Zach Peek 2021

[Frobby]

Zach Peek pitched a nice tonight, twirling five innings of one-hit shutout ball, walking over while striking out eight.  On the night, he threw 49 of 66 pitches for strikes.   

On the season, Peek has a 3.07 ERA in 29.1 innings, yielding 22 hits and 12 walks (1.16 WHIP) while striking out 41 (12.6 K/9).    Tonight was his longest outing of the year.   Hopefully they’ll take the wraps off him now.  I’d like to see him earn a promotion to Aberdeen.
 

[Tony-OH]

Hey really threw the ball well last night.

Didn't get a ton of velocity readings from the announcer but did mention a 93 MPH fastball. He commands the fastball pretty well and uses up in the zone well for swing and miss. Last night the curveball was his dominant strikeout pitch. He looks to throw it with two different shapes one more of a 12-6 and another that gets more horizontal movement but not a slider. Heard 73-74 for velocity readings on the pitch which is a little slow but certainly has nice hard break at times.

The change did get a few whiff, but he misses arm side a bit still with the pitch. Certainly gets decent drop and fade with the pitch.

Overall, he pitches quickly and has a nice repeatable delivery. He throws strikes and some a nice aptitude for pitching. He probably needs to be challenged with High A ball hitters to see if they will chase that fastball up and curveball low or not.

If I had any concern is that I didn't see a ton of swing and miss in the zone so it remains to be seen whether his stuff plays against better hitters. 

[Legend_Of_Joey]

57 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

Hey really threw the ball well last night.

Didn't get a ton of velocity readings from the announcer but did mention a 93 MPH fastball. He commands the fastball pretty well and uses up in the zone well for swing and miss. Last night the curveball was his dominant strikeout pitch. He looks to throw it with two different shapes one more of a 12-6 and another that gets more horizontal movement but not a slider. Heard 73-74 for velocity readings on the pitch which is a little slow but certainly has nice hard break at times.

The change did get a few whiff, but he misses arm side a bit still with the pitch. Certainly gets decent drop and fade with the pitch.

Overall, he pitches quickly and has a nice repeatable delivery. He throws strikes and some a nice aptitude for pitching. He probably needs to be challenged with High A ball hitters to see if they will chase that fastball up and curveball low or not.

If I had any concern is that I didn't see a ton of swing and miss in the zone so it remains to be seen whether his stuff plays against better hitters. 

Not to hijack the thread, but what did you think of Houston Roth? He closed out the last 4 innings and had 1 less K, no hits, but 2 walks (and 1 HBP) in 1 less inning. His stuff seemed good too, but that's on the app.

[Tony-OH]

22 minutes ago, Legend_Of_Joey said:

Not to hijack the thread, but what did you think of Houston Roth? He closed out the last 4 innings and had 1 less K, no hits, but 2 walks (and 1 HBP) in 1 less inning. His stuff seemed good too, but that's on the app.

I'll need to go back and watch him. I stopped watching after Peek was taken out. 

[Sports Guy]

 

[Frobby]

He did allow 4 ER in 4 IP.   Conveniently didn’t mention that.  

[Aglets]

3 minutes ago, Frobby said:

He did allow 4 ER in 4 IP.   Conveniently didn’t mention that.  

I was at this game.   He looked very dominant through the first 2 innings of work.  Little surprised they had him go all 4 to close out the game.

6th:   K, K, pop out to catcher

7th:  ground ball single, K, K, fly out

8th:  Double, K, groundout, K

9th:  Double, single, single, K, HBP.    Mound visit.  Ground out, single, ground out.

4 K's through the first 6 batters is pretty sensational.

[Frobby]

Peek had his second straight scoreless outing last night, 5 innings yielding five hits, no walks, and striking out two.   

[RZNJ]

8 hours ago, Frobby said:

Peek had his second straight scoreless outing last night, 5 innings yielding five hits, no walks, and striking out two.   

Interesting because up until this game he had huge strikeout numbers but they were accompanied by walks and runs.   Last night he has a strong start and only 2 strikeouts.   I don't know what else to say except that's interesting.

[Sports Guy]

Another nice outing tonight.  

[RZNJ]

He's becoming interesting.  It would be nice to get a report on velo and how he's been racking up the high K numbers all year.  Same with Young who had 10K two games ago and followed that up with another good one.

[Tony-OH]

Peek is a 23-year old four pitch righthander. His fastball sits 91-93, with a T94 on occasion. He has pretty decent command of the pitch but surprisingly uses it lower in the zone more than up like most pitchers nowadays. It doesn't have a ton of run. He's throw a low to mid 70s curveball (occasionally will slow it down to low 70s) that has a big break and low 80s slider. He struggles with the command of both pitches at times, but gets chases for swing and miss by the young inexperienced A-ball hitters.

He throws a low 80s change that has a little drop and run. He does have the feel to throw it low and away to lefties and down in on righties but it probably has below average movement overall.

He reminds me a bit of Dean Kremer before he started to throw the cutter in AA with a better changeup and a little less velocity. 

He mixes his pitches well and if he can develop better command of his breaking pitches, he could become interesting as a back end starter.

[Frobby]

Peek closed his season with an excellent outing: 5 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K’s.  His final ERA in Hi A was 3.22.   He closed the season with 4 excellent outings: 20 IP, 14 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 6 BB, 27 K’s.  

On the year he struck out 122 batters in 90 innings.