After being drafted in the 6th round by the Cincinnati Reds in 2015 and spending his entire season with the Billings Mustangs, Jimmy Herget skipped a level and joined the Advanced-A Daytona Tortugas to start the 2016 season. He only made two appearances in the first week of the season, each a scoreless inning of work and he had three combined strikeouts. The next week saw three appearances, allowing one run over the course of 4.0 innings with seven strikeouts. In the final week of April the right handed reliever threw 4.0 more innings over three games with one earned run, two walks and six strikeouts. The first month with Daytona was outstanding for Herget, he allowed just two runs over 10.0 innings (1.80 ERA) with just two walks and 16 strikeouts.
With three days off before taking the mound again, Jimmy Herget threw 3.0 shutout innings against Lakeland with five strikeouts to kick off the month of May. He had another three days off before pitching again on the 7th with a shutout inning and two more strikeouts. The second week saw him make four appearances where he allowed one run over 3.2 innings with four more strikeouts. The third week of May was a struggle for the right hander as he allowed two runs in three appearances over 3.2 innings with five walks (more than he had in the entire season that that point) with three strikeouts. Things went better in the final week of the month as he didn’t allow an earned run in 4.1 innings with a walk and five strikeouts. The month was another strong one as he had a 1.76 ERA in 15.1 innings with six walks and 20 strikeouts.
June saw things slow down a little bit. In the first two weeks of the month Jimmy Herget only made three appearances, but each one was a shutout inning of work and he had three total strikeouts. In the third week of June he only made one appearance, a perfect inning with two strikeouts on the 15th against Jupiter. Herget didn’t pitch again until the 22nd, which kicked off a stretch of four appearances to end the month, all shutout games with a total of seven strikeouts. Over eight appearances in June, the righty didn’t give up a run, allowed just three hits with two walks and he struck out 12 batters.
July was a bit slow at the start as well for Jimmy Herget. In the first two weeks he made four total appearances, allowing two runs in 5.0 innings with three walks and four strikeouts. Things picked up in the third week of the month as the closer tossed 4.0 shutout innings in three appearances with five strikeouts. Over the final week of the month he would make four more appearances, including two on July 29th where he picked up the save on both ends of a double header. In 11 total appearances on the month he posted a 2.03 ERA in 13.1 innings with eight walks and 16 strikeouts.
The first three appearances in August went well as Jimmy Herget threw 3.2 hitless innings with two walks and six strikeouts. On the 11th he ran into problems against the Yankees when he allowed two runs in an inning of work on the back end of a double header. Over the next week he made three appearances and tossed 4.0 innings with just one run allowed. In the final four games of his season he threw 5.1 innings with just one earned run allowed and added in eight strikeouts. The last five weeks of the season saw him post a 2.57 ERA, which was the worst stretch of his entire year when it comes to ERA, in 14.0 innings with four walks and 19 strikeouts.
To say that Jimmy Herget dominated the Florida State League would be an understatement. The right hander posted a 1.78 ERA in 60.2 innings and racked up 24 saves to go along with 83 strikeouts. Both left handers and right handers struggled to do much against him with lefties doing a little better, posting a .613 OPS against him (.532 for the right handed hitters).
| Level | IP | H | ERA | HR | BB | K |
| DTT | 60.2 | 47 | 1.78 | 3 | 22 | 83 |
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Jimmy Herget Scouting Report
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Fastball | From a velocity standpoint, Jimmy Herget works in the 93-95 MPH range most days, but will often touch 97 with the pitch as well. The velocity is good, but the pitch also moves well, showing some nice armside run at times. At times he will change his arm angle, dropping it down some to give hitters a different look and his fastball is more in the 90-91 MPH range from there.
Slider | The pitch works in the 78-82 MPH range. It’s a slightly above-average pitch at times, but can flash itself as a plus offering other times with good biting action. Most of the time it’s an above-average offering though, moving on two planes thanks to his arm angle adding some sweep across the zone.
When he’s at his best, Jimmy Herget is showing two plus offerings with a moving fastball in the mid-to-upper 90’s and a slider with strong biting action that’s also sweeping across the zone. His walk rate in 2016 was about average for a reliever, but he’s generally a strike thrower and doesn’t seem to have control issues. He’s incredibly thin, and his mechanics aren’t textbook, so that may warrant keeping an eye on in the future, but right now he profiles well as an 8th inning caliber reliever if he continues his natural progression through the farm system.
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