Luis De Leon 2024

[Sports Guy]

3 minutes ago, LookinUp said:

For some reason I wasn't seeing him as a K guy. I guess that's just not how I think of ground ball pitchers. He is currently at 14k per 9 though, so that's awesome. 

If he can even be an 8-9 K rate guy in the majors, that would be great. 

[Conway12]

 

 

[Frobby]

About time. 

[Say O!]

4 hours ago, Conway12 said:

 

 

LFG. May soon be top10 prospect in rankings.

[Tony-OH]

2 hours ago, Say O! said:

LFG. May soon be top10 prospect in rankings.

He's top ten for me easy. The real question is whether he's the team's best pitching prospect or not? Povich has it right now due to his success in AAA, but nobody brings the stuff that DeLeon brings consistently in the system. He's a taller Cionel Perez with a changeup.

[Sports Guy]

Correction on something I talked about w/r/t DeLeon.

I saw someone post about his swingstr% and the number they were using seemed to indicate that it was a below average rate.

However, they are using a different version of the stat than what it sounded like they were using.

Suffice it to say, DeLeon has a really strong WHIFF%. It is 16%. The ML average is around 11%  Good to hear that.

[scarey1999]

3 IP out of the pen in his 1st appearance at ABD. Gave up a couple of runs on a 2 run HR with 4 hits a WP and 3Ks

[Frobby]

10 minutes ago, scarey1999 said:

3 IP out of the pen in his 1st appearance at ABD. Gave up a couple of runs on a 2 run HR with 4 hits a WP and 3Ks

He gave up a ground single followed by a 2-run homer in his first inning.  Started his second inning with a walk and a single that advanced the runner to 3B but got out of it on a grounder to the pitcher, a strikeout and a grounder to 2B.    For the three innings, he threw 57 pitches, 33 strikes.  I’d call it a good learning experience, one to grow on.

[sportsfan8703]

On 5/20/2024 at 1:51 AM, Tony-OH said:

He's top ten for me easy. The real question is whether he's the team's best pitching prospect or not? Povich has it right now due to his success in AAA, but nobody brings the stuff that DeLeon brings consistently in the system. He's a taller Cionel Perez with a changeup.

He’s a system changer on the pitching side. He’s giving off Ed Rod vibes.  

[Just Regular]

Looks like it was a catcher batting last who got him for the HR.    

De Leon's smothering of HR has been a nice part of his profile so far, but it'll be interesting to see if it holds up against more powerful bats.

MLB bats surpass minors guys at everything, but I think characteristics wise they beat them at power more than they beat them at contact.

[Tony-OH]

One of the things that bothers me about the Orioles developmental plan for their starters is how they will randomly take top prospects and piggyback them as a reliever instead of as the starter.

Starters have a routine and they like to know when they are going to start. Now I'm sure De Leon knew he was going to come in and piggyback last night, but why not start him and piggyback the lesser prospects Fruit? 

Let De Leon get his first appearance in Aberdeen as a starter. No matter how the Orioles view it, young men like to feel special and starting feels a lot better than coming during the 4th or 5th inning.

I think they did De Leon a disservice by piggybacking him in his first High A appearance. 

Here are my raw notes from watching his appearance last night:

5/22

Aberdeen Debut:

Didn't have great feel for the change in 1st inning. Allowed opp HR to RHB on 2-1 fastball away (Nice piece of hitting)
Good extension helps fastball play up. Lots of ground balls

Fields his position well, turns and makes accurate throw from 3B side

Announcer: Fastball up to 98 this year.

K with Change out of the zone
- Got out of 1st and 3rd no out and 2nd and 3rd one-two out situation by getting two weak groundballs and a strikeout

Fastball tends to get hit up, but works really well low in the zone and gets swings and misses. Lots of groundballs off the sinking fastball

Still too many uncompetitive pitches, but seems to be able to throw strikes when he needs to.

[IPlayGM]

6 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

One of the things that bothers me about the Orioles developmental plan for their starters is how they will randomly take top prospects and piggyback them as a reliever instead of as the starter.

Starters have a routine and they like to know when they are going to start. Now I'm sure De Leon knew he was going to come in and piggyback last night, but why not start him and piggyback the lesser prospects Fruit? 

Let De Leon get his first appearance in Aberdeen as a starter. No matter how the Orioles view it, young men like to feel special and starting feels a lot better than coming during the 4th or 5th inning.

I think they did De Leon a disservice by piggybacking him in his first High A appearance. 

Here are my raw notes from watching his appearance last night:

5/22

Aberdeen Debut:

Didn't have great feel for the change in 1st inning. Allowed opp HR to RHB on 2-1 fastball away (Nice piece of hitting)
Good extension helps fastball play up. Lots of ground balls

Fields his position well, turns and makes accurate throw from 3B side

Announcer: Fastball up to 98 this year.

K with Change out of the zone
- Got out of 1st and 3rd no out and 2nd and 3rd one-two out situation by getting two weak groundballs and a strikeout

Fastball tends to get hit up, but works really well low in the zone and gets swings and misses. Lots of groundballs off the sinking fastball

Still too many uncompetitive pitches, but seems to be able to throw strikes when he needs to.

Funny you mention that about the piggyback idea, first thing I thought when I read about the outing was wondering why they wouldn’t start him.

[scarey1999]

8 hours ago, IPlayGM said:

Funny you mention that about the piggyback idea, first thing I thought when I read about the outing was wondering why they wouldn’t start him.

I thought it was odd too, that’s why I mentioned it in the comment I made last eve. Fully agree with what Tony said. If the FO sees him as a future starter, then he should be starting only. 

[Frobby]

33 minutes ago, scarey1999 said:

I thought it was odd too, that’s why I mentioned it in the comment I made last eve. Fully agree with what Tony said. If the FO sees him as a future starter, then he should be starting only. 

I’ll be the dissenter.  So long as they’re bringing him in at the start of an inning and he’s been told what do expect, it really doesn’t matter if his outing starts in the 1st inning or the 5th.  They haven’t let him go past 70 pitches in any outing this year, so it doesn’t really limit his innings a lot if he enters mid-game.  He threw 53.2 innings last year, is at 31.0 already this year with maybe 20 appearances still to come and I’d bet they don’t want him throwing more than 110 innings tops.  My guess is he’ll start about half the time and be used like this half the time.  

[scarey1999]

46 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I’ll be the dissenter.  So long as they’re bringing him in at the start of an inning and he’s been told what do expect, it really doesn’t matter if his outing starts in the 1st inning or the 5th.  They haven’t let him go past 70 pitches in any outing this year, so it doesn’t really limit his innings a lot if he enters mid-game.  He threw 53.2 innings last year, is at 31.0 already this year with maybe 20 appearances still to come and I’d bet they don’t want him throwing more than 110 innings tops.  My guess is he’ll start about half the time and be used like this half the time.  

IP or limits do not have much to do with the argument here though.  

Starters are creatures of habit, more so than any other player outside of maybe a closer. You like to know you’re getting the ball in the 1st inning of every game you pitch. Why tinker with that? Especially for a young, highly thought of player like him? Just seems like the wrong approach.