To say that Jimmy Herget had a dominant 2016 season for the Daytona Tortugas would be an understatement. The right handed reliever closed 24 games in the Florida State League on the season in his 50 appearances.
The Cincinnati Reds took Herget out of South Florida in the 6th round of the 2015 draft. After pitching well in Billings in his debut the team felt confident that he could succeed in skipping over Low-A Dayton. They weren’t wrong. In 60.2 innings he posted a 1.78 ERA to go along with 22 walks and 83 strikeouts. Opponents had just 47 hits against him and managed a .208/.284/.279 line against him on the season.
He started out the season with a dominant April and he never really gave in. He posted his highest ERA of any month in August/September. In the 14.0 innings he pitched in that span he allowed four earned runs, good for an ERA of 2.57. That was his WORST month of the season. It also came along with four walks and 19 strikeouts.
The numbers were absolutely dominant. How did he look? Let’s check out some video from an outing he had in July.
Not too bad. Movement, strikes, a funky look, changing his timing. There was a little bit of everything.
Jimmy Herget Scouting Report
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Fastball: Herget works anywhere from 90-96 MPH with his fastball and he will touch 97 every so often. The pitch has good movement, showing both sinking and running action.
Slider: This pitch works in the 77-82 MPH range. It’s not always consistent in it’s movement. At times it looks like a plus offering, but it’s average at best at other times without good biting action to go along with some sweeping action.
If you watched the video above you probably noticed that Herget altered his timing, pausing his leg lift, things that Johnny Cueto does to throw off the timing of the hitter. This was in late July and after talking with some people in Daytona, he hadn’t been doing it all year, but did start doing it rather recently. It’s just another thing that he does to mess with the hitters. The right hander changes his arm angles often, reminiscent of Bronson Arroyo, but with much better pure stuff.
His mechanics aren’t perfect, and he’s very slight of build, but he’s got legitimate stuff and he knows how to pitch. While he may not profile as a closer, he certainly profiles as a 7th or 8th inning guy.
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