Grayson Rodriguez 2023

[Sports Guy]

3 minutes ago, wildcard said:

Seems like he is  commanding the ball to keep it out of the middle of the plate  or he would not be able to keep his pitches per inning to 15+.

Well, that’s not some great number. It’s a good number but nothing overly ssocial.

That said, you still aren’t talking about command. He may be getting away with things better but that doesn’t mean the command is where it needs to be.

We don’t know that he is putting the pitches in the quadrant he wants. We have heard some people that have watched the starts and the command still sounds like it off. He was still having issues early in some of his starts.

This isn’t stuff that he will necessarily get away with at this level. 
 

There is way more to this than looking at the numbers you are looking at. He very well may be ready but it’s not slam dunk because he is throwing 15 or so pitches per inning.

[wildcard]

15 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

Well, that’s not some great number. It’s a good number but nothing overly ssocial.

That said, you still aren’t talking about command. He may be getting away with things better but that doesn’t mean the command is where it needs to be.

We don’t know that he is putting the pitches in the quadrant he wants. We have heard some people that have watched the starts and the command still sounds like it off. He was still having issues early in some of his starts.

This isn’t stuff that he will necessarily get away with at this level. 
 

There is way more to this than looking at the numbers you are looking at. He very well may be ready but it’s not slam dunk because he is throwing 15 or so pitches per inning.

I agree there is more to it than 15+ pitches per inning. But its one indicator that is moving in the right direction.

[emmett16]

31 minutes ago, wildcard said:

Seems like he is  commanding the ball to keep it out of the middle of the plate  or he would not be able to keep his pitches per inning to 15+.

Well he plunked the lead off batter on the first pitch of the game yesterday….

Id say he got lucky and the batters had an awful day more so than he dominated. 
First two innings were really ugly.  3rd not much better but started to clean things up. 

Fell behind a ton(seemed like majority) of batters.

Lotta hard contact. The HR was a moon shot. 

Threw a huge amount of non-competitive pitches.  Pulled/spiked sliders & Fastball way up. 

Batters flailing at pitches well out of the zone.  
 

It looked like all his swing and miss was on balls well out of the zone that a major league would not offer at. 
 

To me it looks like he has a lot more  work to do.  Zero command and the control was shaky.  Terrible day by the Knights hitters. 

Edited June 30, 2023 by emmett16

[emmett16]

11 minutes ago, wildcard said:

I agree there is more to it than 15+ pitches per inning. But its one indicator that is moving in the right direction.

His stuff is nasty, no denying that.  It’s his stuff that gets him out of trouble ie. Weak contact or swing and miss on ball in dirt.  That’s just not gonna play at next level though.  Can’t fall behind 1-0 & 2-0 consistently and bank on batter pounding a “would-have-been” ball 2, or 3, into the dirt or popping it up for a quick easy out.  

[Tony-OH]

19 hours ago, Roy Firestone said:

Has anyone considered poor pitch calling? I mean, I love Adley, he's going to be a great player...but I've talked to some insiders who think his pitch calling, particularly with G/Rod has been less than stellar ...not that explains everything...but the grand slam he gave up to Seegar was on an awful secondary pitch called by Adley.Of course Grayson has the right to shake off a pitch call...

 

 

 

I'll be honest, I have not been all that impressed with Adley's game calling at times.  The thing is, I'm not sure how much is his game calling and how much he's going by what he should throw based on the little card he has on his arm. I'm pretty sure nowadays they provide that info to their catchers for each batter for each count. 

[Frobby]

1 hour ago, wildcard said:

Seems like he is  commanding the ball to keep it out of the middle of the plate  or he would not be able to keep his pitches per inning to 15+.

I agree those numbers look decent.  Without actually watching him pitch, I can’t say if it would translate to the majors any better than it due this spring.  Hopefully it would, but I simply don’t have an opinion.  

Here’s what’s clear though: he still isn’t pitching as well as he did last spring.  Let’s compare Grayson’s pre-injury 2022 numbers to June 2023:

2022: 56.0 IP, 33 H, 13 R, 13 ER, 14 BB, 80 K’s, 835 pitches.

2023: 28.1 IP, 18 H, 9 R, 7 ER, 12 BB, 39 K’s, 468 pitches. 

H/9, ERA, BB/9, P/IP all higher in 2023 than in 2022.  K/9 slightly down.

Now, as I’ve mentioned elsewhere, the offensive environment of the Internationsl League is significantly higher this year than last year.  So that accounts for some of it.  But BB/9 up from 2.25 to 3.81, P/IP up from 14.9 to 16.5, strike % down from 68% to 65%.   He’s still not as sharp as last year before the injury.  Maybe he never will be.  

