With the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft coming up this Thursday, we thought it would be interesting to take a look at a few of last year's first round draft picks who are just beginning their 2007 seasons: Jeremy Jeffress and Kasey Kiker. Both were first round hurlers last year with big upside who for one reason or another were held back to start this season but are back on the mound tossing bee bees as we speak.
Jeremy Jeffress, RHP, MIL (9/21/87) - Age 19
Jeffress
was the 16th overall pick in last June's out of South Boston High
School in Virginia. He was considered a touch raw coming out of school
but was a terrific athlete, having starred for his school's basketball
and track teams as well as on the diamond.
On the mound, he looks a little bit like a young Dwight Gooden
with an easy motion and tremendous stuff, including a fastball that
typically nears and sometimes flies right by triple digits on the
trusty radar gun.
Jeffress is very animated on the mound
and reminds me of Dontrelle Willis in a sense. He roots on his fielders
when the ball is put in play, gets excited after strikeouts and
generally looks like he has a great time playing baseball. It’s fun to
watch guys like him to succeed.
In
2006, Jeffress pitched in the Arizona Rookie League and posted a 2-5
record with a 5.96 ERA and 37 K vs. 25 BB ratio in 30.0 innings. The
Brewers decided he should stay behind in extended spring training to
start 2007 to work on some things and recently assigned him to Class-A
West Virginia where he made his debut on May 29, 2007. He pitched 5.0
innings allowing 3 runs on 5 hits while striking out three and walking
three in his debut.
Members
of the Brewers organization absolutely love the kid's makeup and think
he has a good chance to move quickly through their organization. He had
great stuff and his motion looks clean and easy.
Jeffress
arsenal includes a power fastball, curveball and slider. West Virginia
Power Pitching Coach John Curtis couldn't contain his excitement when
asked recently about Jeffress in the Charleston Daily Mail:
“He
has an electric fastball, really good stuff command-wise. Sometimes you
watch him, he’s throwing so hard and it just looks so effortless."
Curtis went on to compare Jeffress to another young Brewers righty, Yovanni Gallardo.
“Jeremy
routinely is at 93-94 and he will probably clock out at 96-97 some
nights. He's not a big kid (6-foot-1, 185-pounds), but he's
long-legged. The curve and change will be better with some mechanical
things we can fix. He has the same kind of tempo as Yovani Gallardo,
but he's not nearly the pitcher Gallardo was here ... but I'm sure
looking forward to working with him.”
There's
nothing better than hearing it right from the people who see him on an
everyday basis, so it will be interesting to note Jeffress progress
over the next few months in West Virginia.
Kasey Kiker, LHP, TEX (11/19/87) - Age 19
Kiker was drafted 12th overall last June. He was a high school pitcher out of Alabama armed with a mid-90's heater as well as the usual curveball, change-up combination.
Anytime you see a lefty who throws as hard as Kiker does, it’s hard not to take notice. Kiker is loaded with potential.
Last
season, he was a humbling 0-7 in Low-A with a 4.13 ERA and a 1.51 WHIP.
But this year he seems to have settled down a bit. As of May 27th, he
has logged 13.0 innings over 3 games and has notched 22 strikeouts to
go along with 7 walks and a 2.77 era.
Kiker
had been left behind in extended spring training because the Rangers
want to be very careful with that golden left arm of his, not wanting him to throw any more than approximately 130.0 innings at the bouncy age of 19.
Kiker
gets a ton of strikeouts with his impressive velocity and karate kid
style leg kick. He is listed at 5-foot-11 but he appears shorter on
film and in photographs.
It will be interesting to see if he can keep up the high strikeouts as he goes up in levels. His ceiling may be around a No. 3 in the Major Leagues. But these things can change as the player matures for better or worse.
Chris Loupos can be reached at loopdog1@aol.com.