2019 #20 Prospect Bruce Zimmermann - LHP

[DirtyBird]

9 minutes ago, wildcard said:

I think Tony is right about him.   Tony has him 20  on the prospect list.  Orioles.com does not list him in the top 30.   He looked good.   Not ready for the majors but he has the stuff to make it to the majors from what I saw.

He's 25. How much more ready is he going to get?

[REDMAN]

Only my 2nd time actually seeing him pitch, was impressed,  has LR and spot SP in his future, good fastball and good break on slider, changeup needs some work and used more. Love that he can throw to back foot om RH batters, a pitch that every LH pitchers should have, are you listening Atkins.

[hoosiers]

Really impressed with Zimmerman in that small sample size.  He was hitting 94.  The stuff I saw can get out major league hitters.  The bloop and the blast were disappointing, but everything else looked good.  Lots of swing and miss.

The question IMO is whether the HR was a fluke or if the FB is too straight or ML hitters can square it up consistently.

He definitely looked the part yesterday.

[Frobby]

1 hour ago, DirtyBird said:

He's 25. How much more ready is he going to get?

Can’t worry about his age.   He needs a bit of time in AAA.     But he should be ready before the year is up.   

[DirtyBird]

4 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Can’t worry about his age.   He needs a bit of time in AAA.     But he should be ready before the year is up.   

I don't think more time in AAA will have any impact on his MLB success. Of course, there is no way that this can be proven.

[Frobby]

7 minutes ago, DirtyBird said:

I don't think more time in AAA will have any impact on his MLB success. Of course, there is no way that this can be proven.

He’s moved very fast through the minors.   He was drafted in 2017 but didn’t play in the minors that year, started in low A but skipped straight to AA towards the end of 2018, and then moved to AAA towards the end of 2019 (7 starts).    

[interloper]

Of the pitching prospects, Zimmermann and Kremer look (to me) to be the most ML-ready. I think they'd both take some considerable lumps, along with Akin who I'm less high on, but you have to like their composure out there.

[Tx Oriole]

1 hour ago, Frobby said:

Can’t worry about his age.   He needs a bit of time in AAA.     But he should be ready before the year is up.   

I would hope so.

[Frobby]

2 hours ago, interloper said:

Of the pitching prospects, Zimmermann and Kremer look (to me) to be the most ML-ready. I think they'd both take some considerable lumps, along with Akin who I'm less high on, but you have to like their composure out there.

I would not rank Zimmermann above Akin in terms of readiness, just off 1-2 short appearances in spring training.   Akin is uniformly ranked the better prospect and he has a full year of AAA under his belt compared to Zimmermann’s 7 games.    I do think it’s possible that Zimmermann has (and will continue to have) better command than Akin, but that doesn’t mean he’s more ready IMO.     I’d command were all it took, Alexander Wells would be ready now.    

[interloper]

10 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I would not rank Zimmermann above Akin in terms of readiness, just off 1-2 short appearances in spring training.   Akin is uniformly ranked the better prospect and he has a full year of AAA under his belt compared to Zimmermann’s 7 games.    I do think it’s possible that Zimmermann has (and will continue to have) better command than Akin, but that doesn’t mean he’s more ready IMO.     I’d command were all it took, Alexander Wells would be ready now.    

I didn't really mention command, though. I'm just sorta eye-balling it. He looks composed, and I like his stuff more than Akin's for sure. I am not really an Akin guy, but I hope he proves me wrong. 

[Frobby]

21 minutes ago, interloper said:

I didn't really mention command, though. I'm just sorta eye-balling it. He looks composed, and I like his stuff more than Akin's for sure. I am not really an Akin guy, but I hope he proves me wrong. 

I saw some of Zimmermann’s outing, but not the two dingers he coughed up; and I didn’t see Akin’s outing.    So, I can’t really judge them based on how they’ve looked, but I’d be reluctant to judge them based on 1-2 short outings at the beginning of spring training in any event.   

[interloper]

2 hours ago, Frobby said:

I saw some of Zimmermann’s outing, but not the two dingers he coughed up; and I didn’t see Akin’s outing.    So, I can’t really judge them based on how they’ve looked, but I’d be reluctant to judge them based on 1-2 short outings at the beginning of spring training in any event.   

And you should be! I just enjoy jiving off the cuff what I see. I'm just pontificating that Zimmermann will be the better pitcher based on absolutely nothing, because it's fun.  I fully expect to be wrong on most of my baseball opinions. 

[Frobby]

2 hours ago, interloper said:

And you should be! I just enjoy jiving off the cuff what I see. I'm just pontificating that Zimmermann will be the better pitcher based on absolutely nothing, because it's fun.  I fully expect to be wrong on most of my baseball opinions. 

Everybody should expect to be wrong most of the time when it comes to prospects.    Unless you predict all of them to fail, in which case you’ll be right more often than wrong.   

[Can_of_corn]

3 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Everybody should expect to be wrong most of the time when it comes to prospects.    Unless you predict all of them to fail, in which case you’ll be right more often than wrong.   

Hey, that's my secret strategy your giving away.