Cameron Weston 2024

[HowAboutThat]

What does “back door” mean? Or “Blackfoot” as in “backfoot slider.”

[Jim'sKid26]

18 hours ago, HowAboutThat said:

What does “back door” mean? Or “Blackfoot” as in “backfoot slider.”

A back door breaking ball, whether CB or SL, starts as a ball on the opposite batters box and breaks across the plate for a strike. It is said to "go in the back door."

A backfoot breaking ball is one that is targeted at the batters back foot as he stands in the batters box. The ball typically breaks down and in. 

[Number5]

18 hours ago, HowAboutThat said:

What does “back door” mean? Or “Blackfoot” as in “backfoot slider.”

To me, when I hear "back foot slider" I think of Steve Carlton's slider to right-handed batters that looked so good to them that they swung at the pitch, but it broke down and in so hard that it would nearly hit the batter's back foot.   When I hear "back door breaking pitch", I think of a pitch that looks outside, but breaks late and nips the back outside corner of the strike zone.  I'm no expert on baseball terminology, but that is what I take those two phrases to mean when I hear them.

[Aristotelian]

25 minutes ago, Jim'sKid26 said:

A back door breaking ball, whether CB or SL, starts as a ball on the opposite batters box and breaks across the plate for a strike. It is said to "go in the back door."

A backfoot breaking ball is one that is targeted at the batters back foot as he stands in the batters box. The ball typically breaks down and in. 

I thought a back door slider starts way off the plate and just catches the nearest edge of the zone rather than breaking across it. For a RHP to a LHB, this would mean the pitch catches the outside corner. It is "back door" because that is kind of the opposite of how the pitch is typically designed, ie the batter thinks it is in the middle of the zone but it breaks away. If the pitch breaks across the plate, that is an ordinary slider.  

[CaptainRedbeard]

Really good numbers for Weston at AA now, a month before his 24th birthday.

60.1 IP

10.44 K/9

2.54 BB/9

44.7 GB%

3.13 ERA

3.30 FIP

3.41 xFIP

Weston, Portes, Gibson, Money, Bragg, Cooper are the under the radar guys (i.e. not Forret and De Leon) putting up good seasons of statistical production for their ages/levels, to varying degrees of success - but Weston is the only one doing it at AA. 

[sportsfan8703]

5 IP 0 ER 6K

Good numbers in AA and the season.

https://www.milb.com/player/cameron-weston-687721

What’s the story on this dude?  Love the 1.00ish WHIP. Our MiLB pitcher of the year?  

[Aristotelian]

2 hours ago, sportsfan8703 said:

5 IP 0 ER 6K

Good numbers in AA and the season.

https://www.milb.com/player/cameron-weston-687721

What’s the story on this dude?  Love the 1.00ish WHIP. Our MiLB pitcher of the year?  

I was going to bump this thread last night. Nice bounce back start for him after a meh month for him. 

Yeah, I'd say probably Weston, Van Loon, or Brandon Young for our MiL "Cy Young". 

[sportsfan8703]

11 minutes ago, Aristotelian said:

I was going to bump this thread last night. Nice bounce back start for him after a meh month for him. 

Yeah, I'd say probably Weston, Van Loon, or Brandon Young for our MiL "Cy Young". 

It seems like Weston, Van Loon, Young, Reilly, and Fruit, are all in the same category of lets hope one of them turns into a back end rotation piece.  Zach Peek, and Ambruester, were guys like that in prior years, but they didn't make it.  MLB rotation pieces, whether back end or not, are so darn expensive in terms of money and/or prospects.  Add those guys to McDermott, and Povich, and you can kind of see what Elias is trying to do.  It's just injuries...

[CaptainRedbeard]

Weston’s numbers are really good for a guy in his age 23 season who only had about 70 pro innings before reaching AA. He now has more IP at AA than all other prior levels combined. 

I know he doesn’t wow from a scouting point of view but these AA numbers at his age/experience have the profile of a high probability big leaguer in some capacity. Maybe that’s ultimately only as a RP, particularly given that low arm slot, but potentially a very good one.

I’ll be very interested when he gets to AA and we get the Statcast data. Hoping that at least one of Weston, Pham or Bright gets that bump up before the end of the year. Weston certainly has the best numbers this year. 

[CaptainRedbeard]

Looks like some pretty wicked horizontal movement on the breakers in that clip, and the first one was a changeup that completely fooled that lefty.

Very difficult to throw anything out of that arm slot that is tough on lefties other than the changeup, and Yennier Cano is proof that even a very good changeup is not enough to overcome the platoon issues if your fastball/sinker struggles against lefties.

That said, I suppose Logan Webb is the prototype for how you can still be a starting pitcher with that arm slot and arsenal if the breaking ball/offspeed are good enough and you can command everything.

 

[Tony-OH]

4 hours ago, sportsfan8703 said:

It seems like Weston, Van Loon, Young, Reilly, and Fruit, are all in the same category of lets hope one of them turns into a back end rotation piece.  Zach Peek, and Ambruester, were guys like that in prior years, but they didn't make it.  MLB rotation pieces, whether back end or not, are so darn expensive in terms of money and/or prospects.  Add those guys to McDermott, and Povich, and you can kind of see what Elias is trying to do.  It's just injuries...

I'd have Weston, Young and Reilly as a step above Fruit and Van Loon. Young has the best chance to stick as a starter, Reilly the best chance to be a high impact reliever, and Weston a possibility as a  backend rotation or set up guy similar to Tate. 

[Frobby]

Tough day for Weston, as he allowed 3 hits and 2 walks in 5 innings yet gave up 5 earned runs.  All three hits he allowed were homers, and two of them were immediately after he’d walked a batter.  

[Tony-OH]

20 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Tough day for Weston, as he allowed 3 hits and 2 walks in 5 innings yet gave up 5 earned runs.  All three hits he allowed were homers, and two of them were immediately after he’d walked a batter.  

Ouch. He had done very well staying away from allowing homers up until then from what I remember without looking it up.