Reading Between the Baselines: Brackman's 2007 Debut

I was fortunate enough to be able to get off work early today and go see Andrew Brackman pitch in his first start of the season.

Walking to Dail Park, I recognized Brackman's unmistakable 6-foot-10, 230 pound frame on top of the mound from about 100 yards away.

It was a brisk mid-30 degree afternoon and the NC State athletics website had been futuring a game preview all morning on Brackman not liking to pitch in the cold.

I wasn't able to see much of Brackman's first inning --  he walked one batter before he went on to retire the side -- but I saw the remainder of his outing from right behind home plate. And thanks to John Manuel, Matt Meyers, and the Baseball America Stalker Radar Gun, I was able to get a solid read on his performance. NOTE: Its seems as though our radar gun was a few MPH slow.

Atop the mound with his unbent hat brim and red laced high tops, Brackman worked with a fastball between 89-93 mph.

He didn't give up any hits in the second inning but wasn't overpowering hitters either. 

He threw almost exclusively fastballs in the third inning, as he got the leadoff hitter to ground out weakly, struck out the second batter looking with a 93 mph fastball on the corner, and induced an easy fly ball to left to end the inning.

Brackman came out throwing a lot of breaking balls in the fourth inning -- he finally got his sharp-breaking curveball (76-78 mph) going but he hung a few too. He got the leadoff batter to ground out weakly before the second hitter of the inning pulled a 92 mph fastball to right field for a single. Brackman then recovered by striking out the third batter of the inning as the runner on first was caught stealing.

The redwood tree of a righty did attempt a pickoff move in the third as well. After slowly leaping in order to uproot himself from the ground and gradually shift his trunk around, Brackman fired off a cautious throw to first -- it was no surprise that the base runner took off on the next pitch.

To the surprise of nearly everyone in the stands -- good turnout for such a cold afternoon...scouts, students, family, diehards -- Brackman took the mound again in the fifth inning. But his box score would have looked a lot prettier had he just called it a day.

Brackman sailed in an 86 mph fastball on the fifth pitch to the leadoff hitter, who crushed it off the right field wall for a standup double. The next batter lined a 91 mph fastball right back up the middle -- only about a foot above Brackman's head -- to drive the leadoff runner in. Brackman got the next batter to ground sharply into a fielders choice on the first pitch of the at-bat (87 mph fastball). He retired the next batter on another sharp grounder (89 mph fastball). Brackman hit the next two batters with breaking balls, loading the bases. The next batter turned a 77 mph breaking ball into an infield hit off the third baseman, scoring the runner from third. Brackman at last got out of the inning and completed his outing when the next batter popped a 90 mph fastball up to the center fielder.

All in all Brackman looked decent. He threw a mix of fastballs, breaking balls, and changeups in the 82-pitch outing. His fastball touched 94 mph and was typically between 89-92 -- losing velocity as the start progressed. His breaking ball (75-77) started off a little slurvey but he eventually managed to throw a few sharp ones, while hanging a couple as well. Coming in at a similar velocity as his breaking ball (76-79), Brackman's changeup didn't leave many hitters off balance.

Some scouts said they were getting reads on Brackman's fastball in the 92-95 range (touching 98). If Brackman was truly throwing as hard as they believed, it would be a bit of a concern, as hitters were on him for the most part.

Brackman has quite a few more starts before the draft, but if he doesn't start pitching a notch above where he did today he won't be taken in the top three picks of the draft.

Want to know more? Email me at adamwfoster@gmail.com .