Felix Bautista 2021

[orioles22]

I was in Bowling Green this week to watch Aberdeen. I haven't seen much on Bautista, but he was in the upper 90s and hit 101. He's been in the organization for quite a while.

[Frobby]

I could not have told you there was a pitcher by that name in our organization.   He’s a little long in the tooth for high A (he’ll be 26 next week), but he looks like a guy who might have found something this year (16 K’s in 9 IP).    If he can keep that up he could move up quickly.  

https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=bautis002fel

[jabba72]

Fangraphs had him ranked 45 before the season on the O's list.

45. Felix Bautista, SIRP

Signed: July 2nd Period, 2012 from Dominican Republic (MIA)

Age	25.7	Height	6′ 5″	Weight	220	Bat / Thr	R / R	FV	35+

Tool Grades (Present/Future)

Fastball	Splitter	Command	Sits/Tops
65/65	45/45	30/35	93-98 / 100

There’s no change to Bautista’s blurb. He’s still on here because he has elite arm strength. Bautista is way behind the developmental curve — he was originally signed by the Marlins in 2012 and released in 2015 — but he has a huge frame and he sure does throw hard. He’s of the Tayron Guerrero ilk. (At-home dev)

[Tony-OH]

It is time to start talking about this guy.

Listed at 6-5, 190, the announcer said last night that he's now 6-7, 270 and let me tell you, he looks every bit of the size. 

Bautista has the best arm in the organization for pure velocity hitting 100 and 101 pretty regularly and sitting 98+. He still doesn't always knows where its going, but he's throwing enough strikes now that he's really interesting. He offsets it with a nice slider and has even thrown a change on occasion.

Is the walk rate too high still? Yes.
Does he have command? Not really
Can he throw 100 MPH? That would be a yes.

He threw a ball up and in that knocked a hitter on his butt. He threw it so hard, the trainer had to come out to see if the batter was ok because I'm pretty sure his heart rate was going about 220 beats a minute. If I had to guess, the batter told the trainer and manager, "That ball sounded fast"

All I know is that batting against a guy that big with that fastball and that wildness can not be a comfortable at bat. Bautista is 26 years old and will have to be protected on the 40-man this year because with this arm he will be taken. Honestly they probably should give him a feel for the major league ball and move him to AAA because right now he's basically just throwing balls by most AA hitters.

He's held batters this season to a .105/.269/.184/.453 slash line and let me tell you, no one digs in against him. 


 

 

[Frobby]

Right handed Tanner Scott, but more imposing because of his size?   Interesting.  

[Tony-OH]

 

[Ruzious]

On 7/23/2021 at 2:20 PM, Tony-OH said:

It is time to start talking about this guy.

Listed at 6-5, 190, the announcer said last night that he's now 6-7, 270 and let me tell you, he looks every bit of the size. 

Bautista has the best arm in the organization for pure velocity hitting 100 and 101 pretty regularly and sitting 98+. He still doesn't always knows where its going, but he's throwing enough strikes now that he's really interesting. He offsets it with a nice slider and has even thrown a change on occasion.

Is the walk rate too high still? Yes.
Does he have command? Not really
Can he throw 100 MPH? That would be a yes.

He threw a ball up and in that knocked a hitter on his butt. He threw it so hard, the trainer had to come out to see if the batter was ok because I'm pretty sure his heart rate was going about 220 beats a minute. If I had to guess, the batter told the trainer and manager, "That ball sounded fast"

All I know is that batting against a guy that big with that fastball and that wildness can not be a comfortable at bat. Bautista is 26 years old and will have to be protected on the 40-man this year because with this arm he will be taken. Honestly they probably should give him a feel for the major league ball and move him to AAA because right now he's basically just throwing balls by most AA hitters.

He's held batters this season to a .105/.269/.184/.453 slash line and let me tell you, no one digs in against him. 


 

 

As Robin would say - Holy Swiss Cheez, Batman!  Heck, Atlanta picked a college pitcher - Ryan Cucick - in the 1st round who throws that hard, and he barely has a 2nd pitch - supposedly has a curveball.  But he's "only" 6'6 235.      

[Frobby]

Fun guy to follow, but I’m worried that more disciplined major league batters would just take walk after walk.   I barely have the patience for Scott, so I’m not sure I’d be able to stand watching Bautista pitch even if he was overpowering a bit of the time.  

[jabba72]

1 hour ago, Frobby said:

Fun guy to follow, but I’m worried that more disciplined major league batters would just take walk after walk.   I barely have the patience for Scott, so I’m not sure I’d be able to stand watching Bautista pitch even if he was overpowering a bit of the time.  

The 7.0 BB9 is definitely a cause for concern here. Will the O's protect a 26 year old relief pitcher with a BB9 that high?

[Frobby]

Bautista struck out the side in the 9th to earn the save for Bowie last night.   Didn’t throw many pitches, either (14, 12 for strikes).

[Frobby]

Bautista strikes out the side in the 9th following a leadoff walk, preserving a 4-0 win.   That’s the third consecutive outing where he struck out the side.  He’s had 23 strikeouts in 12.1 innings since being promoted to Bowie, and he had 28 K’s in 15 innings at Aberdeen.    

[ChrisP]

9 hours ago, Frobby said:

Bautista strikes out the side in the 9th following a leadoff walk, preserving a 4-0 win.   That’s the third consecutive outing where he struck out the side.  He’s had 23 strikeouts in 12.1 innings since being promoted to Bowie, and he had 28 K’s in 15 innings at Aberdeen.    

Sounds like he needs to be in AAA with a cup of coffee in September. 

[Frobby]

10 minutes ago, ChrisP said:

Sounds like he needs to be in AAA with a cup of coffee in September. 

At 26, he’s no spring chicken.   He walks a ton of guys but it hasn’t resulted in many runs on the board this year.   

[ChosenOne21]

Is it too early to see what he does with the AAA ball?

[Tony-OH]

23 minutes ago, ChosenOne21 said:

Is it too early to see what he does with the AAA ball?

No, he should be in AAA.