Out In Front: Takeaways from the 2015 Futures Game

The 2015 Futures Game is now over and I didn't really slept really well before waking up at 3 a.m. to watch the Futures Game in MLB.com live stream because I am so excited maybe or I just don't watch to miss it because it's 3 in the morning. I managed to watch the game until Mella's pitching but I wanted to watch the game until Sean Newcomb but my body is failing me and he wants to rest. It ended up as a commanding victory for the Team USA 10-1.

The Giants have two players that's representing the team for the game and they are Tyler Beede and Keury Mella. I'll write up what I saw on Beede and Mella for the first time live. I will write here also the other performances by the other players that I like.

Tyler Beede

The Young Beedah is slated to pitch 3rd no matter what inning it will be and since Lucas Giolito pitched an inning, he pitched in the 4th inning. I managed to record tidbits of his appearance to get good look of his mechanics because my internet is starting to fail a bit. I hate the camera view from Cincinnati because it's like coming from LF and it doesn't allow a really good view of his pitches especially the movement but here's what I see. 

The mechanics are clearly way different from his college days and his now much, much easier to tame and repeat unlike his Vanderbilt mechanics that's high octane and quick tempo. The glove over the head portion is gone and was replaced by just a simple step to the side, the leg kick is more quiet but is powerful enough to transfer his weight to his back side, he is a bit taller in his drive, he stays behind and lands closed, driving almost towards the batters box of the right handed hitter but he throws his pitches more forward towards the plate unlike last year. It's now calmer and slower in terms of pace, his head and his eyes are especially not leaving the catcher's mitt while retaining the power of his drop-and-drive delivery and his clean finish. Unlike the pretty dangerous delivery in his Vandy days, this mechanics is a work of art. I give a lot of credit to Dick Tidrow and all of the Giants staff for fixing and I'm not sure if cleaning up is the right word. I think reboot and transformation is the right word for the massive rework on Beede's mechanics.

I really thank that Beede's not just there pumping his fastest fastball on the mound. Instead, I saw a glimpse of what he can really be in the future. After all, it's the Futures Game, right? His sinker at (89-91 MPH tops 92) doesn't really have the prime time command that he has when I'm listening every start to the radio broadcasts. But what I really see is the crazy run and the sink that he can really generate, on one pitch that he threw catcher Kyle Schwarber sets up down and away and the pitch just runs and runs and runs to the inside portion. The true standout pitch that really takes me away is the slutter (sounds weird but it kind of works). It behaves like a Matt Cain-esque slider but it got good velocity at 88-89 MPH, causing the leadoff hitter to swing foolishly. It got plus cutting action in it and could really be a plus pitch to compliment his above-average to plus sinker. I have seen the changeup (around 80 MPH) and it got the movement and the arm speed and a 9-12 MPH separation but he hung one that was fouled off. A true above-average pitch for me. The curveball (around 78-80 MPH) is pretty average because it lacks some of the sharp break that I saw him pitch in Vandy. He hung some curveballs that I think got just 7-10 inches of break in it. What I found that's crazy is that Ray Black threw a slider that got more break than Beede's curveball at pretty much the same velocity. I just hate that camera view. 

I think we'll not see much improvement in terms of velocity because of his slower delivery generating less energy but the movement is there, he hit the catcher's mitt almost 70% of the time and the curveball needs some better break to be a good pitch for him. Future's bright for the Young Beedah. 

Updated Grades: SNK 60 | CUT 60+ | CH 55+ | CB 50 | CMD 50+

Keury Mella

Mella (pronounced as Ke-yu-ri May-ah by Joe Ritzo) was scheduled to pitch 6th and pitched in the 6th inning. The mechanics is still the red flag for me. Just look at his right arm at foot plant shown below. 

He got the pronounced inverted W that will always make his arm to be late and the stresses that he puts on his shoulder and elbow is really immense. A possible patient of James Andrews in the future and possibly the easiest guy to predict that. I talked about his delivery in my previous scouting report and that hasn't change from what I have seen. Throws extremely across the body, the inverted W, the high release point, the sheer deception that he creates. Come check that one out. In terms of deception though, he's not really deceiving the top shelf hitters that the Futures Game offers, with 3 hard hit balls allowed.

From the stuff standpoint, the raw potential to believe in his stuff is there. I saw his fastball run up to 96 MPH and is at a happy place at 94 MPH with the run and the sink that I love from him. His command probably wants to go home early because the command was lost after the leadoff hitter and is just all over the place. I think he's throwing his 100% at that time and he's overthrowing a bit. I love the curveball that I saw from him at 76 MPH that got the late break that I expect on an above-average curveball. His changeup registers at 84 MPH got a pretty underwhelming fade and movement that I expect from him. The overall command is just not there and was pulled out after allowing 2 singles and 11 pitches.

The bottom line, this is not the best performance that I saw from him. Probably some jitters. He could be better than what his performance has shown but I think he can be a good trade chip for us to get someone on the trade market soon. The grades that I wrote about him in my previous scouting report about him will not change.

Other Noticeable Performances until Mella's outing:

- Lucas Giolito pitched 2 innings and the plus-plus stuff is in the building, flashing 94-96 MPH on his FB that topped at 98 and shown the plus curveball and the good changeup. The command's got above-average potential. The problem I saw on him is that his delivery is arm-centric and the slow-slow-fast that I mentioned on Coonrod is also evident on him so that's probably why he had the TJ pre-draft.

- Kyle Schwarber's bat is legit. Plus hitting tool, plus power, above-average eye. He hits balls hard. He's not really a liability defensively with the 1.97 pop-time he flashed in the first inning and he can frame well and got the leadership ability to make him an average catcher. I'm not really seeing him doing that everyday and could play in the OF once every 2 days.

- Aaron Judge is a beast of a human being at 6'7" 275 with the Giancarlo Stanton stance and mechanics with the good eye and the short stroke to boot. He got that Dave Winfield feel in him. I'm excited for him.

- JP Crawford got an open stance at the box and he got that Anthony Rizzo approach where at one time, he didn't really moved at the batter's box at all. No loading, just pure wrists and strong body. Got good eye as well when he's out in front of a pitch but adjusted and hit the ball up the middle for the base hit. Great feel for his body, great athleticism, great glove. Philly got something good in the future.

- Michael Conforto can hit, and actually got a good zip on his throwing arm. Average defender though. If the Mets think they need some offense right now, they need to call him up.

- Best name of the Futures Game belongs to Balbino Fuenmayor without a doubt and he got some really good power to boot as well.

I haven't mentioned a lot of names here because I only wanted to focus on Beede and Mella but I don't want to forget prospects that I like. I hope you enjoyed the Futures Game as much as I do and I hope you enjoyed reading my post.