Drabek’s AA Debut

Ruben Amaro and Dallas Green were among those in attendance as Kyle Drabek took the hill at First Energy Stadium for his first Eastern League start. The weather kept many people at home, but those who witnessed this performance did not come away disappointed.

Drabek’s first three pitches came in at 99, 96 and 97. The accuracy of Reading’s gun is always under scrutiny and that was the case last night. In my opinion it is off at times, sometimes laughably so, but for the most part the readings are pretty much on target. Did Drabek throw 99? Probably not, but with his adrenaline pumping at the start it wouldn’t surprise me if  he was hitting 97. After the first few batters he sat in the 91-92 range and touched 94-95 when he wanted to. He struck out the first two batters before allowing a single to Beau Mills and a walk to Carlos Santana, two of the Indians’ top prospects. He got a flyout to rightfield to end the first inning. He cruised a bit from that point as he went 1-2-3 in the second and third with a mix of weak grounders and pop outs. He ran into a bit of trouble in the fourth as he walked the leadoff batter and then saw two hard hit balls caught deep in right field for outs. The wind was blowing in and likely prevented at least one, if not both, of those balls from leaving the yard. The adjustment to the higher level wasn’t lost on Drabek as he said after the game, “They hit some pitches they weren’t hitting down in high-A. It made it a little bit tougher. All the hitters here are good. I just tried to stay with the plan. It worked pretty good today”.  Those two hard hit balls were the last good looks the first place Akron Aeros got off him as he got the final out of the inning on another groundout. He did allow a harmless double in the sixth and recorded all three outs in the inning on groundouts. With nobody up in the pen, Drabek returned to the mound for what wound up being his best work of the night. He struck out the first batter on a fastball and got the second hitter on a groundout before dropping one of his few curveballs for a swinging strikeout to end his impressive night.

Drabek looked comfortable on the mound. He got squeezed a few times and struggled with his command at points, getting wild high and outside to a few lefties, but kept his composure and worked through those troubles. His athleticism was also on display as he made a nice play on a swinging bunt where he fielded the ball near the first base line, ran perpendicular to the runner into foul ground and fired a strike to first for the out.

I mentioned earlier that Drabek’s fastball sits in the 91-92 range and can touch 94-95. His curve looks to be a plus pitch, with the chance to be plus-plus. Last night he threw only a handful as he stuck mainly with fastball/changeup, but you could tell that it might in fact be his best pitch. Overall I came away very impressed with Drabek’s performance, especially against the Eastern League’s best team.

20 thoughts on “Drabek’s AA Debut

  1. Good stuff, thanks for the first hand report. If anyone else was there, please feel free to add your thoughts here.

    I’m encouraged that he’s throwing more changeups, as he was mainly fastball/curve out of high school.

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  2. We all doubted the Reading gun when it said Bastardo was hitting 95…and Escalona was hitting 92…both were proved correct by MLB guns.

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  3. I just watched CSN and they had highlights and a video of him at his locker after the game. Does anyone know where/if they aired the game in the area?

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  4. Akron has the best W-L record in the EL but last night its team batting average was 25 points lower than Reading’s and third from the bottom in the league. Just beware that Drabek may not face a team in the top half of the Eastern League in hitting until mid July. So it might be a while before he is challenged by a good hitting team at the AA level.

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  5. In reading these articles it came to me that the best pitchers
    are those who “reach back for something” and get it . Kyle seems to have that trait. I still would like to see a couple of short stints about five innings to give his arm a little “rest” then start up again. Especially since he is in Reading to stay
    a while

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  6. Glad to see Taylor in right tonight rather than left. If Vic goes down gives Ruben the option of having Charlie move Werth to center and put Taylor in right. I believe he has passed Mayberry Jr. as the best 5 tool corner outfielder in the farm system. Wish they would throw in the towel on Savery as a pitcher . Now he can’t even throw the ball across the plate with his high 80’s fast ball. Three walks and a homer in the first inning.

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  7. So Drabek pitched against inferior players and it didn’t count as a good pitch game, San Diego can’t hit so our three game sweep was nothing

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  8. Like I said in another post, the stalker gun right in front of me said 95 on the first pitch.

    If it was 99 or 95 it looked real good.

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  9. you guys know that there are two type of guns a fast gun and a slow gun. the difference is where the reading takes place. the fast gun gets it out of his hand. the slow gun takes the spead as it crosses the plate.

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  10. the slow gun usually reads about 8 or 10 mph slower than the fast gun, so I think that the 95 reading on the gun was the fast gun. even when i guy throws 99 on the fast gun, the slow gun usually says 91 or 90, even down to 89 or 88

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  11. Mike, It looked to have a lot of movement. It ran in enough to break two bats in the same inning.

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  12. Wow codyrhoads, great report. Thanks a lot. Great to hear. I was very surprised to read he threw few curveballs and was mainly fastball/change. Could be a vestige of the surgery, perhaps?

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  13. Thanks for the first-hand account guys. How did the change look?

    No matter what, with Drabek and Bastardo making transitions there were rough spots in their starts and it’s not enough evidence to proclaim the next comings but you can say A GOOD FIRST START.

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  14. Gotta give a shout out to Michael Taylor. He’s becoming a AA video game cheat code. As good as his numbers were last year, they’re even better this year.

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  15. jpd there are no professional guns that have a disparity of 10 mph 5 yes. as far as bastardo it was rather easy to see he was throwing 94-95 legitimatly.as someone said watch the ball as it hits the catchers mitt it moving as fast as when it left the pitchers hand. when you hit 100 aka n ryan the ball appears to explode as it hits the catcher. thats why wagner was a joke he was nowhere near 100. 95-96 yes but not 100. and to anyone who doesnt follow speed there is a tremendous diffrence between 95 and 100. im not a phyicist so i dont no why but you can literally see it and what happens.

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  16. Stalker guns, the preferred model used by the pros, actually gives two readings. It registers the speed out of the hand (fastest) and the speed at the mitt (slowest). Ball tends to lose around 1mph per every seven to nine feet. Speed you see posted is out of the hand.

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  17. thats about 5 mph which based on certain situations could be right or wrong. i.e. bastardo i believe at reading he was clocked at 92? i know what guns say and if he wasnt thowing 94-95 against th padres somethings wrong. i use my eyes i know scouts who can tell you to 1mph how fast a guy is throwing. so i guess it comes down to believing what you see and useing guns as secondary opinions.

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