 

[Bemorewins]

1 hour ago, emmett16 said:

Well he plunked the lead off batter on the first pitch of the game yesterday….

Id say he got lucky and the batters had an awful day more so than he dominated. 
First two innings were really ugly.  3rd not much better but started to clean things up. 

Fell behind a ton(seemed like majority) of batters.

Lotta hard contact. The HR was a moon shot. 

Threw a huge amount of non-competitive pitches.  Pulled/spiked sliders & Fastball way up. 

Batters flailing at pitches well out of the zone.  
 

It looked like all his swing and miss was on balls well out of the zone that a major league would not offer at. 
 

To me it looks like he has a lot more  work to do.  Zero command and the control was shaky.  Terrible day by the Knights hitters. 

If this is true (and I have no reason to disbelieve you) I hope they leave him down even if it’s for most or all of the season.

What you describe is the exact same guy who got bombed while here. We don’t need anymore of that and nor does he.

[emmett16]

23 minutes ago, Bemorewins said:

If this is true (and I have no reason to disbelieve you) I hope they leave him down even if it’s for most or all of the season.

What you describe is the exact same guy who got bombed while here. We don’t need anymore of that and nor does he.

He’s not far off.  Just looks super rusty.  He was making all those pitches last year before the injury.  He’s not far off by any means but the closer you get to the show all the details become that much more important. 
 

BTW- if you have MLB.TV/MiLB.TV the archive function is great.  You can fast forward between pitches/innings and can quickly watch a pitching performance in about 15-20 min.  

[Bemorewins]

5 minutes ago, emmett16 said:

He’s not far off.  Just looks super rusty.  He was making all those pitches last year before the injury.  He’s not far off by any means but the closer you get to the show all the details become that much more important. 
 

BTW- if you have MLB.TV/MiLB.TV the archive function is great.  You can fast forward between pitches/innings and can quickly watch a pitching performance in about 15-20 min.  

Gotcha. Thanks for the tip!

[Jim'sKid26]

Anybody know how to get a hold of Susan Sarandon? She has a daughter named Eva Amurri. Maybe the O's can work some sort of a deal. 

I mean, can Grayson breath through his eyelids? Afterall, “The world is made for people who aren’t cursed with self-awareness.” 

[NCRaven]

Definitely has her mom's cheeks and eyes.  But she lost me at "lifestyle blogger."

[tntoriole]

4 hours ago, emmett16 said:

He’s not far off.  Just looks super rusty.  He was making all those pitches last year before the injury.  He’s not far off by any means but the closer you get to the show all the details become that much more important. 
 

BTW- if you have MLB.TV/MiLB.TV the archive function is great.  You can fast forward between pitches/innings and can quickly watch a pitching performance in about 15-20 min.  

I would disagree… i watched a number of his pre injury starts and he is not capable as yet of anything approaching that fastball and changeup command.  His mechanics, always a bit hinky, are just not the same as pre injury.   He hit the first batter and he throws a lot of balls that are balls right out of his hand.  Very little of that pre injury 

[Frobby]

5 hours ago, emmett16 said:

He’s not far off.  Just looks super rusty.  He was making all those pitches last year before the injury.  He’s not far off by any means but the closer you get to the show all the details become that much more important. 
 

It’s hard to read your description of his last start and conclude he’s “not far off.”

[emmett16]

17 minutes ago, Frobby said:

It’s hard to read your description of his last start and conclude he’s “not far off.”

I guess what I mean is:

1- the stuff looks good.  Earlier this year the pitches were not sharp.  
2-he’s making the pitches sometimes, typically later on the game so he’s not completely missing everything.  Some pitches are located well while others aren’t.  
3-the performance is being helped by batters struggling v. Superior stuff.  Once he harnesses the command his stuff should play v. MLB batters.  

 

I see a guy who is an adjustment away from putting it together, but who is struggling to make that final step.  I see no indication that he would not continue to improve and wouldn’t be surprised if in his next few starts puts it all together.  I expect that to be the case.  But with that said, he struggled to command his stuff in the last performance and got a little lucky.  

[emmett16]

1 hour ago, tntoriole said:

I would disagree… i watched a number of his pre injury starts and he is not capable as yet of anything approaching that fastball and changeup command.  His mechanics, always a bit hinky, are just not the same as pre injury.   He hit the first batter and he throws a lot of balls that are balls right out of his hand.  Very little of that pre injury 

He is not the guy he was before the injury.  He seemingly had command of all his pitches.  
 

The stuff looks much better now than earlier in the year post injury.  I was getting nervous with him throwing 94 and flat sliders.  The command is not there yet.   I’m glad to see the return of his stuff and do expect the command to start to sharpen up over next few weeks.