This week I created some video clips of Nick Travieso and Amir Garrett breaking down their pitch movement by pitch as well as scouting reports from their most recent starts. I will also look at shortstop Ronald Bueno and starting pitch Ben Lively.
Amir Garrett
Nick Travieso
Scouting Reports
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Amir Garrett – Garrett was much better this time out than his first start in Dayton. In the first inning the lefty sat 91-94 and hit 95. In the second he was 91-94. In the third inning he was 90-93. In the 4th and 5th he was at 88-92. The fastball from the video above was at 95 MPH and as you can see, it still has good movement to it. He threw his change up in the 82-84 MPH range throughout the game. Like the fastball it has a bit or arm-side run to it. His curveball was a bit inconsistent, but had good sweeping action at times in the 72-76 MPH range.
Nick Travieso – His fastball was a bit lower in this outing than the last time I had a chance to see him. This game he was 90-92 early and 88-91 later in the game while touching 92 from time to time. From the video above you can see that it is a bit straight but has some sink to it. If you watch this video from a little more than a month ago, the fastball had more run to it on that night. His slider was a bit inconsistent during the game but at times was very good as the pitch was coming in at 79-83 MPH.
Ronald Bueno
Ronald Bueno is currently hitting .288/.363/.388 with 10 walks and 11 strikeouts for the Billings Mustangs while spending most of his time at shortstop. He is a switch hitter but has only seen 15 plate appearances as a right hander all season. He is listed at 5′ 10″ and 154 lbs and he looks every bit as small as that sounds. With that size though comes plus speed as he has been timed at 3.5 seconds from the right side on bunts and 4.0 from home to first on infield hits from the right side of the plate as well. He is even a tad faster from the left side. From the left side he has a short swing generated to make contact. While he doesn’t swing in a way that I would call a “slap hitting swing”, it isn’t a swing that will have more than gap power to it. Defensively he seems to have good hands, but didn’t get a chance to show off much range or arm strength. His arm did look solid in limited chances, but again, he didn’t get a chance to show off a situation where he needed a big arm to make a play.
Ben Lively
Ben Lively has put up some outstanding numbers this season in Billings with a 0.00 ERA in 21 innings with 8 walks and 26 strikeouts. The walk rate is a little high so far this season, but the strikeout rate is also high. Watching one of his starts there were some good things and some bad. His fastball worked in the low 90’s but seems to really jump out of his hand. Unfortunately he really struggled to control the pitch. He didn’t miss in the middle of the zone at all, but he often missed quite high. He mixed in two breaking balls during the game, a slider and a curveball. The slider was a strong pitch when he showed it, but he didn’t throw it in the strikezone during the outing. That could be something to watch for as he moves forward and whether or not it will be an adjustment he makes as hitters lay off of it out of the zone at higher levels. His curveball was the best pitch he had on this particular day. While it wasn’t as good as his slider was in terms of raw ability, the pitch was good and he was able to throw it for strikes in the zone throughout his three innings of work. Lively didn’t show his change up much, but he did throw one that was particularly good with nice tumble to it.
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