Thursday, August 19, 2004

First Impression: JVB

Hopefully you were able to watch Jon Van Benschoten make his major league debut last night. I did. Here are my first impressions of VB:

The first thing I noticed, and it was immediately evident, was that VB gets virtually no push from his legs. He pitches with relatively little leg drive. It reminds me of Rick Rhoden or Jason Schmidt. The announcers never commented on this, but it seems to me that VB is leaving a few extra MPH on the table by not fully utilizing his legs. I've never heard anyone who has scouted VB mention this, but I assume minor league instructors are aware. They should show him some video of Tom Seaver or Roger Clemens.

VB's curve is more of a downer than a sweeper. He used it effectively as a change of pace to his fastball until the 5th inning.

VB's has excellent movement on his fastball. It looked like he was throwing a 2 seemer that was tailing in on the hands of right-handers and back over the plate against lefties. This should be an excellent pitch for him against lefties.

VB was consistently hitting 91 mph with his fastball, but it was clocked anywhere from 89 - 93 at various points in the game. I'm a little disappointed in this, especially considering his physical build. VB seems to have long arms and legs, and is fairly tall, but as I mentioned previously,
I don't think he is taking full advantage of his build. It seems to me that in the modern game, you need to touch 95 on the gun to be a truly dominant RHP. This doesn't mean that he can't be successful at his current velocity, I just think it's a lot more difficult. Before someone posts a "what about Greg Maddux" comment, I want to say 2 more things. First, Maddux could throw
harder when he was young. Second, guys like Maddux come along once per generation. Maybe VB is a once in a generation guy, but those guys typically establish themselves at a younger age.

VB was tipping his pitches. By the third inning I was able to guess what pitch he was going to throw. I think the Diamondbacks figured it out in the 5th inning as they started sitting on his curveball. Whenever he was going to throw a curve, he seemed to take a little bit of extra time on the mound before starting his windup. Also, it seemed as though he did a little extra
fiddling around with the grip. I was guessing right about 4 out of 5 times without watching the signs.

Despite my criticisms, I was fairly impressed with him. I like his makeup. He seemed to be 'in control' of the game on the mound. He worked fast and was effectively wild. His fastball had nice movement and he used his curveball as an effective change of pace. On the downside, I think he was tipping his pitches and he wasn't maximizing his velocity with his mechanics. Overall, I rate his first outing a success.

posted by bkopec @ 12:58 PM   2 comments