Luis Mey throws hard. If you’ve been following the Cincinnati Reds farm system at all over the last few years that doesn’t come as much of a surprise to you. But on Saturday the right-handed reliever threw a pitch faster than he’s ever thrown before. Facing his first batter of the game for the Triple-A Louisville Bats, Mey fired a 103.2 MPH fastball by Johnathan Rodriguez for strike three.
Last season saw Met get close to that mark, topping out at 103.0 MPH for Double-A Chattanooga. The raw velocity on this pitch is enough to drop one’s jaw. But when you couple the fact that it’s on a sinker and not a 4-seam fastball, it takes it to a different level.
All games in Triple-A have pitch tracking these days, just like the big leagues. That gives us a good reference point to work with. Entering Saturday’s game there were only 16 2-seam fastballs thrown in Triple-A that have been 101.0 MPH or faster thrown this season. Luis Mey had thrown 12 of them, including the six fastest and nine of the 10 fastest. He was the only pitcher to top 101.4 MPH with a 2-seamer at the level this season. Mey did that four more times against Columbus.
While we all know that he throws very fast, we also know that he often struggles to consistently throw strikes. And that was the case on Saturday. Mey struck out the first hitter he faced, then he walked four of the other five hitters he faced, with the fifth guy hitting a sacrifice fly.
This season he’s pitched 6.0 innings for Louisville and he’s walked seven batters. One of those walks was intentional. He’s thrown 115 pitches this year and only 62 of them have been for strikes. That’s a 54% strike rate.
Edwin Rios demolishes a baseball
Earlier in the game the Louisville Bats hit three home runs in the 5th inning. The first one by Rece Hinds clanked off of the batters eye just to the right of dead center. Edwin Rios followed him with a home run of his own and it made the one hit by Hinds seem like a blooper that barely got out of the infield.
The wind was blowing out on the day, and it certainly helped the ball, but Rios went to the deepest part of the park and cleared the batters eye. In fact, he hit the flag pole that’s above the batters eye with the home run. It was estimated to go 440 feet, though that feels a little light given where it went.