Chayce McDermott 2024

[emmett16]

19 minutes ago, sportsfan8703 said:

From the video, it looks like he really gets on top of the ball and drives it down.  Giving him that "heavy fastball".  He's not the closer that we need, but he most certainly looks to be an option as a middle relief impact arm for the MLB team later this season.  

That's been my hope since the beginning of the year.  He looks like he can be a shut down reliever and we desperately need someone to fill that role. 

[CaptainRedbeard]

2 hours ago, Frobby said:

I think there were positives to take from that outing, for sure.  Overall, McDermott has been trending in a better direction the last few outings.  I just am amused at how On the Verge always spins things in the most positive way possible without even mentioning the negative.   

Absolutely. They’re a good follow on Twitter because I like the consistent highlights and they’re very passionate about the system, and highlight a lot of the good Statcast figures and other outlet’s prospect analysis - but they always omit everything negative and will often get way overhyped for marginal prospects.

You can tell a prospect is really struggling if the Verge hasn’t tweeted anything mentioning them.

[CaptainRedbeard]

1 hour ago, sportsfan8703 said:

From the video, it looks like he really gets on top of the ball and drives it down.  Giving him that "heavy fastball".  He's not the closer that we need, but he most certainly looks to be an option as a middle relief impact arm for the MLB team later this season.  

I think I recall the analysis of his fastball is the opposite - he throws from a low arm slot and isn’t very tall, so he has a steep vertical approach angle and the fastball plays like one with a lot of induced vertical break up in the zone, despite not having elite spin on the fastball. Maybe he’s made some mechanical adjustments to throw more strikes or it’s a weird camera angle, IDK  

In any case, the intriguing part of McDermott isn’t the fastball, it’s that he can really spin the breakers. His slider and curve are excellent. He needs his fastball to be good enough to be able to get enough strikes to throw the breaking balls as much as possible. 

Hopefully McDermott won’t be needed as a SP this year - he’s likely next in the depth chart behind Povich, who is 7th or 8th behind the top 6 guys and maybe Suarez. But I think McDermott still has SP upside for 2025+, and for 2024 am hoping he’ll be a RP option towards the end of the year once he’s gotten enough AAA IP for his SP development. In a RP role he could hopefully pick up a few ticks on his fastball to make it more plus, maybe more command, and then really lean on the wipeout breakers. 

[Sports Guy]

Apparently Vavra misplayed a pop up and the homer followed. 

[Tony-OH]

5 hours ago, Frobby said:

Dominant start in which he allowed 4 ER on 8 hits (including a homer and three doubles) in 5 innings?   Relevant facts omitted by On the Verge in their tweet.  

Shocking. Fanboys be fanboying as usual. 

[Frobby]

3 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

Shocking. Fanboys be fanboying as usual. 

They still serve a purpose at times.  But objectivity isn’t their thing.  

[emmett16]

I watched yesterday.  He gets a ton of strikes from swings at his curveball (a good portion of which are not really that close to being in the zone).  Yesterday he fell behind a ton of batters and gave up a ton of hard contact. His Strike % looks to be a function of batters swinging at pitches out of the zone (mostly the curve, looks like guys are laying off his FB out of the zone).  Will that work at the next level?  His stuff is pretty nasty and AAA hitters are definitely not picking it up, but I question if it will work at the MLB level.  Even with the high strike % you see a guy that really doesn't know where the ball is going.  

[Just Regular]

Its hard not to think of Lance McCullers throwing 40 straight breaking balls reading about McDermott's arsenal.

You know this leadership group is data driven enough to run a play like that when literally the league championship is on the line.

McDermott and Povich's grooming for July 31 and what happens after if they are still here could be a story of two seasons.

[CaptainRedbeard]

Another “dominant” start with stellar K/BB, but gave up a homer and 3 runs. His recent run of K/BB sure is impressive though. 

Statcast for this start shows him throwing a lot of changeups/splitters, and getting 5 whiffs on 7 swings on them. That’s encouraging. And a ton of fastballs and cutters, with relatively few whiffs, and 5 whiffs on 6 swings at only 15 breaking balls. 

The high cutter and change and low breaking ball usage is curious considering how good the breakers are. Maybe an effort to keep him more in the strike zone, and the cutter looks pretty good too. If it allows him to keep putting up K/BB numbers like this then keep it up. 

[Frobby]

I’m glad the command issues that plagued him in April seem to have disappeared in May.  

April: 21.1 IP, 23 BB

May: 21.2 IP, 4 BB
 

[CaptainRedbeard]

7 hours ago, Frobby said:

I’m glad the command issues that plagued him in April seem to have disappeared in May.  

April: 21.1 IP, 23 BB

May: 21.2 IP, 4 BB
 

It’s been a dramatic reversal. His command also looked good in Spring Training - 4 BB in 10.2 IP - so it was surprising to see it so bad early in the year. Hopefully it was just that back injury leading to the command issues and he’s over it now. 

[OriolesMagic83]

I really want to keep Povich a starter, but McDermott could be the dominant high K arm the bullpen needs and no prospects needed.  Doesn't seem much actual relievers in Norfolk could help Baltimore.

[deward]

17 hours ago, CaptainRedbeard said:

It’s been a dramatic reversal. His command also looked good in Spring Training - 4 BB in 10.2 IP - so it was surprising to see it so bad early in the year. Hopefully it was just that back injury leading to the command issues and he’s over it now. 

I had it on good authority earlier in the thread that it would be a terrible outcome for his command issues to be the result of some physical discomfort. 

[Frobby]

13 minutes ago, deward said:

I had it on good authority earlier in the thread that it would be a terrible outcome for his command issues to be the result of some physical discomfort. 

Only if the physical discomfort doesn’t go away!  

[Sports Guy]

7 hours ago, OriolesMagic83 said:

I really want to keep Povich a starter, but McDermott could be the dominant high K arm the bullpen needs and no prospects needed.  Doesn't seem much actual relievers in Norfolk could help Baltimore.

 

7 hours ago, OriolesMagic83 said:

I really want to keep Povich a starter, but McDermott could be the dominant high K arm the bullpen needs and no prospects needed.  Doesn't seem much actual relievers in Norfolk could help Baltimore.

McDermott may help in the pen this year (Povich as well) but a Povich is no more of a “sure thing” to stick as a starter than McDermott is.