Today is the second part in a series that we are running the first and last Thursday of February and March that will look at a player that you shouldn’t sleep on and forget about heading into the 2015 season. One player will be chosen from the infield, outfield, relief group and starters group. Today we will be jumping into the reliever category and look at right hander Drew Hayes.
Drew Hayes is a bit older than some other players in the system, turning 27-years-old last September, but don’t sleep on him just yet. The Reds selected him in the 11th round out of Vanderbilt in the 2010 draft. After dominating with both Billings and Dayton, Hayes has spent each of the last three seasons pitching for the Pensacola Blue Wahoos.
In Double-A with Pensacola he’s had a mixed bag of results. His ERA at the level is 4.29, which isn’t bad. He’s also struck out 201 batters in 197.1 innings pitched, which is quite good. He’s struggled with his walk rates though, walking 110 batters in that span, which is far higher than you would like to see.
Something strange happened in August of last year though. He stopped walking guys. Literally. Once the calendar flipped over to August he would go on to face 74 batters and he walked just one of them. One. Prior to that he had walked 38 of the 237 batters he faced in 2014 (16%).
After the season was over Hayes headed to the Dominican Republic to player winter ball. The right hander threw 13.0 innings over the course of nine appearances and he continued his stingy ways, walking just two batters and posting a 1.38 ERA while striking out 17. Couple that with his time to end the Double-A season and Hayes, who has always had the stuff but struggled with the control, walked just three batters out of the last 123 batters he faced in 2014.
Scouting Report
[private_subscriber]
Hayes throws from a high 3/4 arm slot that is almost over-the-top, giving his pitches downward plane. His fastball works in the 92-94 MPH range. He couples his fastball with an above-average slider. When it’s at it’s best it is a true put-away offering. Hayes has struggled to throw the pitch in or near the strikezone at times throughout his career though. He’s always been a groundball inducing pitcher, likely due to the downward trajectory on his pitches thanks to his arm angle and that didn’t change in 2014 when more than half of the balls put in play against him were on the ground and he allowed just four home runs over 71.1 innings despite playing in a very home run friendly ballpark.
[/private_subscriber]