There was no possible way for him to give up a homer- because the Royals quit swinging hard enough to do it- (see Reggie Sanders at bats 1-2-3) this kid will some day strikeout many- he could have easily struck out 11-12 as he was ahead with 2 strikes a lot especially early in game but the Royals just connected on a check swing and the balls were hit but so poorly there was no possible damage- so many jammed hitters-the kid had great command- he hit 100 twice 78 was his low- very sharp command of his pitches. I've watched Grienke go from 98 - 58 in a game and everything in between but this kid has 2 fastballs - 1. 97-100+ the gas (97 alot early 99 was several times 6th on) 2. 94-95 usually- often on lesser hitters and as break up pitch to good hitters . His changeup is always 78-79, Breaking ball 81-84 rarely is a pitch different than those numbers he doesn't throw upper 80's low 90's too similar to normal pitchers maybe- and his pitch count was not high- he's economical 114 tonight cg only 74 into the 7th
.I'll bring more later after I sort it all out
Side notes: Jim Leyland thinks I'm a degenerate gambler when I yelled out "How's Verlander's blister." This guy gave me 1 pissed off look -I'm mean he wanted a piece of me. I assume he thought I wanted the info for gambling purposes and not that I was a loser fantasy geek.
Craig Monroe yelled at me for being mean to little kids. I was trying to find Verlander warming up and was in the bleachers by the bullpen during batting practice. A ball lands right into a seat I'm standing by (C Shelton hit) I think cool- this is the 2nd ball I've ever got at a game (the other by a Tiger as well in late 80's) Craig Monroe is shagging flys and starts yelling at me to give it to a kid. I tell him I'm giving it to my kid. He doesn't beleive me and keeps yelling at me. I'm thinking FU Monroe I can have a ball it's not like I pushed the kid for it. I call my kid on my cell phone and I'm yelling at Monroe to come talk to my kid and tell him he can't have the ball. Now Monroe is laughing and I'm waving the phone at him- "You give him a ball Craig huh why don't you." It's bad enough these guys come in and destroys us which I pay to watch but now they want to police the stands as well. I wish I did push the fat kid who wanted it- my ball grrr.
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Originally Posted by Nick
"Thanks for the first-hand report. I noticed how freely the Royals were swinging. You can't strike out guys if they are swinging bouncers before the third pitch comes along. Smart Verlander takes what they give him."
(my reply)
Mike Boddicker on radio was saying the Royals were swing early becasue his command was so good they didn't want to get buried in the count where he could destroy them
first time through the order 3/9 Royals swung at 1rst pitch and one was Buck which only counts half since he always swings at the 1rst pitch- 2nd time through the order 2 of 9 swung at 1rst pitch, 3rd time 6/9 swung at 1rst pitch, so there it was a game adjustment, and when did the K's come that 3rd time through the order when they swung and missed as they were being more aggressive and Verlander owned them. He definitly got their attention. Buddy Bell was speechless after the game.
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ok here are some numbers- 1rst I am not well versed in recognizing pitches- slider -curve- 2 seam 4 seam et all so my comments are more generalized and I could rank them by speeds and general type of pitch.
He faced 31 batters, 114 pitches, 35 balls 79 strikes.
His longest pitch count at bat was 7 and he had 3 6 pitch at bats. Very efficient. He went 1 stretch 2nd-4th of 7 straight batters w/o throwing a ball.
First pitch strikes 19/31 broken down by times through the order6/9 5/9 5/9 3/4
First Pitch by types of pitches:
super fb (98-100) 2 (both late)
normal fb 15
breaking ball 7
change 2
Decision pitches - ball in play or K etc
super fb 7
normal fb 10
breaking ball 11
change up 3
Hits= 5
none off supper fb
2 off normal fb: Minky a broken bat clunker after a breaking ball, Costa in 9th a clean liner to right after a breaking ball
none off breaking ball
3 off the change, Gruds a nice piece of hitting just guided a grounder in hole to opposite field -Verlander threw 2 changeups in a row and frankly I'm think Grudz just wanted to make sure there was not a no hitter -it was possible
E Brown had a solid liner to left after again back to back change ups
Grudz in the 9th again- Verlanders fastball was looking weary and after a 93 he went to the change and Grudz again went to right.
Strikeouts - He was given credit for 7 but he actually had 8- one of Verlanders 100 mph was to German in the dirt but an attention getter- he followed it with a nasty breaking ball where German started swinging an ing earlier he clearly went around but the appeal went his way- that was an 8th K
3 K's off the super fb 99's all late in game. In the 9th after 2 hits he was throwing as if he may be tiring. IRod goes to the mound and suddenly Verlander strikes out Minky with last 2 pitches at 99 after 3 early breaking balls- poor Reggie Sanders -1rst 2 at bats he set him up with 94-95 fastballs and then caught him with a breaking ball at the end- the 3rd at bat he just blew Reggie down here the pitch sequence 98-97-99-99-99 Reggie had to be waiting for the hammer and took the 3rd . Guiel was up next and he was a guy that Verlander seemed to pretty much exclusively use breaking stuff (scouting report I assume) right after Sanders at bat 3 breaking pitches as was the pattern then suddenly last 2 99-99 bye bye Aaron
Breaking balls- 5 K's 3 of these were in the dirt and simply took advantage of setting the hitter up- 1 was a half swinguses
the local to set up hitters
change up to get hamless outs
express to close the deal
breaking balls- same
Balls in play- this is where the lack of K's start to be understood- as these balls were usually harmless check swing grounders -soft pops and liners -nothing dangerous in the air. If a hitter caught one it was a liner not a flyball
flyballs- 2 on infield both soft pops
4 in outfield only 1 hard -300 ft
groundballs 13 only 1 hard
line drives 6 2 soft, 2 medium 2 hardonly
4 balls hit hard all night
I've heard several sources about his change up being so good- actually to me it seemed like a work in progress. Hitters were not biting on it or he was too cute and twice got burned throwing them back to back. This is still a kid figuring it all out- that's what's scary- The K's will come as he learns how to harness and utilize his arsenal.
Throwing inside- he needs to do it more-only a couple of times but man when he did- it affected the rest of the at bat. This is a weapon he needs to look up Don Drysdale and realize how effective he could be by moving hitters of the plate then exploiting the breaking pitches outside.
The thing that surpised me the most was his command and consistency. It was a blowout early and he didn't lose focus- after they went up 8-0 in 5th he walked Guiel on 4 pitches and I'm thinking ok he's going to lose focus and give up some stupid runs here. Brown hit a hard liner right at 3rd , then he seemed to settle down and had the at bat where he totally blew German's mind but lost the appeal-he also broke out the 100 mph pitch then and then he picked off Guiel for good measure.
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